RESPONSE TO: DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT (EIS) OF SOUTH DAKOTA TITLE VI LAND TRANSFER - US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) - Omaha District July 2001. Public comment held August 23, 2001 in Rapid City Rushmore Holiday Inn
Aug 23, 2001
The purpose and need for the Draft EIS is totally illogical, therefore unethical, due to the nature of the routing of one of America's most historic legislative/administrative thefts of Indian lands ever encountered. This travesty today is known as the Title VI Land Transfer in South Dakota (Water Resource Development Act 2000).
The core of this divestiture stems from the illegitimate authorization of Army Corps of Engineers jurisdiction in the 1940's (Pick-Sloan Missouri River Basin Act 1944). Lakota peoples were coerced into relocating to make way for Dam construction, effectively taking the jurisdiction and control of natural resources away from the Great Sioux Nation. The Army Corps and the State of SD believed the removal of Lakota from their burial sites, hunting/fishing territories was conducted in humane ways, thereby justifying their greed for the Power generated by the use of 4 major dams in South Dakota.
The USACE transfer of Treaty lands [not public lands] to a state where racial intolerance exists does not make for good constitutional policy. The state of SD-led by governor William Janklow, Sen. Tom Daschle, and USACE's disregard of our opposition toward this land theft for the last several years is evidence of this prejudice and inequality. The US Civil Rights Commission report in April 2000 concluded that racial disparities exist in SD, further validates our allegation.
The Water Resources Development Act of 1999 (WRDA PL 106-53, Amended PL 106-541) was signed without the required consent of 3/4 of the adult male population, as stipulated in Article 12 of the Constitutionally supreme Treaty of Ft. Laramie 1868.
Additionally, (according to USACE estimates), the looted title to the Missouri River will transfer about 91,178 acres of land. We will assume the Lakota Water rights will be "waiting" to be transferred though the EIS ignores the important facet of the scheduled activity. If native Indigenous water rights are co-opted by this transfer, then over 31.4 million acre feet of water is estimated to be transferred also. The transfer scheduled to be completed "no later than" January 1, 2002.
With so much controversy surrounding the transfer, and with so much inconsistency on the entire "scoping" process, it would be unfair to conclude that a comprehensive EIS has been conducted. It would be unfair to the Great Sioux Nation to comment as it would be viewed as complicity with the land transfer. And furthermore, to comment on these very numerous inconsistencies would only serve to undermine the legitimate supremacy of constitutional treaties.
A. Therefore, we urge all tribal officials and parties involved to boycott or retract any and all comments already submitted on the Scoping process, including but not limited to the current draft EIS.
B. Instead, we encourage all tribal leaders and officials to request the immediate Repeal of PL 106-53, amended PL 106-541 Title VI Land Transfer. Additionally, since the negative significanct impacts of this land transfer will deal a severe blow toward the unity of the Great Sioux Nation, we will encourage tribes to demand a full Senate Investigative hearing based upon the Executive Orders, Environmental Statutes, and Federal laws cited in p. 299 of the Draft EIS. (The USACE claims it is using the legislation to measure the impacts against the states proposed development of Treaty lands.)
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