Sunday, November 12, 2006
To Whom It May Concern // "National Sacrifice Area"
Letter Sent to Tribal Report of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, Lame Deer, Montana
To Whom It May Concern
November 12, 2006
In the 1970s, when the western US energy boom was really getting underway, some Birney and Decker ranchers learned to their horror of what was in the North Central Power Study. Energy development plans therein projected some 100 mine mouth generating plants to be built in the areas of Tongue River and Powder River. (See Ross Toole 1979, “The Rape of the Great Plains.” ) The area was to become a world energy source akin to the Ruhr Valley of Germany. I was staying with one of these ranchers at the time, Ellen Cotton of the Four Mile Ranch at Decker. She and some others organized resistance to this effort. Helped by the Northern Plains Resource Council of Billings, they placed some signs out on the county road to Sheridan -- “NATIONAL SACRIFICE AREA.” The signs did not last but among some the sentiment remained. Leasing for coal development took place but up to now the big mines and power plants like those at Colstrip have not been developed.
Which of the areas of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation can the tribe best designate as a "Tribal Sacrifice Area?" As the Environmental Impact Studies for coal development get underway -- and these are projected to take two years or more -- this question will have to be addressed. The answer is probably -- Birney -- on Tongue River -- where the river has already been affected by salinity of coalbed methane development and the pollution of water sources east of the river. (See smokesignals6000.blogspot.com for hearings including Northern Cheyenne participants, concerning the effects of such development on reservation air, water, and soil.)
The Cheyenne Tribe has a very unusual designation in its Class One Air status. Already the emissions from Colstrip mine mouth units 1,2,3 and 4 are endangering its Clean Air status. It will be much more endangered when mining takes place on the reservation itself. This designation probably cannot survive the development of reservation mining. The reservation will probably be reduced to Class Two air or worse, like most of the rest of the country. The only other Class One areas are the National Parks. It will be a shame to lose this unusual distinction, in which the Northern Cheyennes have set a proud example for other tribes and for the nation as a whole.
Birney is the most traditional reservation community. It has provided ongoing cultural and spiritual continuity and values for others. It will be very sad to see it wiped out by a strip mine. I taught at the Birney Day School there from 1954 to 1958 and the example of Northern Cheyenne tradition which I experienced there has changed my life. Among other things I met John Stands in Timber while I was there, and helped him to write “Cheyenne Memories,” which since publication in 1967 has been known as the best native account of the tribe. It has gone into Italian and French language editions, and remains in print in a second edition at Yale University Press after almost 40 years. John would be grateful. I know I am.
If Birney is not to be the" Northern Cheyenne Sacrifice Area," which other area can be chosen for destruction? ? Lame Deer? Busby? Muddy? Ashland? Any of these communities would virtually disappear under the onrushing forces of development. The communities may not look like much to outsiders. They have tremendous economic and social problems. They have garbage problems!! But they have real and lasting values as Cheyenne communities. Surely there must be a combination of other ways forward, which will not see them obliterated in terms of their cultural identity. They may be rural slums now and some would argue that they are, but at least they are Cheyenne rural slums -- so far.
I would like to suggest that the tribe look at something else, while the Environmental Impact Studies for coal development are underway. This concerns many possibilities in the development of tourism related endeavors.
NORTHERN CHEYENNE TOURISM
Why is there no museum of Cheyenne history and culture on the reservation, other than the one open for limited hours only, at the Mission? Why is there no public event other than the summer powwow? How come the Crows have a total monopoly on guided tours for visitors to Custer Battlefield? Here are some ideas/suggestions to explore.
1. Look into the idea of a guided history tour service to be organized through the tribe. The College could offer a “Certified Cheyenne Guide” program, a one term class whose graduates could be listed on a tribal register to offer half or full day escort service to visitors interested in learning about the Cheyenne past. They could charge at least $100 a day to step on a bus, or accompany a private automobile. A variety of trips and tours could be worked out and offered. These could include visits to the Rosebud and Custer Battlefields
and possibly special tours by arrangement with landowners at the site of the Dull Knife battle near Kaycee. They could include as options, visits to St. Labre’s and the Mennonite missions -- the Buffalo Jump -- the cemetery and graves of the great chiefs --
Head Chief or “Squaw Hill” -- many other sites could be proposed and developed.
2. Look into a visitor “Rest Station” at Busby where visitors could make a pit stop, buy gas, and learn about George Custer’s next to last night on this earth. His route from the Colstrip marker to Busby could be traced. Soldier and Indian food could be offered. The battalion stopped for just 6 or 8 hours at Busby and then went over the hill to the Littlehorn leaving in the middle of the night. They must have left a lot of traces -- stuff they dropped in the dark on the way out -- no archeology has ever been done there. State and federal funds are available for the development of such projects just off highways. Conrad Burns might be happy to help with such funding in his last “Lame Duck” months in the Senate.
3. Think Big in terms of a museum, at Busby or elsewhere. The head of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington
is Richard West, a Southern Cheyenne. Talk about contacts! Major collections of Cheyenne artifacts exist at many museums throughout the country. These could be returned to the Tribe if there was a responsibly administered place for them. A lot of planning and grant writing would be required for this dream to become a reality. But look what other tribes have done!! Visit the web site of the Head Smashed In historic and cultural site of the Blackfoot tribe of Alberta. It is a World Heritage Site as designated by UNESCO of the United Nations. It has year round programs and camping facilities at a beautiful modern museum built right over a buffalo jump. When I visited there they had an all-Indian staff or almost so, which appeared to employ nearly half the tribe. It is one of the Can’t-Miss sites of North America. Telling the real Cheyenne story could result in something as successful and beautiful.
4. The National Park Service is now working on creating protected national memorials to Cheyenne history at the battle sites of Sand Creek and the Washita. Each is already a National Historic Site. Work is now going forward to nominate the Deer Medicine Rocks at Lame Deer for such an honor. What part will Jimtown play in this? That’s a challenge. Could there be exhibits about the Deer Medicine Rocks at the Cultural Center at the College, or would more space be needed if National Historic Site status become a reality? What story would the Tribe like to tell here? It was the site of the Uncpapa leader Sitting Bull’s Sun Dance, where he saw the vision of all the soldiers falling into camp, just before the Custer fight. But Northern Cheyennes shared in that ceremony, as well as in the battle that followed. And it is not well known, but there was another Sun Dance the year before, in 1875, near the same place, where the Northern Cheyenne medicine man Ice participated with Sitting Bull in a similar event. This cemented the Cheyenne-Lakota alliance, and resulted in the Cheyennes leading the great camp and battles of the following summer.
Come on, Cheyennes, it’s a good day to die!! Your lives and fortunes do not have to be based solely on a coal mine. For two centuries you have given the United States and the world an amazing example of courage and cultural integrity -- persistence in the face of adversity, and loyalty to sacred tradition. Keep up the good work. Nobody else can do it the way you can.
With respect and hope
Margot Liberty
Sheridan, Wyoming
Coauthor with John Stands in Timber of "Cheyenne Memories", 1967
To Whom It May Concern
November 12, 2006
In the 1970s, when the western US energy boom was really getting underway, some Birney and Decker ranchers learned to their horror of what was in the North Central Power Study. Energy development plans therein projected some 100 mine mouth generating plants to be built in the areas of Tongue River and Powder River. (See Ross Toole 1979, “The Rape of the Great Plains.” ) The area was to become a world energy source akin to the Ruhr Valley of Germany. I was staying with one of these ranchers at the time, Ellen Cotton of the Four Mile Ranch at Decker. She and some others organized resistance to this effort. Helped by the Northern Plains Resource Council of Billings, they placed some signs out on the county road to Sheridan -- “NATIONAL SACRIFICE AREA.” The signs did not last but among some the sentiment remained. Leasing for coal development took place but up to now the big mines and power plants like those at Colstrip have not been developed.
Which of the areas of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation can the tribe best designate as a "Tribal Sacrifice Area?" As the Environmental Impact Studies for coal development get underway -- and these are projected to take two years or more -- this question will have to be addressed. The answer is probably -- Birney -- on Tongue River -- where the river has already been affected by salinity of coalbed methane development and the pollution of water sources east of the river. (See smokesignals6000.blogspot.com for hearings including Northern Cheyenne participants, concerning the effects of such development on reservation air, water, and soil.)
The Cheyenne Tribe has a very unusual designation in its Class One Air status. Already the emissions from Colstrip mine mouth units 1,2,3 and 4 are endangering its Clean Air status. It will be much more endangered when mining takes place on the reservation itself. This designation probably cannot survive the development of reservation mining. The reservation will probably be reduced to Class Two air or worse, like most of the rest of the country. The only other Class One areas are the National Parks. It will be a shame to lose this unusual distinction, in which the Northern Cheyennes have set a proud example for other tribes and for the nation as a whole.
Birney is the most traditional reservation community. It has provided ongoing cultural and spiritual continuity and values for others. It will be very sad to see it wiped out by a strip mine. I taught at the Birney Day School there from 1954 to 1958 and the example of Northern Cheyenne tradition which I experienced there has changed my life. Among other things I met John Stands in Timber while I was there, and helped him to write “Cheyenne Memories,” which since publication in 1967 has been known as the best native account of the tribe. It has gone into Italian and French language editions, and remains in print in a second edition at Yale University Press after almost 40 years. John would be grateful. I know I am.
If Birney is not to be the" Northern Cheyenne Sacrifice Area," which other area can be chosen for destruction? ? Lame Deer? Busby? Muddy? Ashland? Any of these communities would virtually disappear under the onrushing forces of development. The communities may not look like much to outsiders. They have tremendous economic and social problems. They have garbage problems!! But they have real and lasting values as Cheyenne communities. Surely there must be a combination of other ways forward, which will not see them obliterated in terms of their cultural identity. They may be rural slums now and some would argue that they are, but at least they are Cheyenne rural slums -- so far.
I would like to suggest that the tribe look at something else, while the Environmental Impact Studies for coal development are underway. This concerns many possibilities in the development of tourism related endeavors.
NORTHERN CHEYENNE TOURISM
Why is there no museum of Cheyenne history and culture on the reservation, other than the one open for limited hours only, at the Mission? Why is there no public event other than the summer powwow? How come the Crows have a total monopoly on guided tours for visitors to Custer Battlefield? Here are some ideas/suggestions to explore.
1. Look into the idea of a guided history tour service to be organized through the tribe. The College could offer a “Certified Cheyenne Guide” program, a one term class whose graduates could be listed on a tribal register to offer half or full day escort service to visitors interested in learning about the Cheyenne past. They could charge at least $100 a day to step on a bus, or accompany a private automobile. A variety of trips and tours could be worked out and offered. These could include visits to the Rosebud and Custer Battlefields
and possibly special tours by arrangement with landowners at the site of the Dull Knife battle near Kaycee. They could include as options, visits to St. Labre’s and the Mennonite missions -- the Buffalo Jump -- the cemetery and graves of the great chiefs --
Head Chief or “Squaw Hill” -- many other sites could be proposed and developed.
2. Look into a visitor “Rest Station” at Busby where visitors could make a pit stop, buy gas, and learn about George Custer’s next to last night on this earth. His route from the Colstrip marker to Busby could be traced. Soldier and Indian food could be offered. The battalion stopped for just 6 or 8 hours at Busby and then went over the hill to the Littlehorn leaving in the middle of the night. They must have left a lot of traces -- stuff they dropped in the dark on the way out -- no archeology has ever been done there. State and federal funds are available for the development of such projects just off highways. Conrad Burns might be happy to help with such funding in his last “Lame Duck” months in the Senate.
3. Think Big in terms of a museum, at Busby or elsewhere. The head of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington
is Richard West, a Southern Cheyenne. Talk about contacts! Major collections of Cheyenne artifacts exist at many museums throughout the country. These could be returned to the Tribe if there was a responsibly administered place for them. A lot of planning and grant writing would be required for this dream to become a reality. But look what other tribes have done!! Visit the web site of the Head Smashed In historic and cultural site of the Blackfoot tribe of Alberta. It is a World Heritage Site as designated by UNESCO of the United Nations. It has year round programs and camping facilities at a beautiful modern museum built right over a buffalo jump. When I visited there they had an all-Indian staff or almost so, which appeared to employ nearly half the tribe. It is one of the Can’t-Miss sites of North America. Telling the real Cheyenne story could result in something as successful and beautiful.
4. The National Park Service is now working on creating protected national memorials to Cheyenne history at the battle sites of Sand Creek and the Washita. Each is already a National Historic Site. Work is now going forward to nominate the Deer Medicine Rocks at Lame Deer for such an honor. What part will Jimtown play in this? That’s a challenge. Could there be exhibits about the Deer Medicine Rocks at the Cultural Center at the College, or would more space be needed if National Historic Site status become a reality? What story would the Tribe like to tell here? It was the site of the Uncpapa leader Sitting Bull’s Sun Dance, where he saw the vision of all the soldiers falling into camp, just before the Custer fight. But Northern Cheyennes shared in that ceremony, as well as in the battle that followed. And it is not well known, but there was another Sun Dance the year before, in 1875, near the same place, where the Northern Cheyenne medicine man Ice participated with Sitting Bull in a similar event. This cemented the Cheyenne-Lakota alliance, and resulted in the Cheyennes leading the great camp and battles of the following summer.
Come on, Cheyennes, it’s a good day to die!! Your lives and fortunes do not have to be based solely on a coal mine. For two centuries you have given the United States and the world an amazing example of courage and cultural integrity -- persistence in the face of adversity, and loyalty to sacred tradition. Keep up the good work. Nobody else can do it the way you can.
With respect and hope
Margot Liberty
Sheridan, Wyoming
Coauthor with John Stands in Timber of "Cheyenne Memories", 1967
