- published: 21 Jan 2008
- views: 879241
The Black Hills (Pahá Sápa in Lakota, Moʼȯhta-voʼhonáaeva in Cheyenne) are a small, isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, USA.Harney Peak, which rises to 7,244 feet (2,208 m), is the range's highest summit. The Black Hills encompass the Black Hills National Forest and are home to the tallest peaks of continental North America east of the Rockies. The name "Black Hills" is a translation of the Lakota Pahá Sápa. The hills were so-called because of their dark appearance from a distance, as they were covered in trees.
Native Americans have a long history in the Black Hills. After conquering the Cheyenne in 1776, the Lakota took over the territory of the Black Hills, which became central to their culture. In 1868, the U.S. government signed the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, exempting the Black Hills from all white settlement forever. However, when European Americans discovered gold there in 1874, as a result of George Armstrong Custer's Black Hills Expedition, erstwhile miners swept into the area in a gold rush. The US government re-assigned the Lakota, against their wishes, to other reservations in western South Dakota. Unlike most of South Dakota, the Black Hills were settled by European Americans primarily from population centers to the west and south of the region, as miners flocked there from earlier gold boom locations in Colorado and Montana.
Music: D.Gildenlow
'They tell all the people of Europe, it's a good, clean industry, it's a
great way to save the world. But I'm here to tell you that now they're
knocking on our door because they can't find any place to store the damned
stuff for eternity, They come to our homeland and they want to lease some
land for 10,000 years!'
This was our home - we had our truth
Bled for our creed - why must we still bleed?
Your tailings are bound forever in this ground...
So you come for our holy ground
When your nature's gone and your house has burnt down
For hundreds of years you've hurt this land
Eating what's there, leaving a wasteland
But there are no space to hold all your mistakes
Still you come for our holy ground
When your nature's gone and your houses are all burnt down
[instrumental]
[Hallgren]
'To this day, they will not return our sacred land, even though their
highest hypocritical court said that we could and indeed did, own the