An Internal Revenue Service auction to sell 7,100 acres of South Dakota land owned by the Crow Creek Sioux to help pay more than $3 million in back taxes could not be stopped, despite a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Pierre by the tribe on Monday, Nov. 30 to block it. As reported by The Associated Press on Dec. 4, the land was sold at an auction on Thursday for nearly $2.6 million.
The AP report said that the land was part of the tribe's original reservation established in an 1868 treaty, and was at first held in trust. But over time, it was allotted to individual tribal members and was later sold to non-Indians. The Crow Creek purchased it again in 1998, but the land never went back into trust, leaving it open to seizure.
Another sad, sad day!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd so the internal destruction of tribal rights continues. The advent of gaming has provided th government to impetus to slow or stop land into trust agreements and now we see land that was probably part of a termination era plan to provide "individual american citizen rights" to tribal people has come back to bite the tribe(s). I say the government should stop this "back taxes" seizure" and offset the back annuities that are owed the tribe. Enough is enough, stand up Redmen, protest this type of activity by the government!
ReplyDeleteA very tough lesson on how important it is to put tribal land back into trust once it is owned by the tribe again.
ReplyDeleteThe United States of America only made one promise that they've ever kept. They promised that they would take away the all of the Indians land, and they're still actively trying to keep that promise.
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