Winner Men Strip Spirit Camp in Pipeline Protest Trespass

Two Winner, South Dakota, men—Jeremy Schroeder, 37, and Kirby Kartak, 37—were sentenced on November 10, 2016, for stripping hay bales from the Oyate Whacanku Spirit Camp, a culturally sacred site on tribal trust land. The theft wasn’t just theft—it was trespass with a message, one that federal prosecutors say disrespected tribal sovereignty and spiritual integrity.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark A. Moreno imposed a joint sentence requiring Schroeder and Kartak to pay the Rosebud Sioux Tribe $600 in restitution, each pay a $300 fine, and send formal letters of apology to the tribe. Both were also hit with a $5 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund. The penalties, while not involving jail time, carry symbolic weight in a case steeped in cultural trespass.

The crime unfolded on December 2, 2014, when the two non-Indians drove heavy equipment into the Spirit Camp near Rosebud and hauled off approximately 30 large hay bales. The bales were being used to construct a windbreak at the camp, a site established specifically for tribal opposition to the TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline. The area housed tipis, a sweat lodge, and had been formally blessed by tribal spiritual leaders.

Schroeder claimed ownership over the hay, arguing it had been harvested on a tract of land he previously leased from the tribe. But federal authorities rejected that justification—trespass applies even when property disputes are murky, especially on land held in trust by the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. Driving machinery onto sovereign tribal land without permission crosses a legal and cultural line, investigators said.

Indicted by a federal grand jury on April 13, 2016, both men pled guilty at a joint plea and sentencing hearing. The case was built through collaboration between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Rosebud Sioux Tribe Law Enforcement Services, underscoring the delicate jurisdictional balance in federal-tribal prosecutions.

Criminal Chief Dennis R. Holmes prosecuted the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, sending a clear message: cultural sites tied to political and spiritual resistance aren’t open for unauthorized access—or exploitation. The sentencing, though civil in nature, reinforces federal recognition of tribal land rights in the flashpoint era of pipeline protests.