Unterstützt die Aktionen gegen die Zerstörung von Pe’Sla in den Black Hills
Die Black Hills, für die Lakota Paha Sapa, sind nicht nur (noch) eine landschaftlich vielseitige Gegegnd mit National- und Stateparks, vielfältiger Tier- und Pflanzenwelt, Bergen und Seen, die Black Hills sind für die Lakota heilig – not for sale (siehe auch in unserem neuen Buch “Indigene Kämpfe in den Americas” S. 94-95). Nun wurden erste Geräte für die geplanten Graphite-Probebohrungen in eines der spirituell bedeutsamsten Gebiete für die Great Sioux Nations gebracht. An dieser Stelle beschreiben wir nicht die Folgen dieser ökologischen Vorhaben und gehen auchz nicht näher auf den Aspekt des anhaltenden Ethnozids sowie die Verletzung indigener Belange ein. Einst waren nämlich die Black Hills den Great Sioux Nations in den Verträgen zwischen der US-Regierung und den Lakota für immer überlassen worden – bis man 1871 dort Gold fand. Seit dem geht die ökologische Ausplünderung dieser Gegend weiter. Hier bitten wir euch an der online -Petition des NDN Collectives zu beteiligen und euch weiterhin zu informieren. Wir werden am Ball bleiben undunterstützen ebenfalls die Aktionen der Protectors.
Hier der Text und der Link:
Sign-On Letter: Stop the Drilling
Calling for the Immediate Halt to the Rochford Mineral Exploratory Drilling Project at sacred site, Pe’ Sla.
To the United States Forest Service (USFS) and Pete Lien & Sons:
We, the undersigned Tribes, nations, organizations, collectives, and coalitions, write in urgent solidarity to demand the immediate and unconditional halt of all drilling and construction activities by Pete Lien & Sons at Pe’ Sla — the sacred heart of the Black Hills, and one of the most spiritually and culturally significant places to the Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation) and Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island.
Pe’ Sla is not simply land. It is a living ceremonial place — a site of creation, prayer, and renewal that predates every government, every corporation, and every law written on this continent. It was stolen and, through enormous collective sacrifice, returned. The decision to permit industrial mineral exploration at Pe’ Sla was a profound failure — and the drilling that has now begun there is an active, ongoing harm.
We call on the USFS to do their jobs — to uphold the law, to honor federal responsibilities to Indigenous nations, and to act before irreversible damage is done to a place that cannot be replaced.
We call on Pete Lien & Sons to respect the spiritual practices and rights of the Oceti Sakowin and original stewards of these lands by halting the Rochford Mineral Exploratory Drilling Project (“RMEDP”) immediately.
Why This Project Must Stop Now
The permit authorizing Pete Lien & Sons to conduct mineral exploration at Pe’ Sla was approved by USFS without the full environmental review the law requires. Federal environmental law exists for exactly these situations — to ensure that projects with the potential to cause significant harm to land, culture, and community cannot simply be waved through without scrutiny.
The RMEDP project at Pe’ Sla is not a routine matter. It involves a sacred site of extraordinary cultural and spiritual significance. It requires road construction, drilling, and years of activity on land that deserves the highest level of protection, not the lowest. USFS’s decision to bypass the required review process was not a technicality. It was a failure of the agency’s fundamental duty, and it has allowed a project to proceed that should never have been approved in the form it was.
It has recently come to the attention of local residents and tribal members that Pete Lien & Sons has already begun drilling. This is happening now — on sacred ground — while the legality of the permit that authorized it remains in serious and active dispute in federal court.
Every day drilling continues is a day of harm that cannot be undone. We are calling on USFS to act immediately, of their own accord, to suspend this project until the law has been properly followed.
We Demand
- The immediate suspension of all drilling, road construction, and ground-disturbing activities by Pete Lien & Sons at Pe’ Sla
- That USFS conduct the full environmental review the law requires — including meaningful assessment of the project’s impacts on this sacred site — before any further activities are authorized;
Pe’ Sla belongs to the people whose ancestors have prayed and practiced their traditions there since time immemorial. No permit, no corporation, and no agency shortcut changes that.
We stand together. Stop the drilling. Follow the law. Protect Pe’ Sla.
*Last Updated: April 30, 2026
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