Reznet

Bear Butte: Grand Gesture or Political Move?

By Kevin Abourezk

Each June, Trixy Two Bulls carries a large basket filled with apples and oranges up Bear Butte in South Dakota's Black Hills. As she nears the peak, she empties the basket and prays.

"That's part of my offering there," the 32-year-old Oglala Lakota woman said.

She offers the food to the spirits so they will hear her prayers. So they will protect her loved ones and help her people become strong again.

She goes there because, like so many other Native people, she feels Bear Butte is a place of power.

A place that people from as many as 60 Indian nations from as far as western Canada once visited in hopes the butte's spirits would listen to their prayers.

"Bear Butte, for me, is like a church, like one of those big cathedrals," Two Bulls said. "That's our cathedral."

South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds said this month he wants to create a buffer zone around Bear Butte. He proposed spending $250,000 in state funds to buy conservation easements around the sacred site. He also hopes to acquire $900,000 in matching funds from federal and private sources.

The easements would allow ranchers to continue to own the land but would prevent commercial or residential development on the land.

Native activists and others have fought for years to stop development of bars and campgrounds around the site, a scenic place whose serenity is smashed each August by the deafening roar of motorcycles.

As they consider their people's historical treatment by the government, Native people in South Dakota are unsure what to think of the governor's proposal.

Is it a grand gesture - a truly sincere act of reconciliation on behalf of a Republican governor whom few Native people really know?

Or is it a political move, calculated to draw much-coveted Native voters into the Republican Party's ranks?

Charmaine White Face wishes she knew.

As coordinator of Defenders of the Black Hills, White Face wants to believe the governor plans to stand behind his proposal, which is sure to draw the ire of many from his own party.

If he's sincere, he'll fight for the proposal, she said. If he isn't, she worries Rounds will simply let the South Dakota Legislature kill the plan.

Legislators are likely to consider the proposal during their next session, which begins in January.

"I hope he is sincere, but we'll just have to wait and see what the Legislature does," White Face said.

Michael Card, an associate political science professor at the University of South Dakota, said many South Dakotans understand the need to protect Bear Butte.

But many political strategists also see much to gain from appeasing Native voters.

"Many people recognize it's an increasingly important voter population in the state," he said.

Those voters have been pivotal in putting Democrats like Sen. Tim Johnson and U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth in office. And with a looming statewide referendum on banning certain types of abortions - an issue upon which the state's Native people are divided - the state's Republican leaders may be hedging their bets.

That said, this isn't the first time Rounds has acted in the interests of South Dakota's indigenous population.

Card said, upon his election, the governor moved quickly to place the Office of Tribal Government Relations within the Department of Tourism. That gave tribal leaders much greater access to the governor, he said.

"He's greatly increased the liaison with the tribes," Card said.

Two Bulls said she likes the idea of a quiet zone around her people's most holy site.

But whatever happens, she plans to continue offering food to the butte's spirits each June.

"It's probably one of the most powerful places to go and pray, to go and sacrifice yourself, give up the comforts of everyday life and go and pray and be closer to God," she said.

Kevin Abourezk, Oglala Lakota, is a reporter and editor at the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star. He is a reznet assignment editor and teaches reporting at the Freedom Forum's American Indian Journalism Institute.

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