PROTECTING BEAR BUTTE
Bear Butte is currently under consideration for nomination as one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. Please send a letter of support as soon as possible to the National Trust for Historic Preservation:
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Office of Communications/Eleven Most Endangered
1785 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20036
A sample letter is below. Feel free to use or modify this letter, or compose your own.
Greetings:
I am writing to support the nomination of sacred Bear Butte as one of America's Eleven Most Endangered Historic Places. Bear Butte is located to the northeast of the Black Hills in present day South Dakota. It has been a place of pilgrimmage and prayer for many people for thousands of years.
A proposal to build a shooting range near Bear Butte has recently been abandoned by the Sturgis Industrial Expansion Corporation. A firearms disruption center located near such a sacred site would have been a violation of the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie. Bear Butte is also protected through Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, which allows Indigenous Peoples to live and travel freely throughout the Black Mountain "Black Hills" Region.
These protections were blatantly threatened by the proposal of the shooting range. A tremendous effort on the part of a grassroots organization, the Defenders of the Black Hills, and other people, helped to bring attention to the situation and ultimately thwart the project. However, this is one small victory, and Bear Butte's current protections may be threatened again by developers and economic interests insensitive to the significance of this sacred site.
This is why I am urging you to support the nomination of Bear Butte as one of America's Eleven Most Endangered Historic Places. This designation would bring awareness to all people of the cultural significance and historical importance of Bear Butte. It is a place worthy and deserving of the highest protections the law can provide.
Thank you for your attention to these comments.
Sincerely,
your name
For current information on this issue, please see the website of the Defenders of the Black Hills.
Thanks to Charmaine White Face.