Original article: http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/display/inn_news/news13.txt

November 21, 2001


Pine Ridge tribal council passes hemp ordinance

PINE RIDGE -- The Oglala Sioux Tribal Council voted 10-2 on Tuesday to
approve a resolution supporting the development of industrial hemp on
the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

According to a news release issued through the Slim Buttes Land Use
Association, former tribal president Joe American Horse presented the
resolution on behalf of the land-use association, and Councilman Frank
"Popo" Means made the motion to approve it. The resolution calls on the
U.S. Congress to permit the cultivation of industrial hemp "for economic
necessity."

This was the second time a tribal council has taken action regarding
hemp. In 1998, the council passed an ordinance distinguishing industrial
hemp from marijuana, and permitting hemp cultivation on the reservation
as an economic commodity.

Industrial hemp is not smoked like marijuana but can be used to make
rope, paper, soap and a variety of other products. Supporters say that
could be a big boost on the reservation, where jobs are scarce.

For the past two years, tribal members have
planted industrial-hemp crops, only to have U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration agents confiscate the plants just before harvest. The
resolution passed Tuesday reportedly calls on Congress to "restrain its
agents from interfering with the tribe's sovereign right to exercise
land-based economic-development programs on Pine Ridge."

"This is a step in the right direction," American Horse said in the news
release. "We need to educate the people and show other tribes a way
toward economic development."

The Slim Buttes Land Use Association plans to present the adopted
measure at the annual conference of the National Congress of American
Indians in Spokane, Wash., later this month.

Tom Cook, a spokesman for the land-use association, said tribal-council
members Wilmer Youngman and Lydia Bear Killer opposed the resolution.