Column by Karin Eagle for and published by Lakota Country Times (www.lakotacountrytimes.com ) on 6/4/15
Photo: Zeolite mine in the UK.
Late last week I was sent a notice about an “informational meeting” held in Rapid City and sponsored by the Dakota Land Fund, a company with a new office located at 304 Main Street, Rapid City. The sign said that the Dakota Land Trust would be “presenting the true facts about this viable economic development tool that will benefit the tribe as a whole.”
The meeting was schedule on Saturday morning, and since I live mere blocks from that location I attended with the intent of garnering a better understanding of the proposed Zeolite mining operation that was approved of by the Wounded Knee District council sometime during the last week of May.
The meeting was facilitated by an attorney named James Durham. Durham often goes by the last name Red Cloud following his “adoption” into that family in previous years. Durham extolled the virtues of Zeolite and the jobs and economic boost that it would give the tribe, “as a whole”. I was left to wonder why this decision was left in the hands of one district if it were an entire tribe issue as he stated.
Several tribal council members were in attendance and posed many good questions about the appropriateness of permitting such an operation on the reservation and the actual authority that the tribe has over those types of permits concerning mining. I actually have the majority of the meeting on my trusty voice recorder and am willing to share that with anyone, especially if someone could help me get it off the recorder for public distribution.
The state of South Dakota apparently removed themselves from the permit process citing that they did not recognize their jurisdiction on the reservations for mining operations. Durham stunned many of us in the meeting by proclaiming that their decision in this matter actually meant that the state of South Dakota gave up their own jurisdiction on all fee lands, including those in the Black Hills. His inference was that the OST had taken jurisdiction of all fee lands when the Wound Knee District Council passed their own decision to allow the mining.
This decision was made, by the count of the WK District Council President Garfield Steele, by the 15 or so community members who showed up for that particular meeting. Steele asserts that he suggested that a meeting be held later to allow for further discussion but the people there wanted to go forward with the decision.
Throughout the meeting the issue of the suicides that have taken center stage for concern on the reservation was brought up, liberally. I began to feel very uncomfortable with that as I felt that the point was trying to made as a selling point to gain approval from people; as if this mining was going to lead to a cessation of the suicide attempts and completions. It is my personal belief that the sadness and desperation of our children should not be exploited, ever, in any context.
If people truly believe that money can solve this problem and a business being brought in will supply that money, the time to make that argument is after the profits come in and the decision is required as to what to do with that money. To use it now to sway people with sympathy and concern demeans and dishonors their memory. We cannot become the Oyate that capitalizes off their young people’s death.
I stepped up and made a statement to this affect as I was leaving the meeting. I left for several reason. I did not feel that the meeting was information in any way and in fact it only served to show exactly how little the people running the operation knew about their own business; I did not feel that it was appropriate to hold such a meeting of the reservation with only a handful of council members and a couple community members (I made that statement as well.); and I did not feel that the company and council man Craig Dillon, who Durham pointed out as the person who wanted the meeting held in Rapid City, has the best interest of the tribe through open communication and transparency,
Here is what I did learn; the company has not ever operated in mining Zeolite, only sand stone; one single tribal member is being paid $2000 by the company (by his own admission) to do “nothing”, the class of zeolite that the company wants to mine for is unknown even by them; they have no potential contracts for companies to buy “our” zeolite; the zeolite that had previously been mined, with the now pulled SD permit was sent to the Bakken Oil Fields and now sits, processed and unused in a warehouse; the company made several statements that they “didn’t actually have to give out any information” but that they chose to; and that only 10-15 jobs will be created by this mining operation alone, because the company had originally only wanted to mine the zeolite, not process or bag it.
I’m not convinced that this mining operation is a good idea, not only because of the information I have read about the actual safety of mining zeolite; there are still uranium concerns whenever you stir up volcanic ash; but also because a company that wants to try and bypass the authority of a tribal nation should be inspected very closely. The company man who spoke with so little information gave, by his own admission, a condescending answer to many of the questions posed to him, “Google it.”
I wonder exactly what he will do with this information that has come up about not only Dakota Land Trust, his company, Barracuda, and the actual process of Zeolite mining that came up when many of us did go home and Googled it.
This is a concern, Readers, and I strongly urge everyone to sit up and take notice of these little nuances. We deserve transparency and honest community and actual hard line facts when it comes to handing over our rights to an outside company that claims to be “partners” with the OST in this, yet seeks to bypass the OST authority. Something feels greasy here. I’ll do my level best to keep you updated! Until then, Love each other!