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Show justment will be realized only when the Indians come face to face with their new condition. Most of the Fort Berthold Indians, and those of the Missouri Basin as a whole, have made their greatest progress toward economic self-sufficiency through the production of beef cattle using the bot- tom lands and adjacent upland. Reestablishment of the cattle industry on the residual reservation will be hampered by lack of shelter and winter range, which will force a radical change in grazing and feeding practices, and by lack of water. The remaining land in the Fort Berthold Reser- vation will be divided into five segments, forcing the Indians to reorganize the ownership and use of their holdings, and causing severe hardships and disorganization. Withdrawal of reservation land also forces the breakup of many communities on other reservations in the basin. Our treaties with the Indians set up a legal basis for special consideration and financial assist- ance by Congress, in view of their substantial land losses. The ordinary processes of eminent domain condemnation fail to provide just compensation or resettlement funds for the Indian families. Con- gress has taken special cognizance of this condi- tion by providing an agreement with the Fort Berthold Indians under a special procedure and basis for appraisal. It also has provided for pay- ment of costs of the Indians' removal, improvement of their residual reservations, and compensation for the abrogation of their treaty and other rights. The land ownership pattern on all of the reser- vation from which land is being taken for dams and reservoirs presents a special problem in the successful resettlement of the displaced families. Land ownership complexity.-Nearly 70 percent of the 380,000 acres of Indian land affected by Federal projects in the basin is held in trust for individual Indians. Most of this land was allotted between 1905 and 1915. Some allotments were made more than 50 years ago. The application of allotments has created a number of conditions comparable to those on the Fort Berthold Reservation, where it has been de- termined that approximately 50 percent of the allotments, and 75 percent of the bottom land, are in heirship status. Most individuals have interests within two or sometimes three or four tracts. While allotments are scattered throughout the entire reservation, the family groups have, through one means or another, located their homes on the bot- tom lands-i. e., within the Garrison Reservoir. Through wide dispersion and fractionization of the individual holdings, it has been difficult for the Indians to use their lands themselves, with the result that 340,000 acres are being leased or operated by non-Indians. In spite of the allotment pattern, the Indians have succeeded in building their economy on a strip of 241,000 acres on both sides of the river from which Garrison will take the heart-155,000 acres. For each acre of allotted land owned in the Garrison right-of-way, the Fort Berthold In- dians own 3 acres on other parts of the reservation. No individual, or even family, will be paid enough for lands taken in the right-of-way to acquire a new farm or ranch unit, unless the value of the lands owned outside of the right-of-way can be realized, or unless land holdings can be consolidated. Removed Indians will not be able to establish sat- isfactory farm or ranch units on the residual reser- vation unless an extensive reservation-wide program of exchange and reconsolidation is undertaken. The creation of a Land Readjustment Fund 24 might help to solve these problems. It could be used: (1) To purchase land in the residual reservation from Indians who want to relocate outside of the reservation. With the compensation received for the taking of land in the reservoir right-of-way, plus the proceeds derived from selling to the fund land in the residual reservation, an Indian family would be better able to buy a new farm or ranch or go into some other economic enterprise. (2) To purchase land in the residual reserva- tion, either from Indians or white patentees, in order to make available consolidated, family-size, economic units for farm or ranch purposes. (3) To acquire tribal land for assignment to landless Indians who must move from the right- of-way. (4) To sell or exchange acquired land to Indians or whites. On the Fort Berthold Reservation, in a program developed by the tribal council for the resettle- ment and rehabilitation of its members, a tribal fund of 1.5 million dollars has been created to pur- chase land by the tribe, and for loans to individual members. On the other reservations the proportion of the total reservation area taken is smaller, but the num- ber of readjustments needed in land holdings is 24 As proposed in H. R. 5099, H. R. 6405, and S. 2687, 81st Cong., 1st sess. 237 |
