BLACK HILLS, SD — The Lakota battle for the protection of sacred sites continues, with the heart of the Black Hills potentially at risk.
In mid-2024, Pe’sla – a Federal Indian Land Trust site and one of the primary religious and cultural sites for the Lakota people came under fire when exploratory Graphite drilling was proposed by construction and mining company Pete Lien & Sons. Native objections were raised at that time, and those objections have been doubled as the US Forest Service has now approved PLS to conduct drilling, pending acquisition of a General Stormwater Permit for Construction Activities from the SD DANR.
According to the Forest Service, studies of the site showed that no historic properties would be affected, with the site allegedly being outside the area of the Land Trust and two-mile buffer zone. Additionally, treaty concerns regarding the Lakota ownership of the Black Hills (agreed upon by the 1888 Ft. Laramie Treaty) were raised by commenters on the project, but were dismissed as being outside of the scope of BH Forest Service capabilities to rectify.
However, NDN still takes issue with the project due to potential dangers to the sacred site and potential harms to the watershed. “Drilling activity would disrupt religious and cultural activities and cause permanent damage to the site. The U.S. Forest Service has declared that, though Pe’sla is recognized as an Indigenous sacred site by Tribes, the State of South Dakota, and Pennington County, it does not represent an ‘extraordinary circumstance’ that would prevent them from rushing the permit through,” NDN said in a release today.
Taylor Gunhammer, an Organizer at NDN seconds this notion, following that “Mining at Pe’sla could contaminate drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people in the area, cause irreparable ecological damage, and set the stage for more mining companies to permanently contaminate – and destroy – more land in the Black Hills. We cannot let this deal go through”. It is his belief that such drilling is not well-intentioned, and that it represents preliminary steps on the road to potentially expanded operations in the future, making it vital for the public to oppose exploratory operations such as these.
The project aims to use 18 Drill pads, each of which would drill up to 1,000 feet deep. This project will remove an unspecified number of trees of greater than 9 DBH (anywhere from a young to mature tree), however according to the Forest Service, these sites will be reclaimed and revegetated by PLS within the one-year operational period. Drilling mud, a byproduct of sample extraction, often containing toxic chemicals, heavy metals, and hydrocarbons will, according to the forest service, be contained. In spite of this however, NDN states that “Drill pad areas go through a process of vegetation removal, toxic drilling mud pits, and destruction or degradation of all other uses of the land. This project would threaten the Rapid Creek Watershed and the underground water sources in the area”.
NDN Encourages the public to call the Black Hills Forest Service “to demand they rescind the permit for Pe’sla drilling and the decision to grant a Categorical Exclusion (CE) for their exploratory drilling permit”.
