Garvard Good Plume, Jhon Goes In Center, Mike Catches Enemy, Wilmer Mesteth, and Joyce Whiting are the team behind the Oglala Sioux Tribe Historic Preservation Office.
Using the law to maintain Wolakota
By Christina Rose
Staff writer, Native Sun News PINE RIDGE— For Joyce Whiting, who became disconnected from her Lakota culture when she went through the Catholic Boarding Schools, the Oglala Sioux Tribal Historic Preservation Office (OSTHPO) has a special meaning. “I knew my language when I went in there but never used it. I grew up and stayed in Rapid City but I never took my kids to pow wows or anything like that. I came back to the reservation to see if I still had my language.” And she does. Now, her reconnection has become an important part of her OSTHPO position as the Section 106 Project Reviewer. Before the Oglala Sioux Tribe took over historic preservation, that responsibility was managed by State. Working with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act is a critical aspect of their work, Catches Enemy said. “According to the National Historic Preservation Act and its amendments, the Oglala Sioux Tribe holds a special governmental relationship with the federal government even on land beyond the current reservation boundaries,” Catches Enemy said. Because of that, the THPO must be consulted about any development projects that could include mining, road work, home sites, and even on private land when owners seek to develop projects that have federal ties. “You can see the grand scale of projects that encompass such a large land base, based on the amount of correspondence that comes into the office for review,” Catches Enemy said. The OSTHPO takes an active part in the protection of the Lakota heritage by protecting resources and places such as historic properties, objects, burial sites, landscapes, documents, photographs, images, pictographs, petroglyphs, prayer locations, oral knowledge, Lakota language, customs, traditions, and more. “When we are asked to consult with federal agencies and mining groups, their concerns often include dollars and cents and time frames. We are truly up against ‘majority rules’ and often the national and state interest,” Mike Catches Enemy, Tribal Archeologist, said, admitting that even with all of these laws in place, defending the tribes rights to protecting the culture is not an easy process. One step that Catches Enemy has taken is to put himself on equal footing with the “experts” who seek to develop areas where there might be a tribal interest. Catches Enemy is currently attending graduate school at St. Cloud State University. He will soon have his Master’s Degree in Cultural Resource Management Archaeology. Catches Enemy encourages Lakota students to study “archaeology, anthropology, paleontology and law in order to continue to protect sacred items and places. “We are the first to have an archeologist as a tribal member,” Joyce Whiting said. “It’s better than having an outsider because Mike understands our culture. It gives us a stronger leg to stand on because of the respect that we have for earth and every living thing, because we don’t destroy mother earth.” Over the years, many laws have been passed that have supported tribal input when development projects loom over ancestral land. Among them, The National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 and its amendments, the National Environmental Protection Act of 1969, American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978, the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 are only a few that have had an impact on the rights of tribes over their resources, customs and culture. Catches Enemy said that there are also several Presidential Executive Orders that offer protection of sacred sites. These and other legislative acts of Congress empowered the tribes to reclaim and celebrate their sacred places and ways, and also to reclaim artifacts and remains that had illegally been removed for years. Before the passage of the Religious Freedom Act, “We could not even visit special places like Pe Sla and other such sites,” Catches Enemy said, noting that displacement from special places included the inability to practice traditional ways in ancestral homelands. Despite the passage of so many acts and laws, there are still trials and tribulations to be faced. “Tribes like the Oglala Lakota come from oral traditions. We carry out existence with knowledge passed from generation to generation,” Catches Enemy said. Catches Enemy noted, however, that the Tribes’ oral knowledge is often challenged, requiring tangible documentation such as advanced educational degrees to “prove we know our history and locations.” The outside entities do not always treat tribal ways such as oral history with respect, even though tribal elders often know better where places are and what would be found there; sometimes even more accurately then what trained disciplines may identify. For Garvard Good Plume, Advisory Council member, and Wilmer Mesteth, tribal historian, and Jhon Goes In Center, bringing back the cultural values, Wolakota, has long been an important part of their life’s work. Through the OSTHPO, they are seeing changes but Goes In Center said they are still not treated equally when they seek to use their oral traditions as evidence for their knowledge. He noted that in “Delgamuukw v. British Columbia,” the Canadian Supreme Court gave more weight to oral history than to written evidence and declared that oral history tied Natives to the land. “All the expertise of our cultural practitioners of Lakota wisdom and philosophy has been developed over 10,000 years,” Goes In Center said. Stating that Canada is far ahead than the US in this matter, he said, “We should be treated equally.” The OSTHPO still faces a monumental task in retaining and collecting information, especially about being alerted to land development. The members of the OSTHPO agreed that most important thing tribal members can do is to become the eyes and ears of the office. “Sometimes there might be something going on and we were not informed of that project. We want all individuals to be aware and report anything they see to us that may have a detriment on cultural resources and sites,” Catches Enemy said. The South Dakota Historic Preservation Office has been supportive and helpful, and so far the state Department of Transportation has been as well. While Catches Enemy said that the support can depend on who is working there, recently agencies have been more cooperative. “There appears to be an opening up of true cross-cultural understandings occurring for some federal and state agencies with Tribes, which makes for stronger working relationships with regards to historic preservation.” Other groups have been supportive as well, and the OSTHPO credits Associate Director of the Museum of Geology, School of Mines, and Sally Shelton with making substantial changes in the way that school has handled items that were taken from the South Unit of the Badlands, many years ago. Shelton said that much has changed since she began working at the School of Mines five years ago. Coming from the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., Shelton said she had seen repatriation done both well and poorly. She said, “So many problems arise when people don’t cooperate that it just makes sense for all involved to work together.” In recent years, the School of Mines built a repository for the collection’s artifacts, with Oglala artifacts making up the bulk of items. Shelton said that Wilmer Mesteth was involved in every step of caring for the items, and that when the building was first opened. Because of the involvement of the OSTHPO, the Oglala artifacts are kept separate from the rest of the collection and are only handled when a tribal representative is present. A few years ago, Shelton started a class with Oglala Lakota College’s Hannan LaGarry, and several students from OLC came out to study Paleontology Resources. Non-native students of archeology and engineering also benefitted from the class. “I wanted them to get a heavy dose of what we don’t own or collect without the land owner’s permission,” Shelton said, adding that it was important for the students to understand, “It’s a science resource, it’s a cultural resource and it’s a historical resource.” Working with Wilmer Mesteth from the OSTHPO, Shelton said the safety of the collection is ensured, adding, “We are keeping things for the next generation. If we can all work together, we can make sure the items are available for the next generation to learn about. Then everybody benefits, and isn't that what we are all about?” (Contact Christina Rose at christinarose.sd@gmail.com) Copyright permission by Native Sun News
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