LAKOTA AID - A Registered Charity No: 1097444

The Black Hills claim was based on a Fifth Amendment Taking not as a part of the Treaty. As such, the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution refers to us, Indians, as citizens of the United States, not as members of a totally distinct nation, the Great Sioux Nation. The Black Hills claim was not based on the Treaty issue which is authorized under Article VI of the US Constitution. The aboriginal claims are not addressed either since the Black Hills claim is under the Fifth Amendment which refers to citizens of the United States not the aboriginal peoples of this continent. However, by muddying the water, the USA is smart and will try to keep everyone confused by mixing all these issues together: the aboriginal claims, the Treaty issue, and the American citizenship issue (or as we refer to it as the illegal occupation issue. We are their prisoners and must abide by the prison rules. We have the Executive Order that created the reservations as POW camps if you want a copy.) We all need to keep these issues separate and not let the USA or Canada join them together as they are three, distinct, and separate issues.

From the Tituwan (Teton SiouxNation) Treaty Council perspective, everything regarding American law stops for us (Tituwan) in 1868. However, the USA has tried to confuse everyone: the Congress, the states, the people, both Indian and non-Indian, by promoting what they call American Indian Law. This American Indian Law might have ramifications on other tribes because of their own treaties or agreements they made, but for us Tituwan with the last treaty, the 1868 treaty which is supported by the March 3rd Act of 1871, then everything stops at 1868. We are under illegal occupation by the USA since they started killing the buffalo, letting the miners into the Black Hills, and ultimately putting us in the POW camps (reservations) which was the only thing they could do as an occupation force.

We have to live under their illegal occupation laws until such time as we obtain our freedom. That is why delegates from the Tetuwan (Teton Sioux Nation) Treaty Council keep approaching the United Nations. There have been other Indigenous nations who have obtained their freedom through help from the United Nations. East Timoor is one. Our efforts will not be that easy and it will take massive public pressure from the other nations of the world to help us. Even then, will the USA give us our freedom?
Yes, I agree that there needs to be much dialogue about these issues. Dialogue needs to occur in the communities, in large gatherings, and in intertribal meetings, as well as making the non-Indians aware of these things. After all, their government lied to them and let them think they could live in our Treaty Territory.

Unfortunately, that lawyer, Kettering, is only looking to make oodles of money, and the people are again being tricked into thinking they are going to be getting big bucks. The USA has, in the past, in many, many cases, charged the people for back payments (offsets) for health, food, etc, and in the end Indian people have come out losing everything.

We also must continue to encourage the return of our culture and the understanding that Ina Makoce is sacred, and you do not sell your Mom. Again, I think if we understand and unite together on all these issues, then we can stop these moves. Thanks for letting me say my few thoughts on this.

Charmaine White Face, Spokesperson; Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council

I am back from my trip to South Dakota and this trip was very different from the others.

Garvard Good Plume, Charmaine White Face and Vincent Brings Plenty

I spent a lot of time with Charmaine White Face and Garvard Good Plume and went with them ,and an Elderly Holy Man named Vincent Brings Plenty, to quite a few meetings (including a 2 day trip to North Dakota), with Water and Mining companies all to do with the Uranium pollution, plus other nasties that already heavily pollute huge areas in the South Dakota, including the Sacred Black Hills.

The Mining companies still want to do more open uranium pits and have already started.

Garvard Good Plume, Brenda Aplin and Charmaine White Face

Studies have been done , via water and soil samples, that show the Cheyenne river is heavily polluted, and that the trees in the Black Hills are slowly dying from the pollution, wildlife is affected, and in the areas where the Lakota people live near the river there have been high percentages of still births, deformities and rare cancers , yet nothing is being done to try and clean up the pollution .

A real eye opener of a trip and I felt more involved than I have ever done. Defenders of the Black Hills does an amazing job, with little reward, to get all this info out and try to stop further pollution and get the companies to clean up their act instead and I feel so proud to be working with them on this.

I had the honour or taking part in a prayer ceremony with Charmaine, Garvard and Vincent at a very heavily polluted area in SD called Cave Hills. This area once had ancient petroglyphs drawn onto these hills and there are burials there. There is an ancient stone circle that has been used for hundreds, if not thousands of years for ceremony by many Tribes. The petroglyphs have almost all been destroyed by Uranium spoils just pushed over the top of this hill from the open mine, covering and destroying them. The caves that once also held sacred ceremonies have all been dug out and destroyed. This all happened in the 50's. thousands of years of history destroyed with no thought to the people or the meaning of the sacred significance to this area!! Where we stood, radioactive dust is all around, yet there are no warning signs to alert people to this? WHY???

There is an area in ND, where the battle of Killdeer was fought, called Cotteau, and there is an Indian burial site there that the coal mining company wants to do strip mining over. The gravesite contains 1,700 bodies, but the mining company have told the people that they will bulldose the gravesite to one site and the people can just collect the bones if they want!!!! Can you believe that!!

This has been staved off for a few years, but the plan is for this summer to start the mining. It just makes me so mad and again, the world does not know about this and there is no respect at all from the Mining companies!

As I said, this was a totally different trip , but one that gives me much more incite as to the problems faced by the Lakota people. Besides the poverty, health problems and predujice they face, they also face ill heath and death from unseen pollutions. This is going to affect the white people now invading the Black Hills, so why is it that a handful of dedicated, Lakota people are actually fighting for them too, as to health issues that will affect them also, and yet most white people, and especially the Mining companies and the US government do not give a damn about them!!!!!!!! Got to be a moral to this story somewhere!!

I am also appealing for anyone out there that would be willing to sponsor me with help for my airfares to South Dakota? I really feel that I need to spend more time researching with the people so as to be able to be there first hand so to speak when things happen. There are many meetings and events going on that I have missed because of lack of money (alas always the same story!!), and to be able to get out there more often would be very productive. The only way to be able to understand the situation is to be there. This is the way to spread the word as I am trying to do and working very closely with Defenders of the Black Hills.

Take care and hope you are all and looking forwards to the spring and summer as I am.

The USDA Forest Service from Custer National Forest out of Billings, MT, is responsible for a large area in the Northwestern corner of South Dakota. The Cave Hills and Slim Buttes area exhibits some of the most unique and beautiful landscapes in the state. This area also was used extensively in the 1960s for uranium mining, open-pit uranium mining. Unfortunately, at that time, there were no laws for reclamation, so 89 mines and prospects were left abandoned, according to information from the US Forest Service.

On Nov. 13, 2007, in the nearest community to the Cave Hills area, a blink of an eye place known as Ludlow, the Forest Service held an open house �to update the public on the activities happening at the site.� It was advertised in the regions� daily newspaper a few times, and flyers were sent to interested individuals.

There is a federal law called the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, or CERCLA. The Forest Service has a CERCLA program that �cleans up hazardous substances from abandoned mine lands and other sites to protect human health and the environment (such as watershed soil, water, and vegetation).� This sounds excellent, however, the Forest Service can only do this if they have enough money, or there is a Potentially Responsible Party. In this case, the Potentially Responsible Party is Tronox Worldwide LLC, formerly Kerr-McGee Corporation, which mined at least six of the bluffs in the North Cave Hills area at the Riley Pass site.

More than 150 acres were disturbed from 1962-64 when Tronox pushed a million plus cubic yards of overburden over the edges of the rimrocks surrounding the plateau at the Riley Pass site, spewing radioactive dust and destroying hundreds of petroglyphs, burials and sites sacred to many Native American nations. From these activities more than 28,000 tons of ore was removed which produced 150,000 pounds of uranium. The wastes left behind included poisonous arsenic, molybdenum which harms cattle, and the highly radioactive thorium, not to mention other uranium decay products such as radium, and radon. The radon gas alone, at that time and today, is carried for hundreds of miles in the air and causes lung cancer.

With the release of all these radioactive substances into the environment for more than 40 years, the Forest Service reached a settlement agreement with Tronox who is developing reclamation plans only for Bluff B. One of the disturbing statements used in the 38 page settlement agreement was: �Respondent shall prepare, perform and submit to the Forest Service for review and approval the non-time critical removal action�� Probably after more than 40 years of allowing these radioactive contaminants to harm the environment, including the human beings downwind and down stream, then it seems to be �non-time critical.� Yet, it would seem that the clean-up would be �more� time critical in order to stop the environmental and human health effects as soon as possible.

Bluff B was chosen since tests have shown it contains the highest amount of gamma radiation. This is the deadliest form of nuclear radiation in comparison with alpha and beta radiation which is also found at the Riley Pass site. The material containing the most gamma radiation will be scooped up into �containment cells.� In other words, this radioactive material will be wrapped up like a burrito in a manmade synthetic wrapper. How long the wrapper will hold the material remains to be seen, since uranium can take billions of years to decay eventually to it�s non-radioactive final self while the wrapper will fall apart long before the uranium is finished. The reclamation plans are only for one bluff at the Riley Pass site. This raises the question, what about the other 88 mines? Are all 89 mines going to be reclaimed? Or is only one bluff of one mine going to be reclaimed?

When I asked this question of Laurie Walters-Clark, the USFS On-Scene Coordinator, she quickly deflected the question and never gave an answer. However, there is another entity watching this whole course of action, a Quality Assurance body called Millennium Science and Engineering, Inc. Maybe it�s because they are the watchdog that I was able to get a more honest answer. To the question of: �When will all 89 mines be cleaned up?� The answer from MSE was: �Not in your lifetime.�

It wasn�t an answer I wanted to hear. I kept thinking of all the people in the village of Bullhead, 100 miles away, who are downstream from these mines. I kept thinking of the abandoned mines just west of the Pine Ridge Reservation. I kept thinking of all the people in South Dakota affected by the radioactive dust and radon gas as the winds blow across this northwest corner to the rest of the state. The answer was an honest answer and one that treated me like an intelligent, responsible adult. Millennium Science and Engineering, Inc, should be proud that they have employees who are not afraid to give an honest answer.

After going through the large amount of written material made available on the plan, my conclusion was that this massive amount of paperwork is only a �pacifier for the public.� It is an insult to the courage and the right of the people living downwind and downstream from these mines to be duped into believing that the situation is being remedied when work will only be completed on one bluff of one mine with the result of that work not guaranteed.

People have to right to know when something harmful is, or has been coming to them. With the proper information, then choices can be made to remain and take chances with the �known� danger, to move to a different location, or to do something to help lessen the danger.

It is estimated that there are more than 1,000 abandoned uranium mines located in this region which also includes the southern Black Hills in South Dakota, parts of Montana, and a major portion of Wyoming. How much radioactive dust has been carried by the wind from all these mines in the past 40 years? How much radioactive runoff from 40 years of rain and snow has collected in the Missouri River? What will it take to wake up the country and the world to this deadly �silent Chernobyl� in the middle of the United States?

Charmaine White Face, (Zumila Wobaga) is a member of the Oglala Tetuwan, a former college instructor, writer, and coordinator for Defenders of the Black Hills. She can be reached at bhdefenders@msn.com.

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) will be meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, from Feb. 18 to March 7, 2008. The Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council sent a complaint to CERD last spring. The complaint is based on the illegal trespass by the United States into the territory of the Teton Sioux Nation, guaranteed to them for their �absolute and undisturbed use� by the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, and the subsequent destruction of the environment of the Treaty Territory particularly through uranium exploration and mining. As this final territory is the last homeland of the people of the Teton Sioux Nation, and as nuclear radiation is affecting the people in seven (7) different ways, the Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council considers this an act of genocide and has asked CERD to intervene.

CERD has scheduled the United States to appear before the Committee during their meeting commencing Feb. 18, 2008. At this writing, no specific date is scheduled for when the United States will appear to answer the complaint.

The Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council would like to send four (4) representatives to Geneva to attend the sessions. They have accommodations with local Swiss families, but need four (4) roundtrip airline tickets from Rapid City, South Dakota, USA, to Geneva, Switzerland leaving on Feb. 14, 2008 and returning on March 8, 2008. They also need funds for expenses while in Geneva: local public transportation and meals.
The representatives from the Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council are all elders of the tribe and live either on small fixed incomes, or minimum wages so are unable to personally provide for these additional expenses. They are: Charmaine White Face, Spokesperson; Clifford White Eyes Sr., Janice Badhorse Larson, and Garvard Good Plume, Jr. Ms. White Face, Mr. White Eyes, and Mr. Good Plume previously attended sessions at the United Nations in Geneva.

The Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council works in conjunction with Defenders of the Black Hills, a non-profit organization. More detailed information about the uranium and nuclear radiation situation in the Treaty Territory can be found on the Defenders website: www.defendblackhills.org.

Organizations from South Dakota, Wyoming, and Colorado met in Rapid City on Sat., Nov. 10, to discuss their joint concerns about uranium mining in the Region. Citizens from four organizations are voicing their concerns about surface and ground water, human health, and local property values.

Defenders of the Black Hills and ACTion for the Environment are attending from South Dakota, which faces mining proposals along the southern Black Hills. The Powder River Basin Resource Council is attending from Wyoming, where exploratory and mining permits have been applied for in the state. Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction are traveling from the northern part of Colorado where uranium mining is also proposed near Fort Collins.

In all three places, mining is planned by a Canadian company, Powertech Uranium Corporation. The company proposes to use 'in situ' leach mining (ISL) which injects a dissolving solution underground into suspected uranium deposits. The solution dissolves the uranium and its radioactive decay products, as well as heavy metals. This radioactive solution is pumped to the surface. The uranium is then removed and shipped to a mill for concentration into "yellowcake." The water is re-treated and then injected back underground in a cycle that continues until all the uranium has been extracted. Reverse osmosis is then used to remove some of the toxics from the water, and the remaining liquid is either injected underground or retained in shallow ponds.

In Colorado, a Powertech representative said the company also intends to do open pit mining. Other uranium mining companies are currently active in the three states as a result of recent increases in the price of uranium.

"In Wyoming, there are significant questions about regulation and oversight of uranium operations," according to Shannon Anderson, Organizer for the Powder River Basin Resource Council. "Our organization wants the public to have a stronger voice in uranium activities and wants regulators to insure full restoration of mined areas," she said.

In South Dakota, Powertech has started drilling more uranium exploratory wells in an area where they already have 4,000 wells in the southwestern Black Hills. "It's already been proven world-wide that ISL mining contaminates aquifers that cannot be fixed," said Charmaine White Face, Coordinator for Defenders of the Black Hills. "South Dakota relies so heavily on aquifers for drinking water and livestock use that we do not need to add to the destroyed aquifer statistics by doing this kind of mining for uranium here. We've been in a drought for the last ten years and the last thing we need to do is poison our water," she said.

ACTion for the Environment is very concerned that South Dakota taxpayers will once again have to take on the toxic messes that are left when a mining company leaves as happened previously with Canadian companies. "The Board of Minerals and Environment should remember what happened when they gave approval for the Brohm mine. Now SD people are paying for that mess. Are we going to have to pay for a radioactive mess left by another Canadian company?" said Gary Heckenliable, Organizer for ACTion for the Environment. "Not only South Dakota residents but all the taxpayers of the United States are going to have to pay for this for many, many years to come," he said.

Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction (CARD), formed earlier this year in response to Powertech's proposal to mine in the rapidly-growing area near Fort Collins. "Of course uranium mining always causes some form of contamination. Water at in situ leach mining sites is not returned to its original condition," said Lilias Jarding, Ph.D., an Environmental Policy specialist with CARD. "Most people don't know that federal policies that subsidize the nuclear industry aren't just about power plants. The nuclear industry's largest negative impacts have always been in uranium mining and milling processes."

"We want the uranium industry to know that we stand together on this issue. Whether in a rural setting or a populated area, uranium mining causes radioactive contamination. Past uranium sites continue to contaminate the air, land, and water. Any bonds designed to pay for clean-up of former mining areas have not been sufficient, and taxpayers have been forced to pay the bill. We call on the public and all elected officials to do everything possible to protect the water, land, and local economies from proposed uranium activities."

UPDATE: Defenders of the Black Hills received the Nuclear Free Future Award in the Category of Resistance from the Franz Moll Foundation for the Coming Generations and the state of Austria.

Charmaine travelled to Salzburg, Austria, and received the award. The cash prize of $10,000 for Defenders will be used to continue the work.

Friday, Dec 29, 2007 is the new deadline to send notice that you wish to intervene, with Monday Jan 8th as the deadline for sending proof that you have status to intervene. A pre-hearing teleconference is set for Jan 16, 2008. Call 605-224-0461 or 605-773-6811 for details.

Hearing Date - Friday, Jan 26, 2008, 9:00 a.m., CST, Courtroom #1 of the Hughes County Courthouse, Pierre, SD

DM&E has filed an application to the SD Transportation Commission to be authorized to exercise eminent domain for its planned extension of rail line in SD. The Governor, or the Transportation Commission must determine that the railroad's exercise of the right of eminent domain would be for a public use consistent with public necessity. The railroad must prove it has negotiated in good faith to privately acquire sufficient property prior to seeking eminent domain authorization.

I am putting out this information on behalf of Russell Stubbs, who is with the Park Management, South Dakota State University.

Russell contacted me recently and would like to get British schools and educational institutions involved in a Recreation and Park Project that he and a team of collegues have already started.They have plans for future projects also and are doing some great work for the Lakota people that will help to make life brighter and much more worthwhile than it is at present for most of them.

On the Rosebud Reservation , South Dakota, Russell and his team have been involved with supplying bats, balls, gloves, soccer balls, basketballs etc and are now working on the Rosebud Recreation and Park project which will need a large sum of money to complete. Any funds that come in for this will be held by the South Dakota Community Foundation, which will be specifically for such efforts.They hope to have a solid recreation and parks programme on the Rosebud Rez by march 2008.

Russell and his team are with the South Dakota State University , but are enlisting other universities:- Western Illinois, Black Hills State and Dakota Wesleyan to name a few! They would also like to see British Schools get involved with this also, summer internships etc, and if any Schools or Universities etc are interested and would like more information about this please contact Russell .( details below).

He would love to Internationalise this effort ,and what a wonderful project this would be for the areas of the Pine Ridge reservation also, such as the Little Wound School at Kyle. Who knows what could come from a co-ordinated international effort for the Lakota people!

Russell Stubbs
Park Management
South Dakota State University (SDSU)
Brookings
South Dakota
57007

From the Nuclear-Free Future Award, a project of the Foundation for the Coming Generations, Munich, Germany
Email: info@nuclear-free.com

1 Aug. MUNICHThe Nuclear-Free Future Awards honors individuals, organizations and communities for their outstanding commitment towards creating a world freed from the threat of nuclear weapons and atomic energy. This year, the Award jury members who include Johan Galtung (Norway), Val Kilmer (New Mexico), Chris Peters (California), Kirkpatrick Sale (Massachusetts), Galsan Tschinag (Ulan Bator), and Christine von Weizscker (Germany) have selected Charmaine White Face to receive, endowed with a money purse of $10,000, the Nuclear-Free Future Award in the category of Resistance.

Educated as a biologist, Charmaine White Face is the moving spirit behind the Defenders of the Black Hills, an organization that monitors abandoned uranium mines on sacred Lakota Lands and seeks the remediation of hazardous waste ponds that contaminate the region with high levels of radium 226, arsenic, lead and iron. A central part of Ms White Faces message is that not just the Lakota, but all of us are threatened: aquifers cover massive areas of the continent, rivers empty into one another, radioactive dust is carried by the wind, and toxic poisons in the soil nourish grass and feed crops that eventually work their way into the mainstream food chain.

Hosted by the Salzburg, Austria, state government,. the 10th annual Awards ceremony will take place in the storied Salzburg Residenz on 18 October 2007. Based in Munich, the Nuclear-Free Future Award is a project of the Franz Moll Foundation for the Coming Generations. For more information, please visit www.nuclear-free.com

The question was raised at a recent meeting called by Oglala Sioux Tribal President John Yellow Bird Steele about the idea of mining uranium on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Are you Oglala or Wasicu?

If a person is Oglala, or Anishinabeg, or Dine, or from any other Indigenous nation that is trying desperately to retain their Indigenous values, the answer to the possibility of mining uranium is a simple and resounding No! The answer yes to the question of mining uranium reflects the values of the wasicu, or the white man, and the Lakota word wasicu literally means takes the fat for a reason.

All of the Indigneous nations understood what uranium was in their own terms and their own cultures. The Dine (Navajo) called it the yellow monster. An Oglala holy man spoke of only those who had a dream and were protected could go into areas where uranium was naturally occurring. The understanding is entirely different than viewing uranium according to the wasicus as an energy source, or natural resource. Mitochondria in the cell is also a source of energy that wasicu scientists still do not understand, and their study of the cell is a lot older than the study of uranium.

John Yellow Bird Steele, as the president of one of the poorest tribes on the North American continent, is in the unenviable position of trying to improve the economic conditions on the reservation while at the same time trying to stay within the cultural, traditional values of the Oglala people. With the price of uranium soon to be reaching the $200 per pound category, and with uranium located all over the region, he called a meeting to discuss an offer made to the previous tribal president, Cecilia Fire Thunder. As the new Tribal President, he has been asked to sign a Memorandum of Agreement with the mining entity, Native American Energy Group (NAEG).

The slick handout from NAEG has a quote from Leonard Peltier on its front cover which states:

I heard about your company and all the good things you are doing for Native Americans. Our people are good and deserve a chance to live a better life. Too many companies say they want to help, but in the end they only help themselves to our resources and give us barely enough to survive. I knew in my heart that someday a company like yours would come, a company that does not take advantage of us and truly wants to help. I heave heard about your Tribal Empowerment Program, and I wish to be a member and supporter. My supporters and followers also pledge their complete support for your company as well.

A woman at the meeting said she was going to contact Leonard to see if he really did say these things, and to let him know what NAEG is planning for the Pine Ridge Reservation.

The handout further stated: Native American Energy Group is an energy company that was originally founded in 2001 to develop energy resources on Native American reservations in the United States. Upon inception, the founders of the Company initiated its current philosophy of commitment and dedication to create opportunities for an emerging group of American Indian Nations with abundant natural resources, to become producing nations which explore, produce and control their own natural resources.

Again, we have an entity planning to come into the last Oglala territory and impose their philosophy in typical colonizing fashion. If NAEG was truly cognizant of Oglala philosophy and values, they would know in the first place not to call Ina Makoce natural resources. If they understood the vast difference in philosophy between the Oglalas and the Wasicus, they would have known better than to even try to recommend destroying and hurting her by mining.

Even more unconscionable is the idea of waving the possibility of multimillion dollars in front of tribal presidents responsible for the economic development of a reservation that is slated for poverty by design. It is not just the epitome of colonialism, but is the equivalent of the guard of this prisoner of war camp opening the gate and telling the prison leader he will be free. Upon running, the prisoner will be shot for escaping, only in this case the bullet will be the unseen, unsmelled, untasted form of nuclear radiation.

OST President John Steele is right to gather more heads together than just the OST Executive Committee, his own group of advisors, or even the entire Tribal Council when trying to decide what to do about something as dangerous as uranium mining. Along with the current tribal ban on mining on the reservation, President Steele needs to arm himself with as much information and advice as he can muster to fend off the other uranium mining companies that are sure to come knocking on the door soon.

The Task Force he established was originally called the Uranium Mining Task Force but after the presentations and discussions, concluding with the question of Are we Oglala or Wasicu? the group changed the name to the Natural Resources Protection Task Force. The new name fits according to wasicu philosophy and understanding. If it were totally according to Oglala understanding, there would be no need for any Task Force as we would all know that we must always protect Ina Makoce (Mother Earth) and we would never talk about mining. But the colonization and forced cultural genocide has succeeded so well that we must continue to learn all we can according to the wasicu philosophy and understanding, then discuss with each other and remind ourselves of what it is in Oglala terms and values.

The front line helping President Steele is the young, educated, and culturally aware staff that currently comprises the Oglala Sioux Tribe Environmental Protection Office and Natural Resources Regulatory Agency. If politics and corruption dont interfere and they are allowed to do their jobs, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation may be one of the last places left in the Upper Midwest that is not completely polluted by nuclear radiation.

Charmaine White Face, whose Lakota name is Zumila Wobaga, is Oglala Tetuwan Oceti Sakowin (Oglala Lakota from the Great Sioux Nation). She is a Biologist, Physical Scientist, former educator, writer and the founder and Coordinator for Defenders of the Black Hills. Ms. White Face may be reached at bhdefenders@msn.com

Tribal Councils, Tribal members, Native organizations and others, call your Congressman now to support HR 2262 The Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007.

Earlier this year, Congressman Rahall of West Virginia again introduced legislation to reform the 1872 Mining Law. This new effort represents a unique opportunity for this nation to overhaul this antiquitated law from the 19th century that is completely inadequate for todays industrial mining technology and scale. The House Sub-Committee on Energy and Mineral Resources will hold the first hearing specific to HR 2262 on July 26. We will need more co-sponsors for the bill by the 26th of July as well as in the upcoming months.

American Indian and Alaska Natives have been disproportionately impacted in a variety of ways: Dispossession of land, destruction of sacred sites, damage or destruction of cultural and natural resources, loss of cultural life ways related to the boom/bust mining economies, with a legacy of polluted water resources, toxic and radiation poisoning and many more impacts.

The law was originally written to encourage settlement of the American west once American Indian and other impediments to American settlement had been forcibly removed or otherwise cleared. The law makes very little requirement for mine closure, clean up, environmental remediation, or restoration, allowing the mining industry to leave behind half a million abandoned mines. This new legislation will not fix the historic social, environmental and human rights violations and abuses in Indian Country as a result of unsustainable mineral extraction, but it will fix some of the other problems that are important to American Indian and Alaska Natives and others. This 1872 Mining Law also impacts Alaska federal lands. Congressman Rahall needs your help.

An editorial from the May 28 Denver Post states much of the case to take action;

The Denver Post Editorial Board
Article Last Updated: 05/28/2007 10:27:39 PM MDT

Colorado wasn't even a state and Leadville's great silver boom was still in the future when the nation's basic mining law was enacted in 1872.

Colorado's been a state for more than a century and Leadville has boomed and busted more than once, but the General Mining Act, signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant, is still on the books.

The law has allowed mining companies to extract an estimated $245 billion in metals without paying a dime to the taxpayers. Until a moratorium was imposed 13 years ago, mining companies could buy federal land for $5 an acre or less. (Thankfully, different rules - including royalties paid to the government - apply to coal mining and oil and natural gas extraction.)

Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., wants to bring the law into the 21st century. Like a prospector stubbornly working an unpromising claim, Rayhall has introduced reform legislation every year since 1985. Now, it looks like he may finally strike pay dirt this year or next.

The bill would impose an 8 percent royalty on the value of minerals extracted, close places like wilderness and roadless areas to mining, install additional environmental requirements and create a cleanup fund.

That last provision would be vitally important to much of the West, which has an estimated 500,000 abandoned hardrock mines, many of which continue to ooze toxic waste (cyanide, lead, arsenic, mercury - that sort of thing) decades after they closed. In Colorado, there are at least 22,000 old mines, shafts and exploration holes. An 8 percent royalty could raise $100 million a year to start making a tiny dent in the $32 billion estimated cost of a total cleanup.

The reason Rahall may be close to making a strike is that the ideal of repealing the law has gained some interesting supporters. The industry says it's willing to work on modernizing the bill. Predictably, it doesn't like an 8 percent royalty rate, even though prices for things like gold and uranium have soared in recent years. Even Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of mining-dependent Nevada signals he's flexible but that reform might not come until 2008. He dynamited previous reform plans.

Mike Kowalski, CEO of big gold buyer Tiffany & Co., says his industry wants reform. "Ultimately, this cost will make it more expensive to produce jewelry, but it is the right thing to do," he wrote in a column recently published in a Las Vegas newspaper.

We're looking forward to Congress erasing the General Mining Act of 1872 from the law books and moving it to the history books.

In addition to the fixes stated in the Denver Post, the legislation would also provide for protection of Tribal sacred sites as well as additional protection for ground and surface waters. It will not fix all that has happened in Indian country and Alaska, but it will fix these two important environmental and cultural considerations for American Indian/Alaska Natives. Thus far, the below listed members of Congress have signed on as co-sponsors to HR 2262 The Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007.

Rep Capps, Lois [CA-23] - 6/19/2007
Rep Christensen, Donna M. [VI] - 5/24/2007
Rep Costa, Jim [CA-20] - 5/10/2007
Rep Gonzalez, Charles A. [TX-20] - 6/19/2007
Rep Grijalva, Raul M. [AZ-7] - 5/24/2007
Rep Hinchey, Maurice D. [NY-22] - 5/24/2007
Rep Honda, Michael M. [CA-15] - 6/19/2007
Rep Inslee, Jay [WA-1] - 5/24/2007
Rep Jackson-Lee, Sheila [TX-18] - 6/19/2007
Rep Markey, Edward J. [MA-7] - 5/24/2007
Rep Miller, George [CA-7] - 5/24/2007
Rep Moran, James P. [VA-8] - 5/24/2007
Rep Stark, Fortney Pete [CA-13] - 6/19/2007
Rep Udall, Mark [CO-2] - 6/19/2007
Rep Waxman, Henry A. [CA-30] - 6/19/2007

Recent additions: Earl Blumenauer (OR), Dennis Kucinich (OH) Betty McCollum (MN), and Sander Levin (MI)

First, Tribal members living in areas impacted by hardrock mining should call their Tribal Council Representatives and request that the Tribal Council pass a resolution supporting HR 2262 The Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007.

A draft Tribal Council resolution is available from Robert Shimek, Indigenous Environmental Network, ienmining@igc.org, 218-751-4967 or Bonnie Gestring, Earthworks, bgestring@mineralpolicy.org, 406-549-7361. Tribal Councils should than send the finalized resolution to members of Congress.

Second, Tribal members, Native organizations and everyone else who cares about environmentally and socially responsible hardrock mining should call their Congressional Representatives and ask them to co-sponsor HR 2262 The Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007. If your Representative has already signed on as a co-sponsor, call them anyway and thank them for their support as well as encourage them to make sure the provisions critical to American Indian/Alaska Natives stay in the Bill.

The full text of HR 2262 (112 pages): http://www.mineralpolicy.org/pubs/HR2262.pdf. [The Protection of Special Places section begins on page 24, Title III, p. 39 (J) is of notable interest for those mining locations prone to acid mine drainage.]

LEAD -- Technicians are poised to re-enter the Homestake gold mine, but so far the National Science Foundation has not announced whether the mine will be the preferred site for a national underground laboratory.

The Homestake proposal is competing with proposals from Colorado, Washington and Minnesota. The winning site gets up to $15 million over the next three years to develop a detailed science and engineering plan for a Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory.

The South Dakota plan includes reopening Homestake, which has been slowly filling with water since it was closed in 2003.

Scientists in a nationwide consortium, working with the state science authority, hope to begin pumping water out the mine by September. Then they'll establish an "interim lab" 4,850 feet underground, well in advance of the national lab 7,400 feet underground.

To make that plan work, the science authority has to proceed as if the National Science Foundation had chosen Homestake.

For example, a new elevator compartment - a "cage" in mine parlance - already has been certified for re-entry into the Ross Shaft, one of two shafts that descend 4,850 feet into the mine.

Dynatec Mining Corp., the company chosen to re-enter the mine, also is performing a last-minute safety procedure on the thick cable that lowers the cage into the shaft, changing the section of cable that connects to the cage.

"Dynatec is instituting the most current engineering and safety standards for this type of work," science authority director Dave Snyder said in a written statement.

On Friday, devices called "controllers" for the powerful electric pumps that will remove water from the mine arrived in Lead.

Dynatec already has hired 13 specialists for the re-entry, including a project engineer, and 10 more positions are yet to be filled.

An NSF decision on the lab first was expected in April, then it was delayed. A committee of scientists reviewed 250-page proposals from all four sites, plus reams of other materials and notes from visits to all four sites.

Defenders of the Black Hills
P. O. Box 2003, Rapid City, SD 57709
Phone: (605) 399 -1868

Rapid City, SD -- South Dakota Circuit Court Judge John Delaney denied a motion for a stay to stop any further drilling by a Uranium mining company near Edgemont. Opposing parties considering state Supreme Court appeal.

Powertech, a Canadian mining company, began drilling uranium exploratory wells in the Dewey Burdock area northwest of Edgemont a few weeks despite the approval of their permit being appealed in court. Two environmental organizations, Defenders of the Black Hills and ACTion for the Environment are appealing the decision made by the South Dakota Board of Mining and Environment. Cindy Gillis, lead counsel for the two groups had previously sought a preliminary injunction and a restraining order. Judge Delaney denied those requests and said a "stay" was the proper procedure, and one was filed on April 30. A hearing was held on June 19, 2007, in the Pennington County Courthouse and the Judge denied the stay stating there was not enough environmental information to show harm to the plaintiffs.

Charmaine White Face, Coordinator for Defenders, said, "This appeal is about the violation of our Constitutional rights. Our concerns about the environment were not even considered by the Board during the first hearing in January," she said. "That's why we appealed their decision in the first place. We are not even to the environmental questions yet."

Attorney Gillis raised the point in court that Powertech will have all their exploratory wells finished before the hearing on the permit can occur. Judge Delaney stated that even though a number of procedural violations were committed by the Board and the State Department of Environment and Natural Resources, he now had the authority to make the decisions and this was his decision.

The Board's Hearing Chair, Lee McCahren, on Jan. 17, 2007, signed the Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Order that were prepared by Max Main, the attorney for Powertech. This was prior to the Board hearing the oral objections on Jan. 18 at which no court reporter was present. The process also allowed for written objections to be submitted within 30 days after the Hearing. The two groups submitted their written objections, and their objections should have been addressed by the Board in a Final Decision. The Board never sent a Final Decision. In order to participate in an appeal of the decision, the groups filed their appeal in State Court based on the Order sent out by Powertech.

Without the Board following their own procedures, the objections raised by the two groups then become an admission of fact. "Failure to answer an allegation in a petition constitutes and admission of that fact." according to South Dakota Compiled Law, 74:09:01:03. The two groups raise the contamination of the water and watersheds in their objections, as well as the health risks to all living things.

The permit that is being appealed allows Powertech to drill 155 more exploratory wells at depths of 500-600 feet in the southwestern Black Hills. They already have 4,000 uncapped, and unmarked uranium exploratory wells drilled in the past. The mining company plans on doing In Situ Recovery (ISR) of uranium from the Lakota and Fall River aquifers. In Situ Recovery was formerly known as In Situ Leach (ISL)mining.

During the ISR process, a solution to dissolve the uranium is poured down the wells and the dissolved uranium brought back up to the surface. The uranium is separated from the rest of the radioactive waste solution. The radioactive waste solution is then put back into the aquifer after being held in waste ponds on the surface. The procedure contaminates aquifers and cannot be controlled underground. In case of sudden rainstorms, the radioactive waste ponds often overflow and contaminate the surface ground and nearby watersheds as well.

According to Powertech's application, each exploratory drill hole "will have a small excavated mud pit that will be approximately 12 feet by 5 feet" and 10 feet deep. Among the concerns of the environmental groups are the possibility of overflow from the mud pits with the sudden rain showers that occur in the Black Hills. One of the aquifers empties directly into the Cheyenne River and is used by many ranchers to water their livestock. Among the deeper aquifers of concern is the Madison which provides water for many western South Dakota communities.

The two groups are considering appealing the request for a stay to the state Supreme Court. They continue to state that Powertech does not have a valid permit to drill until after the appeal of the granting of the permit is finished.

F A C T S H E E T

America's Secret Chernobyl

Uranium Mining and Nuclear Pollution in the Upper Midwest:

1. World War II ended with the nuclear bomb and introduced the use of nuclear energy for the production of electricity which caused the price of uranium to rise. Uranium mining in South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota began in the middle of the 1960s. As the economy of the Midwestern states depends primarily on agriculture, when uranium was discovered in the region, many get-rich-quick schemes were adopted. Not only were large mining companies pushing off the tops of bluffs and buttes, but small individual ranchers were also digging in their pastures for the radioactive metal. Mining occurred on both public and private land, although the Great Sioux Nation still maintains a claim to the area through the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868, the March 3rd Act of 1871, Article VI of the US Constitution, and the 1980 Supreme Court decision on the Black Hills.

2. In northwestern South Dakota, the Cave Hills area is managed by the US Forest Service. The area currently contains 89 abandoned open-pit uranium mines. Studies by the USFS show that one mine alone has 1,400 milliRhems per hour (mR/hr) of exposed radiation, a level of radiation that is 120,000 times higher than normal background of 100 milliRhems per year (mR/yr)! In the southwestern Black Hills, the US Forest Service reported on 29 abandoned open-pit uranium mines, one of which is about 1 square mile in size.

3. It is estimated that more than 1,000 open-pit uranium mines and prospects can be found in the four state region from a map developed by the US Forest Service. The water runoff from the creeks and rivers near these abandoned uranium mines eventually empty into the Missouri River which empties into the Mississippi River.

4. The following agencies are aware of these abandoned uranium mines and prospects: US Forest Service, US Environmental Protection Agency, US Bureau of Land Management, SD Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the US Indian Health Service. Only after public concern about these mines was raised a few years ago did the USFS and the EPA pay for a study in 2006 of the off site effects.

5. More than 4,000 exploratory holes, some large enough for a man to fall into, are found in the southwestern Black Hills with an additional 3,000 holes just 10 miles west of the town of Belle Fourche, SD. These holes go to depths of 600 feet. This exploratory process itself allows radioactive pollutants to contaminate underground water sources. More exploratory holes for uranium are in the planning stages for Wyoming and South Dakota.

6. The US Air Force also used small nuclear power plants in some of their remote radar stations. No data is available on the current status or disposal of these small nuclear power sources or of their wastes. The US Air Force is responsible for monitoring these sites although there is no stopping the radioactive pollution that could contaminate aquifers.

7. In Wyoming, hundreds of abandoned open-pit uranium mines and prospects can be found in or near the coal in the Powder River Basin, and the coal is laced with uranium ore. The coal is shipped to power plants in the Eastern part of the United States. Radioactive dust and particles are released into the air at the coal fired power plants and often set off the warning systems at nuclear power plants. The same radioactive dust and particles are released into the air that travels across South Dakota and to the South and East in the coal strip mining process.

8. In 1972, President Richard Nixon signed a secret Executive Order declaring this four State region in the Upper Midwest to be a 'National Sacrifice Area for the mining and production of uranium and nuclear energy.

This Fact Sheet regarding past and planned uranium and coal mining in the Upper Midwest region should give cause for alarm to all thinking people in the United States. This is the area that has been called the Bread Basket of the World. For more than forty years, the people of South Dakota and beyond have been subjected to radioactive polluted dust and water runoff from the hundreds of abandoned open pit uranium mines, processing sites, underground nuclear power stations, and waste dumps.

There needs to be a concerted effort to determine the extent of the radioactive pollution in the environment, and the health damage that has been and is currently being inflicted upon the people of the United States.

It is imperative that a federal bill be passed in Congress appropriating enough funds for the cleanup of ALL the abandoned uranium mines in this four State region. This harmful situation must not be placed on the end of the Superfund list of hazardous sites to be addressed in twenty years. Those responsible for this disaster must be held responsible for the consequences, but the cleanup and health concerns of the nation need to be addressed first. The health of the nation is at stake!

We hope you will consider our request for concerted actions to be taken at the national level regarding these grave concerns. This problem of radiation pollution spreading throughout the United States has been allowed to continue quietly for much too long.

1. Contact your Congressional Representative and Senators by phone (202) 224-3121, through the mail, and email. Ask that they consider sponsoring a bill for the cleanup of all the abandoned uranium mines and prospects, and underground nuclear sites in the Upper Midwest Region of South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming.

2. Ask your Congressional Representatives and Senators to support the Expansion of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to include also those harmed by abandoned uranium mines and prospects in the Upper Midwest Region.

3. Encourage the use of alternative sources of energy such as wind, solar, and geothermal. Nuclear energy is not the answer and only creates very long term problems to the entire environment.

Produced by Defenders of the Black Hills, PO Box 2003, Rapid City, SD 57709,
a non-profit corporation.

The drive in the Cave Hills area along Highway 85 in northwestern South Dakota provides a sight of one of the unique qualities of the prairies.

Popping up off the floor of the plains are grass-covered cone structures looking
like party hats discarded by giants in another time. A little further north and
flat-topped tables are overlaid with grass, their sides rippling with multicolored layers of soil like the folds of a patterned tablecloth. Then the larger Cave Hills areas rise up on the horizon, their tops covered with lacy shawls of the dark vegetation of pine.

Ludlow is what many people call "a blink of an eye" on the highway even though it appears on the map. Ludlow consists of a cafe with a bar whose cook could easily boast at making the best "bachelor fries" in the area. It would be easy to see how an old-fashioned, country wedding dance could take place in the large room directly off the eating area. Pool tables, pinball machines, a small stage with a big dance floor have probably provided many a merry night for the locals.

Directly across from the cafe is a fairly new school building and playground. The sounds of children's laughter could easily be imagined. How fortunate are the children able to attend such a school and play with a beautiful view all over except when you look directly north. The view there is of a large earthen table that has a dirt and gravel road leading up to it.

The wind seems to blow incessantly. It's dehydrating effect is probably the reason why there are no bushes or trees around the school. Little whirlwinds pick up the dust and sprinkle it around stinging the eyes as the dust spirals out on its way back to the ground. Country kids don't notice things like that. They just close, or squint their eyes continuing their games, wiping their noses on their sleeves to get out the dust, ignoring the grit between their teeth.

Standing in the parking lot of the cafe, on the west side of the highway across from the school, one can easily see how the top of the table also slopes to the North. At first glance, it appears natural. But for someone used to the Plains and seeing earthen tables and their consistent flat tops, suddenly the realization hits that the slope is not natural.? The sedimentation flowing off the sides is not natural either.? There is no vegetation on it and it has a gray color instead of the multilayers of pinks, tans, and browns. This table is the remnant of an abandoned, exposed uranium mine whose dust has been covering the school for decades. Yet, the children of this area of Harding County still attend classes and play in the playground oblivious of the radioactive menace they breathe, rub in their eyes, and kick up with their shoes.

Maka Unci Ina is the name of our Mother and Grandmother Earth. Women are like her. Women are called "life-givers." No, women do not create life, but they can give life. Life develops inside of them. Also some women are mothers and grandmothers at the same time, raising grandchildren for many reasons.

Good mothers and grandmothers nourish their children physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Maka Unci Ina does the same for all of her children; the trees, the birds, the animals, the insects, even the humans. This understanding, knowledge, thankfulness of how she does this is consistent with Indigenous people throughout the world...for those that journey out of colonized thinking.

Men, are always wondering about women. They say they don't understand women. They say women are an enigma. And, although some study women in colleges and universities as well as in life, women are still a question to most men.

The truly smart men just accept that women are different than men. Yet, some men think they understand women and some think they understand Maka Unci Ina.

They don't. Not Her (with a capitol H) either. And just like some men never ask for directions when traveling, these same men would not think of asking the old cultures how to live with Maka Unci Ina either. This creates situations like what is happening at Ludlow school.

Whoever cut off the top of the table just north of Ludlow school and threw it over the edge of the bluffs to reach the uranium ore was not thinking of the radioactive dust those children would be breathing, dust that creates lung and brain cancers. Yet, archeologists say that the area has been used by Indigenous peoples for more than 13,000 years, the Sioux, Mandan, Hidatsa, Cheyenne among others. These ancient peoples consider the nearby Cave Hills sacred and that knowledge is carried down to today. But there are places in the Cave Hills that only certain human beings can enter, and not everybody. This is also a part of the old understanding of Maka Unci Ina and spirituality.

The radioactivity is a part of Maka Unci Ina, a part that modern men did not, and do not understand, and never will be able to. She is an enigma that tiny human beings can never understand. Just like oil and methane gas are also a part of Her and necessary for her health, so too is the radiation. Yet, in their elitist arrogance, there will be those who will try to dig for that ancient information also, bombarding more traditional, local Indigenous people with questions, then looking with disdain when they do not receive the answer that they think they should receive. There is a thousand times more to Maka Unci Ina than tiny human beings will ever understand. We just need to accept that.

Because of the short-sightedness of a few human beings, in search of money to satisfy greed, many innocent people are and will suffer. The radioactive dust from more than 87 mines in this sacred place has been carried across South Dakota for more than forty (40) years, that's not to mention what is and has been carried down in water runoff. Logic dictates that those living closer to the mines receive more dust and radiation. These are mostly ranchers. So does this mean that the cattle, buffalo, and other wild game that eat the dust covered grass and drink the water will also be more likely to be radioactive?

Are the deer and antelope that travel throughout the region, down to the Black Hills, and across the Wyoming plains also radioactive? What about the birds, butterflies, and other winged insects that migrate through this area? Do they know how to read signs that say, "Radioactive material. No camping. Do not be in this area more than 20 hours per year"

Unfortunately, it is not just in northwestern South Dakota. A map of uranium mines and prospects from the US Forest Service shows hundreds of mines in northeastern Wyoming, as well, whose dust is also carried by the westerly winds directly upon South Dakota. Of course, Nebraska also receives this same dust. These two states are a big part of what is called the breadbasket of the world.? This is where the cloud comes in.

The US Congress needs to allocate a couple of billion dollars, yes, BILLIONS, to the Superfund to clean up all of these abandoned uranium sites, penalize and collect from whoever is responsible, and help those with health problems. Congressional representatives from the Midwest need to raise strong voices, and their staffs begin drafting legislation for emergency studies and cleanup of the water, the vegetation, livestock and health concerns of human beings.

Iowa, Kansas who receive the dust also, and other states along the Missouri River better wake up as well as the runoff has been flowing down that river for a long time.

Or will more shortsightedness prevail? Will the enigma that is Maka Unci Ina cause arrogant men (and sometimes women) to bypass logic and continue to allow radioactive pollution of the bread basket of the world? Is it time to stop the insanity? Who will rise to fight this giant mess that was left when shortsightedness ruled the world and nuclear energy was thought the panacea for all our needs?

####
Charmaine White Face (58) is a free-lance writer and member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, or the Oglala band of the Tetuwan Oceti Sakowin (Lakota speakers of the Great Sioux Nation). She may be contacted at bhdefenders@msn.com

Rapid City, SD (USA)- A South Dakota state circuit court judge ordered the archaeological portion of a uranium exploration permit back to the SD Board of Minerals and Environment, the same Board who admits they sent the State Archaeologist to the wrong place. The permit they issued is on hold until a valid permit is granted, although opponents want an injunction until the appeal process is finished.

Two volunteer environmental organizations, ACTion for the Environment and Defenders of the Black Hills filed an appeal to the state circuit court, according to the SD Administrative Procedures Act, after attending a hearing with the SD Board of Minerals and Environment on January 17 and 18, 2007. The groups were appealing a decision by the Board granting a permit to Powertech (USA) Inc., a Canadian company, to drill 155 additional deep exploratory wells in the southwestern Black Hills for uranium. The company already has 4,000 wells in this specific area. The Black Hills are considered sacred to many member of the Defenders organization, and also to many Native American nations from the North American continent.

The two organizations filed the appeal citing due process of law and equal protection of the law from the South Dakota laws and the US Constitution. Some of the issues presented to the court in the appeal are:

-the signing of the permit by the Board prior to the plaintiffs being given the opportunity to present their objections,

-the failure to consider the plaintiffs written exhibits that were given to the Board,

-the failure to provide interpreters in the Lakota language for two of the elderly members of Defenders of the Black Hills, or for the Board to be able to understand the concerns of these elders,

-and the Boards practice of allowing the mining company to present data on the quality of the underground water when the mining process will contaminate the water presenting a conflict of interest. It would be in the mining companies best interest for the water to already be contaminated with uranium and radioactive materials.

W. Cindy Gillis from The Law Offices of Mario Gonzalez is the lead counsel for the Defenders of the Black Hills and ACTion for the Environment courtesy of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. The Tribe has already experienced pollution from past uranium mining in the southwestern Black Hills.

The Board is represented by SD Deputy Attorney General Roxanne Giedd, and Powetech (USA) Inc. is represented by Max Main, attorney from Belle Fourche, SD. The Board will conduct a hearing at 10:00 (CDST) on April 19, 2007, at the SD Department of Environment and Natural Resources, 523 E. Capitol Ave., Pierre, SD.

Contact: Charmaine White Face, Coordinator, Defenders of the Black Hills, PO Box 2003, Rapid City, SD 57709, Phone: 605- 399-1868 Email: bhdefenders@msn.com

The 30 min documentary is truly wonderful. I have a copy and it brought a lump to my throat watching it, as I was there every step of the way and it also brought back the wonderful memories of that amazing week spent on the Pine Ridge reservation with the people and the film crew.

The documentary is also being put into the major film festivals in the USA this year also, so who knows what impact this will have!! Fingers crossed.

This is a site which is very informative and well worth looking over. The world should also know about these facts. Lots of information on this website concerning the abandoned Uranium Mines in South Dakota, and Utah, and some very disturbing facts.

I recieved the is letter and have been monitoring this situation closely with www.defendblackhills.org The area around Bear Butte is in serious danger of having all the peace and quiet around this sacred site being destroyed basically by the invasion of the white man once again. Read about this on the Defenders site and there has to be someone out there than can help!!!!

To help the Natives to buy this land would be an incredible victory for them in helping to retain this land for sacred purpose, Bear Butte being an amazing place that has been used (and still being used) for centuries for Vision Quest and other ceremonies by many tribes around that area.

Descendants of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse break away from US

F A C T S H E E T

America's Secret Chernobyl

Uranium Mining and Nuclear Pollution in the Upper Midwest: