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Statement from Oglala Sioux Tribe

Requests Golden West Operations

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Pine Ridge, SD––On May 21, 2021, the Executive Board of the Oglala Sioux Tribe Tribal Council passed Resolution No. 21-33 XB authorizing Golden West Telecommunications (“Golden West”) to fill current service requests and make routine repairs so long as it provides notice to the Tribe and basic information about where it will be operating.

This move is the Tribe’s latest effort to work with Golden West to obtain information about the rights of way, easements, and service line agreements G olden West says it has secured from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (“BIA”). To date, not a single such agreement has been provided to the Tribe by Golden West or BIA despite the Tribe’s repeated requests.

Previously, the Executive Board halted Golden West’s fiber-tothe home “upgrades” because Golden West refused to comply with the Tribe’s simple request to provide the Tribe with information regarding where Golden West intended to operate and its legal authority to do so. In response to these requests, Golden West representatives repeatedly stated that they received authority from the BIA to operate on the Tribe’s land, but would not provide evidence of such authority.

The Tribe is working with Golden West to ensure that service requests can be fulfilled, and nothing should interrupt Tribal members’ current services.

While the Tribe wants to facilitate maximum connectivity for Tribal members, it is important that any company that intends to operate on our sovereign tribal lands complies with requests from the Tribe regarding information about what it is doing. We are not stopping progress, but we are practicing good government by bringing policy and paperwork into the present while also practicing good land stewardship as these easements give Golden West access to our lands.

For too long, outsiders have come to our lands to profit off of our people without respecting the dignity and sovereignty of our Nation. That ends now.

The Tribe hopes that Golden West will work quickly to comply with the Tribe’s requests and with Tribal law.

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