{"id":104355,"date":"2026-05-04T08:26:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T12:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=104355"},"modified":"2026-05-04T08:26:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T12:26:30","slug":"tribes-sue-to-halt-exploratory-drilling-in-black-hills-near-sacred-ceremonial-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/tribes-sue-to-halt-exploratory-drilling-in-black-hills-near-sacred-ceremonial-site\/","title":{"rendered":"Tribes sue to halt exploratory drilling in Black Hills near sacred ceremonial site"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sarah Raza SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) \u2014 Nine Native American tribes in South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska are suing the federal government in a bid to stop exploratory drilling for graphite near a sacred site in the Black Hills. A small group of demonstrators has been protesting at the drilling location and at the mining company’s headquarters since they learned ground was broken on the drilling project in late April. The tribes filed their federal lawsuit Thursday in South Dakota against the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture, alleging that the agencies violated federal law by greenlighting a project near a site called Pe\u2019Sla, a meadow in the central Black Hills used for tribal ceremonies, prayer and youth camps year-round. The project is the latest point… <\/p>\n

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By Sarah Raza SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) \u2014 Nine Native American tribes in South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska are suing the federal government in a bid to stop exploratory drilling for graphite near a sacred site in the Black Hills. A small group of demonstrators has been protesting at the drilling location and at the mining company’s headquarters since they learned ground was broken on the drilling project in late April. The tribes filed their federal lawsuit Thursday in South Dakota against the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture, alleging that the agencies violated federal law by greenlighting a project near a site called Pe\u2019Sla, a meadow in the central Black Hills used for tribal ceremonies, prayer and youth camps year-round. The project is the latest point... <\/p>\n

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Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"\nTribes sue to halt exploratory drilling in Black Hills near sacred ceremonial site - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/tribes-sue-to-halt-exploratory-drilling-in-black-hills-near-sacred-ceremonial-site\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tribes sue to halt exploratory drilling in Black Hills near sacred ceremonial site - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Sarah Raza SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) \u2014 Nine Native American tribes in South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska are suing the federal government in a bid to stop exploratory drilling for graphite near a sacred site in the Black Hills. A small group of demonstrators has been protesting at the drilling location and at the mining company’s headquarters since they learned ground was broken on the drilling project in late April. The tribes filed their federal lawsuit Thursday in South Dakota against the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture, alleging that the agencies violated federal law by greenlighting a project near a site called Pe\u2019Sla, a meadow in the central Black Hills used for tribal ceremonies, prayer and youth camps year-round. The project is the latest point\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/tribes-sue-to-halt-exploratory-drilling-in-black-hills-near-sacred-ceremonial-site\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-04T12:26:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/04\\\/tribes-sue-to-halt-exploratory-drilling-in-black-hills-near-sacred-ceremonial-site\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/04\\\/tribes-sue-to-halt-exploratory-drilling-in-black-hills-near-sacred-ceremonial-site\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Tribes sue to halt exploratory drilling in Black Hills near sacred ceremonial site\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-04T12:26:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/04\\\/tribes-sue-to-halt-exploratory-drilling-in-black-hills-near-sacred-ceremonial-site\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":795,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/04\\\/tribes-sue-to-halt-exploratory-drilling-in-black-hills-near-sacred-ceremonial-site\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/04\\\/tribes-sue-to-halt-exploratory-drilling-in-black-hills-near-sacred-ceremonial-site\\\/\",\"name\":\"Tribes sue to halt exploratory drilling in Black Hills near sacred ceremonial site - 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