Plenty Belize Pine Ridge Hemp House

Pine Ridge, South Dakota Hemp Project: Slim Butte Land-Use Association President Loretta Cook, and Slim Butte's Agricultural Projects Director/Plenty board member, Tom Cook, are continuing to move this groundbreaking initiative forward to allow the Pine Ridge Reservation Oglala Lakota community to cultivate industrial hemp as an income-producing crop. Unemployment is a crushing 80% on the reservation which encompasses the poorest county in the U.S. This initiative was assisted by Plenty in 1998 with a $1,000 grant as well as through publicity and networking efforts. Plenty was also able to channel a grant from longtime foundation supporter Onaway Trust to fund an important cultural event at Pine Ridge, the 1998 Sundance.

Update: Pine Ridge Council Passes Hemp Ordinance (Winter 2001)

In May of 1999 Plenty sent 8 volunteers with tools to begin construction on the first house using hemp fibers as a major component of construction. Although a tornado had swept through the region only days before, in one week our team of carpenters with the help of Pine Ridge crew were able to assemble a two story framework to the roof rafters and assisted in research and development of the outer bricks made from adobe and hemp fibers. Work has continued on the house and it is hoped that by next spring it will provide housing for a family. See article on the construction of the Pine Ridge hemp home.

Our program aim is to return control and benefit of Indian land to Indian hands. To accomplish this, a small collective of landowners in the Slim Buttes community of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation has established a land-use cooperative. This group of Indian landowners is like many who are currently in lease agreements with local ranchers and farmers, and are seeking ways to use their land in more productive ways.

It is our view that cycles of poverty can be ended not by handouts, but by providing people with meaningful opportunities to control their own destinies. Where there are jobs there are cohesive and strong families. By nurturing community-level economic development, we hope to address the root causes of our poverty and the social dysfunction it creates.

Slim Butte LUA (Land-Use Association) undertook a pilot project to research and develop industrial hemp agriculture on lands of interested members.

The short-term objective is production and sale of raw materials (seed and fiber). The future holds prospects of creating jobs for our people in processing and manufacturing as the industry develops. By creating an environmentally friendly, annually renewable alternative to limited natural resources (primarily timber and oil), American Indians can lead the way in living a harmonious relationship with our earth.

Through a one-year fellowship awarded last year by Share Our Strength, we have formed the LUA and proceeded through successive levels of tribal government and economic development committee meetings to fully present our initiative to the tribal council for endorsement.

This effort has involved two formal presentations to federal government officials; extensive preliminary organizational efforts at community, district and tribal level, considerable legal counsel and education, scientific and technical advice, and innumerable contributions from marketing and retailing resources associated with an emerging domestic industry for hemp products.

Due primarily to environmental and economic pressure, legislative and legal sources indicate that industrial hemp laws will be enacted in 1998, as ten states and two tribes have legislation before them. If not this coming year, this is expected soon thereafter as the idea gains momentum. We are among those who are pioneering this effort in the US.

Our hope is to initially provide domestic raw material for food, oil, paper, and textile products estimated at $40 million retail in 1997 by competing with foreign suppliers and challenging the free nation fair trade policies established by the current federal administration.

As we proceed with this legal and formal governmental process we are seeking support to continue the efforts begun over two years ago with research into the project.

To address the problems of reservation Indians living in poverty, we focus upon and promote land-based nutritional programs (gardening) through other agencies. Our LUA industrial hemp initiative is also based on returning to the land for its inherent productive value. Furthermore, our project's environmental aspect is congruent with traditional Oglala Lakota views of the people and their relationship to the land.

Our reexamination of ways to make our land profitable for individuals and community development has thrust us into an arena that is both challenging and promising. It definitely has given the people an issue to debate, having rekindled issues of sovereignty and to what extent the federal government should exercise jurisdiction in our lives.

Our objectives for 1998 entail pursuing the formal legal process, recognizing the cooperative through tribal ordinance, managing the site requirements and protocols, securing support from external agencies to meet immediate goals and developing long-range goals toward community-based self-reliance.

Hemp can be pulped using less chemicals than with wood. Its natural brightness can obviate the need to use chlorine bleach, which means no extremely toxic dioxin being dumped into streams.

Construction products such as medium density fiber board, oriented strand board, and even beams, studs and posts could be made out of hemp. Because of hemp's long fibers, the products will be stronger and/or lighter than those made from wood.

Hemp can yield 3-8 dry tons of fiber per acre. This is four times what an average forest can yield.

Hemp grows well in a variety of climates and soil types. It is naturally resistant to most pests, precluding the need for pesticides. It grows tightly spaced, out-competing any weeds, so herbicides are not necessary. It also leaves a weed-free field for a following crop.

Hemp can displace cotton which is usually grown with massive amounts of chemicals harmful to people and the environment. 50% of all the world's pesticides are sprayed on cotton.

Hemp fibers are longer, stronger, more absorbent and more mildew-resistant than cotton.

Hemp oil is the richest known source of polyunsaturated essential fatty acids (the "good" fats). It's quite high in some essential amino acids, including gamma linoleic acid (GLA), a very rare nutrient also found in mother's milk.