Reparations: The Way Too Little, Way Too Late Edition

After a decades long protest for the return of ownership of their native land, the Sioux Tribe of South Dakota is being thrown a kernel of a crumb.

Next year, Congress is expected to relinquish the southern part of Badlands National Park in South Dakota to the Sioux Tribe's Tribal Council. The area that is expected to be returned to the Sioux Tribe was a part of Wounded Knee. According to "The Independent," this particular parcel of land is in bad shape due to the abuse it has endured from its current owners. The U.S. military used the land for a firing range, and has left behind an untold number of unexploded shells. The future residents have also stated that, "Poachers have ravaged the stark landscape, with its spires of rock and tallgrass plains. Over the decades, they have illegally removed thousands of fossils from the poorly policed national park." However, the Sioux still look forward to gradually restoring ecological balance to the land.

Some Sioux residents are rightfully dissatisfied with the manner in which the land is being turned over. The dissenting voices logically state that, "the land should be returned to the original owners for private use rather than to the tribal council as a park."