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Reynolds Family Accepts Rosebud Sioux Bid for Pe ‘Sla: $9 Million for 2000 Acres

Leonard and Margaret Reynolds have accepted the Rosebud Sioux tribe's bid on Pe 'Sla, the sacred 2000-acre grassland in the middle of the Black Hills. The Reynolds family was going to auction the property off to the highest bidder in August, but Native activists and public outcry encouraged them to cancel the auction and accept bids privately. The Reynoldses do not appear to have cut the Rosebud Sioux a particularly easy deal: the final sale price is $9 million, toward the upper end of the $6 million to $10 million range that Lakota activists expected last month.

According to the Associated Press, the Rosebud Sioux have put up a 10% deposit; they have until November to pay in full.

Some quick spreadsheet math says that if the tribe were to take a 30-year mortgage on Pe 'Sla for the remaining balance, at today's 3.25%, their monthly payment would be over $35,000. That's over $423,000 a year, enough to hire a dozen workers in Mission.

I know, the land is priceless. Western-flavored discussions of opportunity cost may not register with those who hold the Black Hills sacred. But I wonder what will do more good for promoting the strength of Lakota culture: legal possession of this holy place in the Black Hills or the investment of the sale price on priceless land in jobs and economic development?

9 Comments

  1. larry kurtz 2012.09.11

    One way to think about continued purchases using some of the adjudicated settlement funds would be to keep buying private ground currently on the market than urge President Obama to move the federal ground from the Forest Service into Park Service/BIA jointly-managed reserve.

    Hoka Hey!

  2. Bill Dithmer 2012.09.11

    Larry they should concentrate on all the live creeks on the reservation. Control the water and they would control the land.

    The Blindman

  3. larry kurtz 2012.09.11

    Sorry to read about your mom, Bill: you okay?

  4. grudznick 2012.09.11

    Will the original ancestral owners of the land step up and make an offer if this one falls through?

  5. grudznick 2012.09.11

    When the county paves South Rochford Road and the fishermen are flocking to the south half of Reynolds Prairie to get to the boat dock, the Rosebud Tribe could set up a bait shop there on the northern part of that large meadow and rake it in.

  6. larry kurtz 2012.09.12

    "...tribes were fortunate to get the Reynolds’ to agree to an environmental assessment in case there may be any environmental situations like chemical spills or or soil and groundwater issues that might need to be addressed, though whether any incidents would affect the purchase price was not revealed." ICTM

  7. Ta versa Reynolds 2012.10.15

    hi this land is not for sale i own part of the mineral rights to it someone should have asked me before offering

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