- The Great Sioux Nation and the Forest Service agreed to co-manage the Black Elk Wilderness.
- The Black Elk Wilderness is near Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.
- The agreement focuses on recreation management, habitat improvement and wildlife benefit.
The Great Sioux Nation has signed an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service to co-steward more than 13,000 acres of the Black Elk Wilderness in South Dakota.
The memorandum of understanding creates a framework for the two parties to work together toward safeguarding the landscape, which the agreement recognizes as one of “profound spiritual, traditional, cultural and historical significance to the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota people.”
“These MOUs are important because our Lakota children are our most important resource for the future of our nation,” Boyd Gourneau, chairman of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, said in a statement. “We want our kids to have a chance to visit our sacred lands, plant trees and enjoy Mother Earth, where our ancestors once roamed free.”
Forest Service chief Tom Schultz highlighted how the agreement fosters greater engagement and creates the shared stewardship goal between the two parties.
“Establishing this agreement will enhance consultation, collaboration and co-stewardship of the Black Elk Wilderness with the Great Sioux Nation Tribes,” Schultz said in a statement.
“This agreement focuses on active management for recreation, habitat improvement, wildlife benefit, invasive species mitigation and wilderness management.”
Input from the tribes — 11 of which are named in the agreement — will be included in decisions about resource protections, recreation and cultural practice. And among many provisions, the agreement also ensures the tribes access for all ceremonial activities and respect for the privacy of their locations.
It does so while upholding tribal sovereignty and explicitly maintaining the treaty rights from both the 1851 Sioux Nation Treaty and the 1868 Great Sioux Nation Treaty.
The announcement signaled future agreements between the Forest Service and Native American tribes. “This historic partnership serves as a model for future co-stewardship agreements,” it reads.
How did the agreement come about?
The 13,534 acres included in the agreement are part of the Black Elk Wilderness, which Congress designated as wilderness in 1980. It is near Mount Rushmore and the massive, still-in-progress sculpture of Crazy Horse.
But long before that, the land — the Black Hills are called “Paha Sapa” in the Lakota language — was one of cultural significance for the Lakota and Sioux people who say that it has been an area of pilgrimage for millennia.
But in the agreement, the stated reason for the region’s significance is due to the great Lakota spiritual leader from the late 19th century called Heȟáka Sápa. Today, he is known as Black Elk.
It was his guidance that stipulated that the Black Hills were the “sacred heart of everything that is,” and that Black Elk Peak — otherwise known as Hiŋháŋ Káǧa, which is the tallest in the region — was “the center of the world.”
His influence and emphasis on the sacredness of life still inspires the Great Sioux Nation today and history and significance were emphasized by being included at the top of the agreement.
“Our most sacred lands are the Black Hills, and Black Elk Peak is tied to Black Elk, our Holy Man,” Wayne Boyd, treasurer for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, said in the statement. “It is an honor for us to care for these lands at Black Elk Wilderness.”
Shared responsibilities
By entering the agreement, the Forest Service is — in accordance with federal law — committing to “respect tribal sovereignty, protect the spiritual and ecological integrity of the Black Elk Wilderness.”
To do so, the agreement outlines nine shared responsibilities. Those include the federal government’s taking guidance and input from the tribes consistently; allowing tribes private, unfettered access for ceremony and prayer; maintaining the strictures of the Wilderness Act; logistical assistance with technology and visitor relations; as well as a youth workforce development.
Boyd added the importance of that last point in his statement. “We welcome the jobs and opportunity for our kids and the chance to teach our culture and history to our neighbors,” he said.
The open-ended agreement, however, noted that both parties would seek new and better ways to work together.
Six other agreements and laws — things like the Explore Act, the Native American Tourism and Improving Visitor Experience Act and the Great American Outdoor Act — were referenced as guidelines for “refining” the agreement to follow when seeking out co-stewardship opportunities.
How it all plays out is yet to be seen, but the Forest Service wrote in the agreement’s background section something about its time frame: “The Great Sioux Nation tribes desire to be involved in the protection of their expressed sacred lands at Black Elk Wilderness for the next seven generations and beyond.”