Feds May Return Badlands to Sioux

The National Park Service might return half of South Dakota's Badlands National Park to the Oglala Sioux, reports the LA Times, some 6 decades after the US military ousted 800 members from the territory during World War II. The measure still needs Congressional approval, and tribal members remain unsure whether they want to build homes or keep the land as a nature preserve.

The Badlands—as well as other such national parks one expert says were "created by the removal of Indians"—has long been a source of rancor. "The whole National Park system is environmental racism against the Indian people," said one activist. (More Native Americans stories.)