Copyright © 2001 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

We hope the brave and enterprising Oglala Lakota farmers who have decided to challenge an obvious excess of the Drug War will not become martyrs. Several traditional Oglala extended family tiospayes have embraced the potential of industrial hemp as "a wonder crop." The uses of hemp as industrial material are quite varied and profitable. Hemp offers environmentally sound applications as paper, clothing and construction material. Although hemp cultivation is criminalized in the U.S., in many countries-Canada, France, the UK, Spain and China among them-a legal distinction is made between hemp and its cousin, marijuana, and highly productive hemp industries are well established.

In the hard, dry lands that cover much of the Pine Ridge reservation in western South Dakota, particularly the tiospaye homesteads, most types of crops severely suffer varieties of insect and climate assaults. Hemp, however, grows very well on Pine Ridge.

Contributing writer Bill Weinberg met with the Oglala farmers seeking to institute hemp agriculture on the reservation. They are invoking tribal sovereignty and hope that with a tribal ordinance that strictly differentiates between hemp and marijuana, they can make hemp agriculture possible for their people.

What the Pine Ridge farmers are doing has nothing to do with marijuana, but it has nonetheless become a challenge to federal Drug War dogma. In the summer of 2000, Oglala hemp fields were ripped out by federal agents. No one was indicted-perhaps in deference to the Indian Country location-but there were warnings that future attempts to grow hemp would be prosecuted. Rather than risk prosecution by planting this year, we encourage the tribal farmers to take their case to the court of public opinion, to the media and the U.S. Congress, where something can be done to open the way. They have their tribal ordinance, and a very strong economic need case. And there is plenty of precedent in the region for a very productive hemp industry. Hemp was widely grown in the Great Plains during World War II.

In another report from the northern Great Plains, Robert Gough, attorney for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Utility Commission, examines the quest by several tribes in the Dakotas to launch wind energy initiatives. A cooperative approach involving the tribes, federal agencies and private utilities is evolving toward a major initiative on tribal lands. This story, too, manifests the growing impetus by tribes to create viable economies for their peoples.

We welcome Gabrielle Slowey to our pages with her article on U.S.-Canadian bilateral relations and the future of indigenous peoples in the region of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Debate on whether to open up the refuge to oil development is growing, and there are Native voices on both sides.

Slowey shows that for different reasons and in different ways both the Gwich'in, who are most concerned about the effects of oil exploration on the calving cycles of their much valued caribou herd, and the Inupiat of Kaktovik, the only village within ANWR, who favor the oil exploration, are conflicted about the potential effects of the development on the natural world.

Craig Benjamin joins us once again with a piece on a new genetically modified brand of vitamin A-packed rice. Benjamin is an ardent tracker of issues impacting indigenous peoples as the Brave New World of genetic engineering invades our foods, often without our knowledge or consent.

Liz Hill reports on one interesting result of the new economic era: increasingly, Native nations are using proceeds from gaming to fund tribal cultural programs. Clearly the result of substantial interest in language preservation among Native communities, the trend also provides a positive element for tribes under increasing public scrutiny. That the trend is widespread was evidenced at a symposium co-sponsored recently by the National Indian Gaming Association held in Santa Fe, N.M. The theme of the event was: "Saving Our Native Languages."

Alison Johnston looks in on the ecotourism industry and its little-appreciated impact on indigenous people. Ecotourism is rapidly growing, and while a great idea on its face, it is exceedingly difficult to execute in ways that are advantageous to grassroots Native communities.

Jennifer Villeneuve, a new writer fresh out of the University of New Hampshire takes us back to Alaska and the far North, where the legacy of the Cold War-in the form of toxic military waste-continues to permeate the lives of Siberian Yupiks. The Army Corps of Engineers has yet to make good on promises to clean up the mess under the Yupik communities.

A great pick of national political cartoons make up our Public Eye section this issue. Selected and introduced by Suzan Shown Harjo, a veteran observer and commentator on Native issues in the national culture, they are evidence of the power of cartoons to challenge stereotypes and mainstream thought on Native issues.

Someone reminded us recently that "He who controls the metaphor wins." Fairness, environmental friendliness, dire economic need, self-sustaining initiative-these are fundamental elements. The Oglala case, as with so many others in the Native caseload, have these elements in spades. With the federal courts being largely dangerous grounds these days, the strongest possible strategy is to make the Oglala case in the court of public opinion.

José Barreiro
Editor