A letter sent to the Crow Tribe and Big Horn County commissioners has prompted inquiries into the fire hazards and nuisance of a dump on Edgar Road in Pryor.
Watch Pryor dump story here:
Samuel Boggess is very concerned about the debris coming onto the road and across the road, and he wrote: "This is an embarrassment to the entire Crow Nation."
"And as I drove past the landfill, I got sick to my stomach," Boggess said. "I say it's a disgrace to the Crow Tribe and to the county and everybody involved."
Boggess used to ranch about two miles west of the pile of garbage and says he would not want his cattle living close to the dump.
"It's got to be affecting the wildlife and the livestock and everything," Boggess said.
He wrote to the Crow Tribal chairman and the Big Horn County commissioners asking for the problem to be addressed quickly and to get the mess cleaned up.
"Somebody needs to get off their butt and fix it, and that's all I'm asking in my letter," Boggess said.
MTN asked the Crow Tribe but did not hear back Wednesday. Big Horn County Commissioner George Real Bird III told MTN he has been in contact with Crow legislators about trash pickup.
"Everyone that would like to work towards a solution for solid waste,” Real Bird said. “It's much needed within the Big Horn County within the reservation community. So, maybe all of us could work together."
Real Bird says the problem is people are dumping more than just household trash.
"People from other towns, they come over and drop their stuff off over here, right on the side of the road, so it's pretty bad," said Turk Plain Bull, a Crow Tribal member and Pryor resident.
One man across the road has not seen any cleanup effort.
"They need to, monitor it better and make sure that the trash stays in a fenced-in area and doesn't get out of that area over there because it gets onto the road," said Kevin Miller, a Pryor resident.
"It's definitely gotten worse," said Isaac Snow, a Big Horn County resident, who regularly drives on Edgar Road. "I haven't seen it creeping out into the road like this."
Real Bird says he's aware of the problem, and talks between the county and tribal leaders are just starting, leaving the people of Pryor waiting for a better view.
"This is America," Bogges said. "And we've always been cleaned up."
