Protecting the Black Hills from Mining Summit was a Huge Success!

The two-and-a-half-day Protecting the Black Hills from Mining Summit, held on August 20 – 22, was a huge success and received rave reviews.

Over 90 people registered to hear 18 speakers give presentations about the past, present, and future of the Black Hills and how we must work together to protect our region as a collective grassroots movement.

This summit, a first of its kind, brought in knowledgeable speakers from many local reservations including; Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Pine Ridge, and Yankton.

The summit was held at the Storm Mountain Center, tucked away in a beautiful little canyon just 18 miles West of Rapid City amongst the pine trees and ancient rocks. This natural scenery reminded people why we must work fast to protect the Black Hills and the water from mining.

The first day was dedicated to informing people about the sacredness of the Black Hills and how traditional Indigenous ecological knowledge must be ingrained into any policies regarding the Black Hills. We also covered federal policies, recreation benefits vs mining, and legal cases. Attendees became more aware of the destruction of mining of the past, the current state of mining projects, and how we will continue to take action. We will be finalizing a Declaration to Protect the Black Hills from Mining over the next two weeks.

We all agreed that we must urge our elected officials and Tribal, Federal, State, County, and Municipal governments to call for an end to any exploration permits for minerals until all the old mines, drill holes, and water contamination are cleaned up.

Sending a huge shout-out and thank you to all the speakers, those who attended and participated, and our team. Your presence is what made this summit a huge success.

The summit was co-hosted by: Black Hills Clean Water Alliance, NDN Collective, Rapid Creek Watershed Action, Sacred Defense Fund, and the Oglala Sioux Tribe Water Resources Department.