Sell the black hills

[Plane]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-08-18/black-hills-sale-sioux-tribes/57130396/1?csp=34news

On Aug. 25, Leonard and Margaret Reynolds of Hill City will sell slightly more than 1,940 acres about 2 miles north of Deerfield Lake, ranchland known as Reynolds Prairie that their ancestor, Joseph Reynolds, homesteaded in 1876.

But the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people call it something else -- Pe' Sla. They insist it is one of their most sacred sites on the planet, home to their creation story and essential to their culture and beliefs.

"To lose this would be a big deal," Oglala Lakota medicine man Rick Two Dogs said. "We follow a spiritual calendar; we still do to this day. People still gather at the sacred sites to make offerings, to make prayers. It's very important to us."

Unlike other significant Sioux sites, such as Bear Butte, Pe' Sla is the only one privately held and not within state or federal boundaries. Two Dogs said the Reynolds have allowed his people onto the land to pray and make offerings, but he worries the next owners won't be so generous.

"We also worry that with the state building a road through Pe' Sla, there is development that would come, and it would spoil the purity of the place," Two Dogs said. "If that happens, it would never be the seclusion we need to make our prayers."

Reached at home, Margaret Reynolds would not comment on her family's decision to auction the land now. "We just don't want to talk about it," she said.

[BT]

Are the tribal councils planning to bid at the auction?

[Xavier_Onassis]

The Lakota's title to the Black Hills were recognized by the US government by treaty. They sued the government and won the suit, and as a result the government has offered monetary payment, which the Lakota refuse to accept. So of course they are not going to bid on land that they have already established they have a right to own.

[BT]

If the Lakoto's already own the Reynolds Prarie then shouldn't it be the Reynolds who are compensated and that once they are there is no need for an auction.

That is if the Reynolds hold clear title to the acreage in question. Which i guess they do.

[Xavier_Onassis]

The Court said that because of the Lakota's claim to the land that was taken from them, they are owed monetary compensation. The Lakota say that they never offered to sell it and therefore still own it, which is why they refuse compensation offered by the Court. The Court has said that the Lakota must accept the money, plus interest, or nothing.
'
I agree that the Court makes no real sense and that the Lakota seem to be correct, but that is the current dispute.
That is why I said that they are not likely to bid, which was the original issue.

[Plane]

Unite To Save Pe Sla Lastrealindians

[Xavier_Onassis]

The Indian knows more about this than I do, it seems. I do know that the Lakota have always claimed the Black Hills.

The word "Sioux" is the French spelling of an Ojibway/Chippewa word meaning "enemy" (because the Chippewa were enemies of the Lakota) and the Lakota normally do not use it to refer to themselves.