LAKOTA INDIANS RECEIVE KY HEMP

They can't grow it, but they can truck it in.

A trailer full of Canadian hemp is on its way to the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation, courtesy of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association
and the Madison Hemp & Flax Company.

The hemp will replace thousands of plants seized by federal authorities in
August from two test plots on the reservation. The crop was to be used for
hemp bricks and other building materials.

"We've got enough (bales) to finish the house they're working on and
probably start on another one," said Joe Hickey, executive director of the
Kentucky hemp group, as crews were busy loading bales there Monday.

Hickey notes the irony in the gift. "It's exactly the same stuff," he said.
"There's no genetic difference between what we're going to bring up there
and what (federal agents) destroyed ... which is crazy."

The Slim Buttes Land Use Association has worked to develop industrial hemp
use on the Pine Ridge reservation for several years. Members built most of a
house near Slim Buttes, using "hempcrete" blocks made from Canadian hemp.

Last spring, they planted two test plots of industrial hemp at Pine Ridge.
On Aug. 24, just before the harvest, federal agents confiscated 3,782 plants
in Alex White Plume's 1.5-acre plot, plus the plants in a second plot near
Slim Buttes.

While Oglala Sioux Tribal law allows hemp plants with less than 1 percent
THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the substance in marijuana that gives users a
"high"), the federal government does not.

Despite the fact that the U.S. government encouraged farmers to grow hemp
during World War II, federal officials say the law does not distinguish
between marijuana, which is smoked to get high, and hemp, which can be used
to make paper, fabric, rope, building materials and other items.

For possessing 1,000 or more plants, punishment upon conviction in the
federal system is 10 years to life in prison. No one has been arrested in
connection with the hemp raid, but authorities said in August they expected
grand jury indictments.

White Plume said federal officials told him they weren't making any arrests
because they "didn't want to get into a political controversy" over
sovereignty and other issues.

Mark Vargo, who is handling the case for the U.S. Attorney's office, could
not be reached Monday. Meanwhile, the Kentucky hemp growers and Madison Hemp
& Flax Company offered to replace part of the hemp destroyed in the raid.
The Slim Buttes Land Use Association accepted.

"Essentially, we are picking up exactly the same material destroyed by the
Drug Enforcement Administration. That's absurd," said Tom Cook, project
coordinator for the land use group. "We aren't going to let their
foolishness stop our program."

Former Kentucky Gov. Louie B. Nunn will formally present Slim Buttes Project
Spokesman Joe American Horse with the hemp at the Kentucky State Capitol
rotunda today. Nunn will then travel back to Pine Ridge with the group,
which expects to arrive here on Friday.

Nunn called the trip "an effort to educate the public" about the benefits of
hemp, and also to show that people need to work together to develop a better
agricultural and economic future for all people.

The Kentucky group isn't building with hemp. "We're not quite as inventive
as these guys (from Pine Ridge) are," Hickey said. "We're using hemp for
horse bedding for the thoroughbred horse industry here." He said hemp is
more absorbent and produces less dust than straw, which is commonly used in
horse stalls. "They won't eat this like they'll eat the straw, too."