Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Urgent: Save Killdeer Mountain and Protect Mni Wiconci in ND

Urgent: Save Killdeer Mountain and Protect Mni Wiconci in ND

Last year, Last Real Indian’s contributing writer Dakota Good House wrote about the efforts to protect Killdeer Mountain, a sacred site, in North Dakota http://lastrealindians.com/sacred-site-in-north-dakota-at-risk-by-dakota-good-house/
Killdeer Mountain, considered a sacred site to various tribes in the Northern Plains is under threat from North Dakota’s expanding fracking operations and a recent proposal to place power lines through the heart of the Killdeer Mountain.
On February 25, 2014, the North Dakota Industrial Commission will consider adoption of the “Extraordinary Places” policyhttp://www.nd.gov/ndic/Drill.htm which appears to provide only token gestures of protection to lands and sacred sites, like Killdeer Mountain, from rapidly energy efforts.
LRI asks people to contact the North Dakota Industrial Commissionndicinfo@nd.gov and demand that:

“We call on the North Dakota Industrial Commission [NDIC] to implement  stronger safe guards and policies in protecting Mni Wiconi, water, aquifers and sacred sites such as Killdeer Mountain in its Extraordinary Places policy.  Massive energy projects threaten traditional Native sacred places, as well as, the drinking water of all North Dakotans.  Further, we call on the NDIC to comply with Section 106 of National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), which requires Federal agencies to consider the effects of their actions on historic properties and to seek comments from the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP).   We encourage the NDIC to fully consider the impacts of energy projects, such as fracking, on aquifers, waterways, sacred sites, as well as, on human and environmental health and strengthen the “Extraordinary Places” policy to provide safeguards in protecting and preserving them.”

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Letter: Unlike Isern team, Basin consultant did good work

Published February 20, 2014, 10:22 PM

Letter: Unlike Isern team, Basin consultant did good work

There is no doubt that in 1864 soldiers attacked a Sioux village at Killdeer Mountains, Dakota Territory. What is not known is exactly where that battle took place.
By: Kimball Banks, INFORUM

There is no doubt that in 1864 soldiers attacked a Sioux village at Killdeer Mountains, Dakota Territory. What is not known is exactly where that battle took place.
In reports in The Forum and in a Feb. 13 Forum editorial, North Dakota State University history professor Tom Isern claims to know the boundaries of the battlefield and charges Basin Electric’s proposed transmission line will adversely affect that battlefield. Isern further claims he and his students have been studying the battlefield and reached conclusions contrary to a Basin Electric Power Cooperative report. However, he has yet to present definitive evidence substantiating his claims. He relies on a National Park Service map showing a “potential” boundary for the battlefield, a boundary that has yet to be ground-truthed.
According to the reporting and the editorial, Isern says Metcalf Archaeological Consultants Inc. “purposefully ignored pertinent findings about the cultural importance of the area.” In fact, Basin contracted with Metcalf in 2011 to conduct archaeological investigations of the proposed transmission line.
Metcalf searched site files of the State Historical Society of North Dakota, consulted with local landowners about possible impacts of the line on the battlefield, walked the project corridor, used metal detectors and excavated shovel tests within the potential boundaries of the battlefield, and conducted historic research in an attempt to determine if the transmission line would harm anything significant associated with the battle. In the eight miles that supposedly transect the potential battlefield, we found four artifacts from the time period, all bullets, and no other evidence.
Basin also contracted with a tribal consulting firm to survey the corridor in 2013.
Although Isern applied for and received a grant to investigate the battlefield, he failed to notify local landowners and ask permission to study their lands. Instead, the landowners learned of his proposed study from a newspaper article.
Because he failed to discuss the project with them, they denied him access and continue to refuse to work with him. Basin, Metcalf, and the Historical Society have done due diligence in compliance with state and federal laws. Local landowners respect and protect the battlefield. These landowners also recognize a need for the transmission line and granted Basin right of way across their lands. Basin and Metcalf have actively sought their input as to an appropriate and acceptable route.
Banks, Ph.D., heads the Bismarck office of Metcalf Archaeological Consultants Inc., which has its headquarters in Golden, Colo.

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/427148/group/Opinion/

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Killdeer Mountain Conflict 150 Years Later

Killdeer Mountain
Febuary 19 2014
Killdeer Mountain Conflict 150 Years Later
By Dakota Goodhouse
BISMARCK – Killdeer Mountain is hardly a mountain, but it is a beautiful and majestic plateau nonetheless as it rises gently above the prairie steppe. In summer, native plants and flowers dot the hillside and emerge from the cracks of shattered sandstone. Short and medium indigenous grasses sway in a wind that has been present since creation.
The song of coyotes hauntingly fills the air on a gentle midsummer’s eve. The trees – a mix of ash and cottonwood – grow in clusters, but it’s the cottonwoods that sway and shush the world. Crickets take up their hum in the twilight where the cicadas left-off during the day. Aeries of golden eagles and hawks remind the meadowlarks and rabbits to keep a wary eye on the skies.
Killdeer Mountain is a sacred site of story, where young men went to pray. The summit receives yet those who still pray in the ways of their ancestors, but also hikers or naturalists, historians, archaeologists, biologists and paleontologists.
            The Lakĥóta call this site “Taĥčá Wakútepi,” Where They Kill Deer, but it was more than just a place to hunt. Young Lakĥóta and Dakĥóta men would ascend the hill for prayer and reflection in the ceremony called Haŋbléčiye, or Crying For A Vision. They would mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually prepare far in advance for this pilgrimage – the site for their quest determined long in advance. Their stay generally lasted four days on the hill or mountain, standing, kneeling or sitting while they prayed day and night to humble themselves before the Creator. Killdeer was and still is a special place for prayer and reflection.
Battle Site
            The site known today as Killdeer Battlefield, northwest of Killdeer, ND, is known primarily for the conflict that occurred on June 28, 1864. On that day, General Alfred Sully led a command of 2,200 soldiers in the last days of his Punitive Sioux Expedition, a military campaign organized in retaliation for the Minnesota-Dakota Conflict of 1862. The village of Lakota and Dakota that Sully attacked had little or nothing to do with the 1862 conflict. The Teton and Yanktonai who were present were previous allies who had fought under Colonel Leavenworth’s command in the Arikara War of 1823.
            Sully’s brutal assault continued into the evening and night with a hail of cannon volley. Children who were inadvertently left behind in the rain of fire were rounded up, scalped and killed.
            At the summit of Killdeer Mountain is a deep fissure, an open cave. Some call this cave “Medicine Hole.” Into this cave some of the Lakĥóta and Dakĥóta people fled when Sully began his unwarranted assault. Oral tradition has it that those who fled into the cave wound their way through the labyrinth and came out west of the mountain.
New Method of War
            Sully was operating according to “total war theory,” where aggressors see little difference between combatants and civilians. This meant the capture and imprisonment of innocent women and children, if they weren’t killed outright on the battlefield, and the wholesale destruction of supplies, possessions, property and resources. In the Civil War going on at the same time in the east, Union armies employed this tactic with success, affecting the outcome of that war. Total war was the military’s approach during the punitive campaigns in Dakota Territory in 1863 and 1864. Killdeer should be seen in the context of the Union’s Civil War military strategy. It should be preserved and interpreted for its tragic history and the graves should be protected of those still buried there.
Site Preservation
            The up-tick in western North Dakota oil development brings a modern assault on the Killdeer site. In January 2013, the North Dakota Industrial Commission approved over 50 wells on public and private land that fall within the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield study area. Notwithstanding the rights of private land owners, there is a need to defend against another tragedy.
            Upcoming this year, 150 years after the conflict, there is important work for those who believe in preserving as much of the natural, cultural and historical integrity of the site as possible. On June 28, 2014, the Killdeer Mountain Alliance, the State Historical Society of North Dakota, and Lakĥóta and Dakĥóta representatives will gather in a public forum in Killdeer, ND, and talk about the conflict, the site and preservation .
Here are two things you can and should do: Attend the public forum and planned commemoration in Killdeer on Saturday, June 28; and visit the North Dakota Industrial Commission online and watch for public meetings and hearings and plan to attend those. It is particularly important that Native People are seen and Native voices heard.
Dakota Goodhouse is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. He is an instructor at United Tribes Technical College.
Visit the Killdeer Mountain Alliance on FaceBook for current news and updates.

Brackett's Battalion

Brackett's Battalion

Creator: 

Black and white photograph of Major Brackett and his aide, Van Garren, at a camp in Dakota Territory, 1864.
Major Brackett and his aide, Van Garren, at a camp in Dakota Territory, 1864.
Recruited in the fall of 1861, Brackett's Battalion served longer than any other Minnesota unit during the Civil War. After campaigning in the Western Theater, the Battalion participated in the Northwestern Indian Expeditions of 1864 and 1865.
The men of Brackett's Battalion were recruited as the First, Second, and Third Companies of Minnesota Volunteer Cavalry. The captain of the Third Company was Alfred B. Brackett.
During the winter of 1861-1862, the companies were stationed at Benton Barracks near St. Louis, Missouri. Conditions were terrible and many of the men fell ill. The companies were assigned to a cavalry regiment in the Department of the Missouri called the Curtis Horse. Brackett was made major of the Third Battalion, which consisted of four companies.
In February, 1862, the Curtis Horse joined the Union Army of the Tennessee. The regiment was assigned to garrison duty because of its lack of training and weaponry. They garrisoned Forts Henry and Heiman in Tennessee for over a year.
The Curtis Horse did not fight in any major battles, instead serving a supportive role. The Minnesota companies escorted prisoners and dispatch riders. They repaired telegraph lines. Duties also included scouting for enemy forces, and occasionally engaging Confederate guerillas. In June of 1862, the Curtis Horse was renamed the Fifth Iowa Cavalry. Many of the Minnesota soldiers protested this change. They did not want to serve under the name of another state.
In June and July of 1863, the regiment participated in the Tullahoma Campaign. In little more than a week the Army of the Cumberland drove Confederate forces out of middle Tennessee. The Fifth Iowa screened the advance of the army and skirmished with enemy forces. The unit did not stay with the Army of the Cumberland for long. For the rest of the year they were stationed at Murfreesboro, Tennessee and patrolled northern Alabama.
In January of 1864, the unit was sent home on a thirty day furlough. Because of on-going conflicts with the Dakota in the aftermath of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, Brackett and Governor Alexander Ramsey arranged for the cavalrymen to be reassigned to the Department of the Northwest. The veteran soldiers were reorganized into a new battalion. New recruits were enlisted to fill the ranks. Major Brackett was given command, giving the unit the official name "Brackett's Battalion."
Brackett's Battalion began the second chapter of its service in February of 1864. The unit joined General Alfred Sully's army for the Northwestern Indian Expedition into Dakota Territory. The expedition was the continuation of a punitive campaign against the Dakota begun in 1863. It was also meant to subjugate any Indians considered hostile to overland routes that led to the gold-bearing headwaters of the Missouri River.
The expedition was punctuated by two battles. On July 28, 1864, Sully's army attacked an encampment composed mostly of Lakota including bands of the Hunkpapa, Sans Arcs, Miniconjous, and Blackfeet. One Wahpekute band of Dakota which had not participated in the U.S.-Dakota War was present as well.
The Indians defended themselves in a battle that lasted several hours, but were eventually defeated by superior firepower. Brackett's Battalion was noted for making a counter charge during the thickest of the fighting. The Battle of Killdeer Mountain ended with Sully's army burning the Indians' homes and the nearby woods.
After the victory, Sully marched south, and then west through the Badlands towards the Yellowstone River. During the march, a three day long skirmish called the Battle of the Badlands was fought. Sully's men were attacked by Lakota from August 7th through 9th. On August 17, Sully's command reached Fort Union. The campaign continued uneventfully for the next two months.
The Battalion's service was not yet over. After spending the winter at Fort Ridgley, the unit was assigned to a second expedition into Dakota Territory. The expedition of 1865 was more peaceful than the previous one, with no major battles. The following winter was spent garrisoning western posts.
In May and June of 1866, the men were finally mustered out. The soldiers of Brackett's Battalion had served a total of four years and nine months.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Editorial: Power line dispute a symptom

Editorial: Power line dispute a symptom

The latest reporting on a proposed electric transmission line across a historic North Dakota battlefield suggests line advocates manipulated data regarding the historical significance of the site. An 1864 battle between American Indians and the U.S. Cavalry has been characterized as one of the most important clashes in the nation’s Indian wars. The Basin Electric line will cross the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield about eight miles north of Killdeer, in Dunn County.
In a Sunday story by The Forum’s Patrick Springer, a North Dakota State University academic who has a grant to study the battlefield charged that a review commissioned by Basin purposefully ignored pertinent findings about the cultural importance of the area. Tom Isern is historian-director of the Center for Cultural Heritage Renewal at NDSU. He and his students have been studying the battlefield, and have come to conclusions at some variance with findings in a Basin report. Basin’s consultant admitted to being aware of a National Park Service report that emphasized the area’s historic and cultural values. Basin’s review did not include that evaluation.
Isern said of the Basin review that “omissions were made knowingly” to avoid controversy that could stall the project. The consultant Basin hired declined comment. A Basin spokesman conceded the consultant knew of the Park Service study but could not explain why it was not in Basin’s review.
Additionally, Basin is a member of Touchstone Energy Partners, which recently donated $1.3 million to the State Historical Society, which, Isern suggested, might explain the society’s reluctance to get more involved in the dispute.
Finally, United Tribes of North Dakota last fall passed a resolution opposing development that would disturb the site. That’s where it apparently ends for the tribes. Thus far, there has been no hint tribal leaders are ready to further challenge the line’s route.
It’s a clash of values. No one disputes that the power line is needed to serve electricity demand in oil country. And no one denies the unique historical importance of the battlefield. But given Basin’s incomplete assessment of the cultural value of the site, and given the pro-development tilt of the state’s regulators, the power line as configured looks to be a done deal without a comprehensive assessment of factors other than suitability for the line.
It’s another example of how skewed applications of the state’s “business friendly” mantra have become heritage and history unfriendly. The power line dispute is one element of a complicated and evolving saga. And this time, “when the land is quiet again,” the loss of values North Dakotans say they cherish could be staggering.

Forum editorials represent the opinion of Forum management and the newspaper’s Editorial Board.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Biologists worry proposed power line a threat to golden eagles

Published February 08, 2014, 10:54 PM

Biologists worry proposed power line a threat to golden eagles

FARGO – Biologists are concerned that a proposed power transmission line that would skirt the southern Killdeer Mountains in western North Dakota could disrupt nesting habitat for protected golden eagles.
By: Patrick Springer, INFORUM
FARGO – Biologists are concerned that a proposed power transmission line that would skirt the southern Killdeer Mountains in western North Dakota could disrupt nesting habitat for protected golden eagles.
A research biologist said the eagles around the Killdeer Mountains are of special concern because they exhibit rare paired hunting and group hunting behavior, never before documented in golden eagles.
Marguerite Coyle, an assistant biology professor at the University of Jamestown who has studied the golden eagles since 2002, said placement and construction of the power line could disturb nesting sites. She’s also concerned eagles could be electrocuted or killed by colliding with the lines in flight.
“It’s a big concern,” Coyle said. “You’re putting power lines through one of the highest-density areas of golden eagles in North Dakota.”
Coyle has submitted testimony about her concerns about habitat disruption in federal and state reviews of the power line Basin Electric Power Cooperative is proposing that would extend almost 200 miles from its Antelope Valley Station northwest of Beulah to a substation near Neset in western North Dakota.
Coyle and biologists for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which also has provided comments about the proposal, are concerned that the project’s disruptions would be especially harmful to breeding eagles and juvenile eagles.
The transmission project should take an alternative route to avoid what Coyle calls “vital nesting habitat” for golden eagles, she wrote to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service, which is conducting the federal environmental and cultural resources review of the project.
Basin Electric said the power line is needed to meet a dramatic increase in power demand stemming from the oil boom in western North Dakota.
“Basin Electric’s current route goes through the heart of one of the most important” golden eagle habitat sites in the state, Coyle said. The area provides important nesting and hunting terrain, and also is a major migration route for eagles in North Dakota, she said.
“They are using that area very densely,” she said.
Federal laws protecting bald eagles and golden eagles require that eagle nests not be disturbed unless a permit has been obtained, which requires an eagle conservation plan.
A draft review by the Rural Utilities Service found about 97 raptor nests within a one-mile corridor of the proposed transmission route but did not identify any active golden eagle nests, said Jeffrey Towner, field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s North Dakota Field Office in Bismarck.
But even eagle nests that appear inactive or unoccupied cannot be disturbed and should be protected, Towner said. Eagles sometimes use multiple nests and rotate among them, he said.
Federal wildlife officials are asking the project reviewers to make “doubly sure” there are no eagle nests that could be disturbed by the transmission line, he said.
“We believe they should take our recommendation into account,” Towner said. “In my view, they would be well-advised to make absolutely sure that anything they authorize or provide funding for would not result in unauthorized taking of an eagle.”
The route Basin Electric proposes for the transmission line in the area of the Killdeer Mountains in Dunn County has strong support from landowners, said Curt Pearson, a Basin spokesman.
Because of strong landowner acceptance, and problems encountered by development farther south of the Killdeer Mountains, Basin Electric is not proposing any alternate routes in the area, he said.
“Basin is going to be working with the federal agencies to mitigate any impacts that are identified,” Pearson said.
Although advocating for protection of eagles and nesting sites, federal wildlife officials are not asking that the transmission route be altered. Standard procedures call for taking steps to minimize bird collisions or electrocutions from power lines, Towner said.
The cooperative hunting behavior of the golden eagles in North Dakota first was observed and documented in 2003, Coyle said.
Researchers observed 11 groups of adult eagles, with two or more hunting together in nine areas known to be occupied by the eagles. Since then, cooperative hunting among golden eagles has been documented in multiple years and sites, suggesting to Coyle that the practice is not a “fluke.”
All of the instances of group hunting involved nesting eagles, with many confirmed to be rearing young, Coyle said.
Because of widespread oil and gas development, golden eagles and other species are experiencing habitat fragmentation and human disturbances, Towner said.
“We believe they’re under unprecedented pressure, and we’re concerned,” he said. “I think wildlife in general is under unprecedented pressure.”
Eagles have been protected by federal law since 1940.



Readers can reach Forum reporter Patrick Springer at (701) 241-5522

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/426116/publisher_ID/1/

Historic value of power-line path knowingly ignored, professor claims

Published February 08, 2014, 10:46 PM

Historic value of power-line path knowingly ignored, professor claims

FARGO – Call it the second Battle of Killdeer Mountain – a clash between growing power needs associated with the oil boom and preservation of what one historian calls the Gettysburg of the Plains.
By: Patrick Springer, INFORUM

FARGO – Call it the second Battle of Killdeer Mountain – a clash between growing power needs associated with the oil boom and preservation of what one historian calls the Gettysburg of the Plains.
It’s a clash the power company, Basin Electric Power Cooperative, tried to avoid by purposefully ignoring the historic significance of a portion of the path of a proposed new electric transmission line, according to a Fargo history professor who has a grant to study the area.
“I think omissions were made knowingly. That is my belief,” said Tom Isern, the historian-director of the Center for Cultural Heritage Renewal at North Dakota State University, of the company’s review of the site.
Isern also questions why the state agency charged with historic preservation – a recipient of a donation of more than $1 million from a group of which Basin Electric is a member – hasn’t been more involved in speaking out about the power-line plan.
History long known
The Battle of Killdeer Mountain saw a huge engagement between the U.S. Army and Sioux Indians in a punitive attack by 2,200 soldiers against a native village encampment of 1,500 in 1864.
A state historic site located a half-mile north of the proposed transmission line commemorates the battle, which involved Sitting Bull and Gall as young warriors and is seen as a prelude to Custer’s defeat at the Little Bighorn in 1876.
The rugged Killdeer Mountains once were considered for inclusion in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and were proposed as a freestanding national park by a prominent group of North Dakotans in 1919.
The National Park Service in 2010 noted the historical significance of the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield area, one of five Civil War-era battle sites in North Dakota it said are likely eligible for designation on the National Register of Historic Places.
Yet a cultural resources review by Basin Electric, which is proposing the $350 million transmission project, omitted mention of the sprawling battlefield, which the Park Service said could cover 17,340 acres, an area of roughly 36 square miles highlighted for further study.
The proposed power line route, which skirts the south side of the Killdeer Mountains in Dunn County, would run eight miles through the study area.
The battlefield omission came despite the fact that the consultant whose firm conducted the review twice earlier had publicly noted the area’s historic and archeological significance – even telling state oil and gas regulators of the National Park Service report.
“The excellent condition of these landscapes where U.S. Army and American Indian combatants fought provides a unique opportunity – all five of North Dakota’s Civil War battlefields could be protected completely and permanently,” the Park Service said.
The Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program noted, however, that “little effort has been made to formally protect these historic places,” and said rapid energy development made the Killdeer Mountain site the most threatened in North Dakota.
Isern calls the review “shoddy” and deliberately incomplete to avoid controversy that could jeopardize the transmission project.
He also said he wonders whether a $1.3 million gift from Touchstone Energy Partners, of which Basin Electric is a member, might have muzzled the State Historical Society of North Dakota, which is charged with historic preservation, on the issue.
A “chain of evidence,” including a letter and legislative testimony by the consultant who headed Basin Electric’s flawed cultural resources review, led Isern to conclude the omission was deliberate.
“I no longer believe mistakes were made,” he said.
A Basin Electric spokesman acknowledges that the consultant knew of the 2010 National Park Service report recommending preservation of the battlefield area, and could not provide an explanation for the area’s omission in the document listing areas of concern.
In written comments to both state and federal regulators reviewing the transmission project, Isern has called for preservation of the entire battlefield area, believed to be the site of the largest clash between the Army and American Indians.
The State Historical Society of North Dakota, which includes the State Historic Preservation Office, has not called for the transmission line to avoid the battlefield area.
It did, however, reach an agreement with Basin Electric to move a planned substation outside the battlefield area and to provide a “viewshed” study to show how the transmission line would alter the landscape.
Basin also agreed to perform a metal detector survey along the transmission line route in the battlefield area, with the aim of identifying any battlefield-related artifacts.
Those steps don’t go far enough to protect what Isern regards as North Dakota’s most significant historic site. The Center for Cultural Heritage Renewal, which Isern heads, received a grant from the National Park Service to study the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield area.
“This is trivializing the whole thing,” he said. “The problem is we’re building a physical structure on the battlefield,” he added, referring to towers that will support the transmission lines. “This is the Gettysburg of the Plains.”
The project is still seeking permit approval, both from federal and state officials. The company hopes to start construction later this year.
Filings omitted concern
The proposed route of Basin Electric’s proposed 197-mile transmission line first became known to the public Aug. 23, 2013, in a letter to the editor of the Dunn County Herald from a nearby landowner.
Basin Electric filed a letter of intent to build the transmission line, from its Antelope Valley station northwest of Beulah to its Neset substation on Dec. 5, 2011.
Representatives of Basin Electric repeatedly have said the cooperative first became aware of Isern’s planned study of the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield area Aug. 27, when one of its executives received a call from the State Historic Preservation Office.
But Basin Electric’s spokesman acknowledges that its cultural heritage consultant, Kimball Banks of Metcalf Archaeological Consultants, knew of the National Park Service’s 2010 report highlighting the battlefield’s importance and eligibility for preservation.
In fact, Banks wrote a letter to the North Dakota Industrial Commission dated Nov. 28, 2012, warning oil and gas regulators that inadequate management of oil development in the Killdeer Mountains could adversely impact “archaeological and historic sites important in and unique to North Dakota’s heritage.”
Also, on Feb. 7, 2013, Banks testified before lawmakers on behalf of a proposed $250,000 study, supported by state historic preservation officials, of the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield area, which has never been extensively surveyed despite its importance.
“This has national significance as well as state,” Banks said, according to legislative minutes.
Banks declined to be interviewed about why, since he knew of the historical significance of the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield, he neglected to mention it in the cultural resource report for Basin Electric. He referred questions to Basin.
Curt Pearson, the Basin spokesman, acknowledged that Banks knew of the National Park Service’s interest in preserving the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield area, but could not explain why Basin Electric’s filings for the project omitted noting the sprawling area as one of potential concern.
Basin Electric will use poles consisting of a single column to support the transmission wires, instead of the more obtrusive double-poled H-posts, typically five to seven per mile, Pearson said. The posts will be rusty, to blend in better with the background, he said.
So far, a metal detector survey of the battlefield area found two lead “Minnie balls” and a copper bullet cartridge that might be related to the battle, but cannot be precisely dated. Shovel tests at two locations found chipped stone debris.
Fern Swenson, the state’s deputy historic preservation director, said the state is fulfilling its responsibilities, although it has not sent representatives to testify at hearings, and has not been outspoken about the area’s historical significance.
“We do our job as the State Historic Preservation Office,” Swenson said. “We follow the regulations. We’ve been part of the process.”
Site sacred to tribes
The Killdeer Mountains are held as sacred to the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes. The Medicine Hole atop Killdeer Mountain plays a crucial role in their origin stories.
The battlefield area also contains the graves of Dakota and Lakota Sioux who were killed in the fighting. Their graves, near the area of combat, are north of the planned transmission line.
For those reasons, the United Tribes of North Dakota last fall passed a resolution opposing further development that would disturb the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield site.
Calvin Grinnell, a curator for the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, said many of the tribes’ members are resigned to the likelihood that the transmission line will be built on the proposed route.
“It should be protected more,” said Grinnell, who serves as president of the State Historical Society of North Dakota. “It’s deserving of protection. That definitely is an area that is sacred to us.”
As a form of mitigation, Grinnell would like to see Basin Electric contribute resources to native cultural preservation programming, as coal mining has done.
“We’re kind of pragmatic about it,” Grinnell said. “If there’s something that’s going to go through, it’s going to go through.”
Rob Sand, who ranches in the Killdeer Mountains and is a member of the Killdeer Mountain Alliance, a preservation advocacy group, said the state was “negligent” when lawmakers last year rejected the proposed study of the battlefield area.
Sand doesn’t fault the State Historical Society of North Dakota for not being a more vocal advocate for preservation of the battlefield.
“I don’t think it’s their way to be advocates,” he said. “That can be political and can go either way. But their mission is protection and preservation.”



Readers can reach Forum reporter Patrick Springer at (701) 241-5522
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/426111/
http://www.prairiebizmag.com/event/article/id/17767/#sthash.RBvPce04.dpuf