NPS lays out problems at LBH Battlefield

[KarlKoz]

billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_911d981b-9fe4-515d-9df9-1946ca70c601.html

[Diane Merkel]

Thanks, Karl. That is important information for all who care about the future of the National Monument.

[markland]

Dec 10, 2010 7:49:16 GMT -6 KarlKoz said:

billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_911d981b-9fe4-515d-9df9-1946ca70c601.html

However, if I correctly read the articles Steve originally linked, it seems that the Crow are saying that if we don't get a cut, nothing happens.

Sorry about the paraphrasing but....

Billy

[Dark Cloud]

Well, yeah. Isn't it their responsibility to get what they can for their land use? Compare and contrast with the groups screaming about Ground Zero.

If the British Embassy in Washington tried to get a monument to the Cockburn family for their relative burning the White House and Congress, and it involved convoluted land exchanges not technically involving the Feds, wouldn't we be annoyed if WikiLeaks revealed "...of course the descendents of the Colonists are clear that nothing will happen unless they get a cut and Olivia Wilde is somehow included in the statue." Except for the Olivia Wilde part, I'd bet so.

[markland]

Dec 20, 2010 18:18:03 GMT -6 Dark Cloud said:

Well, yeah. Isn't it their responsibility to get what they can for their land use? Compare and contrast with the groups screaming about Ground Zero.

If the British Embassy in Washington tried to get a monument to the Cockburn family for their relative burning the White House and Congress, and it involved convoluted land exchanges not technically involving the Feds, wouldn't we be annoyed if WikiLeaks revealed "...of course the descendents of the Colonists are clear that nothing will happen unless they get a cut and Olivia Wilde is somehow included in the statue." Except for the Olivia Wilde part, I'd bet so.

Well, if you think about it, if not for the white-man and Beckworth, the Crow would have likely been pushed away from the territory they still held. The Crow leaders at that time were smart; they hooked their wagons to a force which could evenly match the Sioux-unlike their tribe.

So, looking at it somewhat realistically, if not for the U.S. government, the Crow would have been pushed up against the mountains to their west.

As far as using leverage to get something, I have no problems with that....I don't believe I said anything to the contrary either. I said that my interpretation of the articles was that the Crow had said, in essence, "if we don't get something, no one gets anything."

Best of wishes for your stupendous Christmas Day Hangover,

Billy

[Melani]

Gotta say, I agree with dc on this. I often hear people complaining about the Real Birds' fees for trail rides, for example, but I don't feel it's exorbitant for what they've got there. They need to make a living like everybody else, and tourism is a major industry in that neck of the woods. What the RB's charge per hour for a ride is about what I pay here in California for a lesson, and less than what a friend of mine pays in Boston. It's all relative.

Somebody needs to sit everybody down and not let them leave until some kind of agreement is reached. There should be a way to benefit all parties.

[Mike Powell]

The perspective back east:

www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/us/19custer.html

[markland]

Dec 23, 2010 11:28:33 GMT -6 Mike Powell said:

The perspective back east:

www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/us/19custer.html

Quotes from the above article:

The Crow chairman, Cedric Black Eagle, agreed that concerns about overcrowding and roads needed to be addressed. And he said the tribe might accept a transfer of up to 2,000 acres of land to the Park Service, as allowed under the Crow Act.

But Mr. Black Eagle said that any additional land the Custer group owned should go back to the tribe, not to the Park Service.

“The most significant part of the battlefield and the monument is that it happens to be on Crow land,” he said. “We want to make sure we are involved in the process so we don’t end up losing any of that land.”

Whether Mr. Black Eagle fully understands it or not (and I believe he does), the Crow tribe has already lost ownership of the land that the Conservation owns. What he is angling for is that the land be given to the tribe. Also, his 2000 acres. Is that lifetime, annually or what?

My opinion is that the Conservancy would be nuts to agree to any terms dictated by the tribe.

Later,

Billy