SHARPS CORNER - In a scene out of the distant past, a tribal leader and U.S. military commander sat cross-legged Thursday in a traditional Native American tipi, putting a mutual promise on paper.

Oglala Sioux Tribe President John Yellow Bird Steele and Col. Scott Vander Hamm, 28th Bomb Wing commander at Ellsworth Air Force Base, signed a tribal consultation plan designed to finish the cleanup of 2,486 acres of the Badlands Bombing Range and eventually return to the property to its original owners, including the tribe and tribal members.

Although the area affected by the agreement is small compared to the total 341,726 acres of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation originally included in the bombing range, Yellow Bird Steele called the agreement an important part of the overall bombing range cleanup.

Yellow Bird Steele said his family was among those displaced by the bombing range, taken in the 1940s, when the government took control of a sprawling section of reservation land 15 miles wide by 40 miles long. The taking was another example of tribal sacrifices and commitments to the cause of freedom, Yellow Bird Steele said.

"The Oglalas have always contributed to the freedom of the United States," he said.

"The Oglala Sioux Tribe has contributed the lives of our warriors, our time and this land in our efforts to keep freedom going."

The initial phase of the cleanup will begin this summer, when Native American Environmental, a small business owned by Oglala Lakota members, surveys and excavates unexploded ordnance from a selected 25 acres within the 2,486 acres in the Air Force Retained Area, referred to in the plan as the "impact area." Additional cleaning stages will follow.

Much of the remaining bombing range property outside of the Air Force Retained Area has been returned to the Oglala Sioux Tribe or individual landowners, or was set aside as the 133,000-acre South Unit of the Badlands National Park.

The unit is managed by the National Park Service in cooperation with the Oglala Sioux Tribe. The National Park Service is developing a new management plan for the South Unit. One option being considered is returning the unit to tribal control.

The signing ceremony for the impact area within the bombing range was held at the White River Visitor Center on the South Unit. Ceremonies included a tribal drum group, a color guard and prayers by Oglala Lakota spiritual leaders.

The ceremony was followed by a picnic near the visitor center.

Vander Hamm said the consultation agreement will help the Air Force fulfill its commitments to the land and the tribal members.

"It's quite simple what we are trying to do. We are trying to be good stewards of the environment, good stewards of the land and give that land back to its original owners," Vander Hamm said.

The agreement signed Thursday establishes a process requiring regular consultation with tribal officials in planning and executing remaining cleanup duties on the impact area, a fenced, off-limits section of land a few miles south of S.D. Highway 44 between Scenic and Interior.

The property was part of the original 341,726 acres taken by the U.S. War Department in 1942 for a World War II bombing and aerial gunnery range. In the mid-1960s, the South Dakota National Guard placed about 100 car bodies on the retained area to use as artillery targets in training exercises through 1973.

In 1997, Air Force teams cleaned the retained area to a depth of 18 inches. Subsequent testing since determined that additional cleanup was needed.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is handling cleanup efforts on bombing range land outside the retained area. That work is ongoing, although Yellow Bird Steele said working with the corps is more difficult than working with the Air Force.

"The Corps of Engineers is a very hard animal to deal with," he said. "But the Air Force has not only extended their hand, but gone above and beyond."

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com