SIOUX FALLS -- "A hearing will stretch into a third day on a federal lawsuit over a Missouri River burial site after a judge refused to rule immediately on the case Monday. The Yankton Sioux Tribe sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state over the site found last month by workers moving soil at the North Point State Recreation Area near Pickstown. The remains were discovered when contractors hired by the state started digging for several building improvements.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, asks U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol to declare unconstitutional the transfer of Missouri River shoreline from the federal government to the state. Piersol heard more testimony Monday on the tribe's request for a temporary restraining order. After a lengthy afternoon break because of another case, he refused a motion by the state and corps to deny the request. Assistant U.S. Attorney Bonnie Ulrich said the Yankton Sioux Tribe has not shown it is likely to win its case or that it needs temporary relief. ''The tribe has not shown any harm,'' she said. ''Any excavation has been halted.''
A 24-hour guard has been posted and a fence erected to protect the site, Ulrich said. She said state and federal officials are following the law, including the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act. Bones and burial items that were unearthed and taken to Rapid City are being held in a secure, climate-controlled place where they can be studied so it can be determined which tribe they belong to, Ulrich said. When that's done, they can be returned to the right tribe and reburied, she said. ''The law is being followed, and there's no evidence to show it's not being followed,'' added Deputy Attorney General John Guhin. On Friday, he suggested in court that the remains might have been planted. ''Are you suggesting that the skulls are a setup?'' Piersol asked Guhin Friday. ''They had to get there somehow,'' he responded.
The suggestion, which did not surface again Monday, drew the ire of Mary Wynne, the tribe's lawyer. She argued Monday that the temporary order should be approved because the tribe does have a good case and that a culturally and spiritually sensitive area has been harmed. ''The state of South Dakota has an entire state they could get their fill dirt from,'' Wynne said. Tribal witnesses who testified Friday and Monday say history passed on to the generations by word of mouth tells of burial sites where the remains and burial items were unearthed. ''In all these areas there are kinship burial areas,'' tribal member Faith Spotted Eagle said Monday. ''All along the Missouri River.'' On Friday, she told Piersol she was appalled when she learned some of the remains had been moved. According to tribal beliefs, only a person who has taken part in cleansing and prayer ceremonies can touch human remains, Spotted Eagle said. When human remains are disturbed, ''you interrupt that journey, you call them back,'' she said.
Tribal council member Glenn Drapeau said he felt disrespected when he visited the site last week. ''It is unnatural for our people to have remains unearthed and to be trampled on by heavy equipment, by other individuals, because this site is sacred,'' he said. Robert Cournoyer, Yankton Sioux vice chairman, testified Monday the tribe didn't ask the state and corps to stop construction before filing the lawsuit because of past experience with both agencies. ''Just by walking out there to ask, it would not cease,'' he said of the work. The hearing was scheduled to resume Tuesday morning, when the state and corps were expected to call witnesses."
(c) Copyright 2002, Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan.