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FLDS compound near Pringle

FLDS compound near Pringle�e Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a compound about 15 miles southwest of Pringle.

maps4news.com/©HERE, Rapid City Journal graphic

maps4news.com/©HERE, Rapid City Journal graphic

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Rapid City

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PringlePringle

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has a compound about 15 miles southwest of Pringle.

FLDS compound

FLDS compound near Pringle

FLDS compound near Pringle�e Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has a compound about 15 miles southwest of Pringle.

maps4news.com/©HERE, Rapid City Journal graphic

maps4news.com/©HERE, Rapid City Journal graphic

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385 385

38589

79 79

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Rapid City

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Custer

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Hill City

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PringlePringle

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has a compound about 15 miles southwest of Pringle.

FLDS compound

Thousands coming to religious compound?

Education, roads hot topics at crackerbarrel sessionsScott FeldmanJournal staff

Though the governor’s priori-ties this year are juvenile justice and roads and bridges, educa-tion was clearly the hottest topic at the crackerbarrel session held Saturday at the Didier Educa-tional Center in the Classroom Building at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.

Other crackerbarrel sessions

around the area took place in Sturgis and Belle Fourche and the topics of discussion there were in a similar vein.

Motorcycle rally tax revenue and more money for teacher pay were among issues addressed by state legislators at a crackerbarrel in Sturgis on Saturday morning.

On hand for the session were District 29 and Speaker of the House Rep. Dean Wink, District 29 Sen. Gary Cammack and

District 29 Rep. Tom Brunner. District 29 encompasses areas of Meade, Butte and Pennington counties.

Sturgis City Councilor Mike Bachand asked the legislators to bend the ears of the state Depart-ment of Revenue officials in hopes of encouraging them to enforce sales tax collection throughout the Black Hills and Sturgis during the annual rally, especially this year when attendance estimates

are approaching 1 million.“We are about to have one of

the largest single events in the nation located right here in west-ern South Dakota,” he said. “We have a tremendous opportunity to cash in a little bit for the first time if we could get the Depart-ment of Revenue to step their game up in the sales tax collec-tion process.”

Also at the Saturday meet-ing, Meade School District

Superintendent Don Kirkeg-aard told the legislators that he understands the state isn’t flush with funds but hopes they can find additional money for education, specifically teacher salaries.

Last year the Legislature allocated an additional $40 per student in state aid for teacher salaries.

Seth TupperJournal staff

A rural Custer County compound inhabited by members of a reportedly polygamous sect would have enough water to become the county’s most pop-ulous community if an additional well permit is approved by the state, a staunch opponent of the application asserts.

William Hansen, chief of the Water Rights Branch of the National Park Ser-vice, wrote that another well would mean the compound 15 miles southwest of Pringle would have enough water to serve 4,372 residents. At present, estimates of the population of the compound peak at about 300.

“For the sake of comparison,” Hansen wrote in a petition protesting the addi-tional well, “according to the 2010 cen-sus the population of Custer, which is the

largest town in Custer County, was 2,067 residents.”

Circumstances surrounding the sect — the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often referred to as the FLDS — suggest that

Well permit application sparks speculation about population of Pringle-area enclave

Sean Ryan, Journal staffThe roof of a residential building pokes up among the trees Wednesday afternoon at the 140-acre secretive religious compound near Pringle. The roof is atop one of many structures hidden behind trees, fences and earth berms at the Black Hills compound.

Two-day series on FLDS compoundToday · Well application would provide

enough water for thousands at religious compound near Pringle. Critics weigh in.

Monday · What is it like to live 300 yards from a

secretive religious compound? What is the scene at the compound site?

» FLDS, A4

Scott FeldmanJournal staff

As the CEO of an international investment cor-poration, Twila True has traveled across the world and made more than enough money to live com-fortably for the rest of her life.

True spent 12 years in Asia running her corpo-ration, yet slowly but surely, taking on the role of philanthropist. Helping to establish an orphanage in China was among her early successes.

When she returned to the U.S. in 2012, True began to seek out a new opportunity to put her wealth and talents to good use and to help others.

While searching for severely impoverished areas where she might do the most good — virtu-ally anywhere on the planet — her husband approached her one day, tapped her on the shoulder and gave her an idea that was surely close to her roots and her heart.

For True, a member of Oglala Sioux Tribe with a federally assigned tribal number, it was as if her husband had flipped a switch, and pointed out the obvious: That the place where her relatives lived, a place she had visited often, a place where her heri-tage is strong, needed help as much as any other place in the world.

Soon, True began to focus on finding ways to improve life on the Pine Ridge Indian Reserva-tion.

True, co-founder, president and CEO of True Investments LLC., was born in San Gabriel, Calif., but she made frequent visits to Pine Ridge with her grandmother as a child. After her husband’s talk, she started looking into all the problems that are afflicting the reservation and decided it was the perfect place to practice philanthropy.

For the past two years or so, she has repeatedly traveled between her home in Irvine, Calif., and Pine Ridge to meet with the residents, witness the poverty and problems up close, and figure out what needed to be done. Going back to the reservation opened her eyes to the plight of those in Pine Ridge, one of the poorest areas in America.

“I would meet a very young child, not knowing how poor everyone was, who had great aspirations and lots of hope,” she said “Once they become

OST woman brings help, and hope, to Pine RidgeWealthy philanthropist returns to her roots to help impoverished area

True

» True, A8

» Lawmakers, A8

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RISE ON THE FALLS: JOURNAL PHOTO EDITOR TALKS ICE CLIMBING