PINE RIDGE - In a ten-two vote today in tribal council, the Oglala Sioux Tribe adopted a resolution supporting the development of industrial hemp on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

The resolution, presented by former tribal president Joe American Horse on behalf of the Slim Butte LUA (Land Use Association) calls upon the U.S. congress to permit the cultivation of industrial hemp for economic necessity.

The action of the council is the second significant measure affecting hemp on Pine Ridge; the first of which was an 1998 ordinance distinguishing industrial hemp from marijuana, and permitting its cultivation on Pine Ridge as an economic commodity.

Despite tribal law, U.S. DEA agents have confiscated commercial industrial hemp crops on Pine Ridge for the past two years.

“This is a step in the right direction,” said American Horse. “We need to educate the people, and show other tribes a way toward economic development.”

As part of its strategy for gaining support, the LUA will present the adopted measure at the annual conference of the National Congress of American Indians in Spokane, WA later this month.

Based upon the treaty rights of the tribe, the strongly worded resolution calls upon Congress to restrain its agents from interfering with the tribe’s sovereign right to exercise land-based economic development programs on Pine Ridge.