THE UPPER KEYA PAHA TRADING CO.
1310 East Old US 18 - P. O. Box 785
Antelope Community - Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation
Mission, South Dakota, U.S.A.  57555-0785
THE UPPER KEYA PAHA
VIRTUAL TRADING POST

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In This Issue:

Traditional Issues

  I sincerely do not intend to offend anyone with the contents of this column, but I strongly feel that it is an issue that needs to be addressed.  Back in time, during the buffalo culture, when non-Indians generally called the great plains a vast desert mainly because gold was discovered in California and because the great plains didn’t offer much in the way of get rich quick, we were ignored.  The great plains offered the Lakota all they needed for generations.  Nature and our traditional way of life took care of us.  It even took care of our garbage.  Since we were a biodegradable society, meaning everything were used for clothing, shelter, food, and recreation was natural and if left would return to the Mother Earth from which it came. 
   Now that we have transitioned into another era, we need to adapt to this transition.  Transition is a nice way of describing forced assimilation, genocide (both in terms of human life and culture), etc., but it has happened so we need to make the best of it for ourselves, our children, their children, and those yet to be born.  These issues are the driving force behind why I have decided, “to do what I do!”  I just hope others do what they can do to help solve our garbage issues.

Contemporary Issues

   First we need to take a good look at the history of garbage here on the Rosebud.  I can only personally recall about the last 40 years of this history but I will make some assumptions that I feel are close enough for the intent of this column.
   My first recollection of the “trash pile” goes back to the mid fifties.  On our ranch south of Hidden Timber, we had a draw that all the trash was taken and deposited.  I’m sure that all ranches, farms, homesteads, home sites, etc. had a place to put their refuse.  Think of all of these locations throughout the Reservation.  That’s a lot of little dumps out their.
   After we moved to town in 1955, the City of Mission maintained a municipal dump on the southwest corner of SW 1/4  S. 8, T. 38 N., R. 28 W. or the southwest corner of the Prairie Hills Golf Course.  My grandfather owned the land on which the golf course was developed.  I quizzed my aunt about the dumpsite but all she could recall is that it was just their as long a she could remember.  He purchase the land in 1936 and if my memory serves me correctly that site was closed in the mid to late sixties the first time Paul Heinert started his first refuse business.
       See Contemporary          Cont. on page 4