South Dakota remains, by its political culture and its economic interests, resistant to Black Hills land transfer.

Any federal legislative effort would need to overcome that resistance, which means building a political coalition that can override local opposition — a tall order in a congressional system that gives significant weight to the interests of the state most directly affected by a proposed policy.

What Scholars And Historians Have Said

The Black Hills dispute has generated a substantial body of scholarly and legal analysis over the decades since the 1980 Supreme Court ruling.

The most comprehensive legal-historical account is Edward Lazarus’s “Black Hills/White Justice: The Sioux Nation Versus the United States, 1775 to the Present,” published in 1991.

Lazarus, whose father Arthur Lazarus represented Sioux interests in the long legal battle, traced the full history of the claim with access to inside knowledge of the legal process.