Sicangu Oyate Land Office working to complete Community Profiles

ROSEBUD Titles 18 and 19 of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s Law & Order Code were established for Land Use and Environmental Protection, respectively. The Sicangu Oyate Land Office (SOLO) was created in 2000 to implement and oversee the re quirements of Titles 18 and 19. SOLO is under the direction of the Land Use and Environmental Commission. The RST Law & Order Code may be accessed on line by visiting http://www.narf.org/nill/Codes/rosebudcode/rosebudtoc.htm

One current focus of SOLO is the Integrated Resource Man agement Plan (IRMP). The IRMP is the tribe’s strategi course of action fo the comprehensiv management of it resources. Th process for develop ing an IRMP exam ines the relationship among resources o value and their vari ous uses, cultura needs, social forces and economi trends. The ultimate goal of an IRMP is to create a balance within resource management actions which reflects the cul tural, social, economic, and nat ural resource values of the residents of tribal lands.

An important starting point in developing a comprehensive IRMP is the creation of profiles for all twenty (20) communities which comprise the contempo rary Rosebud Reservation. These profiles will serve as the center pieces of the IRMP development process. The community profile initially pulls all data currently known or available together into one snapshot. Then the snapshot

Then the snapshot is taken to the community for members to input additional data in order to create zones.

Titles 18 & 19 define several possible zoning cate gories in regard to tribal lands. These include: residen tial, commercial, industrial, natural resource conservation, natural resource dominant residential, primary agricultural, historic preservation, reservation natural and cultural resource, general environment protection overlay, and flood plains overlay.

SOLO has completed draft Community Profiles for both Antelope and St. Francis, which are two of the largest areas on the Rosebud Reservation. These pro files feature: (1) a Reservation reference map, (2) land scape summary, (3) detailed district map, (4) land acres and ownership, (5) demographics, (6) major natural features, (7) photos, (8) major man made features, (9) planning and management issues, and (10) future proj ects.

These profiles are very important to SOLO because without the input of the people living in the twenty (20) communities zoning efforts may not be complete. For instance, if people living in the community want a certain area zoned under the Reservation natural and cultural resource zone, it would mean the area would be set aside to insure protection and preservation of the Tribal cultural and natural resources and to insure the right of tribal members to have an area in which they may camp, hunt, fish, and gather roots and berries and worship in the traditions of their culture.

The designation of a Reservation natural and cultural resource zone would restrict the zone as follows: (1) no uses by non tribal members would be allowed in the zone, and (2) allowed uses by RST tribal members only would include harvesting wild crops, hunting, fishing, trapping, camping in temporary structures, tribal camps for the education and recreation of Tribal mem bers and continued tribal cultural activities, conduct of religious or cultural activities, and the maintenance of pre existing roads.

Currently, the only area on the Rosebud Reservation which has been officially zoned is the “Koskan Land.” This area contains over 600 acres and is where the Turtle Creek Crossing Supermarket was built. Over 100 acres has been designated as a Commercial Zone around the grocery store. About 160 acres is designed as a Conservation Zone which local residents recog nize as the mostly wetland area just east of the store. Finally, just over 350 acres is designated as an Agricul tural Zone.

Tribal and SOLO officials believe the input of tribal members living in the twenty (20) communities to be a very crucial part of the IRMP planning process. Rep resentatives from the SOLO office will be available during the Sinte Gleska University Founder’s Day forum on Wednesday, February 3 to offer a presenta tion to the public. They will also have a booth available at the Wacipi on February 6 &7 at the Multipurpose Building. For more information please call 747 4225.