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 [...]
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 [...]
April 25th, 2011 
admin May 18th at 10:00 am
Matthew Training Center: 523 E. Capitol Ave. Pierre, SD 57501. Ground floor of the Foss Building.
If I hear of any changes in the agenda, I will send out another email alert.
In peace & solidarity,
Tamra Brennan
Founder/Director
Protect Sacred Sites
www.protectsacredsites.org
www.protectbearbutte.com
April 25th, 2011 admin Journal Editorial Board | Posted: Sunday, April 24, 2011 6:00 am
The fact that Bear Butte is a historic site that is sacred to Native Americans has added poignancy to the debate about whether to allow oil drilling nearby.
But the underlying arguments are relevant wherever oil drilling occurs, and should be issues of great concern to state officials as they ponder whether to allow the drilling to proceed.
The state Board of Minerals and Environment last year approved Nakota Energy’s plans to drill for oil on 960 acres 1.5 miles away from Bear Butte.
The board later determined a new hearing was required to consider the impact of drilling on the national historic landmark.
Click here to read remaining article on Rapid City Journal website.
April 21st, 2011 admin CHET BROKAW, Associated Press
Published 08:30 p.m., Thursday, April 21, 2011
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — Representatives of American Indian tribes asked a state board Thursday to stop development of an oil field near Bear Butte, saying the drilling would desecrate the western South Dakota mountain that’s a sacred religious site for many tribes.
Landowners from the area urged the Board of Minerals and Environment to respect private property rights and reaffirm its earlier decision to authorize development of the oil field in western South Dakota.
After hearing several hours of public comment Thursday, the board was unable to finish its hearing on the issue. It postponed a decision until May 18, when it will hear the final witnesses in the case.
For centuries, members of the Sioux, Cheyenne and other tribes have been climbing Bear Butte to fast and hold religious ceremonies. Colorful prayers cloths hanging from trees line the path to the top of the mountain, which rises about 1,300 feet above the surrounding plain on the north edge of the Black Hills.
Named Mato Paha, or Bear Mountain, because it resembles a sleeping bear lying on its side, it was formed by volcanic rock.
The board in November approved Nakota Energy LLC’s application to establish a 960-acre field for the production of oil and gas, with spacing of no more than one well in each 40-acre tract. The spacing order would allow up to 24 wells in the oil field, which is located on private land slightly more than a mile from Bear Butte.
The board later reopened the case after determining that it had failed to follow a state law requiring protection of cultural resources related to property with a historic designation. More than third of the oil field is within the Bear Butte National Historic Landmark. The mountain also is part of a state park.
The board could reauthorize the order allowing the drilling, revoke it or amend the order to limit potential impacts to Bear Butte. State Historic Preservation Office Jason Haug has recommended certain conditions, such as requiring short pump jacks, to minimize the oil field’s damage to the view from Bear Butte.
Haug will testify in the case when the hearing resumes next month.
Officials from several American Indian tribes urged the board to block the oil field because the noise and sight of the wells would ruin the peace and quiet of the mountain used for religious purposes.
Michael Jandreau, chairman of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, said the oil field would interfere when people visit Bear Butte for spiritual purposes.
“There is a lot of land in South Dakota and there are areas much more suited to be exploited if that is the desire of the state,” Jandreau said.
Russell Eagle Bear, historic preservation officer for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, said he is disturbed by the company’s use of the name Nakota. The three groups of the Sioux tribes are called Nakota, Dakota and Lakota.
“For a company to use this name, I think it’s really disrespectful,” Eagle Bear said.
Janeen Walker Norstegaard, owner of some of the land involved in the oil field, said she respects Bear Butte and intends to make the oil company follow the rules in developing the wells. She said she supports the development because she believes it can be done without causing any harm to the area.
“I trust that can be done in an environmental way that is not a desecration of the mountain,” Norstegaard said.
Norstegaard said she wants to protect underground water and the view from Bear Butte, but the nation also needs more oil.
“I do have a great respect for Bear Butte. I love Bear Butte as much as you do,” she told others at the hearing.
Other landowners said groups from outside the area should not be allowed to interfere with the rights of property owners.
“I think if it’s my land, I ought to be able to do what I damn well please with it,” said George Millan, who owns land near the oil field.
The state’s historic preservation officer has recommended that small pump jacks and storage tanks painted neutral colors be used to minimize any harm to the view from Bear Butte. An archaeologist should check the area before ground is disturbed, and existing trails should be used when possible to avoid building new roads, he wrote in his recommendations to the board.
April 20th, 2011 admin South Dakota’s historic preservation director has sent formal recommendations to the state Board of Minerals and Environment that would reduce or offset the visual impacts of an oilfield in development less than two miles from Bear Butte. Those recommendations and comments from Jason Haug will be considered Thursday, when the state board holds a public hearing, followed by a formal contested case hearing, in Pierre on how or even whether the controversial project should be allowed to proceed.
By: Bob Mercer, The Daily Republic
Bear Butte rises from the surrounding plains near Sturgis in this 2008 photo. (Republic File Photo)
PIERRE — South Dakota’s historic preservation director has sent formal recommendations to the state Board of Minerals and Environment that would reduce or offset the visual impacts of an oilfield in development less than two miles from Bear Butte.
Those recommendations and comments from Jason Haug will be considered Thursday, when the state board holds a public hearing, followed by a formal contested case hearing, in Pierre on how or even whether the controversial project should be allowed to proceed.
The board will decide whether to reauthorize, revoke or amend its original action of Dec. 22, when the board granted a spacing order that permits up to 24 wells on the 960 acres of private land in Meade County, about 1.5 miles west of Bear Butte.
Two wells have been drilled since then but aren’t currently operating. About 360 acres of the field are within the Bear Butte National Historic Landmark boundary.
Because the project involves property with an official historic designation, state law required a review by the historic preservation office. The state board failed to seek that review before granting the order.
Now, the board is backtracking to that step in the process amid a deepening conflict between modern economic development and tribal cultural values.
Dozens of people, including many from outside South Dakota, have written to either support the oilfield’s development or to oppose it as a desecration of a mountain considered to be a holy place by Indian tribes of the Northern Plains.
Six tribal governments representing the Northern Cheyenne, Rosebud Sioux, Lower Brule Sioux, Standing Rock Sioux, Yankton Sioux and Santee Sioux have formally petitioned to intervene in the contested case hearing. The Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate has also sent a letter of opposition.
No one testified against the project at the original hearing in December. The hearing notice carried full legal descriptions of the proposed site but didn’t specifically mention the proximity to Bear Butte or that part of the well field would be within the national landmark boundary.
Bear Butte has carried a formal designation as a state park since 1961. The mountain was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and was designated in 1981 as a national historic landmark.
About 8,000 acres of land, including the giant hump-shaped mountain and the park’s 1,400 acres, are within the landmark boundary.
Haug, the state historic preservation director, said in his letter to the state board that the two wells “have not damaged or destroyed the Bear Butte National Register site” but the potential of up to 24 wells means the oilfield “will potentially visually encroach upon the historic property.”
Among Haug’s recommendations are pump-jacks no taller than 8 feet; small storage tanks; neutral-color equipment; a shared tank system if possible; locations least visible from Bear Butte; and reclamation and re-vegetation of the site after abandonment of the wells.
Haug also has proposed surveys by a federally qualified archaeologist accompanied by a tribal monitor of any new ground to be disturbed, with written reports filed with the state archaeologist and the state historic office. Any locations found to be significant should have a 10-foot buffer marked around them, he said.
Other recommendations include avoidance of new road construction when possible, use of gravel pit rock to avoid further disturbance of the area, and dust control.
“While these measures will help minimize and mitigate any potential visual effects, I acknowledge that no measure can mitigate potential impacts to the spiritual or religious qualities that make Bear Butte significant to many people,” Haug said in the letter.
He continued, “An early, open and candid dialog between all interested parties is the only way to ensure that all types of potential impacts are carefully considered.”
The National Park Service has sent a letter of concern via Dena Sanford, architectural historian for the National Register Program, from Harrison, Neb.
“For the continued traditional use of this mountain, and for the preservation of its exceptional ability to convey associations with the history of the Cheyenne, Sioux and other Plains Indians, it is critical that the qualities of a contemplative, undeveloped natural setting, feeling and association be maintained,” she wrote.
Among the many local people favoring the project’s development are Meade County Commission Chairman Alan Aker, Sturgis Mayor Maury LaRue and various neighbors in the area.
Mark and Janeen Norstegaard purchased land at public auction eight years ago where one of the wells is now drilled. In a letter they said they own land at the base of Bear Butte and have sold parcels of property to two tribes.
Norstegaards said their main concern pertains to their rights as private landowners.
“We understand and respect the concerns of those who would want to preserve the integrity of Bear Butte and the surrounding area,” their letter said. “We feel that the controversy surrounding this issue come(s) from individuals who hold no actual residency or ownership of property, but yet try and control those who do for whatever personal agendas they may have.”
http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/event/article/id/51932/
April 3rd, 2011 admin 
Photos provided by Jason Haug, South Dakota Historical Society
