SIOUX FIGHT FEDS, THIS TIME OVER HEMP

Non-Potent Version Could Be A Cash Crop, Tribe Argues

As Alex White Plume tells it, the raid began with the rising sun and the
whir of helicopter blades. Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration
spread out across his property on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation, nestled by the Black Hills the Sioux consider sacred, looking
for drugs. "One of them came running towards me, and he pointed his gun and
told me to halt," White Plume says. "In my mind, I was going to jail."

He wasn't headed for jail, and has not been charged with a crime, but the
raid last year was heartbreaking to him. It ended what had otherwise been a
charmed attempt to grow a crop that would help White Plume, an Oglala
Sioux, and his family supplant their meager income from raising horses,
herding buffalo and offering pony rides.

Of course, White Plume was growing hemp — the durable weed known in some
forms as marijuana. All marijuana is hemp; not all hemp is marijuana, at
least not in the psychotropic sense. So-called industrial hemp, which lacks
pot's chemical potency, has been used for centuries in everything from
clothing to lip balm.

Marijuana usually has at least 5 percent or more of the hallucinogen
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), but industrial hemp contains less than 1
percent — far from enough to give even a mild high. And while marijuana
remains illegal in most countries, the industrial hemp movement has gained
momentum in recent years, especially in North America, though it's unclear
how large a market exists for hemp products.

Support From States

Canada has begun licensing industrial hemp. State legislatures in 19
states, including agricultural centers like North Dakota and Minnesota,
have compiled legislation backing industrial hemp. Hawaii now allows
private hemp research, and former tobacco farmers in Kentucky successfully
pushed the legislature and governor to pass a bill last March creating an
Industrial Hemp Commission to regulate research.

Despite pressure from states, the federal government makes little
distinction between industrial hemp and the potent variety. According to
DEA officials, the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 bars not only
marijuana but also THC — so that all hemp, even varieties with only faint
traces of the chemical, is considered illegal.

Federal authorities would not discuss the seizure on White Plume's land.
("I can't make any comment," says Michelle Tapken, the U.S. Attorney for
South Dakota.) Nor would the DEA discuss new regulations it says are in the
works.

But when the DEA did another seizure this past July, it negotiated with
White Plume in advance and came without guns pointed.

Fight For Sovereignty

The seizures at Pine Ridge were largely business as usual, except for one
thing: The DEA flexed its muscle on a tribal reservation. For White Plume
and others in the Oglala tribe, growing these plants has become a basic
issue of tribal rights. Theis tribe, they argue, has a history with hemp
and a right to uphold their traditions.

"There's a word for the plant in the tribal language, which means it's got
a history here that precedes contact with the Europeans," says Tom
Ballanco, White Plume's attorney.

Indeed, White Plume says there is a single word — wahupta — for both hemp
and marijuana. But he says he's not interested in growing the potent
variety. Instead, he hopes to turn hemp into a cash crop, selling both the
finished products and seeds to others eager to harvest a plant revered in
past times for its versatility and its ability to endure harsh climates and
gritty soil.

It was hemp's economic potential that drew White Plume's attention. He was
impressed by the range of hemp products, usually imported from nations such
as Canada and Germany, but the high prices of hemp items stunned him.

"Most of it is import-export taxes, which drives the market up high," White
Plume says. "People in the country could pay less for a good article, and
we could make some money."

Struggle Against Poverty

Pine Ridge could use the help. It is often described as one of the poorest
places in the nation. The town of Manderson, White Plume's home, had a per
capita income of just one-quarter of the U.S. average, according to the
latest available census figures. Even the agricultural income of Shannon
County, where Manderson is located, is dwarfed by most other counties in
the state.

Tribal leaders acknowledge hemp could prove a valuable cash crop. They even
claim to have grown it during World War II, ironically enough, as part of
the federal government's "Hemp for Victory" program.

The tribal council passed a 1998 resolution allowing industrial hemp as a
viable crop on the reservation. Those who want to farm it must register
with the tribal government and test their crop to ensure that it contains
less than 1 percent THC.

And the tribal government eagerly supports residents like White Plume who
seek to capitalize on one of the few cheap, plentiful crops that grows
readily in the area's hardscrabble ground.

"It grows wild here ... it's growing tall out there right now," says John
Yellow Bird Steele, president of the Oglala Sioux tribe. "This is the
government's protection of corporations such as the clothing industry, the
paper industry."

Tribes And Treaties

White Plume — either intentionally or inadvertently — has wandered into a
legal thicket.

Tribal reservations don't function under the same laws as the rest of the
nation; though the federal government reserves the right to enforce laws
against major crimes from murder to drug trafficking, tribes largely retain
authority to govern themselves. Just how law enforcement is divided between
the federal and tribal government depends on the treaty between that tribe
and the United States.

For White Plume's people, it was the Fort Laramie treaty of 1868. Like many
treaties of the time, the Fort Laramie document actually encouraged the
Oglala to take up farming as a way to end their nomadic travels across the
plains. It gave each family the right to take up to 320 acres for farming,
and promised free seeds and supplies.

Now that they've found a crop with potential to sustain them, the tribe
argues, the government is hedging on the deal.

"That is the very kind of thing that the treaty was designed to encourage,"
says Frank Pommersheim, an expert on tribal law at the University of South
Dakota. "Here they are being thwarted trying to engage in the very sort of
act the federal government was trying to encourage at that time."

Treaties aren't set in stone — and the government already breached the Fort
Laramie treaty so prospectors could search for gold in the stark Black
Hills — but unless Congress passes a specific bill to change the way the
treaty is applied, tribes usually set their local regulations. They were,
for example, allowed to run gambling operations almost unchecked until
Congress set strict limits in 1988.

On the other hand, the Supreme Court has ruled that the illegality of some
drugs — peyote, in a noted 1990 case — trumps Indian rights to sovereignty
and religious freedom.

Taking A Stand

While growing marijuana at White Pine would likely be illegal, the unclear
interpretation of drug laws as they apply to hemp — and the treaty's
promotion of agriculture as a tribal way of life — offer White Plume and
other tribal members good standing in court.

Because the tribe has endorsed hemp as a legitimate crop, federal
authorities would have to clearly prove that the tribe's right to self-rule
isn't as important as the drug laws' application to non-potent hemp.

"You have this conflict between what the native people say the treaty means
and what the United States would say the treaty means," says Robert Porter,
director of the Tribal Law and Government Center at the University of
Kansas and the Seneca Nation's first attorney general. "It sounds like a
classic setup for litigation."

White Plume is wary of going to federal court to fight a case about tribal
lands. But seeing this as an issue of sovereignty — and in their minds, as
another effort by the government to break its pledges — the tribe is
preparing a suit of its own. Federal agencies may be following the letter
of the law, but the Oglala consider this a personal assault by a government
they feel has a history of betrayal.

"Even if they do win, what do they win that they beat down a tribe again?"
asks Ballanco.
SIDEBAR

Fact File: A Durable Plant

Hemp's economic potential is unclear, but its uses are manifold.

FOOD The seeds are used to make animal feed and are edible by humans in
much the same way as sunflower seeds. They have been made into snacks,
cookies, porridge and trail mix. They can be ground into flour and have
been used as a grain to make beer.

OIL The plant's seed is about 30 percent oil, which can be used for
cooking, lubrication and medicinal purposes. In Russia, it also was used as
a butter.

BODY CARE The presence of fatty acids in the oil make hemp a useful
material for health and beauty products. It has been made into soaps,
lotions, creams, shampoo, lip balms and more. At least one major retailer,
the Body Shop, sells specialty hemp items as one of its product lines.

HOUSEHOLD USES The oil can be used to produce varnishes, resins, paints,
detergents and polishes. The fiber can be made into twine.

CLOTH The fiber of the hemp plant can be woven, similar to flax, into
cloth. It currently is used to produce everything from shirts to quilts.
For centuries, hemp was used as a durable fiber for ships' sails. The
United States could match its total import of linen fiber, yarn and fabric
by planting 40 percent of the acreage used for tobacco fields in hemp,
according to USDA estimates.

PAPER Much like wood pulp, hemp can be made into a range of paper products
and packaging materials.

SYNTHETICS The cellulose in the plant can be transformed into plastic
compounds, caulking and building materials.

FUEL Through various chemical processes, parts of the plant can be
transformed into a charcoal-like substance or refined to produce a
gasoline-like fuel. Like most biomass, it also can be transformed into
ethanol and similar fuels. Hemp advocates have used hemp-fueled vehicles to
prove its viability as a fuel source.

Source: USDA, NAIHC, Hemp Industries Association

POLL (Nonscientific survey - results as of 07 Sep 2001, 1431 hours)

Should industrial hemp be legal to grow in the United States?
* 4349 responses
Yes 94%
No 6%