Sioux tribes upset over sale of sacred site in SD


This 2007 photo provided by South Dakota Magazine shows Reynolds Prairie in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Nearly 2,000 acres of the ranch, which encompasses a sacred site known as Pe Sla to a band of Native American tribes that once lived in the Black Hills, is going up for auction on Aug. 25, 2012. Now the tribes, collectively known as the Sioux, are coming together to raise money to buy back the only sacred site currently located on privately-owned land. Photo: Courtesy South Dakota Magazine, Bernie Hunhoff / AP

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — It's advertised as a one-of-a-kind deal: Nearly 2,000 acres of prime real estate nestled in the Black Hills of South Dakota for sale to the highest bidder.

But the offer to sell the land near Mount Rushmore and historic Deadwood has distressed Native American tribes who consider it a sacred site. Although the land has been privately owned, members of the Great Sioux Nation — known as Lakota, Dakota and Nakota — have been allowed to gather there each year to perform ceremonial rituals they believe are necessary for harmony, health and well-being.

Members now fear that if the property they call Pe' Sla is sold, it will be developed and they will lose access. The South Dakota Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration are studying the possibility of paving one of the main roads that divides the land, a fact mentioned in the advertisement touting its development potential.

Many increasingly questioning life sentences for juveniles; some convicted may go free

California Department of Corrections/Associated Press - In this March 11, 2012 photo provided by the California Department of Corrections is Sara Kruzan. Kruzan was a teenage prostitute in 1994 when she shot and killed her 33-year-old pimp in the honeymoon suite of the Dynasty Suites Motel in Riverside. The next year, she was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Since then, her case 

SAN FRANCISCO — Sara Kruzan was 17 when she was sentenced to die in prison for killing and robbing a pimp in a Riverside motel. Now, at 32, Kruzan has a chance at being freed, along with thousands of other juveniles convicted of murder who were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Those life sentences are coming under increased attack from activists, lawmakers and even the U.S. Supreme Court, which recently struck down mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles as unconstitutional “cruel and unusual” punishment. On Thursday, the California Assembly passed a bill by the slimmest of margins that would give juvenile lifers in that state a shot at freedom.

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