The Black Hills Are Not For Sale!, 2
it. Since the award in 1980 the amount has grown to over $500 million. The question of how to use the money to the best benefit for the impoverished modern Sioux nation still remains. Dividing the amount on a per capita basis would result in relatively small cash awards which tribal leaders and advisors fear would simply be spent quickly with no lasting change for the better among the tribe. (Lazarus, 406)
Current sentiments are more realistic than expecting the return of all of the Black Hills land. Recently Sioux and Native American activist groups are working to lobby through Congress to allow at least the return of any remaining federal land in the Black Hills to the Sioux Nation. As Edward Lazarus points out in his book Black Hills, White Justice, there are a number of claims which could have been filed under varying acts, but which attorney Robert Case had failed to file. If Congress creates another Act to allow those claims to be processed, there could be as much as another $100 million in claims to be awarded, according to an estimate from 1991, perhaps worth more now from inflation. (Lazarus, 414)
As the Sioux Nation continues to work within the American political system to seek what compensation and redress which might be available to them still, as the expectations and demands of the Sioux Nation are scaled from extreme literalism to more realistic compromises, there will come the opportunities to realize lasting change for the Sioux. The reservations remain steeped in financial poverty for now, clinging to a proud knowledge that the fight continues, and there are slow gains to be achieved. That pride is declared through the phrase, "The Black Hills are not for sale!"
<<< Prev