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Show much greater than can be taken care of with funds to be paid to the tribes. There is need for land readjustment funds which would help to rehabili- tate the Sioux Indians, and to settle the heirship problems through the appropriation of funds on a reimbursable basis. Resettlement in a satisfactory environment.-No appropriate general authority exists for including Indian la.nd in irrigation districts within reclama- tion projects. Legislation is needed to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to designate restricted Indian land which may be irrigated from Federal facilities and guarantee payment to the irrigation district of costs and charges for construction, opera- tion, and maintenance of works for the delivery of water to Indian land. Resettlement of Indians on other lands presents difficulties. In the Missouri Valley the original tribes weire "Plains Indians" subsisting almost en- tirely on buffalo. After the buffalo were gone, Indians were grouped together on reservations and subsisted on the remaining meager supply of game and on rations issued by the Federal Government. Land once controlled by the tribes was ceded and sold, and the returns were distributed as per capita payments- After allotment of most of the remain- ing lands to members of the tribes, these per capita payments and rentals from individual allotments were used for subsistence payments to individuals. It seems Jikely that these rations, per capita pay- ments, and allotment rentals may have retarded the economic progress of these people. In receait years the Indian Bureau has sponsored a comprehensive training and financing program, intended to help each family become self-sustaining. Under this program, beef cattle production has been most promising. Indians so shortly removed from a buffalo-hunting life have adjusted themselves to the raisirtg of beef cattle. Until ttie last decade relatively few Indians in the basin received education for professional and indus- trial occupations. In Civilian Conservation Corps work and during World War II, many were trained in operation of equipment and other skills. Others above military age left the reservations for industrial employment during the war. Employment oppor- tunities w-ill be available in the construction of the Missouri River Basin projects, and in industries that may be developed in the basin, but most of the In- dians will continue to depend upon land as a source of livelihood. The Indians desire to settle again on land. A house-to-tiouse survey on the Fort Berthold Reserva- tion in the Garrison Dam area indicated that 84 percent of the 300 families interviewed intended to remain on the residual reservation. Seventy-five percent plan to make a living from their land re- sources. Sixty-eight percent said that they wish to raise cattle. It is safe to assume that 60 percent will make their living from land they now own out- side of the area to be flooded or from lieu land to be purchased. The wishes of the Fort Berthold In- dians would appear to be typical of what the others in the basin will desire. Resettlement on other land will solve the problem of most of the displaced Indian families. Con- struction work will require a large number of skilled and unskilled laborers and will employ Indians not supported by crop and livestock enterprises. When these projects are completed, the electricity pro- duced should increase the number of small local in- dustries. Employment opportunities in small towns on and near reservations should also increase. In- dians who want nonfarm jobs can be expected to share in the employment thus created. The Mis- souri River Basin development will enlarge the In- dians' opportunities for economic and social growth toward self-dependence, and release from govern- mental supervision. An immediate effect of land acquisition will be an increased administrative cost for the reserva- tions. In the case of the Fort Berthold Agency, the agency offices, employees' quarters, boarding school classrooms and dormitories, hospitals, and mainte- nance shops at Elbowoods will be inundated, as will seven community day schools and two farm agents' stations. The loss of the administrative plant will disrupt the administrative, educational, health, and agricultural extension services. These problems are duplicated in varying degrees on all projects which affect Indian land. In evaluating projects that will inundate agency facilities, the cost of their replace- ment should be included. Irrigation of Indian lands.-Section 9 (c) of the Missouri River Basin development program au- thorized by the Flood Control Act of December 22, 1944,25 provides that the reclamation and power developments to be undertaken by the Secretary under plans in House Document 475 and Senate Document 191, as revised and coordinated by Sen- ate Document 247 26 shall be governed by the recla- mation laws (the act of June 17, 1902, and acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto) "ex- 1 Section 9,58 Stat. 887,905. 78th Cong., 2d sess. (1944). 238 |
