The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #146551   Message #3393515
Posted By: GUEST,Stim
22-Aug-12 - 05:57 AM
Thread Name: BS: Urgent! Save Pe'Sla - Sacred Sioux Site
Subject: RE: BS: Urgent! Save Pe'Sla - Sacred Sioux Site
I meant no offense, I just wondered why nothing had been done before now, and why the effort seems so haphazard.

This is an important sacred site, after all, and there are a number of organizations who work to preserve and protect sacred sites. There is are even Federal Programs to do this.

There is an answer, actually, a couple answers. First, that the site has been owned by the Reynolds family since 1876 and remained pretty much undeveloped, and it hadn't occurred to anyone that it needed to be protected or preserved till the property showed up unannounced on the auction site.

Second part of the answer is that the Lakota/Nakota/
Dakota folks, in true American fashion, sued the Feds, owing to the fact that the Black Hills were granted to the tribes by Congress, who snatched them back when gold was discovered. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the tribes, and awarded $17.5 million in damages, but the tribes never picked up the check because they just wanted the land back(this, incidentally, is why you should always get title insurance).

My guess is that very old Reynolds that owned the land passed away, and the next generation live somewhere else entirely and just told the lawyer to sell the property, and neither knew nor cared that it was a sacred site.

Most of the Story Here!