PROTECT SACRED SITE PE’SLA - DENY THE PERMIT TO PETE LIEN & SONS

U.S Forest Service, Black Hills National Forest, Mystic Ranger District, Shawn Cochrane - Forest Supervisor, James Gubbels - Project Manager, SD Governor Larry Rhoden, SD Sen. Mike Rounds, SD Sen. John Thune, SD Rep. Dusty Johnson

IMAGE OF THE BLACK HILLS, SOUTH DAKOTA

THE PROBLEM: SACRED INDIGENOUS LAND AND RIGHTS ARE UNDER ATTACK

In the sacred Ȟe Sápa, known in English as the Black Hills of South Dakota, the Lakota sacred site known as Pe’ Sla (“pay-SHLAH”) is currently under attack by mining activity.

The U.S. Forest Service is doing everything it can to force through a graphite drilling project, proposed by Pete Lien & Sons, a mining company based in Rapid City, SD. This project is the exact equivalent of mining inside the Vatican or at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

What Pete Lien and USFS are attempting to do would be a direct violation of treaty rights via the Constitutional Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868). This project is a massive risk to the Rapid Creek watershed, a critical drinking water source for Rapid City, Ellsworth Air Force Base, and multiple Indian Reservations. If this project is approved, this tactic will be used across sacred sites and protected waterways everywhere.

What’s at stake around Pe’ Sla is not just the human rights of Indigenous Peoples, but the religious freedom and the environmental safety and health of everyone in the United States.  

Why would they do this?

Pete Lien & Sons are attacking a known, documented sacred site to undo environmental protections for it - making it much easier to open a toxic mine in YOUR backyard. Waterways we rely on are at stake here. Pete Lien & Sons are trading our health and environmental impacts for profit and greed.

An MOU protects Pe' Sla under a federal trust. It is one of the most documented and agreed-upon sacred sites in the United States. If we don’t come together to protect Pe’ Sla, no sacred site or waterway in the United States is safe.

Facts About Pe’ Sla

  • Pe’ Sla has been a ceremonial site of Lakota, Dakota, and other Indigenous Nations for thousands of years.

  • In 2016, four Tribes purchased the land title back from a private holder, then worked with the Department of the Interior to put the land into federal trust.

  • The Tribes and the U.S. gov’t agreed in a Memorandum of Understanding that Pe’ Sla and its surrounding boundary are sacred, unique, and should be protected from mining.

  • Now Pete Lien & Sons, a Rapid City mining company, wants to drill for graphite inside a protected area.

We are currently awaiting the U.S. Forest Service’s decision on permitting the project: Pete Lien & Sons Rochford Mineral Exploratory Drilling Project

ADD YOUR NAME TO DEMAND THIS PROJECT BE REJECTED!

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To: U.S Forest Service, Black Hills National Forest, Mystic Ranger District, Shawn Cochrane - Forest Supervisor, James Gubbels - Project Manager, SD Governor Larry Rhoden, SD Sen. Mike Rounds, SD Sen. John Thune, SD Rep. Dusty Johnson
From: [Your Name]

We, the undersigned organizations, Tribes, land defenders, water protectors, and individuals, sign this petition to assert our opposition to Pete Lien & Sons’ Rochford Mineral Exploratory Drilling Project (RMEDP).

We celebrate our shared values and our unified voice across communities as we demand the U.S Forest Service deny any permitting of the RMEDP within the critically sensitive and sacred site, Pe’Sla.

We also encourage South Dakota elected officials to honor the Memorandum of Understanding between Tribes, the Federal government, and the State, calling for all parties to protect Pe’Sla from extractive interests.

The approval of this project would be a direct violation of the Great Sioux Nation’s Constitutional human rights by infringing upon the terms of the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. This project is also a massive risk to the Rapid Creek watershed, a critical drinking water source for Rapid City, Ellsworth Air Force Base, and Tribal lands downstream.

Pete Lien & Sons claims to be trying to locate graphite as a national security measure, since graphite has been classified as a critical mineral. But how does it serve U.S. national security to endanger the water supply of a rapidly expanding Air Force Base and roughly 100,000 American citizens downstream? It doesn’t, and we don’t want this project.

Reject the RMEDP. Deny the permit to Pete Lien & Sons. Protect Pe’ Sla.

Thank you for your time and consideration.