The Sioux rejection of the reparation offer of the Black Hills is a great thing. In the late 19th century, the US took the Black Hills from the Sioux, despite constitutional controversy and the precedence set by treaties, which, to be fair (or not!), had happened all over the country to combat Native Americans. In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled against the US government taking the land, demanding reparations and cash to the amount of $105 million. The Sioux rejected the settlement on the basis that the land was never for sale. What's fair to them is that the land be reinstated, that they may form their own sovereign nation, as they felt they had before it was taken. The monument of Crazy Horse that stands in confrontation of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills demonstrates this symbolic statement more than anything, as the imposing mountain of four domineering presidents who gave license to white settlers pillaging the land and massacring the natives is insulting (but hey at least Jackson is on it). Today the settlement is worth over one billion dollars due to compound interest, yet the Sioux haven't flinched from their stance.
This is a great thing because land has never been overvalued. Land is sacred to all living things; you can't and shouldn't put a price on it. Too many times have the indigenous all over the planet caved into monetary and military pressure, finding themselves in debt due to the financial obligations directed at the very colonizers who exploited them. I would love to see a movement this century calling for the nationalization of various indigenous territories, one for each of the tribes that survived the horrendous genocide of US settlers on Native Americans. Perhaps the Sioux could lead the way, as a prime example of staring down a colossal amount of money, rejecting it on the principle of integrity being more valuable than greed, as the natives have demonstrated for centuries.
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