Urgent: Support needed for tribal owners of the Black Hills Now!

[sarahlee]

I posted this in General Discussion where it is mostly being ignored and it probably should have gone here in the first place.

Midnight, Friday, January 14 was the deadline for comment on the Black Hills National Forest Plan Phase 2 Amendment but they may take comments submitted before Monday am. . Below is one comment which makes excellent points about how tribal people were not properly consulted in this comment process which will affect the future of land which tribal people claim under the Fort Laramie Treaty.

Please send the Forest Service an email which backs up the Nancy's comment or makes points of your own. Your message can be quite brief.

· Criticize them for not properly consulting the people with an unextinguished treaty claim to the land they are deciding about
· Request that they remedy the problem by giving a reasonable extension of the comment period for tribal people to comment
· Request that they do effective and proper outreach to tribal people at the outset of the extended time period

The point is that Forest Service needs a lot of flack for neglecting the obvious -- consultation with the actual OWNERS of the Black Hills. A Clinton Administration Executive Order, which remains in effect, requires them to do proper consultation with tribal people. Forest Service is legally bound to remedy their failure (or they can be sued).

The email address is [e-mail]

Head your message as follows:

Black Hills National Forest Plan
PO Box 27090
Littleton, CO 80127
RE: Black Hills National Forest Phase II Amendments DEIS

Be sure to give your own name, address, and other pertinent conact information at the end of your message

Sample letter in the first post, which can be read here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2956565

[Toby109]

1. Kick

[knowbody0]

2. thankyou

kick
kick
kick

[Toby109]

3. And another

:kick:

[sarahlee]

4. Thanks

to knowbody and Toby for keeping this kicked over the weekend.

Democrats want to know why minorities did not stand with them on Nov. 2 and here is a good example of why. Native Americans needed help and few Democrats on this forum stood with them.

Peace and Blessings to those who did.

Mitakuye Oyasin!