To the Editor

To the Editor, The recent revelations regarding the Riley Pass Nuclear Processing Facility, located north of Buffalo, SD, and upstream from Rock Creek and Running Antelope, are nothing short of chilling. The scale of the environmental contamination and the deliberate efforts to conceal it from the public evoke the worst memories of Love Canal. This is not merely an environmental disaster; it's a betrayal of public trust on a monumental scale.

The parallels between Riley Pass and Love Canal are striking. In both cases, we see a pattern of corporate negligence, regulatory failure, and a blatant disregard for the health and safety of surrounding communities. The long-term consequences of this contamination will be felt for generations to come. Particularly devastating are the downstream health effects reported by the Hunkpapa community living along the Grand River, which include diabetes, amputation, high blood pressure, and learning difficulties. These are not just statistics; they represent real lives irrevocably damaged by this environmental catastrophe.

We demand a full and transparent investigation into the Riley Pass coverup. Those responsible must be held accountable, and swift action must be taken to mitigate the environmental damage and provide comprehensive health care and support to affected communities. The health and safety of the public must be our top priority.

We cannot allow another Love Canal to happen on our watch. We urge our elected officials to take immediate action and ensure that the Riley Pass disaster is thoroughly investigated and addressed. We owe it to ourselves and to future generations to protect our environment and hold those who endanger it accountable.

Sincerely, Harold One Feather, Hunkpapa Tongan Scout

Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, and Ethnic Cleansing

America's Secret Chernobyl - Custer National Forest

The photo above was never made available during the mishandled and inappropriate Sioux Ranger District Oil and Gas Leasing Environmental Impact Statement(Sioux EIS 2004). There were other major documents missing from the Sioux EIS, mostly on the chemical characteristics and water solubility of uraniferous lignite ash that would have substantially altered the direction that the Sioux EIS took in the coverup: the Hunkpapa and Harding County folks drank the radioactive water. For some yet unexplained reason, most likely racist as Hell, the USEPA was never the lead agency in the deliberately mischaracterized Riley Pass uranium milling although these Riley Pass uranium mining complex are the most highly radioactive zones in the USA (uraniferous lignite is naturally high in uranium, and is relatively benign if left alone), mostly because Kerr-McGee as KERMAC was roasting the lignite containing the uranium at high temperatures and releasing all kinds of exotic radionuclides into the Grand River. Local area residents and downstream communities are experiencing health crises but are ignored by the government. The rotary kilns roasted the uraniferous lignite at high temperature, turning the lignite coal to ash to be processed by acid to further increase purity, basically making nearly pure uranium (this highly pure form of uranium was also used at Chernobyl where they also noted the peculiar effects that high temperatures has on uranium). The uraniferous lignite ash is totally water-soluble and does concentrate in the body, causing diabetes, cancer, cirrhosis, and brain tumors (the uranium concentrates in the kidney, liver and brain as well as reeking DNA havoc). In comparison, North Dakota once discovering that the citizens were telling them their health concerns such as their sheep having a blue haze and families developing bronze colored skin, they reclaimed their two uranium milling sites under UMTCRA [The Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (UMTRCA) of 1978 (Public Law 95-604)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_Mill_Tailings_Radiation_Control_Act) and DoE Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act Sites (https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/10/f19/UMTRCA.pdf)

The US Forest Service has deliberately misled and mischaracterized the uranium mining complex on the Custer National Forest on purpose.

The obvious truth is the Hunkpapa are suffering genocide, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. The inadequate, and purposely skewed, health studies never include the Hunkpapa and Homesteaders as a combined population, this misinformation is meant to keep nuclear energy as being labeled as safe. Nor have they addressed the health concerns of the affected population as a whole, sacrificing both population for nuclear energy. When they have an accident, such as Fukushima Daiichi and Chernobyl, science fails, poisoned land, water and air results, a nuclear desertification of the world begins, the "salting the world" continues as progress. And comparison of the adverse health effects suffered at those nuclear catastrophes shows the Hunkpapa and Harding County folks are being sacrificed to ignorance and idiocy.

 

The Custer Scout Buckskin Republic aka Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is fully aware of the Riley Pass uranium mining reclamation project, very odd that they don't say one word about the petroglyphs, which was the reason for the 1994(?) US Forest Service Picnic Springs consultation with the local tribes, mostly in North Dakota and Montana, only Standing Rock and Grey Eagle Society were in attendance (funny in itself as the mine is on treaty land, stolen in 1877). The Defenders of the Black Hills held several uranium summits to address the health concerns and were ignored by the local community because of racism within the US Forest Service, the USFS was not expecting to have their cake sliced up in ways they can no longer control.

Currently, major reclamation is happening upstream on the Grand River at the Riley Pass uranium mining and milling complex, and not one THPO officer is present, monitoring the exposures of the petroglyphs, which are being uncovered by removal of the overburden that mining were pushed over the cliffs and buried.  For more information on the Riley Pass Uranium Mine Clean-up, visit https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/custergallatin/landmanagement/resourcemanagement/?cid=stelprd3833606

I call this environmental injustice: "genocide, crime against humanity, ethnic cleansing by the Federal government, tribal governments and people that hate the Hunkpapa." As the affected community is at odds with each other, the Tronox Settlement is at risk of being mishandled by the Federal government as usual. We need a complete accounting of the Tronox Settlement from the US Forest Service.

The Riley Pass uranium mining complex was called the America's Secret Chernobyl (https://www.defendblackhills.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=113:americas-secret-chernobyl&catid=16:uranium&Itemid=27) by Charmaine White Face seemingly ages ago. At Chernobyl, they accidentally ignited the uranium, causing the catastrophic explosion, at the Cavehills Riley Pass uraniferous lignite uranium milling rotary kiln, they were roasted uraniferous lignite, same poisons result. They never examined the chemical and physical properties of the uraniferous ash, they are too focused on Navajo uranium mining, resorting to racism judgment to justify their misinformation. The truth is that the nickname does apply; the Grand River was contaminated on the same scale as the Chernobyl nuclear wastes. there are certain temperatures that uranium does odd things, like shatter into globs of molten radioactivity as well as become uranium gas but then most of this information is still classified under weapons research. The Chernobyl nuclear plant used the same uranium from their lignite coal  beds in Ukraine and Kazakhstan; it is cheaper than refining the uranium with fluoride to make a safer fuel pellet that doesn't accidentally shatter at certain temperatures.

Upstream at the Riley Pass, the reason they were actually roasting the lignite to ash it for easier separation of the uranium by washing it with acid (it required two acid washes, and losing the acids from the first wash, most of the second acid, they couldn't reuse the acid for uranium processing as they did in Navajo country as they did with carnotite, basically crushed sandstone, where the uranium was water-insoluble, requiring acid to separate it from crushed sandstone). The resulting uranium ash was over 90% uranium by volume, we can safely speculate that at certain quantities, the uranium ash would go critical, and start the fission process, as the ash itself provided moderation to slow down the neutrons. The same thing as at Chernobyl but they were able to shatter the uranium to where it actually caught on fire. When they piled up the rotary kiln uraniferous lignite ash, they were making an atomic pile. To try to make uranium seem safe, they had the TV Show Lucille Ball episode "Lucy Hunts Uranium"(https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0637531/) have kinds of humorous scenes including running into the Navajo...

My purpose is to bring RECA to the downstream affected communities, Rock Creek and Running Antelope. Radiation Exposure and Compensation Action gives direct cash payments for those contaminated by nuclear wastes. In 2016, as shown above attending USFS meetup with Navajo, I demanded recreation centers with swimming pools and basketball court be built by the US Forest Service in the nuclear contaminated Hunkpapa communities (Rock Creek and Running Antelope) to be paid by the Tronox Settlement.

Since the USEPA failed in its trust responsibilities to the Hunkpapa, they, however, set the precedence in their uranium recovery efforts, we also deserve $5 billion in uranium recovery (Federal aid) mostly for health services and educational opportunities as well as $200 million in uranium contamination studies(Tronox Settlement) on the entire basin, including further construction of radiological containment dams as well as road to follow the Grand River to making monitoring easier as well as increase the property values within the Grand River valley. No federal agency including tribal government is watching the water, with the State of South Dakota bungling up science in effort to maintain frontier colonialism.

Once we improve Grand River water quality we can use it for irrigation as originally planned and increase other municipal, industrial and recreational purposes.

And all the time I have to counter government propaganda, and make them prove it. They are dividing the affected population into two classes, making a racist situation, and is really dangerous to Harding county folks, sacrificing them although we have tort claims against the Settlement and against the Federal government, they are trying to avoid that issue of compensation for damages against private mining companies, the most notable being Kerr-McGee, they are covering up the Potentially Responsible Parties PRP and their estates being held liable for tort damages. The use of the ratio of 100,000 people is incorrect and is a crime against humanity and genocide when you have living bodies as an identifiable, countable population that are directly affected by the uranium poisoning: those thugs are basing their opinions on research papers and not the people. Point samples on a longitudinal trend of developing sickness caused by uranium poisoning is incorrect. They are attempting to cover up all the deaths caused by toxic uranium mining and milling of uraniferous lignite. The moment they roasted the uraniferous lignite to radioactive ash, that is the moment of the existence of a tort claim against the USA, Tronox was held accountable for its part in this nuclear issue, the USA has yet to pay its share.

We have been sacrificed as a forgotten medical experiment on the long-term exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation. For the Hunkpapa, this is Custer's Revenge.

They Came For #DAPL and Missed the Hunkpapa Genocide...

Our Hunkpapa genocide is a cover up, the US Forest Service like it rationalized killing off Smokey the Bear and then we started having climate chaos forest fires; what we are talking about? You have to read all the material written to the present. I have been on this since 1994, 25 years of my life fighting the enemies causing our genocide, all with the bare minimum of resources.

RECA is next, we have to get on RECA (Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act....Waiting for them show me something, we went to DC 2015/2016 and I am totally impressed

 

What is it? It was an abandoned uranium mine upstream on the Grand River, causing radioactive contamination from the 50's until the late 60's. Most of the Hunkpapa downstream never heard of the mine except for the rumor that they used a nuclear bomb to mine out at the Riley Pass uranium mine...Asking our elders, I learned that during the 60's the Indian Health Service dug two water wells for two of the coolest hand pumps ever. People knew the river was not good to drink, that it was causing sickness; the pumps ended that concern. By that time, the foam on the river was annual occurrence, this foam is caused by upstream sheep ranching, no one drank the water from the Grand River, however, eating fish happened then, as it is happening now, no matter what is told because the SRST is complicit in our Hunkpapa genocide, that the poisoning means our erasure from the Grand River, the SRST Yanktonai aka Custer Scouts want the Grand River... Then along came #NoDAPL protest and the Black Snake Prophecy fulfillment, and SRST's tribal council (Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Custer Scout Buckskin Republic) evicting of over 10,000 water protectors as they were beginning to realize the SRST's complicity in our Hunkpapa genocide. By then, though, the protest's direction went from the approaching pipeline to the confronting police brutality by police that have no jurisdiction on the SRST reservation....



Somewhere the spiritual connection faded out soon after the jokes began about snagging by Facebook Hill; then that resulted in some sort of ludicrous rape shaming parade that was later discovered to be purely exaggerated...whatever the case, by the Gnaskinyan demon was in many; they were angry, they were cold, they were hungry, they were tired, they were becoming leery of each other, suspicious, calling out people as snitching to the police or whatever paranoia brought about the meth demons in the camp...Gnaskinyan put anger in their eyes, confusing them, causing them to the lose the spirit as a whole, when everyone become as one, as one alone, instead of us, it became me. Gnaskinyan is a terrible demon so easily possessing the weak spirits...somewhere in there, water protectors were hearing rumors of the radioactive wastelands.... This is our land, these are our rivers, poisoning them is wrong.

Water is sacred, water is life.



Perhaps the sign of gnaskinyan was when the drum was stolen, why would anyone steal a drum?

There were other signs that something was very wrong with the camp, one was that the security was pretty much directly connected to the BIA and the federal government as it led by a retired BIA police officer, very nice fellow I like him and he likes me; they realized they couldn't find a reason to say there were violent militants in the camp so they made up some...



This is an ongoing issue...the Big shots are worthless, they fail...we are writing this history as we live it. By reading this, you are part of it

"SAN FRANCISCO — Funds procured in a court settlement over radioactive and toxic uranium mining waste abandoned in the Cave Hills of Custer National Forest will go to help the Navajo Nation with a new health study on harmful air pollution from similar sites, the EPA announced April 24."

https://www.nativesunnews.today/articles/lakota-territory-uranium-mine-penalty-to-help-navajo-study-health-hazards/

Every time a Hunkpapa turns around, someone is stealing from us...they won't go to Rock Creek or Running Antelope and ask about the Cancer and other death sicknesses....First the Yanktonai aka Custer Scouts commit genocide, then pretend they know nothing when they knew all along.

Sh!t ain't gonna fly on my watch...hahahahahahahahahahhahaha https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/custergallatin/landmanagement/planning/?cid=fseprd601607 the irony is 25 years later, I face another Draft Environmental Impact Statement...alone....

Incorporation Fees

If you really want to help the Hunkpapa with the uranium contamination in the Grand River, causing genocide, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, please consider donating to our organization, and, better yet, telling us how you can help and joining our cause; hopefully we will be up and running formally in a month or so. IRS tax exemption costs about a $2,000 total, along with California incorporation fees. The Hunkpapa are moving on it now. I have to say sorry to those that thought otherwise. And for those of you, wanting to be something else, that is on you; I never changed, I always laugh even if I am getting pushed off a porch while defending my Hunkpapa rights by certain folks. If I hurt anyone's feelings, that is also on you as you've carried that this long.

Here is the budget. Most of it would go to fund raising at first, but that would be easy, considering what the Hunkpapa have to offer the Bay Area cultural scene and, of course, the cuisine. The branding effort will need to do more public involvement with the local urban community, gathering resources, ideas and more friends and supporters. I keep telling the local Native community that eventually 14 tipis of Hunkpapa and other Lakota are coming to check out the Bay Area, we will hold formal introductions and ceremonies.

The $24,000 travel budget is to go to DC to establish our own Hunkpapa reservation as a response to our genocide, this will be used mostly to drive to DC and the other necessary places we need to visit. We are going to put ourselves on RECA (Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act) list, as Hunkpapa, we have to take care of each other and we have to do this ourselves. The other areas have been taken care of, they can do their business without us. 

I have always said we have to come to the San Francisco Bay Area to give testimony to the local environmental groups, to let them know we exist; there are quite a few of them that really need to learn the truth about our one of a kind situation.. And to learn of another reason why nuclear energy is not safe as it sometimes results in coverups like as is happening in the Grand River valley.

Before heading to Navajo country, we have to support our Apache brethren in their opposition to Oak Flat copper mining. After the Hunkpapa will travel to Navajo with the Hunkpapa to see if there is any good volleyball players and discuss their uranium mining history. Mostly we will be visiting the Hopi, their prophetic sand paintings to see our direction that our future will take us. Then see the Grand Canyon and all the tourism activities. That is all they will do for us, if they can do more, they would have done so already and if they can help, they will. They really have to quit talking to the wrong people but, of course, I have went through several times already; they come at me like this, "tell them we have been helping you all along and we can get you guys some funds..." There is no selling out in this. Like I had shut down some lawyers that effectively silenced those southern Lakota, no secret lawyer meetings without us, no hard feelings, I love you, guys, too, as you make me laugh...hahahahahahahhaha

Eventually, and soon, we have a legal and accountable nonprofit established for this purpose. This is what I feel the first year's expenses will look like (to give an idea of the magnitude of the fund raising objectives):

Low End Budget
Employees............................................$120,000
Travel......................................................$24,000
Office rent & expenses...........................$56,000
RECA/Hunkpapa Rising Inc Fees........$100,000

High End Budget

Employees.........................................$1,000,000

Travel......................................................$24,000
Office rent & expenses...........................$56,000
RECA/Hunkpapa Rising Inc Fees........$100,000

Organization Structure:

The Hunkpapa Rising positive strategy and planning objectives:

And with all good things, there is the bad, and that led to this situation: colonialism and its persecution:

Up North At Night The Eye Burns Brightly

I'm still trying to find the angle from just seeing the flares at night. All the pipelines. I have been watching them for awhile now. I wondered why few have not did the same as the information is publicly available online.

TetraTech was accused of falsifying radiation sampling results at Hunter's point in San Francisco, this means they probably did a poor job at the Riley Pass abandoned uranium mine...I will have to return to see for myself
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/EPA-Letter-Reveals-New-Problems-with-Hunters-Point-Radiation-Data-479214633.html

This is not a uranium processing plant

I remember first learning about the cause of our genocide in 1994, we were working on the SRST IRMP at SRST Water & Natural Resources during the good old days. 

The US Forest Service (USFS) was holding a Custer National Forest Environmental Impact Statement public and tribal hearing conference on oil and gas leasing, inviting all regional tribes (about 200 natives showed up, camping out near the abandoned uranium mine); oddly, the USFS only wanted tribal comment on the petroglyphs, and didn't mention the abandoned uranium mines although I asked about them--I showed up on my own funds. All the tribal governments should have seen them, and perhaps the Grand River would be 15 years free from that source of radioactive contamination.

Unfortunately such was not the case, years passed, people downstream and downwind, getting cancer, dying from sickness, wondering why? Of course, the obvious keeps getting pointed out to them and yet they are blind. I say this is revenge for defeating Custer and the 7th Cavalry, they torment with Hunkpapa with this sickening ignorance and does give reason to why Sitting Bull was murdered for less than this, (he wanted our own Hunkpapa reservation on the Grand River so we would not be getting the leftovers from the government annuities, rotting meat and wormy grain and being just left out from all the millions in federal government grants the tribal government wastes on idiocy...

We walk slow like a turtle and let the spirit lead. And kindness has always been our preferred method of community involvement: despite the tragic implications of this hostile genocide committed against my family, the Hunkpapa, the most feared tribe in the Great Indian Wars, we forgive you, give us justice. And listen to us, don't go out there unless you have proper radiation hazard protective clothing or are at least aware of keeping up upwind of the extreme radon danger. (I am already seeing signs of the workers forgetting the danger, oh well, such is life, they'll learn the hard way.)
Below is a map showing the location of the Riley Pass abandoned uranium mine showing Bluff B (I felt that this is good enough), this place recorded 200,000 cps, corresponding to some very dangerous levels (https://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/radiation/rrmcroentgen.html?u=rrmcroentgen&v=133).

Figure 2. As the Crow Flies, the water flows

You can see how the radioactive runoff permeates the Grand River valley, you can see where it collects itself like gold collects itself in riffles in the sluice box...I have to hand it to the smug eggheads, their racism was so thick that they couldn't see what they did for us; we thank you. Especially you, Mr. Stone, I can imagine your shock after that first meeting, talk about putting the bioremedial foot in the mouth, wanting to spray uranium eating bacteria all over the place, not realizing we are all contaminated with uranium, that your germ might just eat us up, too. Of course, we must consider the chemical reaction the uraniferous lignite has with water especially rainwater, the interstitial disseminated amorphous organic uranium complex completely dissolves into liquid, only precipitating to natural background level after distance and entering the stilling basins. I really worry about both Shadehill and Bowman-Haley ,having radioactive sediments built up from the mining days.
Check this out, their radiation measurements indicate very hot radiation zones within the Riley Pass uranium mine-Bluff B "Final Human Health and Ecological Risk Assessment for the Riley Pass Uranium Mines in Harding County, South Dakota" Portage, 2006 excerpt from Hell:
"Gamma rate ranges in Bluff B were determined to be 10,000 to 35,000 counts per minute (cpm) (15.8 to 38.6 µRem/h), averaging 15,000 cpm (21.1 µRem/h). Weathered ore piles ranged from 30,000 to 200,000 cpm (34.6 to 133.1 µRem/h) averaging 60,000 cpm (56.6 µRem/h). The lignite piles exhibited gamma rate ranges of 100,000 to 200,000 cpm (81.4 to 133.1 µRem/h), with an average of 150,000 cpm (08.5 µRem/h). The mine floor, with exposed sandstone, ranged from 20,000 to 50,000 cpm (25.9 to 49.7 µRem/h), and averaged 40,000 cpm (42.4 µRem/h). The majority of undisturbed areas with possible overburden interfaces ranged from 4,000 to 6,000 cpm (8.3 to 11.0 µRem/h), averaging 5,000 cpm (9.7 µRem/h)."

This is not a uranium processing plant, according to the US Forest Service, this is a uranium mine. A uranium mine is under a totally different set of regulations than is an ordinary mine, with specifications most in terms of in situ containment of mining surface runoff of contaminants. The US Forest Service went to great lengths to characterize the Riley Pass abandoned uranium mine as just that, a mine; this means that it has full jurisdiction and authority over the mine. Except this is NOT a uranium mine.

This is a uranium processing plant, subject to the authority of the Nuclear Regulatory Authority. Miners and workers were supposed to received Radiation Exposure Control and Compensation Act (RECA) funds for being poisoned; Senator Daschle was trying to get the surviving miners their RECA funds but the offending mining company didn't keep records. And continuing on, with this type of malicious ignorance. The US Forest Service, willfully and knowingly and most deceitfully, used its authority to conceal this fact maliciously and malevolently as then the entire list of Potentially Responsible Parties (PRP) would be held liable for health damages (this meant some of the local community could be held responsible, this is how the US Forest Service frightened compliance from this affected community as well). Unfortunately for the US Forest Service, in capital murder investigations, there is no statute of limitations. And of course, we are aware that all the principals in this are likely dead; we just want the justice of RECA for all affected by this toxic legacy of the nuclear era and health services for the cancer and the illnesses, controlled by us to protect our privacy (we will not subject ourselves to poverty porn and their pimps, or crybullies and their flying monkeys).

But what do I know, I am just a victim of radioactive genocide with a vested interest in seeing the fullest prosecution applied to all agencies attempting to avoid litigation through delays and outright misdirection, this was my experience with US Forest Service.
And they denied my friend, Mr. Calvin Hoisington, a former uranium miner, that told me enough about this deadly toxic uranium processing rotary kiln to know that the smoke was radon laced and this killed most of them. Mr. Hoisington told me they could tell when a miner was not coming back to work, his nose would be pouring snot and they'd cough and cough...he said after seeing that during his three months out there, he took his check and headed out to safer work.
People asked why couldn't we force the US Forest Service to hear about our increasing sickness and deaths downstream in the Grand River valley, now you know; we feel that the health crises and deaths deserve respect, and should not be mentioned as such in order to keep such privacy and respect this deserves. We will have justice.

This Rapid City Journal "For some, mining clean up at Cave Hills comes too late" says it all.

US Forest Service document links on the Riley Pass Uranium Mine Documents

http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/custergallatin/landmanagement/resourcemanagement/?cid=stelprd3833603

Let's face it, gone are the days when we could rely on Smokey Bear to provide calm reassurance that he is keeping us safe from forest fires and such:
Case Summary: Settlement Agreement in Anadarko Fraud Case Results in Billions for Environmental Cleanups Across the Country http://www.epa.gov/enforcement/case-summary-settlement-agreement-anadarko-fraud-case-results-billions-environmental

I said that we need to be put on RECA (Radiation Exposure And Compensation Act), the whole community has lost somebody and is sick as well. We do need some swimming pools and water slides out of that Anadarko Settlement as well as other recreational activities harmed by the poisoning...
As for the history from the obfuscating lead federal agency, spending over $20 million to try to prove that the downstream communities have not been because at that point the water wasn't flowing, the rains weren't sampled and no comments were taken from downstream communities who would say that the mine is killing us as do the local Harding county citizens will lament as well...the mine is killing us, the Forest Service needs its attic dusted out for idiocy, I am so glad that certain USFS staff retired, while one that retired is going to say some very bad things, litigable, about how the USFS tried to cover up the human health effects especially made it a point to ignore the downstream communities screaming at the USFS that we are dying...
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/custergallatin/landmanagement/resourcemanagement/?cid=stelprd3833603