FORMER KENTUCKY GOVERNOR VISITS OGLALA HEMP GROWERS

MANDERSON, S.D. - Louie B. Nunn is an attorney, a former governor of
the Commonwealth of Kentucky and a fervent proponent of hemp as an
agricultural crop.

He said he believes it could save the family farmers in his state
where tobacco cultivation is on the decline. Earlier this month he was
on the Pine Ridge reservation to visit the White Plume family of Kiza
Park who, in compliance with tribal ordinance, have planted hemp on
their land for the last two years.

"I guess you might describe it as a quasi-legal and a humanitarian
visit," Nunn said, adding that he came to "share with the people here
some of the views that I have on how their conditions might be better
improved and to offer whatever advice that I could to Alex concerning
the crop that he is growing. I ... thought that I might be able to do
something to help the plight of the people here."

Nunn became involved in the hemp controversy when environmentalist-actor
Woody Harrelson went to Kentucky in 1996 and publicly planted four
certified industrial hemp seeds in protest against its status as a
controlled substance.

"I didn't think that he should go to jail. I didn't think he had
committed any crime in the state," Nunn said. "I volunteered to defend
him. And when I did, they asked me to help them with legislation, so I
did assist them in getting legislation through the state."

Nunn says he is convinced hemp can be an economic salvation for the
tobacco farmers in Kentucky and economically impoverished American
Indians living on reservations.

The former governor was at the base of Mount Rushmore late last year
when 20 bales of industrial hemp, imported from Canada in accordance
with the North American Free Trade Agreement, were donated by the
Kentucky Hemp Growers Association to another group of Oglalas who grew
hemp last year.

The Slim Buttes Land Use Association planned to build a test house
with hemp bricks on the reservation, but saw their crop fall in the
same federal raid that took the White Plume family's first crop.

The Kentucky group's assistance allowed the hemp brick house to be
completed.

Hemp seed contains one of the most complete and readily available
vegetable proteins known, and hemp seed oil is lower in saturated fats
than any other vegetable oil including soybean and canola, researchers
say. Cellulose fiber from hemp plants can be used to produce paint,
PVC pipe and many durable building materials. One acre of hemp yields
an amount of cellulose, available for processing into paper, equal to
the yield of 4.1 acres of trees.

Nunn has eaten candy bars made from hemp and worn clothing made from
its fibers, but it's the exploration of hemp's usefulness by an
industrial giant that really has him enthused.

"General Motors in Canada has made a contract to make the panels of
the Chevrolet Lumina (from hemp). Some of the foreign cars like
Mercedes have hemp panels in it where it's made in Germany."

He said held out hope for Kentucky farmers if nearby automakers
explored hemp-fiber panels. "With Toyota and the Ford Motor Co. there
in Kentucky and with Nissan close by in Tennessee, I thought we could
do with hemp what we had done with tobacco."

Nunn said there is a serious lack of awareness of the broad usefulness
of hemp partly because current federal laws don't even allow testing,
research and development to be done by universities or commercial and
scientific labs.

He pointed out that industrial hemp was hugely important to the war
effort. "During World War II, Kentucky was number one in the growth of
hemp," said Nunn. "They (the federal government) were begging people
to grow it, and they did. A friend of mine told me that his father had
500 acres of hemp when he died, which is a right sizable plot compared
to what they're speaking of here."

The White Plume field last year was 1.5 acres and this year it's about
2 acres.

Nunn said in his computer research for an information package for the
Kentucky Legislature he found "the logo that the United States
government used. It's a hemp leaf and it said 'Hemp For Victory,' and
under it was 'U.S. Department of Agriculture 1942.' So I just pulled
that off the screen and put it on the letters and the material that we
distributed."

There has been a serious misinformation campaign against hemp for
years, but most virulently since the creation of the Drug Enforcement
Agency, Nunn said. "The DEA has a $500 million budget to destroy hemp
and that means every plant of that particular species and in Kentucky
they spray a lot of ditchweed. They get like a dollar and five cents
for each plant that they spray. There's not a bureaucracy in the world
that got a $500 million budget, enough for all those jobs they're able
to give in the summer. They're not going to give that up very easily."

Nunn thinks the tide is turning in hemp's favor. "I think it's a long,
uphill climb, but if you put together the U.S. representatives and
U.S. senators of the 17 states that have passed laws legalizing the
cultivation of hemp, they're going to have to give some consideration
to what the local legislators and, in some cases, the local governors
of 17 states are saying."

Nunn wouldn't disclose his discussions with the White Plume family,
only that it was not formal legal advice. But Nunn was one of several
high-profile individuals with legal backgrounds who attended recent
meetings there. Tom Ballanco, who advised the Slim Buttes Land Use
Association and prepared research that played a role in the passage of
the Oglala tribal ordinance, was present as was Rapid City attorney
and treaty specialist, Bruce Ellison.

Participants discussed choices the White Plumes might have, including
pulling up this year's crop to avoid further incursions onto their
property by federal agencies and the arrests that might accompany
another raid.

At press time, the White Plumes had no statement of their intent
regarding the crop, which now stands 4 feet high. Their struggle lies
primarily in a sacred commitment they made to the field and its crop
in April planting ceremonies.

Walking through the field, Alex White Plume pointed to the staff in
the center of the field and a yellow prayer tie at the top. It swayed
in the breeze.

"Before we planted we prayed and prayed for guidance," White Plume
said. "And when we put this staff into the ground we pledged to the
spirits that it would not come down by our hand until we harvested.
How can we go back on something like that?"