Heyoka Magazine:  When and where did you first discover these dangerous abandoned uranium mines?

Harold One Feather:  I first heard about the Riley Pass abandoned uranium mine in the spring of 1997 from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Cultural Resource Planner, La Donna Brave Bull-Allard; she said that the Grey Eagle Society of Pine Ridge / Rapid City told her that there were uranium mine tailings out there. Then the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe as part of the Sioux Oil and Gas Leasing Draft Environmental Impact Statement organized a meeting on June 6-7, 1997 at Picnic Springs, North Cave Hills Unit, Sioux Ranger District, Custer National Forest; I attended this meeting and asked to see the abandoned uranium mine tailings. The US Forest Service said that the meeting was about the cultural resources on the Cave Hills and not the uranium mine, more specifically, the USFS was more concerned about the petroglyphs that were being vandalized by unknown people and the amount of the other graffiti that was being added to the sites where there were petroglyphs.

At this meeting the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe sent as its representatives Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Tim Mentz, Sr., Cultural Resource Planner La Donna Brave Bull-Allard, SRST EPA Officer Cynthia Moore, SRST Community Health Representative Director John Eagle Shield, the SRST BIA Firefighters and many young students from the SRST Grant School.

My tribe is well aware of the mine but not the affected communities such as Rock Creek (Bullhead, SD) and Running Antelope (Little Eagle, SD). To protect these resources at the Custer National Forest, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, as recommended by Tim Mentz, Sr. SRST-THPO, issued a resolution 569-97 saying the cultural properties are sacred.

The next year I tried to organize an informational meeting concerning the abandoned uranium mines at the Custer National Forest, but had to postpone due to inclement weather.

HM:  When you first saw these mine sites back in 1997; do you remember seeing any warning signs posted by any of the agencies you mentioned, of the potential health hazards of uranium exposure?

Harold One Feather:  In 1997 there were no signs posted at all; I don't know the actual number of radiological hazard signs they posted in 2002. As of 2004 I saw two signs, one was stolen. In 2005 I went to the Pickpocket mine which is about two miles east of the Riley Pass mine and have seen a sign post that had the radiological hazard sign stolen.

 

HM:  How far are these abandoned uranium mines from the reservations and the general population and when did you first learn about people getting sick from the uranium contamination?

Harold One Feather:  As the crow flies, the nearest Native community is Rock Creek (Bullhead, SD) and it is 110 miles downstream. 

With respect to the steadily emerging health problems in Rock Creek, my mother died at 41 of cancer, my father died at 33 of heart disease, my aunt died of cancer, and there are many other people in the community that have died of cancer. There are also many miscarriages by young women occurring right now. On the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation, there is a very marked increase in diabetes rates and cancer; they just haven't been given the proper motivation to determine the cause since for them it is easier to blame alcoholism; this defeatist attitude stops with me. The Indian Health Service has been blaming alcoholism for too long; I know that this is not the case with several of the other unfortunate cancer deaths that could be explained by alcoholism.
 

 

Another issue that I would like to discuss is that there are four major federal agencies that have water management authorities on the Grand River; they are the US Bureau of Reclamation, US Army Corps of Engineers, USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service and the US Forest Service. Although I might seem presumptuous in assuming that only the US Forest Service is the only agency that is aware of the uranium mines, none of the other mentioned entities are monitoring water quality on the Grand River and they definitely aren't monitoring for radionuclides.

Currently as a result of my insistence, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, through their SRST EPA department, has started investigating  the radiological hazards in the Grand River; I have included these results but please note that this table was compiled on Microsoft Works and was conducted during years of drought. There will be more sampling conducted in the future.

Another issue is that prior to the new water system installed in Rock Creek several years ago, the water came from the alluvial aquifer  which drew water from 10 feet under the surface and 150 feet from the Grand River. The water from the household taps existing during this time were never sampled for radionuclides.

Grand River South Dakota

The Standing Rock and Cheyenne River reservations were at the center of the so-called Ghost Dance uprising among the Lakota in 1890 and home to Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Black Elk.

In addition, there are major oil drilling operations occurring near the North Cave Hills area yet there aren't any surface water or groundwater sampling conducted by any of the previously mentioned federal entities. The US Forest Service in its Sioux Oil and Gas Leasing FEIS  http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/custer states the oil drilling must be regulated to protect groundwater resources from contamination in "Section 3.10.1.2 Forest Plan Direction" but no mention is made of actual water quality monitoring, in other words, they aren't going to monitor these oil wells yet they are going to lease the public lands for oil drilling.

HM:  Does the Grand river run near these mines and flow towards the grasslands near Rock Creek, Standing Rock reservation or the other communities?
 

Harold One Feather:  The Riley Pass Abandoned Uranium Mine flows into both the north and south forks of the Grand River. Following the link and I have attached the results of the link as a jpeg image.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/custer/projects/Planning/nepa/SiouxEIS/map.packet/Location_map_Ch1_Ver5.pdf

 

HM:  What about fish, cattle, birds, fauna or wild life that drink from this Grand River water? Do they show any unusual symptoms?
 

Harold One Feather: Cattle and sheep in the area suffer from molybdenosis, meaning they have copper deficiency which causes their coats to become white.  Every now and then a deformed fish or frog is caught in the Grand River.

HM:  When you said "they just haven't been given the proper motivation to determine the cause" Do you mean US Bureau of Reclamation, US Army Corps of Engineers, USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service and the US Forest Service?

Harold One Feather:  All of the mentioned federal agencies aren't working together to address this problem but yet they have water management authorities in the Grand River.

The ACOE manages the Bowman-Haley dam on the north fork of the Grand River about 15 miles from the mine.

The Bureau of Reclamation manages the Shadehill dam which is at the confluence of the north and south forks of the Grand River.

Custer National Forest

 

The NRCS manages water quality as it pertains to the EPA program section 319 non-point source pollution prevention program.

The US Forest Service manages the uranium mines on the Custer National Forest and has taken the position that they don't know what happens to the water after it leaves forest boundaries.

In my MSN  Spaces photos, there is a slide describing what the US Forest doesn't know. I'll include the link for convenience to you.

http://spaces.msn.com/uraniummine

In 2003 the US Forest Service issued an imminent threat of a hazardous release under CERCLA (Superfund) to the SRST THPO Tim Mentz, Sr. His associate Byron Olson gave me a copy and I gave a copy to the Defenders of the Black Hills in 2004. As is apparent, they have not acted on this CERCLA warning letter, so I did.

 

My main point is that these federal agencies are either not aware of the radiological hazards associated with the abandoned uranium mines in the Custer National Forest or they are deliberate part of the genocide through their staff. It is a case of who really should conduct intensive water monitoring sampling surveys and has the authority to enforce pollution violations; with the reservation downstream who has the jurisdiction?

Let us not forget that the State of South Dakota also doesn't monitor  water quality on the Grand River yet they have been authorizing oil and gas leasing of public lands.

HM:  So what you are saying so far is that there have been no government studies or tests on the water to see if there are high doses of uranium?

Harold One Feather:  The only samples that have been conducted on the site and the other mines at South Cave Hills, and Slim Buttes. The SRST EPA has only recently been conducting sampling for radionuclides. I know of two other reports conducted under contract by the SRST; one was conducted in 1984 by the Morrison-Maiaerle, Inc. as a Mineral Inventory by Dr. Charles Robinson (I will forward that also) and the other was conducted by the BIA, I have the file and will forward that also. The latter report detailed the uranium potential of the SRST reservation but didn't analyze water quality, the former by Dr. Charles Robinson concluded that although SRST had a large uranium potential, this was not the source of the contamination in the Grand River and left it as that.

Deformed frogs

Riley Pass abandoned  uranium mine

I have read the link before and it is included in both the Portage Risk Assessment in the Riley Pass Uranium Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis at their website and the Sioux Oil and Gas Leasing FEIS but was only included after the comment period was over.

That also is stated in the FEIS. Personally I feel that including the uranium mine material after the commenting period was over was the greatest mistake that the US Forest Service made in the EIS process and will have the greatest repercussions in terms of natural resources damages, personal damage/wrongful deaths lawsuits and job/contract terminations. The US Forest Service should issue a SEIS (Supplement Environmental Impact Statement) if they are going to continue changing the FEIS rather than trying to include them without public comments. The US Forest Service also conducted an Environmental Assessment named the "Riley Pass Uranium Reclamation Project" April, 1992, that was never published for comment; personally I am against any more studies and would rather see all of the mines reclaimed and made safe for the future to enjoy and that compensation be paid to the victims, deceased and potential, of radiation poisoning by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission since they were the ones buying the uranium as the Atomic Energy Commission when the uranium mines were active.

 

In addition, most of the material added to the FEIS was conducted by the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology "Abandoned-Inactive Mines on the Custer National Forest-Administered Land" 2003 which MBMG used to close a part of the National Forest due to radiological hazards that had radiation levels far below what is on the Riley Pass uranium mine and the other mines listed in this inventory. In fact, if I didn't search through the bibliography of the Sioux Range Analysis, I would never have known of this inventories existence.

HM: Do you know if anyone has done any private independent testing of the water?

Harold One Feather: The only group that I know of that has conducted water quality testing is the Defender of the Black Hills Coordinator Charmaine White Face.

HM: Have the main stream media showed any interest in this situation?

Harold One Feather:   Are you interested? Other than the links on MSN Spaces, That is it!!!  If this were a small isolated white community, there would be heads rolling and people getting their medical expenses paid and claims for wrongful deaths. Since both of the affected reservations Cheyenne River and Standing Rock are populated by Natives, they just don't care unless it starts some sort of violent confrontation. Basically it is racism and genocide!!!!!!

HM:  Do you know if the mainstream media, television stations, newspapers, magazines, radio have been made aware of the peculiar health problems?

Harold One Feather:  I have listed most of the newspapers that have printed the events occurring out at the North Cave Hills and of course, there are those other newspapers out of Montana and the eastern South Dakota, but they aren't very detailed or describe the threats to downstream/downwind communities.

Secretary Steve Pirner

I was also on NPR and have included that link.  I have no confidence in any of the federal agencies I previously stated, in fact, I feel that subconsciously they wished I was dead!!!

As for the State of South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Pirner stated several times while being questioned by the State Tribal Relations Committee early this spring about if the DENR conducted any water quality studies in Harding County or any county on the Grand River, he would evade the issue with the statement, "I don't want the State and the tribes to get into a fight." There are several witnesses to his statement; what does a jurisdictional dispute have to do with protecting the health of people in this state?
 

 HM: Have any of these reporters showed any real interest in this situation?

Harold One Feather: The only news reporter interested in my story was Jomay Steen of the Rapid City Journal; she has heard me speak before and did finally get the chance a couple of weeks ago. She asked almost the same questions you did.

 

 

HM:  So none of the major networks have reported on this?  ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX Television etc. etc.

Harold One Feather:  No major networks!!!. They could focus on just how irresponsible the US Forest Service has been or just how much money they have been wasting on meetings and studies. But if we talk about genocide in South Dakota, they will not listen or at least I am assuming this. If this situation happened to small white community, they would call it murder; since it happened to small Native communities, it is called there are no mining laws to remedy this situation. I call it genocide.

HM:  What about the politicians. Governor Mike Rounds of South Dakota. Has he been of any help and do you know if he is aware of what's going on with all these native people dying in his state and under his watch - miscarriages, birth defects, cancer etc. etc. etc.?

Harold One Feather:  He is not aware or at least I don't think so. The State of South Dakota is aware but chooses to ignore it because they are leasing lands to Canadian Mining Companies and thereby profiting from uranium mining and expect more bidding for SD public lands meaning even more profits

HM: Do you know the names of these Canadian mining companies?

Energy Metals of Vancouver, British Columbia Strathmore Minerals Corporation, Kelowna, BC Neutron Energy of Casper, Wyo., and Phoenix
 

 

Governor Mike Rounds of South Dakota

These companies lease public lands in South Dakota but are not the ones that caused the environmental damage at the Riley Pass abandoned uranium mine; this company is KERMAC Nuclear Fuels Corp., a subsidiary of Kerr-McGee, Oklahoma. The State of South Dakota has established 100% reclamation bonding for energy companies that want to conduct ISL (In situ leaching) solution uranium mining; the problem is that since there aren't any water quality monitoring programs being conducted in the areas where there is uraniferous lignite as in Harding or Fall River counties, they would not be able to determine if there is any natural resources damage or aquifer contamination until after it occurs.  This is what lead to this issue at the Riley Pass abandoned uranium mines.
 

 

HM: You mean the company founded in the 40s by Dean A. McGee and democratic senator Robert S. Kerr. You believe they are responsible for this uranium contamination and what this has caused; death, uranium cancers, miscarriages, disease etc?  Also, what about the clean up?

Harold One Feather: Kerr-McGee of Oklahoma is responsible for the mess at the Riley Pass; they have been discussing with the US Forest Service their desires to reclaim this mine for more than 40 years. This is in the Administrative record at Camp Crook, SD, they have submitted  reclamation plans to the US Forest Service; I don't understand why the US Forest Service has not allowed them to reclaim the mines then.

Now the US Forest Service has received $22 million for reclamation,  will Kerr-McGee be allowed to use this fund to reclaim the mines finally? You ask them.

HM:  Do you know the death statistics of cancer at Standing rock  reservation. How many fetuses have died, children, babies who have had cancer or have died of cancer, leukemia or other strange illnesses?
 

Harold One Feather:   The IHS has the statistics but in the past, they have not released this information to the public. Hopefully as this issue becomes more public, they will release these records.

Senator Robert S. Kerr. founder of Kerr McGee

Harold One Feather

 www.defendblackhills.org

HM:  What about Homestake mines; do you think they have a role in this situation?

Harold One Feather:  There is really no relationship other than the lack of legitimate water quality monitoring survey that could be summarized and made easier for the general public to understand.
 

HM:  What about Secretary Pirner and The Department of Environment and Natural Resources and his comment "I don't want the State and the tribes to get into a fight."  What do you think he means by this?  Does this comment have any validity or a ring of truth in your opinion? 

Harold One Feather:  The main witness to his statement is Charmaine White Face; she was at the meeting also. Steve Pirner is definitely on the side of oil and uranium development regardless of the impacts on Standing Rock.

HM: What is this Federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) in 1983 about on secretary Pirners website.   http://www.state.sd.us/denr/des/drinking/dwprg.htm

Harold One Feather: As for the link to the SD DENR materials, that is so much a farce; most of the US EPA grants are applied in eastern South Dakota, there are definitely none for water quality monitoring in western South Dakota and this should be very obvious. If you read more into their website, you'll understand.