Last week, an Oglala Sioux tribal leader and an Air Force commander sat crossed legged in a Native American tipi and, in a show of good faith, signed an agreement for the cleanup of several acres of bombing range in the Badlands.

This move has been long overdue and we're glad to see the cleanup - and the land being restored to its original owners - addressed.

The tribal consultation plan to finish the cleanup of 2,486 acres of the Badlands Bombing Range was signed by Oglala Sioux Tribe President John Yellow Bird Steele and Col. Scott Vander Hamm, 28th Bomb Wing commander at Ellsworth Air Force Base.

The area was used as a World War II bombing range and aerial gunnery range. Later the South Dakota National Guard used the area to place artillery targets. That ended about 35 years ago.

Using the land for the 15-mile-wide, 40-mile-long bombing range made sense at one time in history but it came with a human cost - several Native Americans were displaced by the range when the government took control of the land. Yellow Bird Steele, whose own family was displaced, said it was an example of tribal sacrifices and commitment to freedom.

Today, much of the land in the bombing range area has already been returned to the Oglala Sioux Tribe or landowners.

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

Although the agreement signed last week only addresses the cleanup of 2,486 acres of the Badlands Bombing Range (341,726 acres of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation were affected by the bombing range), it's step in the right direction.

Land use in South Dakota will continue to be an issue. In this case, we're glad to see the Badlands Bombing Range land issue addressed in a cooperative, positive fashion and have hopes other land issues will be similarly resolved.

For instance, DM&E is planning a major upgrade and expansion project that will impact hundreds of people in the state. That project has been widely contested. And the land use around Bear Butte has also been contested as development and Native American tradition have collided head on.

Maybe the way to find the best resolution to these issues is to sit around the table and negotiate in good faith? After too many years, it's working in the Badlands.