Copyright © 2001 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

Dear Friends of the Indigenous, the Buffalo, and the Earth,

I am appealing to you to support the Sicangu Lakota (Rosebud Sioux Tribe) in its struggle to avoid becoming the home of the world's third largest hog farm. The first phase of 24 barns is already in place and in spite of tribal opposition and legal intervention by several organizations, Bells Farms (Sun Prairie) continues construction on the second phase. When completed, there will be 13 sites, of 24 barns each. The waste disposal digestor at site #1 is not properly functional, as predicted.

As indicated in my letter to Mr. Bell, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe is valiantly battling the matter in the judicial system, with its sovereignty in serious jeopardy. Meanwhile, we are establishing a vigilance camp, to be called Camp Sovereignty, in the vicinity of the hog farms. We can no longer tolerate the severe corporate oppression of Bell Farms. We can no longer tolerate the threats to our environment, to the quality of justice, and to our sovereignty.

There are several options for you to consider. You may join me in a letter to Rich Bell by snail mail (sorry we are not able to access an email address for him yet) to Bell Farms in Wahpeton, ND. Phone number is 701-642-4021. Fax is 701-942-9237.

The RST tribal officials are working against incredible odds. Tribal council resolutions and letters of support from tribal officials would be greatly appreciated. Individual messages of concern are just as powerful.

William Kindle, President, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, P.O. Box 430, Rosebud, SD 57570. Phone 605-747-2381

If you're looking for a quick, convenient way to indicate your support or to support and/or join the camp vigil for the environment and for justice, check the Camp Sovereignty website.

To see this hog farm to full scale of operation, Mr. Bell would have to crush the tribe. I believe he is capable. We have determined spirits. We need public outrage (and lots of prayers too).

Thank you from my heart,

Rosalie Little Thunder
E-mail: wakinyela@yahoo.com

May 14, 2001

Rich Bell
Bell Farms
Wahpeton, ND

Mr. Bell,

It was with a heavy heart that I watched the U.S. District Court of South Dakota proceedings that were, in response to your Motion to Show Cause, so obviously and unjustly working against my tribe; the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. The resulting restraining order against us, I saw as a very ugly, aggressive move to oppress the tribe into allowing you to build the world's third largest hog farm on our homelands.

Because you are driven by the need to satisfy your investors with profit; that this might well be the whole of your existence, I suspect my appeal to you will fall on deaf ears. However futile it may be, I must at least, make an attempt to help you to understand the positon of the Indigenous people, with whom you are now engaged in serious legal conflict.

The people native to this land, lived in balance with the Earth and with the environment that sustained them. We held an inherent belief that "all things are related". For the Lakota, prayers and traditional public speeches end with "Mitakuye Oyas'in"; that is, "We are all related". And this concept is not limited to human kinship, but the relationships among all things. If one part of the circle of the relatedness is interrupted or damaged, then the rest of the circle is likewise affected. When the Earth is threatened, so are the people. It was this knowledge, gained through generations upon generations of observation and a survival intimacy with the natural world, that kept Indigenous cultures from carelessly exploiting the resources of the Earth.

By contrast, civilized societies tend to believe and behave as if the Earth exists specifically for human habitation and that its resources are therefore, subject to unregulated consumption. The philosophy of "take all you can get" has lead to the mining of gold, silver, other metals, fossil fuels; to the clearcutting of forests; to inhumane corporate farming practices. In the juggernaut march for comfort, power and profit, humanity continues to terminate entire species of plants and animals, and subsequently, pollutes essential air, water, and land. Indigenous people and their lands are hardest hit. The American public is finally beginning to realize the impacts that these exploitive activities have on humanity's health and survival.

Epidemics and pandemics of flu viruses that have killed millions are directly attributed to large hog farms in this country. Because of the poverty and forced change of lifestyle and diet, our people are physically vunerable. I know this health risk too well. I lost my mother, already weakened by diabetes, to a "simple" flu virus. Better than 50% of our tribal adult population is stricken with diabetes and weak immune systems. The rest of my relatives must now live with serious, increased health risks; downwind and downstream, in the shadow of the montrous Bell Farms barns. The waste management system of the first phase (of 13) of construction is already failing. We are painfully reminded of another time when the Indigenous people of the Plains were gifted with small pox infested blankets.

The effects of exploitive use of the land and its resources are not limited to the impacts on the health of the human population. More seriously, the greatest long-term effect is the exhaustion of the earth's non-renewable resources, in this case, precious land and water. There is clearly a lack of human vision in how future generations will survive.

Although the Indigenous cultures were nearly decimated and the effects of severe oppression are still evident, we remain loyal to our belief system as our survival is critically dependent upon the nature of two-legged species' relationship with Grandmother Earth; Unci Maka.

The Indigenous peoples' principles of self-sufficiency were not independent of , but interdependent with other species and ecosystems, thus the philosophy of the "we are all related"; eco-existence. Modern science (but not corporate America) has finally come to recognize the environmental wisdom of Indigenous people; our sound survival practices in the natural world, in accordance with natural law.

In the beginning of this rather "bad marriage", Bell Farms (a/k/a Sun Prairie) behaved without honor or honesty. For an hog farm operation of this magnitude, an Environmental Impact Study was strangely circumvented. The only hearing was held in a remote reservation community, without sufficient notice. For the world's third largest hog farm and given the bad history of such corporate farms, that an EIS was avoided warrants serious question.

Other surrounding tribes were approached with this particular hog farm proposal, but without success. There can be only one reason why a corporate hog farm, unwanted elsewhere, would want to locate on remote tribal lands; to escape elsewhere regulations. The tribal leaders of that time, unfortunately succumbed, but only because of Bell Farms' assurances of environmental safety and only because employment was (albeit temporarily) appealing to the leaders of a people who live in grinding poverty. Certainly, our people need jobs, but healthy, responsible jobs, not standing knee-deep in hog manure. If you cannot care about Indigenous people, then consider that corporate farms are forcing small farmers out of business. The population of rural South Dakota is on the decline. The very reason for the state of our economy, on the reservations and in South Dakota, is a direct and undeniable result of oppression by the wealthy and powerful. No one is poor by choice.

Fortunately, the tribal population was quick enough to recognize the externally-influenced pressures and corruption and the serious threats to the environment and so, elected leaders that would truly represent their best interests and beliefs. Those tribal leaders inherited a very bad lease. The shifting winds might not be to your liking, but you were aware of these risks. To insist on continuing to build on tribal lands, in a hostile climate, continues to be risky business. Threatening to sue the tribe for $100 million or demanding a $15 million bond is not reasonable, but tactically ruthless and oppressive to a tribe that is within the boundaries of one of the poorest counties in the American landscape.

Your business relationship with the tribe went from bad to worse and into the court room as the deception, as we see it, became more and more apparent. Those who share in that strong sense of environmental responsibility across this country closely watch the on-going legal skirmishes. We know the sentiments; we bear the burden of an environmental disaster happening on our homeland.

I need not remind you of the lawsuit, now pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals, that presents our environmental concerns and the deceptions around the bad lease agreement. To be determined is the validity of the lease and the call for a full Environmental Impact Study, The U.S. Court of Appeals has not reached its decision yet.

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe, through its competent tribal court of jurisdiction, sought only to enforce the terms of the lease, while awaiting the Court of Appeals decision. Plans were to be submitted, prior to construction of 24 more barns on site #2. I was quite dismayed by your contemptuous attitude for tribal court by petitioning for a restraining order in federal court that had no jurisdiction in this matter. In essence, I was further dismayed when your attorney further exhibited this contempt, by making unchecked, disparaging remarks about tribal court.

The U.S. government joined the tribe in questioning jurisdiction, as an appeal is in process and tribal court remedies have not been exhausted. I'm sure you've considered the prospect of seriously eroding the status of tribal sovereignty. Where then, would corporate farms and nuclear waste dumps seek asylum from environmental regulations?

We should be discouraged that justice was not to be found that day in an odd court. We found ourselves legally restrained from legally interfering with construction, from exercising our responsibilities to our own land. But we clearly saw the forum-shopping for a court in your favor and we saw through the deception, the true nature of Bell Farms. We see the magnitude of the injustice and oppression we are facing. All of your cards are on the table build at all costs. The worst fear of Third World countries; globalization and corporate power now sit menacingly on our horizon.

What might have been anger or despair, if you had looked into the eyes of the tribal people that packed that courtroom, instead you would have seen the grim determination of a people that are backed into a corner and have nowhere else to go. I saw the light of the spirit that has never failed us and is only tempered by such hardships.

Perhaps you will find some degree of understanding in our worldview, but it's not likely for we come from different places, with different motivation. My words are hardly kind, but needed to be spoken; it is the truth of a people that do not seek power or profits, but see Unci Maka as a kind and benevolent Grandmother.

So, we begin our vigilance over our land and for our sovereignty. We will be on your horizon and will make prayers for wisdom and courage for you to make better decisions.

Rosalie Little Thunder, miye.