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STURGIS - A number
of American Indian and religious groups are planning to protest
outside the Meade County Courthouse on Tuesday, May 2, when county
commissioners consider a liquor license for Rock’n The Rally at
Glencoe, the new Sturgis rally concert venue south of Bear Butte.
Groups include the
Intertribal Coalition to Defend Bear Butte, Bring Back the Way and
the Lakota Action Network.
In addition,
Sturgis-based Bear Butte International Alliance is planning to speak
against the Rock’n The Rally liquor license. Coalition members
also will present petitions seeking a countywide referendum of the
commission’s April 4 decision to issue a beer license to the new
Broken Spoke Saloon and Sturgis County Line campground north of Bear Butte.
Before the April 4
Broken Spoke hearing, more than 400 Lakota, Cheyenne and Ponca people
marched on the courthouse to protest the beer license.
The Rock’n
The Rally hearing is set for 9:30 a.m. in the basement meeting room
of the Meade County Courthouse. Protesters say they will gather on
the steps of the courthouse before the meeting.
Gary Lippold,
owner of the Glencoe CampResort at S.D. Highways 34 and 79, is
building a large new concert venue on a 34-acre site north of the campground.
He and his
entertainment partners plan to stage 20 major music acts over five
nights during the 2006 Sturgis motorcycle rally. Aerosmith, Keith
Urban and Big & Rich are among the bands booked to perform.
Lippold is paying
the county $500,000 for the liquor license. He said liquor sales are
needed to attract sponsors and turn Rock’n The Rally into the
kind of large-scale, upscale motorcycle venue he wants to create.
But to an
increasing number of American Indian groups, the Rock’n The
Rally liquor license is another example of what they describe as the
continuing encroachment of the loud and rowdy Sturgis biker culture
on one of their most sacred sites.
“We need to
protect our way of life; we need to protect our Sacred Mountain”
said T.J. Afraid of Hawk of the Intertribal Coalition to Defend Bear Butte.
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