Rosebud tribe seeks hog-farm closure
By Steve Miller, West River Editor
The Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council voted last month to shut down two large hog
farms on tribal trust land west of White River.
The tribal council voted 15-4 to ask the Bureau of Indian Affairs to shut
down the farms, according to a copyright article on the tribe's Web site.
Each farm has 24 barns and can feed as many as 96,000 pigs a year.
The action completes a reversal of the tribe's position on the hog farms
operated by Sun Prairie Partnership, a Nebraska affiliate of Bell Farms of
Wahpeton, N.D. The tribal council approved a lease in the late 1990s with Sun
Prairie, allowing it to build as many as 288 huge barns on 13 sites on tribal
trust land.
Sun Prairie since has built one 24-barn farm just off S.D. Highway 44, about
seven miles west of White River, and another 24-barn farm to the northwest,
near Cottonwood Creek. The first farm, called Grassy Knoll, has been
operating since 1999. Both farms employ tribal members.
However, a tribal election in late 1999 brought in a new tribal president and
15 new council members, many of whom opposed the hog-farm project.
A couple of years of legal wrangling came to a head a year ago when a federal
appeals court struck down district judge Charles Kornmann's 1999 ruling that
allowed the hog farm to be built and operated. The appeals court said Sun
Prairie had no legal standing to seek the order because it was not an Indian
tribe.
Sun Prairie appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In February of this year, the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal.
The tribe's action to shut down the two farms came a couple of weeks after
the Supreme Court decision.
An attorney for Sun Prairie and Bell Farms said the firm had not received
notification to shut down from either the tribe or the BIA.
The BIA has not yet responded to the tribe's request to halt the farms'
operation, according to tribal attorneys.
Any decision on the hog farms will come from BIA headquarters in Washington,
Rosebud BIA superintendent JoAnn Young said Thursday.
Last year, Sun Prairie filed another lawsuit in federal court in Rapid City,
contending that federal and tribal agencies have unconstitutionally
interfered with the hog farms and should be liable for any Sun Prairie losses
if the operations are shut down. Sun Prairie officials said that if the farms
are shut down, the firm could not repay loans or comply with contracts for
buying and selling hogs.
Tribal attorneys have filed motions to dismiss that suit and say U.S.
District Judge Richard Battey could rule within the next couple of months.
The Sun Prairie hog farms, both in Mellette County, feed young pigs for about
six months and then ship them to slaughter. Sun Prairie has invested about
$20 million so far in the two hog farms, each of which can feed as many as
96,000 hogs a year.
Sun Prairie officials say the barns use state-of-the-art technology to
produce top-quality hogs while protecting the environment. They also say the
farms are a good economic-development tool for the reservation. Both farms
employ tribal members.
However, some tribal members, along with animal-rights and environmental
groups, have criticized the hog farms, saying they emit offensive odors and
threaten to pollute area streams.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials say the farms have not
violated federal clean-water laws.
Jim Dougherty, a Washington lawyer representing the tribe as well as
Concerned Rosebud Area Citizens, the Humane Farming Association and other
groups opposed to the farms, says some tribal members want the farms shut
down immediately. "Other people say let's wait six months. They want to
minimize unnecessary financial harm to these guys (Sun Prairie), but they do
want it closed," Dougherty said.
Sun Prairie/Bell Farms attorney Greg Fontaine said neither the BIA nor any
court has ordered the hog farms to stop operating. Sun Prairie would take any
shutdown order to court, he said.
Fontaine said the remaining lawsuit before Judge Battey also seeks an
injunction to halt any shutdown order issued by the BIA, as well as damages.
Fontaine said tribal officials have advised him that no action will be taken
until the pending lawsuit is resolved.
On Thursday, the Journal was unable to reach tribal president William Kindle
for comment.
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