Tribe's buffalo herd, land headed to auction

The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe stands to lose its buffalo herd and land in a forced auction within the month if an agreement is not reached by early January. Attorneys for Interior rancher Clint Amiotte have given the tribe until Thursday to negotiate a settlement in a lawsuit where he claims a tribal organization sold 308 of his buffalo without paying for them. If the tribe and Amiotte do not reach an agreement by Thursday, the U.S. Marshals Service plans to auction the tribe's buffalo herd on Jan. 23, according to a letter from Amiotte's attorney, Allison Eklund, that was sent to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe's chairman, attorneys and tribal council. "We, the attorneys for Clint Amiotte, have postponed the sale for two weeks to allow time for negotiation to resolve this matter," the letter says. A year and a half ago, the U.S. District Court in South Dakota ruled against the tribe, granting just over $1 million to Amiotte, who had sued the tribe for payment for 308 buffalo he sold on a verbal agreement in 2006...more