Indigenous Coalition Stops Graphite Drilling on Sacred South Dakota Prairie

A coalition of Indigenous tribes and advocacy groups successfully prevented Pete Lien & Sons from conducting exploratory graphite drilling on Pe' Sla, a sacred prairie in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The dispute began after the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service granted the mining company a permit through a categorical exclusion, which allowed the company to bypass standard environmental reviews.

In response, the NDN Collective, the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance, Earthworks, and several tribal nations implemented a strategy combining legal challenges with direct action. This included a seven-day physical occupation of the drill pads that began on April 30. On May 4, a federal judge halted the drilling, ruling that the Forest Service likely acted unlawfully by granting a one-year exemption for a project that required three years of work.

Following the court ruling, Pete Lien & Sons withdrew its drilling plan and pledged not to refile. Organizers described the outcome as a model for protecting ancestral lands by combining the assertion of Indigenous sovereignty with legal and physical resistance.