Being in the heart of Indian Country, it makes sense that a good chunk of coverage in the Rapid City Journal is dedicated to Native American issues. Whether it is the day to day coverage such as this week's suicide awareness summit or broader issues such as the historic dispute over the U.S. government's management of trust fund dollars, there's a dedicated effort to follow Native American issues.
Although it is by no means complete, here's a few that remain solidly in the readers' line of sight, sometimes whether there are stories on them or not.
5. The state gambling compact
A relatively new issue compared to some of the other's here, the prospects of this often contentious issue are certain to arise again with the recent news that the Cheyenne River tribe plans to become the latest in South Dakota to build a casino.
If it makes it through to construction phase, it will be the first built by a tribe but off reservation in South Dakota.
Gov. Mike Rounds said Wednesday that he hadn't heard of the tribes plan, but communication between the governor and tribes on the issue of casinos and gambling have been strained throughout Rounds' tenure in Pierre.
Federal law requires state and tribes negotiate gambling compacts. In South Dakota, that has led to hard feelings between the tribes and the state. In at least one case, it led to a lawsuit filed by the Flandrea Santee Sioux Tribe against the governor for his failure to help a casino on the eastern South Dakota reservation expand its slot machine offerings, thus limiting its efforts at economic growth by restriction.
With talk of a new casino on trust lands instead of on the reservation, it will be interesting to see how that relationship is further tested.
4. Bear Butte and the buffer zone
Unlike many Native American issues featured at the Journal, Bear Butte isn't just a Lakota issue. The protection of the butte east of Sturgis as a spiritual and religious site has become a central issue for individuals from a number of North American tribes.
As the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally has grown in size, so have concerns about protecting the sacred butte. The issue came to a head when businessman Jay Allen received a liquor license and built his Sturgis County Line biker bar near the butte.
The story has been back in the news recently after Allen lost his license and then worked to sell it to a Boston based company. Meade County Commissioners at first didn't reapprove the license, but after a court told them to reconsider, they did just that.
And Mike Rounds try to preserve part of the area that doubles as a state park in a bill this past legislative session, but it was killed. The issue, however, is still going strong.
3. Ownership of the Black Hills
Let me keep this brief, if that's at all possible.
I'll start by saying that it's hard to even find a story about giving back the Black Hills in the archives at www.rapidcityjournal.com. That being said, the issue is brought up weekly on Rapid Reply.
It remains perhaps the single most contentious point among the Lakota.
The brief history is that the land was promised via treaty as part of the reservation, but when illegal prospectors discovered gold in Deadwood in the 1870s, the government annulled the pact and claimed the Black Hills was part of Dakota territory.
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court awarded the Lakotas $105 million in compensation for the broken treaty. The money, which has grown exponentially in the past 28 years, remains unclaimed.
1 and 2. Leonard Peltier and Anna Mae Pictou Aquash
At first blush, these are very two distinct stories.
Leonard Peltier, who was convicted in the 1975 killing of two FBI agents on the Jumping Bull Ranch on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, is one of the highest profile members of the American Indian Movement.
Long known as the only American on Amnesty International's political prisoner list, Peltier has been the primary subject of books and movies, including Robert Redford's documentary "Incident at Oglala."
There haven't been a whole lot of stories on Peltier recently, but his name popped up lately on the visits by former president Bill Clinton (who considered but then refused to pardon Peltier, who is serving a life sentence in federal prison) and his candidate wife Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Meanwhile, the Anna Mae Pictou Aquash story remains in the news as the trial of John Graham (formerly known as John Boy Patton) has been set for October. Graham is believed to have killed Aquash in 1975. Some believe he was ordered to kill her because AIM leaders thought she was an informant for the FBI.
