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1937: Passage of the federal Marijuana Tax Act essentially criminalizes marijuana and casts a pall over all forms of the cannabis plant, including the variety known as industrial hemp, which does not produce a high when ingested and has been used for centuries to produce fabrics, paper and even food.

1970: Passage of the federal Controlled Substances Act requires prospective hemp growers to obtain a registration from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which rejects nearly all applications for decades. Hemp products continue to be sold in the United States, but the products are either imported or made from imported hemp.

1998: The Oglala Sioux Tribal Council on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation adopts an ordinance that defines industrial hemp and exempts it from the tribal ban on marijuana.

2000: Tribal member Alex White Plume plants and raises a hemp crop near Manderson. Federal agents destroy the crop.

2001: White Plume’s brother, Percy, plants a hemp crop that is destroyed by federal agents.