Contact us at: whispernthunder1@gmail.comProtecting the Heart of Everything That IS
~Mary Burrows
Despite strong opposition from Native tribes
and determined environmentalists, various
mineral-seeking entities persist in violating
Paha Sapa, the Black Hills, due to weaknesses
in antiquated, exploitative 19th Century
mining laws, which weaknesses are
expected to be resolved during the state
permitting process.
“We have kept uranium mining out of the Black Hills since the 1970s, and we cannot allow uranium mining to return to this area today!”
Dr Lillias Jarding, Executive Director, Black Hills Clean Water Alliance (BHCWA).
Clean Nuclear Energy Corporation (cNEC) and parent company Nexxus Uranium (a Canadian front for a Chinese entity) filed an application to drill near Craven Canyon in March 2024. Nexxus attests that it has claims over ten square miles along the southern Black Hills, which includes the Cheyenne River watershed.
During a controversy-fraught and delayed hearing held by South Dakota Board of Environment and Minerals in May at Hot Springs, county seat of Fall River County; locals, Natives, and visitors were invited to make public comment with regard to the project. The hearing was scheduled for five days, but was cut short by a court injunction.
During the public comment period, Standing Rock resident and stalwart water protector Wanija Locke offered concerns about protecting the pristine aquifers of Paha Sapa and subsequently the Missouri River. She is concerned about the world-wide shortage of clean drinking water.
Paul, a local rancher, stated that what pollutes one aquifer, Madison, Inyan Kara, Minnelusa, or Deadwood, pollutes them all. He also feels the responsibility for reclamation of the land should transfer from one owner to another with regard to accountability.
Gena, a local resident and victim as a child of poisoning at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, came to the Valley of Fall River to bathe in the local mineral-laden waters. She shared that cNEC trades in penny stock at 12 cents per share.
Alex, a visitor from Iowa City, Iowa, reminded that uranium is weaponizable. “Nothing radioactive should ever be taken out of the ground,” he stressed.
Local landowner and politician Bret Swanson said, “The fact of the water and the fact of the cultural site are reason enough to deny the permit.”
The project would involve some 65 drill holes, 700-plus feet deep, and require thousands of gallons of water daily from local municipal and private sources, ie: deep aquifers, including the Madison and Oglala, under the land: land experiencing extreme drought for several years. It would involve both state and federal lands. The project is within sight and sound of sacred ceremonial sites in Craven Canyon at the southern foot of Paha Sapa. It contains ancient (7000 years) rock art depicting ceremonies and creation stories, according to Duane Two Bulls of Black Hills Clean Water Alliance. Two Bulls is concerned that vibrations from drilling will cause the sandstone slabs upon which the petroglyphs are carved to catastrophically separate from canyon walls.
During the first day of public hearings, following input from the public, a discussion arose regarding a promised Lakota interpreter to be provided in deference to Native speakers. According to the cNEC representative responsible for that provision, when questioned by Stephen Gunn, tribal attorney, by following instructions from the state, he was unable to locate a Lakota speaker, and further, if one WAS found, they would have cost $360 an hour.
Attorney Gunn asked, “Did you contact any of the tribes for interpreter services? Tribal schools or Departments of Education could have provided services.” The representative had not even considered that option.
Apparently, one interpreter was found, but there was a conflict because his wife, Elizabeth Lone Eagle, was also an intervenor in the current process. During a statement to the board, she advised of the rarity of fluent speakers, especially with regard to scientific-geologic-language issues. The Lakota have no established vocabulary for many of the terms. She stressed that “a vocabulary will be established at these hearings,” with regard to grammar and the gender-based Lakota language.
Subsequently, the Board and the intervenors agreed to adjourn until an interpreter could be found, with tribal attorney Keith Ellison describing the hearing as “a joke,” because the Board consistently denied due process.
An interpreter was present for the beginning of hearings on Tuesday, during which time Attorney Ellison met with constant opposition. Native speakers were requesting access to lease documents around public lands where drilling might occur. The board chair over-ruled every objection and every request to allow access. They had also previously refused Ellison's request to call an expert witness from the state Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Discussions regarding water flows, drill pad statistics, how the process of obtaining minerals works, and how road traffic in the area would cause dust and disturbance followed through the afternoon. Reclamation responsibilities were top priority. Abandoned drill holes are to be filled with bentonite grout to prevent cross-contamination of aquifers.
Laughter met the idea of “benefits” of uranium mining. These benefits were described by mining interests as “a greater understanding of the local hydrology,” and “a great economic boom to the state.” Benefits to ranchers with grazing leases, such as re-invigorated pasture land, were also touted.
cNEC is a Canadian company that only recently incorporated in Nevada. They have no offices in South Dakota, nor do they have offices, or even a board of directors, in Vancouver, BC. The business was formed to hold mineral claims only. There is only one person at cNEC: a Mr Blaede, who spoke for the mining interests at the hearing and answered questions from intervenors.
Alex White Plume interpreted for Native speakers on Wednesday. There were discussions and questions from intervenors regarding ground water movement in Craven Canyon and beyond. Dr Jarding remarked that there had been no studies of water movement in that specific area, only general studies.
“It is an educated guess regarding movement of contaminated water in the project,” she said.
The attorney for mining interests and the board members seemed to the audience to object to every suggestion, request, or question from Attorney Ellison. At one point, the chair person even reprimanded Ellison, saying, “This is not a courtroom!” To that end, Taylor Gunhammer, water activist, and Elizabeth Lone Eagle traveled to Rapid City, where Lone Eagle filed a lawsuit against the Board of Minerals and Environment in response to the lack of due process during the public hearings. The court issued an injunction, and the hearings were suspended.
Dr. Jarding was elated over “two victories in two months.” The hearing suspension followed on the successful protection of Pe'Sla in the Black Hills.
In 2012, over 2000 acres of a treeless, high-mountain land designated as Reynolds Prairie, but known to Lakota as Pe'Sla, was purchased for $9 million by the Rosebud, Crow Creek, Shakope Mdewakantan, and Standing Rock Sioux tribes. Subsequently, the land was put into trust status by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to protect it from development.
Pe'Sla is a mile-high prairie in the heart of Paha Sapa that has long been (and continues to be) a place of prayer, ceremony, and traditional practices, not just for centuries, but for millennia.
February 27, 2026, saw the US Forest Service approve a graphite-drilling project that abuts Pe'Sla and that is on the Rapid Creek watershed, which flows into the Missouri River. In so doing, the U S government violated the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which reserved all lands west of the Missouri, south of the Yellowstone, and north of the White River in Nebraska for the Great Sioux Nation. The Black Hills was designated as “unceded Indian Territory,” and was included in hunting rights for the Sioux that extended to the Shining Mountains (Big Horns) in Wyoming. Under that treaty, the Sioux continue to own the mineral rights to the Black Hills and surrounding areas. And treaties are the ultimate law of this land.
Mining activity threatens the ecosystem, the water for thousands, and the ceremonial/ traditional practices of Lakota people, such as harvesting traditional foods and plants in the meadow. “Our whole society revolves around the Black Hills,” said Stephen Barrett, BHCWA Indigenous Community Organizer. “It is more than just a plot of land to us. It's a relative itself. It's alive. It's our family.”
NDN Collective, Black Hills Clean Water Alliance, and Earthworks filed a lawsuit against US Forest Service on April 1, 2026. USFS had deemed graphite mining permit eligible for a “categorical exclusion,” exempting it from in-depth federal review mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act.
On May 4, 2026, a temporary restraining order was granted to the plaintiffs which halted drilling in Pe'Sla for two weeks. This was a result of action by the entire community, including those who chained themselves to drill equipment on pads 1 and 3.
Rochford Mineral Exploratory Drilling Project notified the USFS district ranger Jim Gubbels on May 8, 2026, of Pete Lien and Sons intent to withdraw from drilling in Pe'Sla, to reclaim the
disturbed land, and to NOT apply for another permit for exploratory drilling at the Pe'Sla site. Victory!!!
And the fight continues against the proposed Dewey-Burdock uranium mining operation near the Wyoming border with South Dakota.
During the so-called “Cold War” of the 1950s and '60s, extensive uranium mining occurred in the southern Black Hills. Many were open-pit mining operations that have yet to be reclaimed since their phase-out in the 1970s.
In the early 2000s, Texas-based enCore Energy proposed to mine uranium at Dewey-Burdock using an in-situ leach system that pumps solvents into an aquifer to extract minerals, leaches the minerals (radioactive uranium), and returns the contaminated water to yet another aquifer to wash over layers of rock into the watershed that feeds the Missouri River drainage. This endeavor has been in legal limbo for decades.
EPA held public hearings in 2021 in Hot Springs, South Dakota, and, despite thousands of written protests, permits were granted. The federal government violated its own treaties and shifted the burden of environmental responsibility to the state. And the state continues to operate ponderously under 19th Century mining laws.
But the project currently remains unproductive and is tied up in the courts. The People will prevail!
Craven Canyon Drilling Permit on Pause: Community Members File Federal Lawsuit Against SD Board of Minerals and Environment - NDN COLLECTIVE
Black Hills Clean Water Alliance – Protecting Black Hills Water from Radioactive & Destructive Mining.
southdakotasearchlight.com/2026/05/08/company-withdraws-from-controversial-black-hills-exploratory-drilling-project/
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Article by Meghan O'Brien of South Dakota Searchlight published in the Hot Springs Herald Star, issue of April 16, 2026