It would require political leadership at the federal level willing to prioritize the Black Hills claim, sustained political will in Congress to enact legislation over South Dakota’s opposition, sufficient internal agreement among the nine Sioux nations to support a specific proposal, and a form of resolution that the tribal governments could accept without extinguishing their fundamental legal and moral claim to the Hills.

Whether those conditions will ever be met is a question that historians cannot answer and that the political process has not yet resolved.

The Sioux position, maintained for more than forty years against considerable economic pressure and political discouragement, has not shifted.

The land is not for sale.

The fund continues to grow.

The question is still open.