We Don't Want Your Money/Lakota Nation Say the Black Hills are NOT for Sale

p Long beforenbsp;I was born, my people, the Lakota, lived andnbsp;thrived within and around span data-scayt_word="Paha" data-scaytid="1"Paha/span span data-scayt_word="Sapa--or" data-scaytid="7"Sapa--or/span Black Hills.nbsp; My people have always lived there.nbsp; Our creation stories came fromnbsp;Wind Tunnel, which is now privately owned bynbsp;the tourist industrial complex.nbsp; They chargenbsp;admissionnbsp;for entry ontonbsp;ournbsp;sacred grounds./p p Although many will tell you that the Cheyennenbsp;first inhabited span data-scayt_word="Paha" data-scaytid="2"Paha/span span data-scayt_word="Sapa" data-scaytid="8"Sapa/span,nbsp;we will tell you otherwise.nbsp; We believe that Mother Earth gave us birth--that we too grew like a seed in her belly.nbsp; We hold many sacrednbsp;ceremonies and have many ancestors buried there.nbsp; span data-scayt_word="Paha" data-scaytid="3"Paha/span span data-scayt_word="Sapa" data-scaytid="9"Sapa/span was taken from us, forcefully.nbsp; The government thinks that a number or dollar amount can change that.nbsp; The people whonbsp;gavenbsp;the word on gold in the Black Hills was the Hearst Corporation./p p Thenbsp;Hearst Corporation conspired with General Custer, as well as with the people that passed the treaties to take over the land that was once our people#39;s, and is now owned by big corporations that make big money.nbsp; The Hearst Corporation now havenbsp;a castle named after its founder,nbsp;William Randolph Hearst saidnbsp;span data-scayt_word="Quanah" data-scaytid="13"Quanah/span Parker span data-scayt_word="Brightman" data-scaytid="14"Brightman/span of United Native Americans Inc. (span data-scayt_word="UNA" data-scaytid="15"UNA/span Inc.) during a rally in front of the San Francisco Chronicle, a subsidiary of the Hearst Corporation./p p When I was a child, i remember my elders talking about how they would never take the money, that they would rather have died than betray our ancestors.nbsp; We always believed that span data-scayt_word="Paha" data-scaytid="4"Paha/span span data-scayt_word="Sapa" data-scaytid="10"Sapa/span was specifically The heart of everything that was and always will be.nbsp; It is a meaning that goes farther back than AIM (American Indian Movement)./p p If you do a span data-scayt_word="google" data-scaytid="19"google/span search of The Black Hills, the first things you#39;ll get are tourist sites, like Mt. Rushmore, or historical Keystone.nbsp; The most disturbing thing is that the people who teach our children teach them that the Cherokee first inhabited The Black span data-scayt_word="HIlls" data-scaytid="20"HIlls/span.nbsp; That is not true.nbsp; My people have been there since before we can remember.nbsp; Science proves that our people have been there since 7000 BC!/p p If you look at a topographical map of the Black Hills, you will see that it looks like a human heart, an Island of trees in a sea of grass.nbsp; I believe this to be true.nbsp; I have lived in and around the Black Hills Range--from Pine Ridge, a desolate land where not much is in store, to the vibrant green and cool atmosphere of span data-scayt_word="Paha" data-scaytid="5"Paha/span span data-scayt_word="Sapa" data-scaytid="11"Sapa/span.nbsp; The 1851 and 1868 treaties of Fort Laramie had previously confirmed the Lakota#39;s ownership of the Teton Sioux Mountain Range.nbsp; So in violation of that treaty, a remnant regiment of Gen. George Custer marched into the Black Hills and sent all the Lakota to the reservations where we are now./p p From the beginning we have said that the Black Hills were not for sale. We will always stand behind that promise and never lose faith in what is important to us.nbsp; The government decided that money was more important than people living where they belonged.nbsp; So in turn the government keeps wasting their time and money by holding an interest bearing trust account, which we will never take.nbsp;nbsp; To this day, it now holds up to 1.3 billion dollars./p p Many people would go to Pine Ridge, Kyle, span data-scayt_word="Wanblee" data-scaytid="21"Wanblee/span, Porcupine, and many other desolate areas on the Pine Ridge Reservation and ask, Why won#39;t the Sioux just take the money to expand what they have?nbsp; Because if you have ever been to my home, you would know just from seeing how bad things are there. We live below the poverty line.nbsp; If you have seen the ghettos out in the big cities, you would be shocked to find out that the reservations are worse./p p span data-scayt_word="UNA" data-scaytid="16"UNA/span Inc. wants reimbursement for the theft of the gold in span data-scayt_word="Paha" data-scaytid="6"Paha/span span data-scayt_word="Sapa" data-scaytid="12"Sapa/span.nbsp; Black Elk, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and many others declared the Black Hills not for sale.nbsp; I do see where span data-scayt_word="UNA" data-scaytid="17"UNA/span would want to fight for reimbursement on the gold, none of us every peeped that the gold was not for sale.nbsp; So in other terms, home invasion is legal, but the thievery of our resources is what span data-scayt_word="UNA" data-scaytid="18"UNA/span is trying to fight./p p I know this road will be long and difficult, but we will never give up hope that someday we may have our land back, or at least reimbursement for our resources./p p nbsp;/p p Phillip Standing Bearbr / Indigenous Peoples Media Project/p p style="margin-left: -0.5in;" Long/p