The struggle for Bear Butte to be protected from the noise and activities of nearby Sturgis are based in the fact that Sturgis is on stolen land, Lakota have a treaty right to the land of Bear Butte, and Bear Butte is important sacred land to multiple plains nations. Opposition has come in the forms of not understanding the religiousity of Bear Butte to the different Native American nations that believe it to be sacred, wanting to promote development and keep making money off privately owned land, and seeking to maintain settler colonialism in South Dakota.
