There’s more to the Black Hills Settlement than meets the eye

Monday, September 16, 2019  

Arthur Lazarus had won his legal team ten million dollars. That was their cut from the over one hundred million dollars awarded for the sale of the Black Hills in June, 1980.

That’s right— the Black Hills have already been sold. The tribes hired Lazarus to get them money, not land, and that he did.

To be fair, the Indian Claims Commission, established in 1946, dealt with only money, not land, the government’s underhanded way to keep tribes from getting land back, and be rewarded only a pittance of their actual value, and by taking that money, tribes lost all future claim to the land.

Still, all the tribes wanted the money, and by that I mean ALL THE TRIBES. They hired Lazarus, and he was giving his clients what they wanted. Mario Gonzalez was a young tribal attorney at that time, not involved with the Black Hills case in any direct capacity, but he discussed this settlement with his friend Russel Barsh, who agreed to be co-counsel, and they were able to talk Mario’s tribe, the Oglala Sioux Tribe, into passing a resolution empowering Mario specifically to seek an injunction to stop payment.

The idea was to keep open the possibility of future Oceti Sakowin consultation to get the land for the Black Hills back. There was no time to ask other tribes to join in, and no reason to assume they would be receptive to joining the injunction battle even if asked. Mario found the rationale to remove his tribe from the settlement, and the court agreed. The payment was stopped, and that money, added to a subsequent Docket 74 award, is now pushing two billion because of interest.

Today people all think the tribes wanted the land back. Not the case. It is easy to rewrite recent history, let alone ancient history, but many of the people now claiming the land is sacred, had their hand out in 1980, champing at the bit for a piddly $500.

But the story does not end there. Mario had a plan to get a favorable consultation underway for the tribes. An important part of that plan was establishing sacred tribal stewardship of the Black Hills. This called for establishing camps, where he could provide visible proof the tribe was a good steward and took their sacred relationship with this land seriously. Problem was, others got wind of the plan, I mean,

James Giago Davies is an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota tribe. He can be reached at skindiesel@msn.com

Copyright permission Native Sun News Today