New Oil Drilling Order Pays More Attention To Plains Indian Religious Site

The Mitchell (SD) Daily Republic reports that last Wednesday the South Dakota Board of Minerals and Environment revoked an order issued last year that would have permitted up to 24 oil wells to be drilled within 1.5 miles of Bear Butte, a site of great spiritual importance to the Northern Plains Indian Tribes such as the Cheyenne. Instead, after two days of hearings, the Board issued a new order allowing only five wells to be drilled, and requiring them to be outside the boundaries of Bear Butte national historic site. The new order also requires monitoring of drilling sites by archaeologists and tribal representatives. The new hearings were called after it was discovered that the Board failed to submit the original drilling application to the state historical preservation office for review, as required for projects that will encroach on national historic landmark sites. At the time of the earlier application hearing, no one realized that part of the proposed oil field would be within a national historic site boundary. (See prior related posting.)