HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
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FEBRUARY 2013
79
BRENDAN BORRELL (BAKER, BLAZE)
This is Lakota country.
Askmost peoplewhat they knowabout
theLakotatribe,andyou’lllikelyhearabout
Crazy Horse, the warrior whose likeness is
nowbeingcarvedintotheBlackHillssouth-
west ofMount Rushmore. Back in 1868, the
Treaty of Fort Laramie granted the Oglala
Lakota, along with other closely related
Sioux tribes, land from the Black Hills
east through much of South Dakota and
part of Nebraska, creating the Great Sioux
Reservation. Sixyears later, amilitaryexpe-
dition discovered gold in the Black Hills,
and Congress reneged on the deal. Crazy
Horse took up arms and fought in many
legendary ba les, including the Ba le of
Li leBighornin1876(inwhichhereputedly
shouted, “
Hokahey
,
today is a good day to
die!”beforechargingCuster’stroops).In1877
he surrenderedat Fort Robinson, Neb.; four
months later he was fatally stabbed in the
back by aU.S. soldier and became amartyr
for Indian resistance. Thirteen years a er
his death, the U.S. Army killed more than
150
Lakota—men, womenandchildren—at
Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota.
The Great Sioux Reservation was even-
tually split into five separate reservations,
the largest beingPineRidge.In 1942, theU.S.
government turned part of the Badlands
intoanAir Forcebombing range and forced
more than 100 Lakota families to relocate.
“
My dad didn’t want tomove,” Florida Jeal-
ous Of Him, a Lakota elder with long black
hair, tellsme inhalting English. In fact, she
andher brother got a thrill out ofwatching
the planes fly in low over their pine log
cabin—at least until a bombwent through
a neighbor’s roof. (No one was injured.)
In 1968, the federal government and
tribal leaders began negotiations over
returning the land. The agreement they
reached stipulated that a third of the for-
mer bombing range would be developed
andmanagedby theNational ParkService.
This so-called South Unit would be joined
to the existing Badlands National Monu-
ment (a.k.a. the North
Unit), established in 1939,
to form a full-fledged
national park; proceeds
would be shared with the tribe. The rest
of the bombing range would be cleared of
ordnance and returned to the Lakota.
Unfortunately, theSouthUnitwasnever
developed as promised, and remained
merely a place to poach fossils and graze
cattle. Furthermore, the Oglala Lakota
resented the federal government’s sym-
bolic presence on their sovereign territory.
The tensions ignited in April 2002, after
the National Park Service wrote to tribal
leaders saying that it planned to survey
the South Unit and excavate any exposed
fossils of the rhino-like mammals known
as titanotheres, to protect them from
poachers. The tribe refused. As word of
the dispute spread across the reservation,
it reopened old wounds and led to rumors
of Indian graves being disturbed.
Keith Janis, who had been fighting for
the return of his family’s land fromwithin
the park’s SouthUnit, was furious. “I trust
our own people to manage those lands
be er than the National Park Service,” he
says. He and other protesters set up camp
atop Stronghold Table, the
same sacred spot where
Sioux tribes had gathered
in the run-up to Wounded
Knee. There, the modern-day warriors
performed, as their predecessors had done
more than a century ago, a “ghost dance”
to scare away the enemy.
For a time, it seemed the situation was
intractable.When the resolutiondidarrive,
it camewithhelp fromanunlikelyquarter:
two members of a tribe that was once the
Lakota’s sworn enemy.
GERARDBAKER,
amountainof aman
with two long braids and a beadwork belt,
sits in the LakotaPrairieRanchResort eat-
ingabeefsandwich.
BOARDING PASS
Fly with United to explore the rugged beauty of South Dakota,
home to Badlands National Park and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The airline offers
nonstop service to Rapid City, a.k.a. the Gateway to the Black Hills, from Chicago and
Denver, plus summertime service from Houston—each of which connects with dozens of
cities.
For more information or to book your flight, go to united.com.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 132
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CHANGE AGENTS
From far left, consensus builder Gerard Baker, tribal wildlife biologist Trudy Ecoffey, Randall Blaze and park ranger Steve Thede
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