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Badlands fossil dig mired in history, opposing views
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com
Aug. 5, 2002
By Heidi Bell Gease, Journal Staff Writer
STRONGHOLD TABLE - The Badlands are never the same place twice.
Changing light and shadows constantly shift across the rocky buttes and
spires, making them appear flat and white one minute and layered with color
the next. At mid-day in summer, the parched soil is a barren, unforgiving
wasteland. At twilight, the same landscape becomes a fairyland of pastel
pinks and purples.
How you see the Badlands depends on timing and where you stand. And the same
is true of the current conflict over the Badlands South Unit and what's
called the Stronghold.
On its face, the issue looks simple. The National Park Service wants to dig
ancient mammal fossils in the South Unit, which is technically Oglala Sioux
tribal land but has been included in Badlands National Park boundaries since
the late 1960s. A group of Oglala Lakota is camped near Stronghold Table in
peaceful protest of the dig, and Tribal President John Steele has voiced
support for them.
But as with most things in Indian Country, there's more here than meets the
eye. The vastly different views of this area are a good place to start.
Treasures in the rock
Scientists look over the rocky rims of the South Unit and see buried treasure
that could help explain life on Earth 35 million years ago. It's a treasure
that's slowly disappearing because of the elements and illegal private
collectors.
The Badlands are filled with fossils. Park officials say they chose to pursue
this particular dig, their first in the South Unit, because it was being
plundered by fossil hunters. In 1999, park officials found 18 holes where
fossils had been removed from the dig site.
Under a memorandum of agreement with the tribe signed in 1976, the National
Park Service is responsible for administering the South Unit and providing
for the "care, maintenance, preservation, and restoration of features of
prehistoric, historic, scientific, or scenic interest" on tribal lands.
The looted site prompted park officials to seek federal funding for the
proposed dig, slated to begin the week of Aug. 12. The three-year project
would remove remains of titanothere, a rhinoceros-like mammal with a forked
horn. South Dakota School of Mines & Technology and the South Dakota School
of Mines & Technology and the Denver Museum of Science and Nature would
conduct the dig.
"This is the only way we can protect these resources from fossil poachers and
from the elements," said Brian Kenner, chief of resource management for
Badlands National Park. "We're not stealing these fossils. We don't sell them
... They remain tribal trust resources, just exactly as if they were still in
the ground."
Kenner described the dig as a one-eighth acre excavation using shovels and
trowels. Recovered fossils would probably be stored at Tech, which has an
agreement with the tribe, but could be displayed at a Lakota cultural
heritage center the park service plans to build in the South Unit next year.
Park Superintendent William Supernaugh informed Steele of the planned dig in
a letter dated April 30, 2002.
Steele responded that tribal officials were "surprised to read that you are
assuming authority on Tribal lands." He wrote that although the tribe agrees
cultural and archaeological sites need protection, "the Tribe disagrees with
the manner in which the NPS is attempting to locate these sites."
Steele also said the tribe would not allow any fossil excavation within the
South Unit, by NPS or anyone else.
Supernaugh said the park service had consulted with the Oglala Sioux Parks
and Recreation office and the Badlands Bombing Range Project Office, charged
with removing unexploded ordnance from a former U.S. bombing range in the
area.
NPS has also consulted with the Grey Eagle Society of tribal elders. "They've
never to my knowledge asked us to not do anything down there," Supernaugh
said.
Park officials say the world benefits from fossils found in the Badlands.
They can help scientists better understand climate, evolution, and more.
The federal government takes fossil theft seriously. Last spring, four
Wisconsin residents were fined as much as $1,000 after pleading guilty in
federal court to stealing government property from the Badlands.
A tribal member was convicted of violating the Archaeological Resource
Protection Act for selling shell beads found near 800-year-old human remains
in the South Unit. He was sentenced to six months in prison, probation and
restitution.
Keepers of the stronghold dream
Many Lakota see more than rock and sky when they look out over the Badlands
South Unit. They see a cemetery, a place where their ancestors died along
with dreams of a better world. They see a site sanctified by the blood, bones
and spirits of their people. They see their history.
Lovey Two Bulls, who has spearheaded the protest, said the proposed dig is
near a human burial site. Her sons, Tony and Ernie, found human bones in the
area a while back but left them undisturbed. When the fossil dig was
announced, they had to speak out.
The brothers have spent weeks of this blistering hot summer hiking the area
on foot, documenting some 100 sites they say are significant or sacred.
They've found tipi rings, gravesites, cut firewood and the bones of babies
and adults.
"You go out there, and it's almost like a drive-through museum," Tony said.
"A lot of people lived there at one time. A lot of people died out there,
too."
Being there, he said, "You felt them. You just get a feeling like they're all
around you."
The Two Bulls family and as many as 30 others have camped out at Stronghold
Table since June 25. They call themselves the Keepers of the Stronghold
Dream, in honor of their ancestors who danced and died here.
"They had a vision for a better life," Lovey said. "They danced and prayed
for these things, but it became a nightmare for them."
To understand, you must look at history. For the Lakota, the arrival of white
settlers brought the end of a nomadic lifestyle. As gold was discovered and
more whites came west, there were repeated conflicts between whites and
Indians.
The federal government made treaties promising large tracts of land,
including the sacred Black Hills, to the Sioux, then promptly broke those
treaties. Little by little, Indians who had moved freely about the plains for
centuries were forced onto reservations to depend on government handouts.
But in the late 1800s, the Paiute prophet Wovoka brought a vision of hope. If
natives danced the Ghost Dance, he said, the Son of God would renew the earth
and create a new world in its place. The dead would live again, the buffalo
would return, and all would live happily together.
Many Lakota danced the Ghost Dance on the Stronghold, a grassy mesa
surrounded by sheer cliffs. Connected to the "mainland" by one narrow ridge
of rock, the Stronghold was easily defended.
The Wounded Knee Massacre on Dec. 29, 1890, marked the end of the Indian
wars. The massacre's wounded were brought to Stronghold. Today's protesters
say another massacre happened there later. They've found human remains to
prove it, they say, some left where they fell when shot by soldiers.
Margaret Lemley Warren's book, "The Badlands Fox," illustrates how, at that
time, men made sport of riling the Ghost Dancers.
"We went in and stirred them up and a lot of our fellows laid in at the head
of a gulch," her father, Pete Lemley, was quoted as saying. "We kids went
over to the Stronghold and got them after us and they chased us down Corral
Draw. Riley Miller was at the head of it ... and he just killed them Indians
as fast as he could shoot ... We killed about 75 of them."
Lemley said Miller and another man used pack horses to take out seven loads
of guns, war bonnets, ghost shirts and other items. "Riley took 'em to
Chicago and started a museum," he said. "He made a barrel of money out of it."
Descendants of those Ghost Dancers fear the same exploitation today. Though
both things are illegal under federal law, they wonder if the park service is
using fossils as an excuse to remove either zeolite, a useful mineral, or
human remains from South Unit.
They also talk about being spied on and followed by helicopters and men on
four-wheelers. Protester George Tall believes NPS is already removing things
from the Badlands at night.
Park officials scoff at those claims, which sound far-fetched. But Marla Jean
Big Boy, a Washington attorney, doesn't think they're so unbelievable.
Big Boy has helped Indian tribes lobby for the return of ancient human
remains through the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
and worked on the case of Kennewick Man, a 9,200-year-old skeleton found in
Washington state. Government agencies and museums, including the Smithsonian,
wanted to study the bones. Indians wanted to rebury them.
"There's a market for human remains," Big Boy said, telling how a small bone
fragment from "The Ancient One," as Kennewick Man was called, was lost and
never found. "We figure it's over in Europe, sitting on somebody's coffee
table."
Neither does Big Boy discount other motives for the dig. "The possibilities
are endless, what else they could be looking for," she told about 80 people
meeting at the Stronghold Wednesday. "We have to protect our ancestors."
The protesters' claims frustrate Supernaugh, who described the planned
excavation as seven miles from the Stronghold.
"They keep talking about us having this dig on Stronghold Table and the
sacredness of the Stronghold because of the Ghost Dance and the tradition of
warriors that were killed and buried in that area," he said. "We respect
that, and people should realize that we would not do anything to infringe
upon that highly relevant and highly sacred site."
But protesters say the entire area is sacred. In native belief systems,
religion is connected to land, and sacred sites hold memories, energy and a
portal to the spirit world.
Vine Deloria Jr., a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and a longtime
professor of history and religious studies, has said that in contrast to
Western religions, which are based on events of long ago, "place-related
sacred places provide an experience each time they are visited."
But there's another factor at work here: longstanding tension between Indians
and the federal government. Conspiracy theories may sound paranoid, but this
is the same U.S. government that recently created the Office of Strategic
Influence to try to mold global news. It's the same U.S. government that
broke treaties with Indian tribes. It's the same U.S. government said to have
purposely introduced deadly smallpox to Indians 100 years ago through
infected blankets.
Whether or not the smallpox part is true, the Indian people believe it is.
That makes it real, and it still colors their dealings with the federal
government.
A means of survival
A man with no job living in one of the nation's poorest counties might look
at the Badlands and see food for his children. To him, the petrified remains
of an ancient sea creature are basically a rock, to be removed from acres of
remaining rock and sold to a collector rich enough not to have seen hunger in
his children's eyes.
Most fossils may bring in $50 or less. But a story on the National Geographic
News Web site states that 18 titanotheres skulls removed from the South Unit
were worth $5,000 apiece.
"Basically, there's a lot of fossils down there, there's a lot of
unemployment, there's wealthy people who want fossils, and there's a lot of
people down on the reservation who are willing to locate them and sell them,"
Brian Kenner, the Badlands chief of resource management, said. "There's a
long history of fossil theft down there."
In fact, Kenner believes some Stronghold protesters have ulterior motives for
keeping the park service out: protecting the fossil beds they themselves
excavate for personal income.
Lovey Two Bulls said none of the protesters hunts fossils. But she knows
others do, including past or present tribal council members, tribal employees
and even tribal presidents.
"Fossils are big money," she said. "I don't care if they hunt fossils. I
don't care. But go do it somewhere else. Don't do it around Stronghold."
If Oglala people are removing fossils, some might say, "So what?" The South
Unit may be part of Badlands National Park, but it's still tribal land, and
the fossils still technically belong to the tribe.
Others point out that the fossils belong to the tribe as a whole, not
individual members.
At any rate, protesters want the tribe to end its agreement with the park
service and take back the South Unit. That would take an Act of Congress,
Supernaugh said, and it would have some consequences.
Currently, the tribe receives 50 percent of gate receipts from visitors to
Badlands National Park. Last year, that amounted to about $800,000, minus
expenses. The money goes to the Oglala Sioux Tribal Parks and Recreation
Authority, which uses it for administrative expenses and to run the tribe's
buffalo program.
The park service also provides excess wildlife to the tribe, and tribal
members have preferential status when applying for park service jobs. All
those benefits would end if the agreement ended, as would plans for the
tribally operated cultural heritage/visitors center.
The Lakota are known to be patient and tenacious, even when money that could
help improve their lives is at stake. A federal judge granted the Sioux $106
million in 1980 in compensation for the government's taking the Black Hills.
The tribes still haven't accepted the money, which has grown to more than
$500 million.
Middle ground
Between the park service and the Stronghold, there's a lot of gray area,
which may be where most Oglalas' opinions actually fall. Many say the
protesters do not speak for the entire tribe, but few are willing to speak on
the record.
Pinky Clifford serves on the parks committee. Asked how the funding loss
would affect the tribe, she declined to comment. "I have thoughts, but I have
no public comment," she said.
Some members of the tribal council, land committee and others have met with
park service officials to discuss how the management agreement could be
amended to make it work for both parties.
Stronghold protesters say NPS has not honored its commitments under the
memorandum. For instance, the promised visitor center still hasn't been
built, and plans to develop interpretive and recreational programs haven't
materialized.
But others note that the tribe hasn't fulfilled its obligations, either.
"Since that ˜76 agreement, we've never lived up to our part of it. NPS hasn't
(either)," said tribal Vice President Theresa Two Bulls.
She would like to see more communication and cooperation among tribal members
to resolve the issues. If people work together, she said, the tribe could
someday administer the South Unit.
"But what plans do we have in place to manage that?" she asked. "It has to be
a plan that's going to involve every tribal member. We have to look out for
each and every one, not just certain people or certain groups."
Anita Ecoffey believes most people would like to see the tribe develop the
South Unit. "I believe we have our own people who could do this," she said.
"I still have a lot of faith in our people."
Park officials say they want to work with tribal leaders to settle the
matter, but that Steele and others won't return phone calls. Steele could not
be reached for comment for this story.
Tribal members say they're upset NPS doesn't involve them in decision-making.
"The problem we've had," Kenner said, "is that we invite them to all our
planning meetings ... and they've never showed."
For now, many tribal officials seem willing to avoid the issue. Tribal
primary elections for all council seats and officers are coming up next month.
The tribal council did vote unanimously July 26 to request that Supernaugh
resign or be transferred, however.
Meanwhile, the "dig" will go on, though this year's work will involve more
documentation than digging. Supernaugh says his job is to protect park
resources, regardless of the tribe's position.
"There's a requirement for us to consult with the tribe. That doesn't mean
that they have a veto authority," he said. "My attorneys tell me that there's
nothing in the legislation or the MOA that subjects the federal government to
the control of the tribe, particularly on lands that we are administering."
Despite a few confrontations between campers and park service rangers, the
Stronghold protest remains peaceful. Camp Justice, the camp established near
Whiteclay, Neb., to protest unsolved deaths of Indians, has temporarily
joined the Stronghold protest.
Protesters plan to join hands and surround the dig site when the time comes.
If necessary, Toby Big Boy said, they will be arrested.
"As my grandma would say, you have to pray for people who are ignorant,"
Marla Big Boy said. "I think what we're dealing with is a different world
view."
Journal staff writer Kara Christensen contributed to this report.
Comments or questions on this story? Contact reporter Heidi Bell Gease at
394-8419, or e-mail her at heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com.
Subj: HELP!
Date: 8/1/2002 16:24:25 Eastern Daylight Time
From: hundsdor@colorado.edu (Tim Hundsdorfer)
The Denver Museum of Nature and Science has plans to go ahead with its
excavation on the Pine Ridge Reservation without the cooperation or
consent of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.
Please contact Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell's office to let him know
that this is going on. If possible, call Pam on Extension 17 in his
Denver office: 303-843-4100. Senator Campbell's Washington number is
202-224-5852. Senator Campbell (R-CO) is chair of the Senate Indidan
Affairs committee and almost certainly knows Secretary Norton on a
first-name basis (she is also a Colorado Republican). Senator Campbell
could certainly stop this with a phone call.
If possible, also contact the Denver Museum of Nature and Science at
1-800-925-2250 and ask for Julia Taylor. Dr. Richard Stucky at the
museum refused to address any concerns about the excavation, instead
directing me to the Badlands National Park Superintendent. The Denver
Museum currently has an exhibit on North American Indian Cultures and
recently concluded an exhibit on Honoring the Sky
(http://www.dmns.org/honoring/honor_index.html ),
where visitors are told:
"you’ll hear firsthand from Lakota leaders as they recount the sky
knowledge that has been passed down from generation to generation."
Does the DMNS respect native cultures ONLY when it sells tickets? We
may be handbilling at the museum next weekend (the 10th or 11th), so
spread the word.
Here is the background:
1) The site to be excavated is on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The NPS
does not dispute this.
2) The Museum is seeking fossils, but will be digging in an area where
there is a high probability of finding Native remains and or
artifacts--as this was a hiding place in the time around the Wounded
Knee Massacre in 1890. The Museum has not addressed the tribe's
concerns about meeting the requirements of the Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act.
3) The museum would not address the issue of ownership of fossils, but a
T-Rex fossil sold at auction in 1997 for $8.36 million! The NPS and its
Department of Interior parent have done such a bad job of protecting
Native American interests in the past that they are currently under
indictment. Under the AMERICAN INDIAN TRUST FUND MANAGEMENT REFORM ACT,
the Department has been directed to act:
"to ensure the implementation of all reforms necessary for the proper
discharge of the Secretary's trust responsibilities to Indian tribes and
individual Indians." 25USC42-III(3) But the disposition of valuable
fossils at the site has not been addressed.
4) The excavation is certainly unethical, but probably illegal as well.
Under Executive Order 13084 of May 14, 1998--but reaffirmed by
"President" Bush, all federal agencies (including the National Park
Service) must consider:
"In formulating policies significantly or uniquely affecting Indian
tribal governments, agencies shall be guided, to the extent permitted by
law, by principles of respect for Indian tribal self-government and
sovereignty, for tribal treaty and other rights, and for
responsibilities that arise from the unique legal relationship between
the Federal Government and Indian tribal governments."
and
"Each agency shall have an effective process to permit elected officials
and other representatives of Indian tribal governments to provide
meaningful and timely input in the development of regulatory policies on
matters that significantly or uniquely affect their communities."
Please ask Senator Campbell to stop this intrusion and possible
desecration. You can also call your own representatives, but Sen.
Campbell is clearly a fulcrum in stopping the excavation or forcing
NPS/DMNS to the address the concerns of the Tribe. The Denver Museum
should have to answer for their willingness to exploit Native peoples
when it sells tickets, but ignore their concerns when Indiana Jones has
a prize he wants to come home with.
Thanks for your help.
Feel free to call me at any time:
Tim Hundsdorfer
303-604-0595
hundsdor@colorado.edu
From Skye Kamide
Posted to NDN AIM
Tue, 30 Jul 2002
As the sun came up over Stronghold Table, I gazed over the edge and was
speachless as the beauty of the Badlands came alive before me. I imagined the
Ghost Dancers in their circle, dancing in prayer with a backdrop of majesty
only understood by one who could see it. I was in awe. Then I imagined it as
the badlands national park people would have it...ripped up and destroyed by
digging and desecration and I weeped like a baby. How could anyone allow this
to happen?
Camped in the prairie of The Table are The Tokala (Guardians) ...those
who will not allow it to happen. They have been there for over a month now
and are not going anywhere until this sacred area is safe from the digging
planned to occur August 12-23. I asked Tony Two Bulls how long they planned
to stay and his answer was simply "Forever".
Tony and Ernie Two Bulls grew up out there and they know all of the
names of the canyons, buttes and tables. They also know of all of the illegal
digging going on down there and have seen evidence of it. Tony pointed down
the steep slope near the place I slept. He told me there were bones and
remains of a warrior and his horse there. These sacred treasures and the
land on which they rest are what the Tokala are protecting.
The Park Service would have you believe that this dig is of an
archeological nature...but the Tokala know better. As Russell Means said when
he was there :
"You want to know why the Badlands National Park is so busy now? There's
zeolite under this land. And it is precious to the white man. There is road
building going on right now. They're pouring 12" concrete highways to handle
the heavy trucks that will carry the zeolite away. They're closing in on us
and we're the only ones to stop them."
George Tall of the Tokala spoke to me of the railroad that was already
in place to transport this material for the greedy ones who plan to rip the
Badlands of their precious insides.
Toby Big Boy sat in his chair looking over the Stronghold and told me
about why they want this zeolite. He explained to me that this material is
what they want to line their nuclear waste dumps with. He spoke of how this
plan would create carcinogenic dust from the zeolite that would kill all
around it.
Past dusk, as the camp prepared to bed down, Tom Poor Bear suddenly
jumped in his truck and raced to the road at the sight of approaching
headlights. as he neared, the lights turned away. Tom sleeps lightly if at
all there because of his worry of the magnitude of this situation. Tom told
me of how the Lakota are the protectors of Mother Earth and that The Tokala
will protect the Stronghold from those who deem to destroy it.
Lovey Two Bulls hands out documents and pleads for the needs of the
Tokala~Oyate Camp. Please contact her on how to send needed supplies
at (605) 255-4108. These needs are:
tipis ; tents ; guards ; 4-wheel drive vehicles ;
electric generators; binoculars; propane;
gas money; astro turf, 12'X8'; canned/processed food;
Cooked food (preferably wocapi, tahniga or was'na).
From someone who stood with these people and is going back, I implore you to
help. This stand is of the greatest importance to all! The Tokala are working
hard to plan for permanant structures on site to weather the winter and
protect The Stronghold for as long as it takes.
As I held Lisa Two Bulls beautiful new baby girl, I looked across the
land and was reminded of something once said to me...
"We didnt inherit this land from our ancestors...we borrowed it from
our children."
Wopila,
Skye Kamide
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