Attorneys are the only ones who have anything to gain if members of the
Sioux Nation accept a cash settlement for the Black Hills,
Rodney M. Bordeaux, president of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe said
Monday.
“These law firms are always looking for a quick buck and
could care less for what we feel as a people,” Bordeaux said.
“All they want is money.”
Yankton attorney Doug Kettering met with about 80 Native
Americans on Saturday in Sioux City, Iowa, offering to help them
tap into millions setting in a trust fund. The trust was created
after a 1980 U.S. Supreme Court decision supporting Sioux claims
that the government had stolen the Black Hills and land east of
the Hills.
“The Black Hills are not for sale,” Bordeaux said, adding a
Lakota missive, “He Sapa Kin waken yelo, oheniya kik suyapo.”
Translation: “Always remember the Black Hills are sacred.”
That’s the message Bordeaux grew up with and is passing on to
his children.
“We must all unite and keep that message going into the future,”
he said.
In these tough economic times, the money may seem tempting to
some tribal members, but it is poor compensation for the nation
that their Sioux forefathers fought and died to protect,
Bordeaux said.
“They were fighting for our overall survival as a people and a
nation,” he said. “We need to keep that alive, because that’s
who we are.”
Kettering has never contacted the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Bordeaux
said. The tribal council would never support accepting the
money, he said.
Bordeaux said he can’t speak for other tribal leaders, but he
doubts that any would support an effort to accept the
settlement. To do so would be contrary to tribal philosophy, he
said.
“We need to continue as tribal nations and tribal leaders and
tribal members in general to remember what our forefathers
fought for, and keep that fight alive,” Bordeaux said.
Any decision to dip into the trust fund would have to come from
the tribes, not individual members, Bordeaux said.
Bordeaux noted that newspaper accounts of Saturday’s meeting
reported that Kettering plans to hold meetings in Sioux Falls,
Yankton, Mobridge and Flandreau.
“Nothing near Rosebud,” Bordeaux said. “I don’t know who’s
really behind this, but they’re not representing us.”
There may be a small minority of tribal members with no sense of
the sacrifices their forefathers made, people who would
“basically sell out to make a few dollars,” he said.
“That money won’t last long,” Bordeaux said. “We as a people
need to resist.”
Contact Andrea Cook at 394-8423 or
