Hemp Harvest Bust (8/29/00)

Authors

Harlan McKosatoFollow

Date of this Version

August 2000

Abstract

For the past several years, Alex White Plume has been growing industrial hemp on the Oglala Lakota reservation in South Dakota, as an act of personal sovereignty. A harvest ceremony was scheduled to take place, but last week 25 federal agents armed with machine guns raided White Plume's farm and cut 4,000 hemp plants. Can sovereign immunity save him from prosecution? Guests include Alex White Plume of the Lakota Nation and attorney Tom Bianco, who won a precedent-setting case last week.