Black Hills gold mining ban protects land, water, Sioux Nation ‘church’
Interior Department safeguards sacred waters for 20 years; tribes seek broader security for area watersheds
The waters flowing from South Dakota’s Black Hills have been sacred to the Lakota people for uncounted generations. After decades of resistance to mining interests, tribal nations and their allies have won a significant victory in protecting at least a portion of these waters from modern-day gold prospectors.
On Dec. 26, in the waning days of her tenure, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first American Indian cabinet member, delivered a 20-year ban on new mining claims around Pactola Reservoir and the Rapid Creek watershed. The response protects more than 20,500 acres tribes have long fought to spare from gold exploration and other mineral development.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak ratified the moratorium after the U.S. Forest Service filed for the special designation under his supervision with the Bureau of Land Management. The BLM, an agency of the Interior Department, has jurisdiction over mineral rights, while the Department of Agriculture manages the land’s surface.
“The He Sapa are very sacred for us Lakota – they hold our creation story, our coming into being as human beings,” says Lakota grandmother Carla Rae Marshall, board member of the Rapid Creek Watershed Action and member of the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance. “This land is our ‘Church,’ where we put our prayer altars. It is known to us as ‘The Heart of Everything That Is.'”
For Marshall and other tribal members, protecting these waters constitutes more than safeguarding a drinking water source for Rapid City and Ellsworth Air Force Base. It’s about defending a relative—Mni Wiconi. It entails preserving sacred spaces where tribes have gathered medicines, held ceremonies and collected traditional foods since immemorial memory.
Maybe in the future, we could look at identifying all the watersheds in the Black Hills that are critical for drinking water and domestic uses. But it’s all going to be based on what kind of national government we have.” — Reno Red Cloud, Oglala Sioux Tribe Water Resources Director
Buffalo’s Fire published extensive reporting on advocacy efforts in December 2023. Public sentiment has overwhelmingly favored protected status. During public comment periods, 98% of responses supported the mineral withdrawal, which blocks a controversial gold exploration project proposed by Minneapolis-based F3 Gold.
“This is one step in the right direction,” says Oglala Sioux Tribe Water Resources Director Reno Red Cloud, who has been actively involved in water protection efforts. “I think what we could do is acknowledge that this is progress, and then look at identifying all the watersheds in the Black Hills that are critical for drinking water and domestic uses.”
The struggle over mining in the Black Hills dates to 1874, when Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer led a military expedition that sent out “glowing reports of gold,” said Oglala Sioux Mario Gonzalez, a longtime tribal attorney. Despite trespassing on Indian lands being a criminal offense at the time, President Ulysses S. Grant secretly instructed officials not to enforce the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, allowing miners to flood the territory.
“Congress attempted to buy the Black Hills in 1876, but the Sioux refused to sell,” Gonzalez says. Failing to obtain the required signatures of three-fourths of adult male tribal members, “Congress enacted the so-called Agreement of 1877, confiscating the Black Hills in violation of the treaty.”
The impact of mining continues to concern tribal members and their neighbors. “A lot of these foreign corporations come down from Canada and elsewhere, pollute our water, and then go back,” Gonzalez notes. “And then we have to live with the results.”
Reno Red Cloud agrees, pointing to abandoned uranium mines from the 1940s near Edgemont that still contaminate the Cheyenne River. “These guys get their money and they get rich and then they don’t really reclaim the area,” he says. “The annual hydrological cycle goes right back into the Cheyenne River.”
There’s growing unity in the fight to protect these waters. “More recently, everybody’s come to the realization that we’re all in the same boat,” Gonzalez says. “A lot of the non-Indian communities are joining with the Sioux tribes in opposing mining in the Black Hills because they have to live with the results of mining that pollutes the water table.”
The Native nations also assert priority legal guarantees to these waters. “The Sioux tribes have water rights in the Black Hills rivers and groundwater under the Winters Doctrine,” Gonzalez explains. Based on a Supreme Court ruling and subsequent case law, the doctrine establishes that tribes retained access to enough water for present and future needs when the federal government imposed the Indian reservation boundaries.
Looking ahead, tribal members express both hope and concern. The withdrawal can be renewed after 20 years, but only Congress can make it permanent. With a change in federal administration approaching, Reno Red Cloud worries about potential challenges to the decision.
“The mindset of the government’s going to be interesting in the next four years,” he says. “But if we’re going to be water protectors, we’ve got to identify, respond, and try to resolve it. The direction we take is trying to protect the sacred water because that’s in our culture.”
For Marshall, protecting these waters represents a crucial step in preserving cultural heritage. “I believe the He Sapa holds eons of memory in our DNA,” she wrote in testimony for the public hearings. Water is our main entity—Mni Wicozani. Water is Life. Water is Alive. Water is Sacred.”
Reno Red Cloud envisions this victory as a blueprint for broader protections. “Maybe in the future, we could look at identifying all the watersheds in the Black Hills that are critical for drinking water and domestic uses,” he says. “But it’s all going to be based on what kind of national government we have.”
In a statement following the decision, the NDN Collective emphasized both the victory and the work ahead: “This is a win for Mother Earth, tribal sovereignty, Indigenous rights, religious freedom, and for the countless organizers and community members who fought for these protections. There’s more work to be done in ensuring the protection of ALL of the Black Hills; however, this is a step in that direction.”
Reno Red Cloud, whose sixth-generation grandfather, Chief Red Cloud, was a signatory to the Fort Laramie Treaties that guaranteed the Black Hills to the Lakota, feels the weight of this moment. “We’ve got to look down the road, five, six, seven generations and see what kind of life we’re going to have for our children.”