AMERIND-US-SE-L Archives

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Subject: Hog Farm update
Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 19:21:12 EDT

Subj: Hog Farm updated
Date: 4/30/01 7:28:09 AM Pacific Daylight Time
From: <A HREF="mailto:Aimfl">Aimfl</A>
To: <A HREF="mailto:SGMAIMFL">SGMAIMFL</A>
BCC: <A HREF="mailto:REDSKI9136">REDSKI9136</A>



Hog farm finds foe in tribe

By Steve Miller, West River Editor

Rosebud Sioux Tribe has reversed course and is seeking to stop the second
huge hog farm planned on tribal land in Mellette County.


The tribal council last week voted to ask the tribal court to order Sun
Prairie Partnership of Nebraska to stop building a second 48-barn farm site,
according to attorney Jim Dougherty of Washington. He represents groups
opposed to the hog farms.


The previous tribal council, under then-President Norman Wilson, had signed a
lease with Sun Prairie, an affiliate of Bell Farms, to build up to 288 hog
barns in two phases on tribal land. The second site, planned for six miles
north of Cedar Butte, would be built under Phase One, Bell officials have
said.


Managing Partner Steve Bell of Lamar, Colo., said Friday that if the tribe
tried to break its agreement, Sun Prairie/Bell Farms would take legal action.


The tribal council's resolution this week alleges that Sun Prairie has not
met terms of the lease, including getting advance approval by the tribe of
plans for roads and rights of way, Dougherty said.


Bell said the partnership was preparing a legal response to the
tribal-council action, and he declined to comment further.


Tribal President William Kindle and 15 council members were elected in late
1999, after the first facility, the Grassy Knoll hog farm, was built. Kindle
has not returned phone calls from the Journal about the council's action.


In a nonbinding referendum in May 2000, tribal members voted 556 to 451
against leasing more land to Sun Prairie to expand the hog farm.


The first farm, built in 1999, lies just off S.D. Highway 44 about seven
miles west of White River. Its 48 barns feed about 100,000 pigs a year. Last
fall, it had 17 employees, 14 of whom are tribal members. Controlling partner
Rich Bell said the second farm would have a similar number of employees and
would be managed by a tribal member.


Preliminary work has begun on the second site, which would be nearly
identical to the first farm, Steve Bell said. No major earthwork has been
done, he said.


Federal Judge Charles Kornmann ruled in February 2000 that the entire project
could go forward and granted an injunction against the Bureau of Indian
Affairs and opposition groups from interfering with the hog farm.


Dougherty said Friday that the tribe was not bound by that injunction because
at the time it was issued, the tribe had sought the injunction.


Dougherty said the council's latest action aligns it with the opposition
groups, including Concerned Rosebud Area Citizens, the South Dakota Peace and
Justice Center, Prairie Hills Audubon and the Humane Farming Association.


A news release from Concerned Rosebud Area Citizens hailed the council's
action. The group said the council heard several hours of testimony alleging
numerous violations of tribal codes, noncompliance with prior agreements and
the "potentially disastrous environmental effects of these violations."


It also called for closing down and cleaning up the existing hog farm.


Oleta Mednansky, co-chairwoman of the group, has said the site for the second
hog farm is near an old trail used by spiritual leader Sitting Bull, Chief
Spotted Tail and Chief Hump. Land in the area contains fossils and artifacts,
she said.


However, Carson Murdy, archaeologist for the BIA regional office at Aberdeen,
said in February that the second site near Cedar Butte poses no
cultural-resource problems. "We have no direct information on those trails,"
Murdy added. "They've never been recorded as such. I've heard them mentioned,
but there is no physical evidence of the trails that could be discerned and
no demonstration who they were used by. No artifacts have been found on
either of the sites that I know of."


He said a contractor hired by Bell Farms conducted the archaeological survey.

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