Today the legal battle continues by the Sioux, to reject the claims money awarded them in 1980 by the Supreme Court. They want their land back, rather than the money offered by the U.S. for taking the Black Hills in 1877. For the United States, the issue has come down to one of compensation. About $500 million in payment and interest since 1877 is set aside in an account that the Lakota REFUSE to touch. The Lakota have never surrendered their moral claim to their self-proclaimed Black Hills homeland. The following is from The Buffalo Post: Sioux spiritual and government leaders representing tribes seeking the return of Black Hills land will meet again next month in the hopes of forming a proposal to present to the Obama administration, which they see as sympathetic to their cause. Obama met with tribal representatives during his presidential campaign and left the strong impression that he was serious about trying to find a settlement beyond a 29-year-old U.S. Supreme Court award, according to this story in today’s Rapid City (S.D.) Journal. That forced settlement was about millions of dollars, not acres of land, and it has consistently been rejected by tribes of the Great Sioux Nation. “The consensus is that they will never take the money,” says Gay Kingman of Rapid City, executive director of the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association. “It’s the land that matters.” Some tribal members have filed suit, seeking distribution of the money, but most leaders want the land returned. The idea now is to find consensus, which is why leaders for Sioux tribes in the Dakotas, Montana and Nebraska are holding the meetings on the issue. Previous attempts to return land taken by the federal government to the Sioux, most notably a bill in the mid-1980s by New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley that would have turned over 1.3 million acres of federal forest and park lands, have failed. Bradley left the Senate more than 12 years ago, and none of South Dakota’s three congressional members has shown an interest in supporting a rerun of the Bradley bill, although Democrat Tim Johnson recently said, significantly, that he’s open to discussing the issue (See previous post here.) Still, support would likely be a liability in a statewide campaign. Under any other circumstances, the old “open to discussion” line could legitimately be called wishy-washy. But when South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson tells columnist Tim Giago, here, that’s his position on the return of the Black Hills to the Sioux Nation, it’s significant. That’s because, as Giago writes, the subject is radioactive. “This issue is one that could be the destruction of a political career and all South Dakota politicians to date wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.” The open-to-discussion argument about the Black Hills got a boost last year when then-candidate Barack Obama used words to that effect when he talked to tribal leaders during a South Dakota campaign stop. Lower Brule Sioux Chairman Michael Jandreau tells the Sioux Falls (S.D.) Argus Leader, here, that his memory of the May 2008 meeting was that Obama promised “to do everything in his power to work with the tribes to bring about a settlement.” The paper reports the tribal leaders have formed a proposal that reads: “Barack Obama is a strong believer in tribal sovereignty. He does not believe courts or the federal government should force Sioux tribes to take settlement money for the Black Hills. … Obama would not be opposed to bringing together all the different parties through government-to-government negotiations to explore innovative solutions to this long-standing issue.” Sioux tribes have sought the return of the Black Hills for generations, and in the 1980s, a bill sponsored by then-New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley would have turned over 1.3 million acres of federal lands to the tribes. Tribal leaders are going to keep meeting in an effort to resolve the legal thicket surrounding the land, its return, and the disbursement of funds awarded the Great Sioux Nation for the improper taking of the Black Hills That’s progress – moving at a glacial pace, but progress nonetheless. Gwen Florio Had my sis scan me a pix of this: Photobucket Hugs Sis.. cante waste ya nape ecu zapi Pronounced: chon-dey wash-day ya na-pa e-cue zapa Sioux: meaning a warm heartfelt handshake (the word means your being sincere from the heart)
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 18:41:24 +0000