FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MAY 8, 2025
Rapid City, SD – NDN Collective is ramping up the fight to protect Pe’sla – a sacred site in the Black Hills which has been used for ceremonial gatherings of Lakota, Dakota, and other nations for thousands of years – from destruction and exploitation, the most recent proposal coming from Pete Lien & Sons for a project that would involve exploratory drilling for graphite.
NDN Collective has been educating the public on the Pe’sla project for months, encouraging people to submit a public comment before May 16th to oppose the project.
On Friday, May 2, NDN Collective held a press conference with Black Hills Clean Water Alliance to express their concerns around the Pe’sla proposal.
The Pe’sla project would consist of 18 drill pads, each of which could see drilling up to 1,000 ft deep. Drill pad areas go through a process of vegetation removal, toxic drilling mud pits, and destruction or degradation of all other uses of the land. This project would threaten the Rapid Creek Watershed and the underground water sources in the area.
“Pe’sla is a sacred site with federal Indian trust status – yet is still at risk of mining, which should raise alarm bells for everyone in the Black Hills area and beyond as the success of this proposal could make all land that much easier for mining companies to contaminate forever,” NDN Collective Organizer Taylor Gunhammer said. ”Further, the underground deposits of graphite are small and low-grade – which tells us that this project isn’t even about the money, as there’s hardly any to be made. The Pe’sla mining proposal is a calculated and willful attack on Indigenous sovereignty, history, and human rights.”
“Mining at Pe’sla could contaminate drinking water for Rapid City, Rapid Valley, Box Elder, and even Ellsworth Air Force Base, and cause irreparable ecological damage. It’s imperative that everyone rally to protect this sacred land – for ourselves, our future generations, and our shared planet.”
To submit a public comment visit: https://ndnco.cc/ProtectPesla
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NDN Collective is an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building Indigenous power. Through organizing, activism, philanthropy, grantmaking, capacity-building, and narrative change, we are creating sustainable solutions on Indigenous terms.