Update on Bear Butte issue 7-20-08

Update on Bear Butte issue 7-20-08

The rally is two weeks away and the tents are already up and running in Sturgis. They say with the economy, the rally could be down by half this year. Don't get to excited about this, that is still potentially 250,000 people! Sturgis is normally a community of about 6,500 people, so this influx of people all at once is overwhelming.

With the new developments and issues with Broken Spoke Campground, we are dreading this upcoming rally. They will be offering concerts every night this year. The helicopter issue is still pending. Our organization Protect Sacred Sites and Parks, filed a complaint with FAA, they did make recommendations to BSC to not fly over Bear Butte, and gave them other suggested flight patterns. The challenge is all FAA can do is make suggestions and recommendations, what they say is not mandatory. This makes no sense, believe me I know! We have been working with NARF for legal assistance, they hopefully will be filing a legal letter to Broken Spoke in the next few days about this issue.

Our org submitted a Tribal Resolution to the Great Plains Tribal Chairman's Association for the protection of Bear Butte and the helicopter issue. They unanimously approved the resolution on July 10th, (Resolution 52-07-10-08) . This will also be submitted to NARF as additional documentation of support for the issue. I will post a copy of the resolution on our website and blog, as soon as I get a digital copy of it, within the next couple days.

We will be walking around each day during the Rally, reaching out to the Biker community about the Bear Butte issue. We are continuing the campaign "Bikers for Bear Butte" and will be passing out the fliers during the rally. Over the past couple months, our organization and volunteers have sent out approximately 5,000-6,000 emails and still counting, the Bikers for Bear Butte flier, to various biker websites, message boards, dealerships, organizations and clubs.

We will be documenting what transpires during the rally, sending out updates during that week.

On a good note, with all the rain we have had, Bear Butte Lake is actually full. It is actually a wildlife refuge, however it hasn't been at this level for about ten years. This is a good thing! I took the picture above last week. Enjoy......

Thank you to everyone that has helped us with getting this info and the fliers out there! Your help is greatly appreciated, we couldn't have gotten all this out without your help!

What's new on Protect Bear Butte website

Detailed timeline summary of Bear Butte issue from 2003 shooting range issue, to today's struggle with the bars.

new design, new pages, new posts to the blog and more............

For up to date info about the ongoing efforts to Protect Bear Butte, visit us at www.protectbearbutte.com


Protect Sacred Sites Indigenous People, One Nation is a grass roots organization, working towards the protection of sacred sites across the country. Our organization has been actively involved with the ongoing struggle to Protect Bear Butte for several years. We are continuing these efforts, our organization is currently leading the campaign regarding the new developments and further expansions at Bear Butte. Please visit our main website at www.ProtectSacredSites.org . We have a dedicated website for the Bear Butte issue at www.protectbearbutte.com


In peace & solidarity,
Tamra Brennan
Founder/Director
Protect Sacred Sites Indigenous People, One Nation
www.protectsacredsites.org
www.protectbearbutte.com

"Our sacred lands are all that remain keeping us connected to our place on Mother Earth, to our spirituality, our heritage and our lands; what’s left of them. If they take it all away, what will remain except a vague memory of a past so forgotten?"