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pleas Tuesday in Billings federal court.
• They're among 11 people arrested in March. FBI affidavits described an operation that shipped more than 2 pounds of meth to suspects in Billings and Roundup, Mont., and Rapid City, S.D., this year.
• Authorities say those locations could serve as staging points to move drugs into the Bakken oil field.
• A multi-count indictment was filed Friday but remains sealed.
• The arrests represent at least the third major trafficking ring to be targeted by state and federal law enforcement as authorities crack down on drug dealers trying to profit off the oil money flowing into the region.
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SD tribe's park expansion for bison irks ranchers
NORA HERTEL, Associated Press
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Rangeland outside of Badlands National Park has become contested territory.
• The Oglala Sioux Tribe and National Park Service are working on a plan outlined nearly 40 years ago to turn the current park's South Unit and surrounding property into the first tribal national park and introduce a herd of buffalo.
• Opponents of the new park, including some tribal members and ranchers who've leased and used the land for decades, distrust land transfers and federal involvement. But supporters argue that the park will give the tribe the opportunity to re-introduce buffalo and pursue other projects.
• Most of the land in question belongs to the tribe, which is helping ranchers find new sites for their animals. A tribal judge will consider a petition in July to keep the tribal council from canceling grazing leases.
• And with ongoing public input sessions -- two are scheduled for Friday --organizers say there is still time for adjustments and compromise.
• "It's not something that's going to happen overnight," said Angela Sam, assistant to Oglala Sioux Tribal President Bryan Brewer. "It's not something that's going to happen easily." She said the tribe could choose to halt the plan's progress, use the existing park boundaries or expand them into the rangeland.
• A feasibility study indicated that 133,000 acres in the South Unit would not be enough to maintain a bison herd, Sam said.
• Fewer than a dozen properties would be affected, and most of those are rented, she said. Ranchers leasing the property might not have realized the prescribed use of the land might change, even though the plan for the park with buffalo dates back to 1976, she said.
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