Pubdate: Thu, 14 Mar 2002
Source: Daily Republic, The (SD)
Copyright: 2002 Forum Communications Company
Contact:  http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1320
Author: Tim Giago
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hemp.htm (Hemp)

MAKING A CASE FOR HEMP

Alex White Plume, his wife Debbie and their children, make up an average 
Lakota family residing on the Pine Ridge Reservation, with one exception.

For two summers they have planted and cultivated crops of hemp on the 
supposed sovereign soil of the Pine Ridge, nay - - - - - Oglala Lakota 
Nation. Instead of standing up against the thugs of the Drug Enforcement 
Administration as they mowed White Plume's crops to the ground for the 
second time this summer, Oglala Sioux Tribal President, John Steele, stood 
silently watching with his thumb stuck securely in his hip pocket.

In Lexington, Kentucky, where moonshine and tobacco have been cash products 
for many years, the farmers there are hoping to do the very thing attempted 
by White Plume; grow hemp as a cash crop to replace the diminishing returns 
on tobacco crops.

Unfortunately, the DEA looks at the crop, known as cannabis sativa, as 
dangerous because it contains tiny traces of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a 
substance found in marijuana plants.

According to a well-researched article in Newsweek magazine, marijuana 
contains 3 percent to 20 percent THC. Hemp is bred to contain less than 1 
percent. As the magazine so aptly states, "You could roll and smoke every 
leaf on a 15--ft. hemp plant and gain little more than a hacking cough."

When rope became scarce during World War II the U. S. Government encouraged 
farmers to grow hemp. In 1942 the U. S. Department of Agriculture produced 
a film, Hemp for Victory, in hopes that more farmers would start planting 
hemp. The U. S. Government became the biggest buyer of locally grown hemp 
products.

Alex White Plume saw this plant as an answer to his prayers. Hemp is a 
renewable resource and an effective rotation crop that requires little or 
no herbicide. In his research White Plume discovered that nutritionists and 
vegetarians found that hemp oil had an unusually beneficial ratio of 
essential fatty acids or good fats.

White Plume also saw the plant as a source of rope and fibers for products 
as diverse as rugs and clothing. Hemp grows so tall so fast that it would 
also make a great substitute for the wood that now goes into manufacturing 
paper products. Millions of board feet of lumber are now cut annually to 
feed the presses of America.

White Plume is a traditional Lakota. He practices the ancient spirituality 
of his ancestors. He is an honest man looked upon by many as a leader in 
his reservation community. He does not come from a tradition of farming as 
most Lakota turned their backs on what they considered to be "stoop labor" 
when the United States government tried to turn them into farmers at the 
turn of the century.

But Alex realizes that times have changed. He sees in hemp a way to bring 
income to the many Lakota who are now leasing their land to the white 
settlers. He sees hemp as a way to get the traditional Lakota out of the 
cluster houses built by the good old self-serving government and back on 
their own land.

Homes built in community clusters became the darling project of Housing and 
Urban Development many years ago because the houses were cheap to build 
and, as many older Lakota believe, a way to get the Indian off his land. By 
building homes in clusters many dollars could be saved on electric and 
water lines, or so the reasoning went at the time.

But what happens when people are taken from the land and crowded into 
houses built close together? It is the breeding ground of instant ghettoes. 
And that is what happened on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

White Plume saw the growing of hemp as a cottage industry that would bring 
self-motivation, self-respect and a brand new industrial opportunity to the 
Lakota. It was easy to grow, required little cultivation or water and could 
be used for everything from rope to shirts.

Next month the DEA will start enforcing a new rule that would treat foods 
containing any amount of THC as controlled substances. This will make them 
as restricted as heroin. The Canadian government has formally ob-jected. 
And a Canadian hemp firm has filed a claim that says the DEA is violating 
the North American Free Trade Agreement by failing to provide scientific 
justification for the new rule.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will be asked to block the rule.

Newsweek writes that "many farmers are watching the case because it shows 
how hard the government will fight a growing movement to legitimize hemp 
farming in the United States."

Right now it is legal to sell hemp products but illegal to grow the hemp 
used in them. This hemp is imported.

In the meantime, the global market for hemp is growing and it is a market 
Alex White Plume would like to join.

Will the leaders of the Oglala Lakota Nation, the proud descendants of 
Crazy Horse, Young Man Afraid of His Horses, Little Wound, Bull Bear and 
Red Cloud stand up for the sovereign status of their people and tell the 
DEA to go dig turnips?

Last week, White Plume stood looking over the field where his hemp crop had 
been cut to the ground by the DEA. Will he try to grow it again this 
summer? White Plume just shrugs and with a smile says, "Tim, why don't you 
stop by for a cup of coffee in July."
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