Rapid City Picks People Power over Powertech, Opposes Black Hills Uranium Mine

Speaking of mining, the Rapid City Council made my week by voting Monday night to pass a resolution expressing "grave concern" about Powertech's plan to squirt a millions of gallons of drinkable water into the ground to blast uranium to the surface.

The Council loses two points for letting the term "grave concern" take the place of straight-up opposition in the original esolution presented in the agenda. However, even the decision to go as far as to say that Powertech has left too many questions unanswered and that the Canadian companies uranium mine poses an "unacceptable risk" to the Madison aquifer gives cause for celebration to citizen activists and to folks who prefer non-fluorescent drinking water.

The resolution is a stunning rebuke to Powertech's main Black Hills stooge, Mark Hollenbeck, who simpered that his reputation is at stake (hmmm... one guy's reputation versus public health, agriculture, and tourism...) and then tried to talk the Council down with the patently false claim that "There’s no way physically possible that we can affect either your quality or quantity of water from what we do at Dewey."

The Rapid City Council had a choice between doing the bidding of a foreign corporation or listening to the concerns of local citizens. The council listened to and says it shares those concerns. The council put environmental caution over the promises of foreign speculators and extractors. That's pretty remarkable for South Dakota.

Rapid City's resolution likely won't stop Powertech's Chinese investors from pressing ahead with their plan to take America's uranium, drain our aquifers, and leave us with a warm glow. But the resolution does show that if South Dakotans organize and protest, they can win. Let's take that fighting spirit to the state environmental hearings on Powertech!

The only "no" vote on the ten-member council came from Steve Laurenti, who fumble-mummed around his fealty to rich exploiters:

"The problem I have, from a logical standpoint, is to oppose something or even to have grave concern, grave meaning that I have a fear for my life," Laurenti said. "I don't fear for my life over this issue at this point."

Laurenti said he doesn't necessarily support the mine, but more debate is needed and the council should wait to see what comes from the state permit hearings.

"The bottom line is, it's very difficult for me to have grave concern about something I don't have a lot of information on," Laurenti said. "I'll be honest with you, I would be dishonest with my constituents and with all of you tonight if I said I had grave concerns about this issue at this point."

My sources tell me that Laurenti had received a whole lot of information on Powertech's plan back at a council meeting back in December. According to one source, Laurenti immediately threw that notebook in the trash.

Rounds Budget Ignores $29 Million Funding Gap for Homestake

This week, reporter Bob Mercer declared that Governor Mike Rounds's effort to realize Bill Janklow's vision of converting the Homestake mine into a world-class research facility would be recognized as the greatest achievement of the Rounds administration. In a November 12 blog post, blogger Pat Powers pointed to the Sanford Underground Laboratory in Lead as "Mike Rounds' one crowning achievement."

The biggest jewel in Rounds's legacy crown may have just fallen out. Last week the National Science Board decided to ax a $29-million grant that the National Science Foundation it oversees had authorized for the Sanford Lab last year. The National Science Board had lots of good things to say about the lab when they visited in September, But now board member Mark Abbott says the Department of Energy, other agencies, and perhaps international sources should fund the project instead of NSF.

The Governor has spent "countless hours on the phone" with Washington trying to fix this funding flop. Losing those funds would be bad for the lab, even in the short-term. Governor Rounds says at the very least, the scientists at the lab need steady funding for job security. Ron Wheeler, director of the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority that runs the lab, told legislators last month "We’re not looking for the (South Dakota) taxpayers to cover any more expenses for the authority."

Comparison: Governor Rounds has asked for a $39 million reduction in state aid to K-12 education.

The Governor already had to cajole the Legislature to approve $5.4 million in additional funding last winter to keep the lab afloat until the NSF funding was anticipated to arrive in May 2011. The disappearance of that NSF funding could create an ugly political situation in a legislature already being asked to cut K-12 education 5%.

Significant as this decision is, it is thus surprising that Governor Rounds made no mention of it during is budget address on Tuesday. His budget proposal includes a $10.6M reduction in the Science and Tech Authority in anticipation of the NSF grant:

The total recommended FY2012 budget for the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority is $8,960,000 in other fund expenditure authority and 5.0 FTE. A decrease of $10,639,023 in other fund expenditure authority and 65.0 FTE is being recommended because the National Science Foundation (NSF) is expected to take over the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) operations in the spring of 2011 [State of South Dakota Governor's Budget: Fiscal Year 2012, p. 47].

The National Science Board met December 1–2. Governor Rounds presented his budget December 7. It seems odd that the Governor would not address a significant budget setback for a project so important to South Dakota's educational and economic development, not to mention the Governor's "legacy."

I share the Governor's desire to see this project go forward. I sincerely hope that this governor's greatest legacy may be a facility for the eggheads and intellectuals who too often get short-shrift in South Dakota culture.

But if the Legislature and South Dakota taxpayers aren't going to be asked to cover the gap again, who's left? We could hit T. Denny Sanford up again... but I have a feeling we're going to enjoy the splendid irony of Republicans John Thune, Kristi Noem, Mike Rounds, and Dennis Daugaard working hard to win more money from Washington, D.C.

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possibly related:

While stopping all the tax hikes would be a good first step, this alone won’t eliminate the job-killing uncertainty hanging over our employers and entrepreneurs.

That’s why we need to focus on cutting spending and reducing the size of government. The American people want us to stop spending dollars we don’t have.

To do that, we need to start taking a long, hard look at the size and scope of government and find new ways to resist Washington’s urge to grow and to grow. Let’s do a better job of following the money and evaluating the effectiveness of government agencies [Kristi Noem, GOP radio address, 2010.12.11].

Update 2010.12.13 10:06 CST—Definitely related: Dr. Newquist's discussion of the Homestake Lab. He notes that the NSF may not have been authorized to make the $29-million "commitment" we thought we had for the lab.

Update 2010.12.14 11:30 CST—Mr. Kurtz was an interested party in the mine once.

Katus Questions Cabin; Governor Says No Fat Cats, Just Mice

State Tresurer candidate Tom Katus is raising questions about favoritism in the use of the state-owned "Valhalla," Peter Norbeck's old Black Hills hideaway. Katus tells KELO he's concerned that Governor Rounds has been, shall we say, arbitrary in deciding which taxpayers get to use this public property and which ones don't. Governor Rounds fires right back:

"My strong suspicions [sic] is the big Republican heavy hitters have been in there either at no cost or subsidized by someone else or some big corporation is paying for, you know, some of their buddies to be in there," Katus said.

"If Mr. Katus can name the big wigs that are supposedly staying there, then we will respond accordingly. We're not having big wigs stay at Valhalla," Rounds said [Austin Hoffman, "Governor's Cabin Questions," KELOLand.com, 2010.10.07].

Governor Rounds, via Game Fish & Parks, has generally declined to give us a list of Valhalla guests. But in the KELO interview, Rounds slips and reveals the identity of some regular guests:

"It's still a cabin. It still has mice in it. But it's got beautiful scenery around. It's rustic. It's not designed to be something that you take and you put people in like a motel," Rounds said [Hoffman, 2010].

Ah ha! Mice!

But wait a minute: we spent over $200,000 renovating the cabin, and it still has mice?! Now there's some state spending that needs to be reviewed.

Grassland Wilderness Bill Would Prevent Problems Seen in Black Hills

South Dakota's Republican candidate for U.S. House Kristi Noem says she opposes the Tony Dean Cheyenne River Valley Conservation Act because the federal government has mismanaged its forest land in the Black Hills. At least that's one of the lines her handlers fed her about the six-page bill she couldn't be bothered to read herself.

Larry Kurtz offers some useful points that illustrate why Noem's opposition to the grassland wilderness around the Badlands is really just uninformed teabaggery. On Interested Party, Kurtz notes that "The Forest Service manages about 1.25 million acres in the Hills, most of the other 5.5 million acres of the Black Hills hydrologic region are privately held lands whose owners largely blame forest failures on Federal or State mismanagement."

The majority of hydrologic region is privately held, but Noem and other Grover Norquist apers blame the government for... well, something. The private sector is sacred, so we must blame something else, right?

Mr. Kurtz then cites this passage from a Rapid City Journal commentary from 2002:

From a socio-economic perspective, the existence of so much private land has caused forest managers to fear fire, prompting even greater fire suppression and more commercial logging and thinning for fuels reduction and breaks. While this may make landowners feel more secure, these activities have not and will not maintain the natural processes that regulate the health and the vitality of this ponderosa pine forest. Unquestionably, private development has also contributed to the cultural loss and impoverishment of the Lakota Nation who claim the Black Hills under treaties broken by the U.S. Government [Jake Kreilick, "On the Verge of Ecological Collapse," Rapid City Journal, 2002.02.14].

So if the federal government is having trouble properly managing the Black Hills National Forest, it's because free-market fundamentalists like Noem have pushed roads and private development into all but two percent of the forest. All that expensive private property stands in the way of the good fire the Hills could use to restore the natural ecosystem. Keeping that development in check in places would have helped the federal government manage the land.

And keeping development in check is exactly what Senator Tim Johnson's S. 3310 would do: maintain the status quo, protect current grazing rights, but prevent further privatization and development from breaking up a national treasure, a unique grasslands wilderness.

Do you get that now, Kristi? (And have you gotten it yet, Stephanie? Time to get off the fence and endorse Tim's bill!)

New Poll: Should Governor Open Valhalla to Public Rental?

Democratic candidate for governor Scott Heidepriem has raised the issue of opening "Valhalla" to the public. No, we're not talking about lowering the number of Normans you have to axe to join your Viking brethren in paradise. We're talking about South Dakota Governor and Senator Peter Norbeck's Black Hills cabin, which the state Game Fish and Parks now tends within Custer State Park. (Learn more of the history in this excellent first-person essay by Kevin Woster.)

Valhalla, Custer State Park. CSP photo featured in Tom Domek, Custer State Park, Arcadia, 2005, p. 76. Click photo to enlarge

The Madville Times poll question: Should Game Fish and Parks open the Peter Norbeck "Valhalla" cabin for rental to the general public?

Heidepriem argues the Rounds Administration has turned Valhalla into a secret compound for the governor and his chosen friends. The citizens of South Dakota have paid for expensive upgrades to the cabin (over $225K in recent years), so citizens ought to be able to use the facility, says Heidepriem. The idea of a Black Hills summer retreat reserved for the governor's use is iconic, says Heidepriem, of the cronyism and secrecy that underlies many of the current administration's bad policies that Heidepriem wants to change. (Worth noting: Black Hills resident and erstwhile GOP almost-candidate for U.S. House Thad Wasson appears to agree!)

The Rapid City Journal has editorialized that the facility should be open to the public to honor Peter Norbeck. RCJ notes the cabin is on the National Register of Historic Places. The editors say Norbeck's historical significance as well as the unique architecture of the cabin justify sharing the site with all South Dakotans.

The state feels otherwise. Game Fish and Parks declines to provide a list of those permitted by Governor Rounds to use the cabin, saying state law exempts guest lists of GF&P facilities from open records laws. The cabin is gated, and a couple years ago GF&P removed road signage to better hide the location.

So what do you think? Should the Norbeck cabin serve more of a public function? Should GF&P rent the facility out to the public like any other camping cabin, open to anyone willing to pay, first come, first served? Or should the site remain restricted by the governor's discretion? Vote in the poll in the right-hand sidebar, then discuss the issue here in the comment section. Poll runs through Saturday breakfast time, so vote now!

Thune Agrees: Spending Govt Money on Pine Beetles Good

More federal money for South Dakota: Uncle Sam is sending us $2 million to fight the pine beetle infestation in the Black Hills. Helping bring home this dirty, deficit-boosting, dependency-inspiring federal money—Republican Senator John Thune:

Originally, Forest Service officials said the money would not be used directly in South Dakota but would be focused on heavy beetle infestations in Colorado and southern Wyoming.

Thune said he wrote Vilsack outlining what he called the unique needs of the Black Hills National Forest.

“This will come as very welcome news to those who have been working hard to protect the Black Hills,” Thune said in a press release Monday. “This infestation is having a dramatic effect on forests in the region and action needs to be taken before the situation deteriorates further. This infestation is leaving forests and the surrounding areas vulnerable to fire and watershed degradation” [Steve Miller, "Black Hills Gets $2 Million to Fight Pine Beetles," Rapid City Journal, 2010.02.08]

Typical Republican hypocrisy on federal spending. They spend far too much time bashing the government as a simplistic campaign ploy rather than taking the time to calmly explain the vital role government plays in helping us solve problems like the pine beetle infestation.

The pine beetle infestation is a terrible problem of our own making. Climate change expands the beetle's habitat with milder winters. Worse, our forest management practices give the beetles more to eat. As eager reader Larry Kurtz has explained to me, the Black Hills used to have much thinner tree growth. Fires and natural cycles of beetle infestation would clear out the trees, leaving a fair amount of wide open spaces that made it harder for the beetles to smorgasbord-hop from tree to tree. The best way to tackle the beetle is to remove its food—i.e., remove trees, and return the Black Hills to a more natural state with more open spaces.

HB 1087 to Come Back, Fight Septic Tank Inspections

I get the straight poop on HB 1087 from Barb Lindberg, president of Citizens for Liberty. The way the bill was worded, HB 1087 appeared to represent a drastic expansion of county government power. Turns out the conservative backers of this legislation actually wanted to use it to curb government power, specifically the power Pennington County wants to exert to regulate septic tanks in the Black Hills.

Lindberg tells me her group has asked Rep. Mike Verchio of Hill City to reintroduce the bill in amended form to simply ban all retroactive application of county ordinances, without exception for immediate threats to public health and safety. Why we need this law, I'm still not sure, since the Constitution itself says ex post facto laws can't happen. And even reworded, this proposed law probably cannot stop a county from acting to inspect and shut down faulty septic systems or other sources of water pollution.

Lindberg's explanation acknowledges one of the key lessons of modern politics: if you're going to introduce a bill, get out in front of the message and let people know what it's about before misconcpetions can drive the debate.

Below is Lindberg's explanation of what Citizens for Liberty is up to with HB 1087:

Hey Cory,

Not quite sure where all the mis leading information on our 1087 Bill that was "quietly trash" came from. But the foundation and true intent of this Bill has surely been largely mis read and deceived. I know.... as I was part of those who drafted and offered the Bill to be submitted. Want the real skinny?

This Bill was meant for a "people friendly amendment to 7-18A-2 It's purpose was to RESTRICT and END the abusive authority that Pennington County Commissioners have been using against the rural citizens involving septic systems. Although State law already states that counties cannot make ordinances that are retroactive. Pennington County appears to be above the law restrictions. In a proposed septic system ordinances that the residence have been fighting over for 6 years, Pennington County Commissioners in the last 10 months have moved forward with a County Ordinance that retroactively effects every private septic system in the County, of course under the safe water cloak. The proposed ordinance will make all private septic systems under the jurisdiction of Pennington County "new" installation and supervision regulations. The City has already implemented such ordinance.

All residence will have to submit request to have their septic systems "permitted" and approved. Any flaws or concerns the County Planners "see" in our septic systems will have to be brought up to their standards before permits to operate your system is allowed.

There will be a $500 fine and 30 days in jail are the consequences for violating their retrospective ordinance on "ALREADY Operable" septic systems. However the more concerning fact is in a recent waste water meeting the Board laughed and stated that if residence did not comply with this excessive government policing, they would shut private water sources off. I didn't think it was funny. Now I'm not the most bright color crayon in the box..... but tell me Cory, how does the County come in and shut off a private landowners well? You got it - they'll put locking devises on our well heads.

Plus under the proposed section 200 they also are demanding the rights to come onto your property and test ground soil, all water sources, including in house water facets, site ect - all under their fraudulent cloaking of safe water. Absolutely NO evidence has been given by the Pennington County or Rapid City Officials - however, extreme environmentalist have presented agenda that states septic systems are "probably the problem source" of contaminating Rapid City's water sources.

Yet after extensive research and data pulled from all operating municipal wells in Rapid City, along with water samples from many subdivisions, no contaminate threats are evident. In fact the EPA states 10 milligram of nitrates per liter are allowed and over 90% of all ground and surface sources show levels BELOW 1.0 milligrams. Average is .54 milligrams per liter.

The real Truth of the matter is that water flowing down Rapid Creek and going INTO Rapid City's Waste Water Treatment Plant is less than 1.0, HOWEVER when this water comes out of the Waste Water Treatment Plant the nitrate levels have been at 14.6 milligrams per liter. You can do the assumptions there. Please see www.TheVoice316.com for all info and data researched. The REAL story is a massive "The Sky is falling - the Sky is falling" conspiracy by Rapid City Officials and Pennington County Commissioners.

We the people are presently having open town hall meetings informing residents of this hoax both the County and City is attempting. Out of these battle fields, We,presented Mike Verchio a proposed amendment to title 7 of county provision that we felt we could live with.

IT WAS NOT to give the County more jurisdiction - but prevent them from doing what they are already doing! Pennington County and Rapid City Officials are already passing ordinances that ARE retrospective. That is WRONG!

We the people, on line 14 stated: "No ordinance or amendment thereto may have a retrospective application unless:"

The "unless" was added because that is what the state already provides under the Statute. We added that it would also take 2/3 vote of commissioners AND that clear and convincing EVIDENCE would have to be proven as an imminent threat to either health or safety or both.

Right now they have neither, but are moving forward because they say they have the right to do so because they "believe" there is a threat.

The people should not have to sue in Court to get the County to adhere to Statute. Our attempt was to clarify Title 7, that any County COULD NOT make ordiances or amendments that was retroactive unless it was absolutely proven with evidence there WAS an imminent threat- not just because they "thought" there was.

I do not know of what "non legislation resolve" has been reached that pulled the Bill, other than the non clarification of what the Bill was meant to resolve. Seems we failed at both.

As a tea party president of over 1,500 members, we'll follow MA 's lead. My opinion is: "They closed a chapter in politics as usual.... now we'll close the book!" ..... come election they might as well "Pack it up- these County Commissioners and City Officals are DONE!" We'll be replacing their seats with or without a Bill.

Out of the chute - we could have done better at verbiage. For that I apologies and take full responsibility. I promise we'll do better in the future. As for all the political garb and campaign usage? Sorry I imposed a black eye for Mike Verchio. I take my hat off to him that he at least moved in our behalf and did what his constituents requested. I apologies earnestly that he took heat for my verbiage error. Please note though - that his efforts to do so sealed all his votes for "yes" by his constituents. He at least had the backbone to run with us and not shoot us down.

This was about regular citizens. We may have missed the boat on this round - but we'll be back ... better adverse and ready.

If there's any questions I can assist in to bring a clear perspective - please give me a call. I'm new on the court- but sincerely don't believe I'll be going away anytime soon. Thanks for your time and soften ears to hear.

Just thought you might want to know "the rest of the story".
Barb Lindberg
CFL President

Pastor Hickey on Lakota and Black Hills: Reconciliation? Try Reparations

There are numerous reasons Pastor Steve Hickey should blog about something other than abortion. One big reason: when he talks about issues like justice for Native Americans, he makes a lot of sense:

Personally, at this point, I support more listening, more conversation, and some creativity toward a mutually acceptable accord which may or may not include some kind of Lakota Makoce Wakan (sacred place/land, Sioux sanctuary or sacred memorial grounds) in the Black Hills National Forest. Should the Black Hills be given back? Not today. But today is the day to come together and look at every conceivable angle of how best to right this national wrong. It will take more patience on behalf of the Sioux, and more remorse on behalf of the United States. The Resolution of Apology to Native American Peoples is merely the starting place for a better life together and my hope is that South Dakotans genuinely support this and that native South Dakotans receive it sincerely. Mutually acceptable reparations must follow and, since the issue is land, I’m not sure anything short of some form of land settlement will receive mutual support [Pastor Steve Hickey, "Should We Give the Black Hills Back?" Voices Carry, 2010.01.25].

I double-dog-dare Governor Rounds to offer straight talk like that as he spearheads the "Year of Unity." I also hope Pastor Hickey's voice will carry as we try to restart Euro-Lakota reconciliation.

p.s.: Props to Pastor Hickey on being the first radical conservative I've heard to decry the IRS seizure and auction of tribal land on Crow Creek. Pay attention to his comment that the United States had better hope China doesn't take the same tack over our red ink.

Pine Beetles Love Climate Change; Pines Less Pleased

Remember the story about Harney Peak trails being shut down for timber cutting? Rangers are trying to thin the trees and minimize the spread of those darn pine beetles.

Where did those pine beetles come from? Us. Climate change:

SARAH GARDNER: But wait a minute. Explain for us how this little beetle has anything to do with climate change? Because, I mean, my understanding is that the pine beetle is a native species, right? It's always been there. And a lot of westerners believe the only reason it's gotten out of hand is because we haven't been thinning out the forests enough, right?

SAM EATON: That hasn't helped. And you throw in fire suppression and the beetles basically have an all-you-can-eat buffet of lodge pole and Ponderosa pine. But the scientists I talked to -- like Jesse Logan, who's been studying the beetles for decades -- say the main thing driving this outbreak is human-caused global warming.

JESSE LOGAN: It's by the actions of people. It's directly our actions that are taking these forests out.

SAM: Let me connect the dots here. Logan says pine beetles have always been held in check by deep winter freezes. But that 2-degree increase in average temperatures you mentioned earlier, Sarah, has meant fewer cold snaps -- especially in the high elevations of the Rockies. Basically, the pine beetle couldn't have asked for better breeding conditions [Sarah Gardner and Sam Eaton, "Climate Change in Our Own Backyards," Marketplace, 2009.10.27].

Marketplace is running a big series on climate change; part 4 runs this evening (SDPB Radio, 19:00 CDT). Each piece is lengthy and worth the listen. The series webpage includes lots of resources on climate change science and economic impacts.

Pine Beetles Threaten Harney Peak Trails: Clear 'Em Out!

Regular readers know I get a little sentimental about trees. I'm also a big fan of Harney Peak, one of South Dakota's great geological wonders, not to mention the center of the universe for some of our neighbors.

So a little blurb on KELO about timber cutting shutting down two Harney Peak trails gets me going on two levels. I go looking for the full story and get it from (who else?) Kevin Woster. He gets my attention with one sentence from Custer State Park Superintendent Richard Miller about what pine beetles are doing to the Black Elk Wilderness:

Miller said there are estimates that 80 percent of all the trees in the Black Elk will be dead in two to three years....

Oof. The proper response: clear out about 3000 acres of beetle-infested trees. Beetles can spread from tree to tree more easily in forests made artifically thick by our overzealous fire suppression policies. Thin the trees, slow the beetles.

CAH below Harney Peak, coming up the north face from Willow Creek trailhead, August 2001. Photo: Tobias W. Uecker

I've been up Harney Peak several times, usually day-hiking, a couple times backpacking, and once snow-shoeing. The hike and the summit peak are glorious every time. I've hung out with hikers cooking noodles out of the wind in the old fire station. I've ridden the top of the tower through an advancing sea of clouds at sunset. I've come home with feet a-glitter from the mica trails. And I've rested comfortably in the deep shade of the high rocks and trees along the Harney Peak trails.

I hate to see destruction done along the Harney Peak trails. But the real destroyers are the beetles and previous bad policy, not the loggers being brought in to clean up the mess. CSP chief forester Adam Gahagan says the cleared areas will green up fast, much like the recovery seen in the area of the 1988 Galena fire. It will not be the same thick forest... but a thick forest of dead brown trees is no forest at all.

To keep the Idaho helicopter crews from dropping logs on hikers' heads, Trail #4 at Little Devils Tower will be closed through the winter. Trail #9 from Sylvan Lake will be closed from October 1 until Christmas (keep to that schedule, fellas: there are folks planning their New Year's hike!). If you want to visit Harney Peak this fall, you'll need to come up the north face from the Willow Creek trailhead (Hiram Rogers's favorite route).

Potpourri! Death, Doctors, Tinkle, Justice, and Energy

Brain full yet?

Holy buckets! I've got eight tabs open on my browser—time to clear the cache! Here's some brain potpourri:

1. Senator Gene Abdallah: before you stink up the airwaves again with your suggestion that we ought to expedite death penalty trials, read Bob Herbert's column about a Texas father put to death for killing his children by arson. 18 years after the fire, a scientist hired by the state of Texas finds the fire was an accident, and the father was innocent.
2. Bill Moyers is on a health care tear this summer. His latest Journal on PBS features American doctors destroying the myth that America has the best health care in the world.
3. But don't take Bill Moyers's word for it: run your own numbers on the really cool Death Risk Rankings calculator from Carnegie Mellon.
   
4. McCook Central School District is getting double the bang for its computer buck by using netbooks in its elementary classrooms. Now where'd they get that idea?
5. "City Commission Worried About Water Supply," but not enough to give first reading to its new proposed public urination ordinance. Says KJAM, Madison's leaders "wanted to take some time to change the original wording of the proposed ordinance." Now where'd they get that idea?
6. That Sioux Falls paper turns a couple quotes and now "No comment" from the White House into fodder for speculation that President Obama will give the Black Hills back to the Lakota. Hold your nose and gape in awe at the ignorance and racism in the Argus forum. Note also that Nixon gave federal land back to the Taos-Pueblo in New Mexico in 1970, and no social chaos ensued.
7. Hey Jason! Want to get us off oil? Why not do something simpler than building stills everywhere: just ban cars! Vauban, Germany, has!
8. Also on getting us off oil: individual homeowners may lead the way in creating more solar power-generating capacity. Now if we could just get the big power utility corporations out of our way....

Dang this Internet for giving us so much interesting stuff to read!

"Bad-Ass, Epic, Fun, and Swoopy" -- Bike South Dakota!

The Kona COG, a blog on bike-maker Kona's website, gives the Black Hills of South Dakota some love this week. Bike blogger Cory Blackwood (anyone see the strange cosmic convergence here with Corey Vilhauer's Black Marks on Wood Pulp?) refers to Rapid City as an "oasis" of good mountain biking.

The Black Hills Mountain Bike Association... has... built mountain bike trails with the help of IMBA. Not just any mountain bike trails, either, but really bad-ass, epic, fun and swoopy mountain bike trails. These trails have vert, up and down, and exposed granite everywhere, so if you fall, you bleed. And there aren’t just a few trails here and there. There’s about 250 miles of singletrack in the area, and the BHMBA is directly responsible for over 75 miles of it, and they patrol and help maintain most of the 250 miles. All of this and that’s not even mentioning the awesome city dirt jump park that was built with a little help from the Kona/IMBA freeride grant [Cory Blackwood, a.k.a. The Geek, "Mountain Biking Mecca in South Dakota??? - Part 1," Kona COG, 2009.06.11].

Someone call South Dakota Tourism—I think we've got a jingle to replace "Great Faces, Great Places." Sing it with me: "Bad-ass epic, fun and swoopy, South Dakota!"

Or, as Queen says, "Get on your bikes and ride!"

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Update 2009.06.13 08:02 CDT: Tony below notes that Blackwood posts Part II on his Black Hills adventure. Even a rainy second day doesn't stop Kona COG from giving the Black Hills a big biking thumbs up. Blackwood urges readers/riders to hit next year's Black Hills Fat Tire Festival. He also makes an anti-development nod, saying Rapid City is like bike meccas Fruita and Moab 20 years ago.

Black Hills, White Conquerors, Lakota Values... and the Ferengi?

True freedom-fighters and Lakota traditionalists, feel free to ignore everything I'm about to say. I'm just another White man who lives on land won by lies and force. Any man, Red, White, or otherwise, who tries to take "my" land will be met with every lawyer and shotgun I can afford.

My white conqueror's privilege notwithstanding, Dr. Newquist gets me thinking about the Black Hills and our neighbors the Lakota. Newquist spotlights some remarkable racist commentary from L. Frank Baum, kind and gentle Wizard of Oz author and long-ago editorialist for the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer:

The PIONEER has before declared that our only safety depends upon the total extirmination [sic] of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth. In this lies safety for our settlers and the soldiers who are under incompetent commands. Otherwise, we may expect future years to be as full of trouble with the redskins as those have been in the past [L. Frank Baum, Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer, 1891.01.03, quoted by David Newquist, "The Stolen Black Hills and the Fight to Give Them Back," Northern Valley Beacon, 2009.04.30].

Newquist is putting in perspective a somewhat less genocidal but similarly wrongheaded editorial from this century's descendant of Baum's paper, in which contemporary Aberdonians may read that the Lakota should whore themselves for the money their conquerors say is fair compensation for the stolen Black Hills.

I don't pay as much attention as I ought to Indian issues like the renewed lawsuit over the Black Hills. Neither it seems, does most of the South Dakota media, mainstream or otherwise. I suspect we find it uncomfortable to be reminded that our beautiful state is land won through lies and guns. Some history just doesn't look good on the Chamber of Commerce brochures.

The Supreme Court awarded the Tribes of the Great Sioux Nation a financial settlement in 1980 for what Justice Harry Blackmun called the most "ripe and rank case of dishonest dealings" in American history. Yet the tribes haven't touched the money, which now approaches $900M.

How, in a world where everything revolves around money, can the poorest people in America refuse to accept millions of dollars? Because they consider the land that was stolen from them to be sacred and as they say, "One does not sell their Mother" [Tim Giago, "The Black Hills: A Case of Dishonest Dealings," Huffington Post, 2007.06.03].

It's easy to me to opinionate as a member of the privileged conqueror class. I have my land. My Congress will never pass the Bradley Bill or even consider an idea floated by my good friend Greg, who suggested we give all of West River back to the tribes. (Greg was from Minnesota; I can't recall if he was willing to give back the Twin Cities.) No one looks at me with suspicion whenever I pop into town for groceries or a job interview.

But for what it's worth, I sympathize with the position of the tribal members who oppose this new lawsuit. I do my share of putting principle over pragmatism... and that's with much less at stake than nearly a billion dollars and the soul of my people.

The tribal members hiring the Yankton lawyers to prosecute this latest lawsuit represent the pragmatic view: The tribes will never win possession of the Black Hills. The youth are losing their spiritual connection to the land, so we might as well get our money and put it to good use.

Taking that money would not be a victory. It would be a surrender... perhaps the final surrender in a battle long ago lost. It would be a capitulation to the conquerors' view (my culture's view) that everything is for sale, that land is merely a commodity, that a man's worth is not much greater than his bank account.

The folks who say "The Black Hills are not for sale" are idealists. I admire sincere idealists, especially those who put justice over material gain (and one could argue the material gain of taking a one-time lawsuit settlement would be meager and fleeting).

But then the White man saying this isn't hungry or unemployed.

I have long wondered how we would react if some warlike, technologically advanced race—say, Klingons, or perhaps more appropriately for the analogy, the Ferengi—invaded, conquered, and herded us savage Earthlings into a few isolated, low-value patches of real estate. Suppose a hundred years later the conquerors let us file a lawsuit in their alien courts and actually rule in our favor, offering a few million bars of latinum for our trouble. At the same time, the invaders politely decline to dismantle even a single tourist resort or starship refueling outpost on our Mother Earth. How would we respond?

What really matters? How important is place to our sense of identity? How long and against what odds do you keep up the good fight?

And as Black Elk asks, "How could men get fat by being bad, and starve by being good?"

The renewed lawsuit over the Black Hills calls for soul-searching from all South Dakotans, on the reservations and off.