American Indians seek voice in zoning talks

By Bill Cissell, Meade County Times Tribune | Sunday, January 14, 2007

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STURGIS - Several American Indians attending Thursday's zoning work session of the Meade County Commission urged the policymakers to include Indians as they work to adopt new zoning rules.

"I've noticed an absence of Native American participation," Mark Wandering Medicine said. "There is a federal mandate to have (this representation in some) projects. I suggest you tap into Native American resources; it would expedite (things)."

Meade County has no zoning ordinance, and past attempts to initiate one have been solidly defeated, solidly, according to Meade County director of equalization Kirk Chaffee.

However, during the 2006 South Dakota Legislative session, Meade County officials and Ellsworth Air Force Base Task Force members help persuade lawmakers to pass a law which allows the implementation of special zoning districts. Now, commissioners or individual residents can ask for zoning in an area. If commissioner-initiated, the area must include at least five square miles.

The Meade County Commission is currently considering such zoning for three areas in the county, including areas near Ellsworth Air Force Base, along the Piedmont Valley Interstate 90 corridor and land surrounding Bear Butte east of Sturgis.

It is the latter that has been of specific interest to Indian tribes.

Bear Butte is considered sacred by a number of tribes, and a number of religious ceremonies are held there throughout the year.

In the past year, Indian groups from several tribes and those sympathetic to their cause asked the county commission to reject liquor license requests from businesses near Bear Butte.

However, without a zoning ordinance, county officials said that they were limited legally in what conditions they could consider in approving or denying such things as liquor license requests.

Commissioners, other county officials and members of the public spent most of Thursday's two-hour meeting dealing with the process of zoning, rather than an end product, according to Chaffee.

Some of those attending indicated they wanted earlier notification about the issue and the meeting.

Chaffee reminded the audience that he only requested the meeting last week and then only to determine if the commissioners even wanted to talk about zoning districts.

"At this time, I don't even know if they want to do it," Chaffee said.

Although no specific date was set, the commissioners did tell Chaffee to continue his research into zoning and bring them a report.