HELP PROTECT BEAR BUTTE IN SOUTH DAKOTA
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From: Chrissy J.
Date: Monday, September 18, 2006, 8:09 PM
Subject: Help Protect Bear Butte in South Dakota
ID: 254235

Sister's I'm asking you to copy and send this letter out to as many people as you can. If you know any Bike enthusist, please have them send this to their friends. You can find this page at www.protectbearbutte.org

I've been speaking quite a bit to Charmaine Whiteface, Chairman of Defenders of the Black Hills. Her web site has been scrambled and any information about the Black Hills is very hard to find now, even Historical documentation.

This is an urgent request of the Lakota Nations. Please send all your prayers out to them also. Help them save there Sacred Lands, before it is too late.

PEACE, Ride with the Wind of the Spirit in Truth and Love...Chrissy New Song

Bear Butte and Biker Bars
Bear Butte is a sacred site that is used by over thirty tribes throughout North America. It is located in the Black Hills, an area sacred to the Lakota people as well as many other tribes. The Black Hills and Bear Butte are vital to the local ecosystem and important to wildlife in the area. This Butte is important to the spiritual and cultural survival of many tribes. We have to find a way to protect this mountain from future development. Indigenous peoples' rights to this land go back to thousands of years. Since the very beginning we have used this sacred mountain for ceremonies that are vital for the life and health of our people. Several weeks ago, bulldozers broke ground for "Sturgis County Line," a massive new biker bar and concert venue to be located on 600 acres at the base of Bear Butte. Bear Butte (on the outskirts of the Black Hills, near Sturgis, SD) is a sacred place of prayer for over thirty Native Nations across the Great Plains, as well as a state park and a national historic landmark. Each year thousands of Native people travel to pray at Bear Butte. Arizona entrepreneur Jay Allen originally planned to name his venue "Sacred Grounds" and to erect an 80-foot statue of a Native person outside the bar. He boasts on his web site that the re-named Sturgis County Line will provide "hundreds of acres to party... in a safe haven, free from a policed environment, that's what I'm talking about! ... over 150,000 s.f. of asphalt for semi-tractor trailors... 22,500 s.f. of... ice cold beer... kick-butt music & oh yea, hot hot women!"[1] The 600-acre complex will include an outdoor amphitheater with space for 30,000 people. A movement to protect Bear Butte is building. Indigenous and non-indigenous people are standing together against the development of this biker bar. To build the bar Jay Allen had to get a Beer and Wine License. This posed a great opportunity to organize. The Public Hearing took place on Tuesday April 4th at the Meade County Court House. Over 700 people poured into the streets of Sturgis to protest the proposed biker bar. This is a huge amount of people considering that the majority of all people attending the protest had to travel at least 200 miles to get there. (The majority of Indian People have been removed from the Black Hills as the result of U.S government policy: the breaking of Treaties and the forced removal onto modern day Indian Reservations). We were given one hour to testify and several people testified in front of the commissioners, almost all in opposition to the proposed biker bar. Some that testified were Traditional Native leaders, spiritual leaders, bikers, republicans, democrats, tax paying Meade County citizens, local business owners, ranchers, tribally elected officials & publicly elected officials. After the testimony the lawyer for the Jay Allen gave a 5 minute rebuttal and then minutes later, with almost no discussion, the commission made a unanimous decision approving Jay Allen’s Beer & Wine License application. We followed the existing protocol to peacefully assemble. We didn’t break any rules. We gave peaceful testimony while marching and praying in the streets with no violence. Yet there was no justice for us or our sacred mountain. Our plan now is to organize directly against Jay Allen and his national chain of Broken Spoke Saloons.

Fort Laramie Treaty, 1851 December 31st, 1969

Fort Laramie Treaty, 1868

1980: Supreme Court Decision After signing the Treaty of Ft. Laramie of 1868, the US government allowed the land of the Black Hills to be taken away from the Sioux Indians of South Dakota. This continued until the Lakota people decided to take action. The Sioux filed suit in 1923, claiming the Black Hills were appropriated without just compensation, violating the 5th Amendment. The case was dismissed and reopened several times. In 1975, the Court of Claims held that "a more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealings will never, in all probability, be found in our history..." The case finally reached the Supreme Court in 1980.