"In this country we have respect for the law and the constitution.  We feel those things give us freedom and protect us - but when we look  back and see all these broken  treaties, it has to psychologically effect us.....Sometimes people think that treaty history is only Indian history, but half of it is ours.  It's like saying that any problem over two hundred years old is no longer a  problem.  People in this country fear their history because they know something bad happened back there."
Nick Meinhardt, AFSC; Rocky Mountain News

In 1953 administration contracts for defense minerals exploration were awarded to Mining Research Corp., C. G. Ortmayer, and Oxide Metals Corp. in Fall River County. Contracts were also given to Vroua Company and C. E. Weir for exploring in Custer County,

Homestake Mining Company began mining uranium ore near Carlile,Crook County, Wyoming in January 1953. This mining product was  trucked to Edgemont, South Dakota, where the Atomic Energy Commission had a buying station.
 

During 1955 the Office of Defense Mobilization issued a Certificate of Necessity for an uranium-ore processing plant project to Mines Development Company, Inc. This plant was in Edgemont, South Dakota. Although appreciable quantities of uranium were recognized in South
Dakota lignites, only a small amount was mined. This was due to the lack of acceptable uranium-recovery processes for uranium extraction from coal bearing materials.

Uranium Research and Development Company was granted a contract in 1956 in Fall River County by the Defense Minerals Exploration Administration.

Mines Development, Inc. had their uranium mill in operation by 1956.
The initial capacity was rated as 300 tons of ore per day.

Two groups, Anderson, Wesley, and Others in Harding County and McAlester Fuel Co. in Fall River County were given contracts involving uranium in 1957. South Dakota produced 69,632 tons of ore, valued at $804,946. The average grade percent in terms of U3O8 was 0.17 which was the lowest of any uranium producing state. The average grade percent increased to 0.20 in 1958. The rating of the Edgemont Plant was increased to 400 tons of ore per day.

Uranium-ore production in the United States reached a new high in 1959 with South Dakota being the ninth producing state and in 1960 became eighth state producer. The Atomic Energy Commission negotiated for new mills for the South Dakota lignite area but interested firms couldn't reach an agreement.

In 1960, the Atomic Energy Commission revised its regulations for the protection of employees in atomic energy industries and the general public against hazards arising from the possession or use of AEC-licensed radioactive materials. The revisions are embodied in amendments to Title 10, Chapter 1, Part 20, of the Code of Federal Regulations entitled `Standards for Protection Against Radiation'. The amendments became effective on January 1, 1961.

The highest year for production of uranium ore for the United States was in 1961 but the total production dropped by 1962. Based on the amount of ore shipped, South Dakota became the seventh state producer. The state maintained this rating in 1963 but was the sixth state producer for 1964 and 1965.

Around 1967, mining of uraniferous lignite in Harding County, South Dakota, ceased as the operation was no longer profitable. Mining of sandstone ores also declined, and Mines Development, Inc., a subsidiary of Susquehanna Corp., conducted extensive exploration in the Dakotas and Wyoming in an effort to find additional ore for their mill.

The uranium mine and mill production for South Dakota in 1968 and 1969 placed the state as the seventh largest producing state. The year 1971 was the first full year that the U3O8 market was entirely private. The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) terminated its U3O8 purchasing program at year end 1970 after acquiring U3O8 valued at nearly $3 billion since the program's inception in 1948, including a large stock pile.

CORPORATE GREED VS TREATY OF 1868
[excerpted from pgs. 261-263 Blood of the Land, by Rex Weyler]

Camp Yellow Thunder, September 1981
By noon on September 9, the camp was notified by radio that government lawyer Jeff Viken had sent the matter to federal court, seeking a permanent injunction against the camp. ..." I assume the status quo will prevail until a judge hears the case, " Viken told the Rapid City Journal. "The defendants will remain at the camp, but I want to make it clear there has been no agreement with the federal government."  All campfire permits were revoked, and the camp was informed that their continued occupation of the site was considered illegal by the government.

This effort by the government to remove fifty Lakota people from a community on their treaty land on the grounds of multiple use and environmental considerations is, in a larger context, absurd.

 "The Black Hills is one of those areas of America that have been designated by the National Academy of Sciences as a National Sacrifice Area, and thus slated by the government and energy corporations for resource exploitation. There are over five thousand uranium leases held in the Black Hills region by such companies as Tennessee Valley Authority, Union Carbide, Chevron Resources, Anaconda (ARCO), the British-Canadian Rio Algom, Wyoming Mineral (Westinghouse), Kerr-McGee, and others. Union Carbide holds a lease in Craven Canyon, site of sacred Lakota rock writings. Only the companies know the extent and the value of the uranium holdings, but they are estimated to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars, covering hundreds of thousands of acres of the Black Hills.

"Union carbide public relations officer for South Dakota, Dudley Blanca, said in a phone interview concerning his company's uranium holdings in the Black Hills: 'Our expectations are modest. We think we know pretty much how much there is, but that is classified information-I mean, that's competitive information. I can't tell you exactly how much the uranium is worth.' Bill Harris at the South Dakota State Surface Mining License Office stated: 'The companies don't even tell us how much uranium they think they have...Of course they won't tell us exactly what they've learned, but the first thing they do it take a water sample: if the water sample shows a relatively high level of radioactivity, then they know that the uranium is there somewhere, and they explore to find it. I know that the water samples from Pine Ridge showed a considerable amount of uranium, one of the highest. They know it's there. One of the prime spots.'

"Records at the Licensing Office indicate that twenty-one companies share the five thousand-plus active, pending, or inactive claim sites in the area. Each Productive site may yield from one million to a hundred millions pounds of 'yellowcake,' the 1 to 2 percent of the uranium ore that is extracted and sold. The current price of uranium is $30.00 [1992] per pound on the world market. The many variables and the information withheld by the companies makes an exact calculation impossible, but it is safe to say that several hundred billion dollars worth of uranium lie under Lakota treaty land. Lowest estimates are in the range of fifty to eighty billion dollars.

"In addition to the uranium, there are rich deposit of coal, oil, and other minerals in the Black Hills. The Homestake Gold Mine in the Black Hills, in operation since the U.S. Army invaded the region and removed the Lakota people, has produced more than a thousand tons of pure gold, worth over $14 billion today. For all of this the U.S. Supreme Court has awarded the Lakota people $122.5 million; taking all the lowest estimates, this amounts to less than one-tenth of one percent of the value of the mineral resources in the Black Hills, not to mention the land itself, and not to mention the rest of the 150-million-acre treaty claim in addition to the Black Hills. To expect the Lakota people to willingly forfeit their land for that amount of money is absurd, particularly in view of the fact that they have stated for over a hundred years that are not willing to give up the land for any amount of money.
 
 

"...Through the Department of Energy National Uranium Resource Evaluation program the U.S. federal government pays Union Carbide and other companies millions of dollars in subsidies to scour the hills for uranium. Union Carbide's total Department of Energy subsidy is worth $2.3 billion per year, 25 percent of it's annual gross sales. Thus, billions of dollars flow into the coffers of multinational resource companies to fuel the search for ever more fuel, to fuel an ever-more-wasteful society, while an attempt at benign self-sufficiency is squashed at even further expense to the taxpayers.

"75 percent of the United States national uranium reserve is on Indian land under the control of the major oil companies. Twelve oil companies own 54 percent of the uranium mines; five oil companies own 62 percent of the uranium mills."

CURRENT:

Drillbits & Tailings: December 7, 1997: Page Four
  The Cheyenne River Sioux tribe and the federal government brought a
lawsuit in late November against Homestake Mining for dumping 100 million tons of ...
Date: 16 Mar 1998

11-25-97 - JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AND SOUTH DAKOTA TRIBE SUE
HOMESTAKE MINING COMPANY FOR ...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ENR TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1997 514-2008 TDD
514-1888 Mercury and Arsenic Found in Whitewood Watershed WASHINGTON, D.C. --
The Justice ...
Date: 9 Jan 1998,
 

PUBLICATION: [Federal Register: July 23, 1999 (Volume 64, Number 141)]
[Page 40044]

AGENCY: DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

ACTION: Lodging of Consent Decree Under the Comprehensive Environmental
Response, Compensation, and Liability Act

SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that on July 9, 1999 a proposed Consent
Decree in United States and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe v. Homestake Mining
Company of California, Civil Action No. 97-5100, and State of South Dakota v.
Homestake Mining Company of California, Civil Action No. 97-5078
(consolidated) was lodged with the United States District Court for the District of
South Dakota in Rapid City.

The Consent Decree settled federal, state, and tribal natural resource damage and trustee response costs claims associated with contamination resulting from
deposits of millions of tons of tailings from Homestake's mining operations. Since the late 1870's Homestake has operated a gold mine in Lead, South Dakota. In their respective claims, the United States, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and the State of South Dakota alleged that tailings deposited into Whitewood Creek caused injuries to natural resources in the Cheyenne River Basin, and sued Homestake under CERCLA Section 107, 42 U.S.C. 9607, the Clean Water Act Section 311(f), 33 U.S.C. 1321(f), and state nuisance law. Homestake asserted a variety of counterclaims against all plaintiffs, including the United States. This global settlement reached among Homestake, the United States, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the State of South Dakota, provides $4 million to be shared equally among the United States, the State, and the Tribe, to be used for natural resource restoration. Additionally, the Tribe will receive 400 acres in the Black Hills to be used for non-commercial purposes, and $500,000 for environmental monitoring on the reservation, and the State will receive water rights in the Black Hills. The United States will receive $500,000 for damage assessment costs and will enter into an agreement with Homestake to exchange BLM mine-contaminated land for clean land. All EPA response cost claims have been specifically reserved. In exchange for the covenants and releases provided to Homestake, Homestake will dismiss all of its counterclaims.

The Department of Justice will receive for a period of thirty (30) days from the
date of this publication comments relating to the consent decree. Comments
should be addressed to the Assistant Attorney General of the Environment and
Natural Resources Division, Department of Justice, Washington, DC 20530, and should refer to United States and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe v. Homestake Mining Company of California, D.J. Ref. 90-11-3-1718.

GPO ACCESS INSTRUCTIONS: If you wish to view the entire text of this
Federal Register publication, go to http://www.pardalis.com/resource.htm and
select 'Laws and Regulations' in the presented index. Click on 'Federal Register
Online via Government Printing Office Access'. Enter the following ISSUE
DATE and SEARCH TERM in their respective formats and then click on the
Submit button.

ISSUE DATE: 07/23/99
 

"Mineral Leasing Bill Passes Senate,"
The Associated Press State & Local Wire,
August 6, 1999, Friday

"The Senate has passed a bill that would change the percentage of approval needed before Indian land owners can explore for oil, gas and minerals on their properties. "This bill removes antiquated rules and regulations that have hindered economic development in Indian Country," U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said Friday."

from thomaslocal.gov
Homestake Mine Conveyance Act of 2001 (Introduced in the House)[H.R.3299.IH]
Homestake Mine Conveyance Act of 2001 (Engrossed in Senate)[S.1389.ES]