Sioux’s 50-year sequel to Little Big Horn not over yet

Press, 18 June 1979, Page 6

Sioux’s 50-year sequel to Little Big Horn not over yet

Sabotage confession A Newport News, Virginia, man says he and another plant worker were responsible for the attempted | sabotage of nuclear fuel at i Virginia Electric and Power I Company’s Surry nuclear | power plant. The Newport News “Daily Press” reported lat the week-end that Wil- | liam Kuykendall had told the newspaper that he and another man had poured soidium hydroxide on new fuel elements at the plant on April 27. The company said the fuel rods, valued at SUS3OM had to be cleaned, but suffered no permanent damage. The man said he, and the colleague told thel Federal Bureau of Investigation of their action on Friday. Mr Kuykendall said he tried to damage the I uranium elements in order to push the company into making changes in safety and security at the plant. — Newport News.

NZPA-Reuter Sioux Falls (South Dakota) The Sioux Indians are still on the warpath over a row involving the Black Hills of Dakota which started with Colonel George Custer’s last stand more than 100 years ago. ' A dispute has blown up I between Sioux Indian tribal leaders over compensation from the United States Government for confiscating the Black Hills in 1876. Many Indian leaders feel the Black Hills are sacred and to accept money for their loss would be wrong. Russell Means, leader of the American Indian Move-

Iment, said: “We have been 'taught that the spirit of the Sioux will be broken when we lose the Black Hills.’” A United States Claims Court decided last Wednesday that the Sioux nation was entitled to SUSI7.SM, plus SUSIISM in interest.

“You are going to have Siopx in Alaska and everywhere else crawling out of the woodwork to get in ori thi* settlement,” said Mr Means. He spoke from a prison, cejl, where he is serving a four--year sentence for inciting a riot. The saga of the Black Hills started in 1868, when the United States Govern-

ment signed an agreement giving the Sioux the hills

and other parts of South Dakota. then in 1874 an expedition led by LieutenantColonel Custer discovered gold in the hills, touching Off a rush of miners and prospectors. Armed conflict broke out between Indians and settlers, culminating in the death of Colonel Custer of the United .States 7th Cavalry and all

his men at the battle of Little Big Horn — known as Custer’s Last Stand. In 1876 the United States Congress ceded the Black Hills to the Government, threatening the Indians with .Starvation if they resisted. Tliey gave in. One of the lawyers for the

Indians said it could be several years before any of the Sioux see any money because the Government might appeal against the big settlement and because there could be a lot of wrangling among the tribes on how to divide it up. The court, in giving the largest ever settlement to American Indians, said the confiscation violated Indians’ Constitutional rights. Their claim had been pending since 1920.

Elijah Whirlwind Horse, leader of the Oglala Sioux tribe, said the only people who would-' benefit were the Washington - lawyers who had worked on the Case for the last 40 or 50 years.