Indigenous activists praised a recent federal government proposal to ban new mineral exploration in a swath of South Dakota’s Black Hills National Forest for 20 years, but said it falls short by still allowing ongoing mining projects.
The U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday put forth a plan to prohibit all new mineral exploration near the Pactola Reservoir, the largest in the Black Hills and one of the most contested sites in Indian Country.
For generations, the Black Hills have been a focal point of Indigenous activism and the subject of a court battle over the federal government’s illegal seizure of the land in the late 1800s.
This week’s proposal to protect the aquifer — outlined in the Federal Register on Tuesday — would still allow ongoing mining operations in the hills, which has been done for decades over the objections of Indigenous communities.
More than 18% of the Black Hills remain under mining claims, according to the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance, a nonprofit advocating to stop mining in the Black Hills.
In February, despite public outcry, the Forest Service said it would allow F3 Gold, a Minnesota-based mining company, to search for gold at 39 drill sites in the Pactola area.
A federal report released in July found that the proposed gold mining project “could affect cultural resources and tribal sacred lands by altering the landscape adjacent to these sites.”
Aside from the cultural significance of the Black Hills to Lakota, Dakota and Nakota peoples, the reservoir also provides drinking water to Rapid City and Ellsworth Air Force Base. It also is a popular destination for fishing and water sports.
“The problem is with catastrophic climate change, the water is not a given out here anymore,” said Mark Tilsen, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and an organizer with NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led advocacy organization based in Rapid City. “So, the very idea that anybody would threaten the watershed and the drinking water…
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