The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday in favor of the federal government’s transfer of a sacred burial ground to the state of South Dakota. The Crow Creek Sioux argue that the site will suffer from the state’s lack of interest in preservation, and from the fact that repatriation laws will only be enforced by the federal government. They pointed out in court that the state is currently turning a burial ground into a campsite after a similar land transfer involving the Yankton Sioux Tribe. The court concluded, however, that the tribe failed to show how it would directly suffer from the transaction.
