Category Archives: Native American
Tribes raise $9M for sacred SD land
![Badlands 215[3]](http://activistnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Badlands-2153-300x225.jpg "Badlands 215[3]")
Associated Press
Nov. 30, 2012
By KRISTI EATON
SIOUX FALLS, S.D.—After months of high-profile fundraising that drew celebrities’ attention and dollars, a group of Native American tribes has raised $9 million to buy a piece of land in South Dakota’s Black Hills that they consider sacred, an official with an Indian land foundation said Friday.
The Indian Land Tenure Foundation president Cris Stainbrook told The Associated Press that the tribes raised enough money to purchase the land from its current owners. The foundation was one of several groups and organizations leading the effort to buy the land.
Stainbrook said the deal should be finalized yet Friday, which was the deadline for the tribes to raise the money.
P Diddy Boosts Campaign To Protect Sioux Land
Sky News
Nov. 19, 2012
P Diddy and Bette Midler have become the latest celebrities to back an online campaign to raise money so Native American tribes can purchase land they consider sacred.
The fundraising effort aims to buy nearly 2,000 acres (800 hectares) of pristine prairie grass in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Three days after the campaign began, P Diddy tweeted “Help save the Sioux Nation! Click here” and linked to the website.
Midler also lent her voice, tweeting: “Incredible story re the Sioux Sacred Grounds. Donate what you can.” Around \$6,000 (£3,775) flowed in immediately after P Diddy’s tweet.
American Indian activist Russell Means dead at 72
Reuters
Oct. 22, 2012
By Keith Coffman
Oct 22 (Reuters) – Native American activist-turned-actor Russell Means died on Monday at his home in South Dakota, his family said in a statement. He was 72.
“Our dad and husband now walks among our ancestors,” the statement said.
The firebrand former leader of the American Indian Movement and onetime Libertarian Party candidate for U.S. president had been battling advanced esophageal cancer.
Born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of the Oglala Sioux in South Dakota, Means joined the American Indian Movement in 1968 and soon became one of the group’s prominent leaders. He took part in an occupation of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 1972, and led the 72-day standoff with federal authorities at Wounded Knee on Pine Ridge in 1973.
