Crow Creek Update
Crow Creek Sioux tribe settles lawsuit, gets loan to buy back land, but IRS does not acknowledge wrongdoing
Crow Creek background
Late last year, the US government seized 7112 acres of Crow Creek Sioux land for auction, alleging that the tribe owed over three million dollars in taxes.
Though most of the Crow Creek reservation is situated within the poorest county in the United States, the land under dispute happens to contain world-class sites for the harnessing of wind power. As the world’s fossil fuels dwindle and alternative energy sources are increasingly sought after, Crow Creek lands also becomes increasingly more attractive to outside interests. Whoever develops the site for wind-energy stands to make a fortune.
Crow Creek tribal chairman Brandon Sazue and other members of the tribe moved to the disputed land in December, the tribe filed a lawsuit to block the sale and a call for support was sent out.
A news article from December, before the current settlement, with further background
The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe has settled its tax debt with the Internal Revenue Service and lined up a loan that will enable it to buy back the 11 square miles of land the IRS sold at auction in December, the tribal chairman said.
A stipulation filed in court last week indicates the tribe will dismiss its lawsuit, which sought to prevent the IRS from selling the Hyde County land. That will cancel a May 4 trial.
The IRS took the unusual step of seizing and selling the land because the tribe refused to pay $3.12 million in employment taxes, penalties and interest it racked up since 2001.
At $2.58 million, the winning bid did not fully satisfy the debt. But tribal chairman Brandon Sazue, who met with government officials in Washington last week, said the IRS is forgiving what’s left.
“We don’t owe the IRS anything at this point in time, as long as we drop the lawsuit,” Sazue said.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice’s tax division acknowledged a deal was struck but could not provide any detail.
“We were glad we were able to reach an amicable resolution of the case,” Charles Miller said.
The next step for the tribe is buying back the land; the auction sale came with a provision that the tribe had 180 days to do so.
Sazue said the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux in Minnesota have agreed to loan the Crow Creek Sioux $3 million to buy back the land. Shakopee Mdewakanton spokeswoman Tessa Lehto could not confirm the loan.
The Crow Creek also are working with the government to make sure they don’t get in tax trouble again. The tribe’s written complaint in the court file says they weren’t paying taxes because the Bureau of Indian Affairs wrongly advised them they were exempt.
Sazue said he wants to set up a mechanism that subtracts taxes from tribal councilors’ paychecks.
The chairman said he’s excited to put the tax problems to rest and get back the land.
Sazue spent three weeks on the land in December fasting and praying in protest of the IRS action. He said the tribe’s plight has spurred sympathetic calls and e-mails from as far as Europe and Australia.
“If I hadn’t set my trailer up there I don’t think we’d be where we are today,” he said.Unsettling Ourselves: A Discussion Group Facilitated by Unsettling Minnesota
Please join us for a discussion group this spring!
To register, click here for the exco website.
This course is designed to create community, education, and organized networks for non-Dakota allies to act in solidarity with upcoming Dakota decolonization struggles. We will listen to the desires, demands, knowledge and goals of Dakota community members struggling for liberation and decolonization. We will educate ourselves about Dakota perspectives on “minnesotan” history, de/colonization & liberation, white & settler/colonizer privilege, solidarity politics, and racism, through carefully chosen texts and group discussion. Together, we will build a collective knowledge base that centers decolonization within our ideas of anti-oppression. Dakota traditional knowledge and spirituality will not be shared and this is not a space for non- Dakota people to seek appropriation of Dakota culture or an “in” to spiritual practices. Cultural appropriation will be discussed & confronted as an act of colonization. For white people in the class, acknowledgment, commitment, and vulnerability to confronting white & colonizer privilege, as well as working to transform feelings of guilt into action towards decolonization will be crucial and necessary personal work required. The end goal is to create active ally solidarity networks that can be mobilized when need be — in answer to Dakota calls for solidarity from non-Dakota folks, based on direct communication with and knowledge of Dakota desires. Class members will be asked to act not as individuals, but as members of their own communities—to act within their networks to further spread knowledge and mobilize solidarity.
If you have scheduling conflicts that don’t enable your participation, you can email unsettlingmn@gmail.com to be added to a listserve that will update allies in and out of the course about educational events, actions, or other relevant info. We also hope to pull the syllabus, readings, discussion questions, and lesson plans into a packet/zine that will be available to those in and out of the class, so those who can’t be present can still be involved. thanks!
