Sioux Want to Clear Land of Bombs

[rodeodance]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/01/AR2005080101288.html?referrer=email
Sioux Want to Clear Land of Bombs
Unexploded Ordnance Hampers Tribe's Move Into Tourism

By Carson Walker
Associated Press
Tuesday, August 2, 2005; Page A11


RED SHIRT, S.D. -- The bombs were dropped from 1942 to 1963, and the Oglala Sioux Tribe leaders hope the removal of unexploded ordnance from the Pine Ridge reservation will clear the way for tourists who want to visit and learn about Indian culture.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in charge of removing the bombs, which the military dropped at what was then the Badlands Bombing Range.......


Besides increasing tourism, the Oglala Sioux hope to allow family members to return to the land from which tribal members were uprooted when the bombing range was built.

The land was returned to the tribe in 1977, although the Air Force still controls about four square miles in the northern part of the range, which includes part of Badlands National Park.

[Squatch]

1. Excellent. Beautiful country up there.

[Freedomfried]

2. How?

[Squatch]

3. Metal detectors, shovels, and C-4

[oneighty]

5. Lot of hard work

'shafting' for bombs. I wonder what the soil is like. I participated in clearing bombs in sandy soil. Some bombs would bury fifteen-twenty feet deep. Wood shoring had to be used to keep the sand from caving in on us.

180

[TahitiNut]

4. Over easy.

[rodeodance]

6. it has been 40-50 years and the military is still stalling.

[Freedomfried]

10. Lame attempt at being funny

Sorry bout that

[mntleo2]

7. Could,... Could They

Also look off the reservation too? See because of our war mongering ways, which began with these people, now we are having this awful terrorist problem and...well it would be nice if we could use the Sioux wisdom and magic to, to....

Oh never mind.....

Cat In Seattle

[xchrom]

8. grrrr. -- you'd think this would have been done already.

'course i think they were left there to keep them{lakota} off balance.

mustn't let those redskins have too much of a good thing.

[MountainLaurel]

9. Not just a problem on the rez

The U.S. military is one of the country's leading environmental polluters and the organization behind many, many Superfund sites. In DC, there are a couple very tony neighborhoods where a few years ago some home building efforts turned up a wide variety of ordinance, including mustard gas dating back to WWI. The area also has above-accepted levels of arsenic in the soil, but hey, what's a little environmental pollution among friends. Much of the problem lies in that records of where these things were dumped were never kept, or were classified as secret and thus not available to communities.

Although, in the case of Pine Ridge, that's not so much of an issue.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. Good for them!

Next they can take the US to court and demand the return of the Black Hills.