Bear Butte: Grant for “America is Your Park” …..Please Vote for our sacred sites!

Hello everyone,   Coca-Cola Company currently has their annual “America is Your Park” program running through September 6th. The Park that receives the most votes can will up to $100,000.   PLEASE VOTE! You can vote daily and also for more than one park. Please help to support our Sacred Sites, by voting for Bear Butte State [...]

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Brief of Bear Butte Oil Drilling Issue

Brief of Bear Butte Oil Drilling Issue Written By: Tamra Brennan Director/Founder Protect Sacred Sites www.protectsacredsites.org www.protectbearbutte.com Historical Background on Bear Butte Bear Butte is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  Bear Butte is sacred to many of the Plains Tribes, who continue to travel to the mountain each summer to pray and [...]

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Bear Butte added to 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, 2011

June 15th, 2011 admin

11 Most Endangered Historic Places

Bear Butte

Year Listed: 2011
Location: Meade County, South Dakota
Current Status: Endangered
Threat: Energy Development

Significance

Bear Butte, the 4,426-foot mountain called Mato Paha by the Lakota in the Black Hills of South Dakota, is sacred ground for as many as 17 Native American tribes. Believed to be the spot where the creator communicates with his people through vision and prayer, the mountain earned its nickname because of its resemblance to a bear sleeping on its side. For thousands of years, Native American tribes, including the Lakota, Dakota, Nakota, Cheyenne and Arapahoe, have traveled to Bear Butte to perform annual prayer ceremonies. Tribal people and visitors from around the world make annual pilgrimages for spiritual renewal and sustenance to this sacred site, which is part of Bear Butte State Park. It was here, from the expansive summit of Bear Butte, that the Sioux held their Oyate Kiwsiyaya, the Great Reunion of the People, where Crazy Horse pledged to resist further “white” encroachment into the Black Hills in 1857.

Despite its cultural and religious significance, this National Historic Landmark is threatened by proposed wind and oil energy development. A wind installation, to be placed roughly five miles away from the mountain, is currently under consideration. In addition, last November, the South Dakota Board of Minerals and Environment approved a plan to establish a 960-acre oil field. Based on tribal opposition and recommendations made by the National Trust and the South Dakota State Historic Preservation Office, the board agreed that no wells would be located within the NHL boundary, and adopted other restrictions to reduce the project’s impact.

Because the placement of any oil wells or other energy development near Bear Butte would negatively impact the sacred site and further degrade the cultural landscape, any future development should be based on meaningful tribal input and full consideration of impacts to cultural resources. The most effective way to achieve this result would be through strengthened state and local protections.

http://www.preservationnation.org/travel-and-sites/sites/mountains-plains-region/bear-butte.html

Photos of Oil Drilling Rigs Near Bear Butte

April 3rd, 2011 admin

Photos provided by Jason Haug, South Dakota Historical Society

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Bear Butte: Grant for “America is Your Park” …..Please Vote for our sacred sites!

July 27th, 2011 admin

Hello everyone,  

Coca-Cola Company currently has their annual “America is Your Park” program running through September 6th. The Park that receives the most votes can will up to $100,000.  

PLEASE VOTE! You can vote daily and also for more than one park. Please help to support our Sacred Sites, by voting for Bear Butte State Park and Devils Tower. You can vote up to 10 tens in a day 

How to get to the section to vote: 

http://www.livepositively.com/en_us/americasparks/vote/#/americasparks/vote

Type in the Park name in the search box and click go, a map will come up, click the red icon on the map, it will then take you to the “Vote for this Park” icon, click the icon and type in the security code it gives you. You can do this over and over, up to 10 times in a day!  

America Is Your Park is a program that encourages people of all ages to get active in the park this summer. In the process, people can vote for their favorite national, state or local park to win a recreation grant up to $100,000 from the Coca-Cola Live Positively initiative. These grants will be used to restore, rebuild or enhance places within the park to play or be active. 

A. Only one park will receive the title of “America’s Favorite Park” but grants will be given to the three parks that receive the most votes by September 6, 2011. Grants will be awarded in the following amounts: First place – $100,000, Second place – $50,000 and Third place – $25,000. These grants are made possible by the Coca-Cola Live Positively initiative. 

Please VOTE and make sure you forward to all your friends and family! Bookmark the site, so you can vote daily!

http://www.livepositively.com/en_us/americasparks/vote/#/americasparks/vote 

Thank you for your continued support for the Protect Bear Butte efforts!

Statement from Alan Aker, Chairman of Meade County Commissioners regarding Bear Butte Oil Drilling Issue

June 13th, 2011 admin

This is a posting that Alan Aker, Chairman of Meade County Commissioners posted to his Facebook page right after the DENR decision regarding the oil drilling near Bear Butte: 

Aker said the stakes are very high for protection of private property rights. “There is no reason to believe this ruling will be limited to Bear Butte, since we’ve been told the entire region is “sacred”, and since the view shed of Bear Butte is hundreds of square miles. There is also no reason to believe this ruling will be limited to oil exploration or to private lands. If you think about it, roads, landfills, water systems, sewer systems, pipelines, wind generators, electricity transmission lines, and air force training ranges all require federal or state permits and are all at least as obtrusive a land use as drilling an oil well. When all these other land uses come before various agencies and boards for approval, tribes and environmentalists will testify that the same, or more restrictive, rules should apply, and this oil-drilling ruling will be useful to them in making those assertions in legal actions they may take. These restrictions, if allowed to stand, will give the tribes and environmentalists new and valuable tools in killing projects through delay, litigation, and increased expense. This is about much more than oil wells. This ruling has negative implications for economic development and wealth creation in the entire region. It will scare away investors and kill jobs. Those who want to see non-use of private lands need to get their wallets out and buy that land, instead of using the coercive power of government to achieve their goals. These efforts to restrict land use are nothing less than theft. I am shocked that a board in a supposedly conservative state like South Dakota would make such a ruling.”

Alan Aker (Chairman)
14347 Mahaffey DR
Piedmont, SD 57769
605-786-1127
aaker@meadecounty.org

Meade County objects to Bear Butte decision

June 6th, 2011 admin

Associated Press
SD: Meade County objects to Bear Butte decision

STURGIS, S.D. — The Meade County Commission has decided to ask a state board to reconsider its decision restricting oil drilling near Bear Butte, a mountain in western South Dakota that is considered sacred to many Indian tribes.

The state Board of Minerals and Environment in November approved an order allowing Nakota Energy LLC to drill up to 24 wells in a 960-acre field within 1.5 miles of Bear Butte. The board reopened the case and in May voted to revoke the original order and instead allow only five wells to be drilled, none of which can be located within the boundary of an area designated a national historic landmark around Bear Butte.

In a letter to the state board, the county commission says it is unaware of any “engineering, geological or other scientific reason” for the board’s restriction of drilling.

“If the restrictions apply to an area deemed sacred to American Indians, that would include the entire Black Hills ( BKH – news – people ),” the letter states. “If the restrictions apply to the area . that is thousands of square miles, and includes large portions of Meade, Lawrence and Butte counties.”

The board had considered suing to overturn the state board’s decision, but Deputy State’s Attorney Ken Chleborad told the board Wednesday it had little legal ground to stand on.

Chleborad said a key to filing a lawsuit is determining the exact boundaries of the Bear Butte National Landmark. After searching through the office of equalization, officials were not able to locate a document outlining the boundaries, he said.

“We’re going to fight this if it takes 5 years, 10 years, 100 years. We’ll never give this up,” Swan said.

Members of several Indian tribes fast and hold religious ceremonies on Bear Butte, which rises 1,300 feet above the surrounding plain on the north edge of the Black Hills and is so named because it resembles a sleeping bear lying on its side

Meade County considers suing over Bear Butte decision

May 24th, 2011 admin

Meade County considers suing over Bear Butte decision

The question over oil drilling near Bear Butte could be headed to court.

Days after a state board ruled that oil drilling can proceed – with limits – on private land near the landmark held as sacred by Native Americans, local officials are considering legal action to reverse the decision of the state’s Board of Minerals and Environment.

Alan Aker, chairman of the Meade County Commission, said he has instructed the Meade County state’s attorney to explore a legal challenge to the oil well restrictions.

At the Meade County Commission’s next meeting on June 7 and 8, commissioners will hear a presentation on their legal options to challenge the decision of the Minerals and Environment Board.

Click here to read remaining article on Rapid City Journal website.

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