Nine Native American tribes from the Dakotas and Nebraska sued the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of Agriculture on Thursday to block exploratory drilling for graphite at Pe’Sla, a high-meadow site in the central Black Hills that the Lakota people consider the “heart of everything that is.” The lawsuit, filed in federal court in South Dakota, accuses the agencies of greenlighting the project without the legally required environmental review or tribal consultation—omissions the tribes say violate the National Historic Preservation Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the terms of a two-mile protective buffer zone the Forest Service itself agreed to establish around the sacred site.
The plaintiff tribes—the Oglala Sioux, Rosebud Sioux, Standing Rock Sioux, Cheyenne River Sioux, Lower Brule Sioux, Crow Creek Sioux, Yankton Sioux, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and Flandreau Santee Sioux—are separate, federally recognized nations with shared cultural and linguistic roots but distinct governments and land bases. Their joint legal action is rare and marked a show of unity, Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out said in a statement.
“We as Lakota people have been coming and praying and holding ceremony at these places for over 2,000 years,” said Wizipan Garriott, president of the Indigenous advocacy group NDN Collective and a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. “And so us being here is a continuation of countless generations before us. And it’s important that these sacred places be protected for future generations to come.”
The drilling project is overseen by Pete Lien & Sons, a Rapid City-based supplier of limestone, sand and gravel that also holds mineral exploration interests. The company did not respond to repeated requests for comment from the Associated Press. Under the permit the Forest Service issued in February, the firm can drill up to 18 boreholes, each roughly 1,000 feet deep, to collect graphite samples. The agency classified the project as a “categorical exclusion” from full environmental review because the work was scheduled to last less than a year and was deemed unlikely to affect cultural or environmental resources.
Tribal leaders and the NDN Collective dispute both assertions. They note that several of the planned drill pads fall within the two-mile buffer that the Forest Service and the tribes themselves drew around Pe’Sla after the tribes purchased parts of the meadow in 2012, 2015 and 2018. The lawsuit contends the agency never formally considered Pe’Sla as an affected area, never solicited tribal input, and never assessed risks to the site’s ceremonial use or to the buffalo that frequent it.
The conflict unfolds on historically charged ground. The 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie reserved the Black Hills—known to the Lakota as He Sapa—for the Sioux Nations in perpetuity. The United States broke the treaty after gold was discovered in the 1870s, setting off a mining rush that displaced Native Americans and permanently altered the landscape. In 1980 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the seizure was unlawful and that the tribes were owed compensation, which now exceeds $2 billion in an interest-bearing account. The Sioux have refused to accept the money, maintaining that the land was never lawfully sold and remains unceded territory.
Tensions over mining have resurfaced in recent years as rising gold prices drew new prospectors to the Black Hills. The graphite exploration at Pe’Sla is the latest test. Graphite is used in batteries, lubricants and a range of industrial products, and its value has grown with demand for electric-vehicle components. But tribal opponents argue that the drilling is the first step toward a larger mine and that even the exploratory work risks desecrating a site where ceremonies, prayer and youth camps are held year-round.
On May 1, demonstrators carrying signs reading “Protect Pe’Sla” and “Sacred ground not mining bound” gathered at two drill pads to block access. The Forest Service told the group that drilling was paused for the rest of the day and contractors were sent home, according to the NDN Collective. The agency declined to comment on the project, citing pending litigation. Garriott said the land-defense actions would continue for as long as needed. “As Lakota, we pray as long as we need to,” he said.
The federal lawsuit is one of two legal challenges to the project; the NDN Collective and other environmental groups have filed a separate suit. Both actions argue the Forest Service’s categorical exclusion was unlawfully applied and that the agency’s failure to consult the tribes amounts to a repeat of the historical pattern of erasing Indigenous stewardship from land-management decisions.
The Black Hills draw millions of tourists each year to attractions such as Mount Rushmore and state parks. For the Lakota, however, the region is not a destination but a spiritual center. The lawsuit’s outcome could shape how federal land managers weigh mineral development against obligations to tribal nations and the cultural landscapes they have sought to protect for millennia.