THE DECLARATION OF INDIAN INDEPENDENCE

THE PLOTTHE ST AGE SETTINGThe Prologue- MAKING INDIANS INTO WHITE MENACT I - THE REVOlUTION BEGINSACT II - ANOTHER KIND OF REVOlUTIONACT III - THE DECLARA nON OF INDIAN INDEPENDENCEThe Epilogue- TURNING WHITE MEN INTO INDIANS

The Role of the Native American Rights FundTHE CAST OF CHARACTERS (Some Background Notes)

The WinnebagoThe OmahaThe SiouxThe Mandan, The Arikara, and The HidatsaThe CrowThe Turtle Mountain ChippewaThe Chippewa CreeThe BlackfeetThe Assiniboine, The Gros Ventre and Some Teton SiouxThe Shoshone and The ArapahoThe Salish and The KootenaiThe Northern Cheyenne

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Tom Paine

THE PLOT

chroniclers who arrange<}. forIndians to be made citizens of the,United States so they could liveunder the same la ~vs thatgoverned the whites. And it was)they who inspired the producer to 'establish a universal governmenf ,\school system for Indian children •to hasten their Americanization. ~

The Indians were very well- jJdirected in this story as every\~reviewer of the effects ofcolonization on Indian society hasnoted. Nonetheless, directing and .Iproducing this saga has taken its "toll among the white participants;as well, because, like the Indian:players, the white actors, writers,'directors, producers, andmembers of the audience have'also suffered losses. These lossesare necessarily of a more subtlesort than those experienced by the.Indian players. They began toshow up in the 1850's when therewas a marked growth illhypocrisy among the script"writers, directors, and the,producer as their so-called form!of justice grew harder torationalize. Then came a blunting'of conscience in the whiteaudience, followed by ~

significant decline in humasensitivity, not only among thaudience, but also among thescriptwriters, directors and th~

producer. 1Ironically, as this story nears]

an end it is only the Indianmembers of the cast who havemaintained their integrity andself-respect. White people, having,paid no real attention or respect to.red people for almost two cen~

turies, have lost sight of their firstprinciples and their origins. Ofcourse, the script is not finishedyet, and so it remains to be seeD!whether or not the audience will;yet be moved by the stoic por·:trayal of the Indians - one full ?f'wisdom, reverence for theIrbrothers, and respect for tbr

Mother Earth, which the nativ,actors have been playing so wellfor the past 200 years. i

Herein, then, is a depiction ofhow native religions andlanguages were destroyed orsuppressed - a record of how alow status was assigned to vir­tually all of the native Indiancustoms and physical charac­teristics. And finally, it is anaccount of plunder and rape, notjust of goods and women, but ofentire Indian nations.

Instrumental to this drama ofthe process of colonization ofIndian people were the advocates,the many white Christianreformers who called themselves"friends of the Indians". Theywere really the scriptwriters anddirectors for this saga, who in­spired (and to some lesser degreeare still inspiring) the policies ofthe U.S. Government, theproducer of this epic,

It was the friendly scriptwriterswho thought up the devices whichthe government-producer used todivide reservations into in­dividual homesteads for the In­dians (sometimes spoken of as theallotment of the land inseveralty). It was these

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This story is about the 26 Indiantribes who came to live on theNorthern Great Plains ofAmerica. It is about the wars andthe enemies of these people, andabout their allies. It is a tale ofgreed and the power of individualmen over other men. It is aboutexplorers, cavalry and Indians;about lawyers, businessmen,government agents and Indians;and finally a bout cowboysbecoming Indians.

(reverently in 1775)

TOMPAINE:

It is at all times necessary, and moreparticularly so during the progress of arevolution, and until right ideasconfirm themselves by habit, that wefrequently refresh our patriotism byreference to the first principles" It is bytracing things to their origin that welearn to understand them, and it is bykeeping that line and that originalways in view that we never forgetthem, An inquiry into the origin ofrights will demonstrate to us thatrights are not gifts from one man toanother, nor from one class of men toanother..

Chief Propagandist!Jf theAmer'iean Revolution

It is a portrayal of the process ofcoloniza tion, and therefore arecord of the acquisition of wealthand high social status played byan expanding white population atthe expense of a native redpopula tion. It is about a colonialsystem esta blished 200 years agowhich required that native socialsystems be broken up so as not toimpede the progress of the newwhite dominant society. It is arecounting of how, althoughrendered impotent, the self­conscious nationality of the nativeIndian population was nevercompletely liquidated.

THE STAGE SETTINGThe setting for this drama is a

part of America which is high andbarren, windswept and arid. Thewinters are frigid, with howlingblizzards piling snowdrifts in allthe cuts and coulees. Summers

~ unbearably hot with dry winds;:,caring the grasses and drying upthe streams.

Along the wide and shallowrivers, which often become ragingtorrents from the flash floods ofspring, are groves of cottonwoodand box elders, chokecherries andwild plums. On the high ridges arestands of ponderosa pine andcedar. Underneath the ground is

gold, coal, oil and oil shale,natural gas, silver, potassium,aluminum, clay, chalk, semi­precious stones, and water.

Once, huge herds of buffaloroamed by the millions up anddown the unending sea of grass onthe surface. They are gone now.Some mule deer still browse in thewooded areas, as do a fewremaining antelope on the high,rolling ground. There were andstill are (although many less)black bear and grizzlies rum­maging in search of berries, fishand honey. There are only a fewwolves and foxes left to grow fat

from the jackrabbits and prairiedogs. There are some, but not toomany eagles, ducks and geese.Only the prairie chickens stillstrut in sufficient numbers as theyperform their strange matingdance in dusty circles on the flats.

The plains described in thissetting encompass an area of landwithin America thatis now part ofthe states of Montana, Wyoming,North Dakota, South Dakota andNebraska. It is a big and fragilekind of land and the men whowrested a living from it had to bestrong. They still have to be.

3

·The Prologue

MAKING INDIANS INTO WHITE MEN

SITTING BULL:Sioux

(prophetically in 1875)

We will yield to our neighbors - evenour animal neighbors - the sameright as we claim to inhabit the land.But we now have to deal with anotherbreed of people .. They were few andweak when our forefathers first metthem and now they are many andgreedy They choose to till the soiLLove of possessions is the disease withthem And they would make rules tosuit themselves They have a religionwhich they follow when it suits them

They claim this Mother Earth of oursfor their own and fence their neigh­bors away from them They degradethe landscape with their buildings andtheir waste They compel the naturalEarth to produce excessively and whenit fails, they force it to take medicineto produce mOle This is an evil

This new population is like a riveroverflowing its banks and destroyingall in its path .. We cannot live the waythese people live and we cannot livebeside them. They have little respectfor nature and they offend our ideals.Just seven years ago we signed a treatyby which the buffalo country was to beours and unspoiled forever Now theywant it They want the gold in it. Willwe yield? They will kill me before Iwill give up the land that is my land

The Indians who migrated morethan two centuries ago to theNorthern Great Plains, whetherthey came from the east, west orsouth, did so because of pressuresfrom other powerful Indian tribes,who were themselves fleeing theadvance of European explorersand settlers, most of whom wereescaping pressures from stillanother society an ocean away.

These migrating people had lessthan half a century to changetheir woodland or agriculturalways to roles which would enable

4

them to survive on the fragile andbarren plains. The new plainsIndians made this transitionremarkably well by absorbingwhat they could, not only fromeach other, but also from theSpanish, British and Frenchexplorers. They mademagnificent use of the horse andthe buffalo, and they prospered ashunters and food gatherers.During the second half of the1800's, as their new plains life-rolewas once again slowly beingdestroyed by an advancingculture, they found themselvestrapped. They had reached theend of the stage and there was noother place for them to move offto. As a result they then had tosomehow learn to sustainthemselves in their new rolesside-by-side with their oldestIndian enemies, often on the samereservation. What they did notlearn how to do, however, was toimpersonate white men.

Unable to accept the inevitable,some of their warriors struggledon in vain to preserve theiroriginal roles on the plains untilthe end of the 19th Century. Onseveral occasions they werevictorious, as on June 25, 1876,when a group of Sioux, Cheyenneand Arapaho gave a masterfulperform ance against GeneralGeorge Custer and his forces atthe Little Big Horn near what isnow Crow Agency, Montana. Theperformance came just before thenation's first centennialcelebration.

It was only three years later, inthe winter of 1879, tha t thetenacious Northern Cheyennedecided to return on foot to theirhome on the Northern plains fromthe Oklahoma Indian Territory.

Although only a few of themsurvived the 2,000 mile trek andjor their pursuers, even then theNorthern Cheyenne seemeddestined to set a tone and pace onthe Great Plains story-stage forthose other tribes who wereresisting the colonization of theirpeoples.

In 1887 the Dawes Act waspassed. It was an attempt by thescriptwriters to make individualIndians owners of individual plotsof land - so they could better actlike white men. What was leftover after the Indians were giventheir plots, was opened to non­Indian people for settlement. Theplains people resisted; sometribes did better than others.Although millions of acres passedfrom Indian ownership to non­Indian ownership, Indians or ~h.e

plains and elsewhere continu .0

live communally and sustain theirparts as Indians.

The last warriors on the GreatPlains died in 1890 as the Nevadap"iute Wovaka's Ghost Dance

s moving across the GreatPlains. Sitting Bull was murderedat the Standing Rock Reservationin South Dakota on December 15,1890. Thirteen days later a band ofSioux led by Big Foot wasmassacred at Wounded Knee,South Dakota, on the Pine RidgeReservation. Not much couldhave exceeded these dramaticevents in producing terror andrevulsion in the white audience,yet for the most part they wereunmoved.

Soon thereafter the plainspeople were completely confinedto their reservations and sufferedcontinuing decline in the humanspirit. Once confined and sub­dued, their lines in the script werecontinually changed in an effort tomake them play the part the whiteproducer had in mind for them.Their religious ceremonies wereoutlawed or modified by the white

1.. The men, as hunters, andwives, as gatherers, could not

find enough food to provide fortheir children. They were notacting like white men, but theywere at their mercy under theirdirection.

In June 1924, Congress gave itsapproval to an act (or a script)which made all Indians, includingthose of the plains, citizens of theUnited States. Despite this, In­dians continued to starve and toplay their life roles differentlythan white men wanted them to.

In 1934 Congress revised theplay and added another act whichwas designed to revitalize tribalgovernments which they had beendestroying for more than 100years in the form of white cor­porations. Some plains tribeschanged their remnant govern­ments to conform with the newla w, known as the IndianRp~~ganization Act, but regar­dl of these new corporateentities the members of mosttribes continued to be im-

poverished, and stoic in theirdifference from white men.

In 1949, Congress turned itselfaround again and institutedanother revision in the story line- this one was a kind ofliquidation drive - the IndianRelocation Program. Many of theIndians who participa ted and whowere therefore relocated eitherstarved or drank themselves todeath in the cities. Even when thebackdrop was changed they chosenot to impersonate white men.

In 1953 Congress decided tohave a rehearsal for yet anothernew scenario. This one wasdesigned to eliminate some In­dians from the script entirely. Todo so they terminated one of thecountry's most prosperous tribes,the Klamath of Oregon. As a partof this rehearsal the government­producer also liquidated theKlamath tribal assets. Im­mediately some starved or drankthemselves to death - most,although lost from their tribalexistence, were still acting likeIndians off stage.

A year later the U.S. Senatorsand Congressmen directors triedanother termination rehearsal,this time using the MenomineeTribe as players. They createdanother stage setting and madethe Menominee Reservation intoan American county and

distributed the tribal assetsamong shareholders in a cor­poration. The Menominee star­ved, and lost their land and theirshares, but they remained Indiansand were strong enough to finallypersuade Congress to restoretheir former role as a federallyrecognized tribe in 1973.

Shortly before this, in 1971,President Nixon had announcedyet another new policy-plot calledInd ian Self-D eter min a tion.Today, in 1975, the concept of self­determination is still part of thescript, but because the whitedirectors are frightened andentrenched in their ownbureaucratic power struggles,few Indian players have yet beenallowed to determine what theirroles will be in the next act of theAmerican saga. The bulk of thecast of Indians are still living asIndians, which is not the part thewhite writers, directors, andproducer had in mind for themwhen this story began two cen­turies ago. Whether the producerwill now actually permit the In­dian members of the cast to sharein the script writing, direction,and production is what will mostlikely determine the survival ofNative American people, and thevalidity of the principles andconcepts the American nationwas founded upon 200 years ago.

5

- ''"''~ .-........'~...... '."-,

A Synopsis of the Action

For 200 years the plams In­dians, whose lives and lands weretaken in trust by the U.S.government, watched helplesslyas their precious resources wereeither poorly directed, illegallybooked (Le. leased), andgenerally mismanaged or ren­dered uninhabitable under theguidance of the federal trusteeand producer of the show.

j

J

6

\

What happened to the GreatPlains Indians was not unlike therelationship between the originalAmerican colonies and the BritishCrown. And like an old late-nighttelevision rerun, the Indians onreservations have played the partof the colonists in the 13 colonies,and the Secretary of Interior hasplayed the part of Britain's KingGeorge III.

As early as 1908 one of the mostcritical props for the last act ofthis drama was being assembled.In that year the U.S. SupremeCourt held in Winters v. U.S., acase arising on the Fort BelknapReservation in Montana, thatIndians were entitled to as muchwater from rivers runningthrough or bordering their landsas they needed to develop theirreservations. Without the water,the Court noted, the treaties andgovernmental acts reserving theland for Indian use would bemeaningless. The Court also saidthe government, as the trustee ofIndian lands, was duty bound topreserve Indian rights to theneeded water.

3'..''" ... -J

Regardless of their legal rig'however, the Indians could •.•use their water to develop theirreservations because they did nothave the money for the costlydams and irrigation systems thatwere needed. And regardless ofthe law and of trustee obligations,time after time the U.S. Bureau ofReclamation and Army Corps ofEngineers built dams andirrigation systems upstream fromIndian land or condemned Indianland to make dams and thendiverted the water to non-Indiansettlers.

The Indians on the reservationswere left alone on the stagewithout footlights, costumes, orscenery. It was the old story inIndian affairs and colonization. Inorder to advance the economicgrowth of a developing whitecommunity, the first stages ofeconomic development werebeing denied to an '10­derdeveloped Indian comm y.

Eighteen years after theSupreme Court established theWinters Doctrine, the first lawsgoverning leasing of publicfederal lands for mining werepassed. Eighteen years after that,in 1938, Congress passed theOmnibus Tribal Leasing Actwhich allowed Indians to leaSEcoal rights on their tribal lands t<private corporations subject t<approval of the Secretary of Interior. These laws were also tlbecome critical props for stagin!this drama. Then for almost 3years nothing happened witregard to leasing of Indian landon the Northern Great Plains. Analthough several majcreclamation projects damageIndian lands and water rights, ttimpact was less severe than fethe water-short reservationsthe Southwest. The de''''''leasing of Indian coal wa eseveral factors. One, there 'IIplenty of coal for the powe

hungry eastern cities in Ap­palachi~, and the expense oftransporting western coal to thoseTeas where there was a market

..or it was considered too great.There was also considerablenatural gas and oil available.Another stumbling block was thecomplex procedural regulationsand layers of approval within theBIA and Interior whichdiscouraged development.Beyond that were the uniquefactors of tribal governingcouncils, the trust status of thelands, and the complexities ofsurface vs. mineral rights on theallotted or homesteaded lands.

In the 1960's as the NorthernGreat Plains tribes continued tofind themselves in extremepoverty, the coal, oil, and powercompanies began to realize thevalue of the coal underlying In­dian lands. A few tentative con­tacts were made and by 1966 thefirst coal sales on the plainsreservations were being closed.

... , For the Indians the stakes were,gh. The average unemployment

rate on their reservations wasover 50%; the average per capitaincome was about $1,600 per year,and alcoholism was affecting atleast one member in 65% of thefamilies.

Some of the Indians believedthat leasing their coal couldprovide a way out of the knot ofeconomic and social depressionstrangling their reservations. Butsome also knew that their tribalexistence was at stake as strip­mining could destroy the culturalcontinuity and integrity of thelands, as well as their ability toranch or farm their lands.

The leasing problems variedfrom one reservation to the nextbecause of individual tribalgovernment policies and the factthere were three categories ofland available - tribal land,allotted land, and ceded land. On

i

\, ne reservations the surface ofUte allotted land was ownedprimarily by individual Indians,

on others primarily by non­Indians. But for the most p'art,regardless of who owned thesurface, ~he tribe owned themineral rights underneath. Cededland was land which had beenrelinquished by the Indians to thegovernment for settlement orhomesteading by individual non­Indians, and the mineral rightswere, in some instances, stillretained by the tribes.

On the Northern Great Plains itwas often the case with allottedand ceded lands that while thesurface was owned by whitecowboy ranchers, the Indians stillhad the right to lease the landsbeneath the ranches for strip­mining.

Following the original OmnibusLeasing Act, the Department ofInterior determined that Indianland tracts larger than 2,560 acrescould only be leased if additionalland was needed to ensure asupply of coal "necessary topermit the construction of ther­mal electric power plants or otherindustrial facilities near thereservation". A study sub­sequently conducted by theCouncil on Economic Priorities(CEP) in 1974 found that "theaverage Indian lease was eighttimes larger than that amount, or23,523 acres. The CEP study alsoshowed that of all the coal miningleases on Indian lands, 10 of the 11were larger than the 2,560 acrelimitation. Apparently a lot ofpower facilities were going to beneeded near the reservations.

In 1967, an ocean and a con­tinent away, another colonialproject of white corporateAmerican began to disintegrate,and the impact reverberated backto the plains. Just as the Arab andother oil producing companiesbegan to end American and othercolonial domination of theirnatural resources, the coalcompanies (who were for themost part also oil companies ortheir subsidiaries) began ex­panding their lease holdings on

Indian lands. Peabody Coalpicked up 16,000 acres of NorthernCheyenne land for 12~ an acre atone sale where they were the onelone bidder ..

Only two years later, at twoother sales in the same area,there were six bidders each. Thewinning bids then offered some$16 an acre for prospecting per­mits.

In October, 1971, the Bureau ofReclamation released a massivereport called the "North CentralPower Study". The study, paid forby 35 power companies, outlined acomplex and ill-planned processby which the Northern GreatPlains would become the nextAppalachia.

..... ' .,

, ~ .,('

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-- .---'---~-_-::

7

Suddenly everything washappening at once. The oilproducing countries werebeginning to flex their muscles;the power, companies were con­ducting an intense propagandacampaign to persuade Americansto consume more power; Congresswas passing the Clean Air Actwhich prohibited burninganything except the kind of lowsulfur coal found on the plains;President Nixon was declaring anew policy of Indian Self­Determination; the environmen­talists were fighting the powercompanies and other polluters;inflation and corporate profitswere on the rise; and the Indianswere still starving.

After the Bureau ofReclamation's study came out, anumber of other volunteer, state,and national groups got togetherto do their own studies. Con­ferences, reports, studies andcommittees, as well as a horde oflease brokers and coal companyagents, came onto the plains like aplague of grasshoppers.

In October, 1972, the Secretaryof Interior, Rogers C.B. Morton,seeing the chaotic planning, theresulting concern, and he himselfhounded from all sides, resolvedto take the situation in hand byannouncing the formation of yetanother interagency federal-statetask force called the NorthernGreat Plains Resource Program(NGPRP). The goals of NGPRPwere to "coordinate on-goingactivities and build a policyframework which might helpguide resource managementdecisions in the future".

The situation was absurd. TheBureau of Reclamation study hadbeen issued in 1971, well after thecoal rush had already started.The new NGPRP did not providefor any significant participationby the public, and further was noteven scheduled to release its finalreport until December, 1975. Thestrategy of Interior looked as if it

8

had been handled by GeneralCuster himself. *

By 1973, most of the GreatPlains tribes had recognized thatperhaps the last great whiteonslaught was upon them. Theircontinuing performance whichhad been tenuous for so manyyears, was now even morethreatened because of an increasein the insistent demands of thedominant audience. Thesedemands, stimulated by the worldenergy crisis, were centered onthe vast low sulfur coal andplentiful water resources locatedon their lands. The coal reserveswere now drawing internationalattention and stimulating aconsiderable amount of modernday cupidity. And their water wasbeing coveted in direct proportionto their coal.

The plot began to thicken asmore and more of the Indiansrealized that there would be

• Custer graduated 34th in a dass of 34from Welt Point Military Academy

unpl~nnedand rapid developmentof their coal reserves and theirwater resources, coupled with aninflux of many thousands of non­Indian people to the reservationand off-reservation areas and aconcomitant use of their preciouswater, as well as environmentalpollution - all of which would ,;threaten their viability andsovereignty.

In the playbook as the roles ofthe plains Indians evolved in the1900's, so did the lives and make­up of the Indians' adversaries. Itwas like re-staging a play inwhich the cast of charactersremains the same, only the·costumes are changed. '

Unfortunately, this new whitecavalry which was descending on~

the Northern Great Plains Indians:~.

in the 1970's was far more com~'

plex and well-disguised than the:,troops that swarmed over the,plains in the late 1800's. The'repertoire or strategies of the new:cavalry was so multi-faceted and­was moving against the plainspeople from so many differen(approaches that the Indians had,little time or opportunity to take(their cues.

One of the reasons the new:white onslaught appeared so~treacherous was its characteristi6~diffuseness and total lack of ac~,

countability. The new actor­troops played under stage name,like Meadowlark Farms, (a sot1of sub-subsidiary of AMAX CoaCompany), Consolidated Coa(Continental Oil), Island CreekCoal (Occidental Petroleum), a,hoc committees, water quali.subgroups, citizens advisor

• 51committees, federal agencleupper and lower basin co~missions, and special task forceS

Complicating the scene waS tbfact that these modern dagovernment agents and play"opponents had what the cavalrY",the 1800's didn't have and w~.the Indians had never had .almost unlimited supply lineS.',

Act I

THE REVOLUTION BEGINS

THE PLAYERS

King George

Sons ofLiberty

The Redcoats

The East IndiaTea Company

King GeorgeIII

The NorthernCheyenne

The Bureauof IndianA/faitS

The Consoli­dated CoalCompany

The Secretaryof Interior

FRED LAST BULL:

Norther'n Cheyenne,Keeper' of theSacred ArTOWS

(prophetically in 1957)

They will be powerful people, strong,tough They will fly up in the air, intothe sky, they will dig under the earth,they will drain the earth and kill it Allover the earth they will kill the treesand the grass, they will put their owngrass and their own hay, but the earthwill be dead - All the old trees andgrass and animals

They are coming closer all the timeBack there, New York, those places,the earth is already dead, Here we arelucky, It's nice here It's pretty, Wehave the good air This prairie hay stillgrows, But they are coming all thetime, turn the land over and kill it,more and more babies being born,more and more people coming That'swhat He said

He said the white men would be sopowerful, so strong T hey could takethunder, that electricity from the sky,and light their houses Maybe theywould even be able to reach up andtake the moon, or stars maybe, one ortwo Maybe they still can't do that

Our old food we used to eat was good,The meat from buffalo and game wasgood It made us strong, These cowsare good to eat, soft, tender, but theyare not like that meat Our people usedto live a long time, Today we eat whiteman's food, we cannot live so long­maybe seventy, maybe eighty years,not a hundred, Sweet Medicine told usthat He said the white man was toostrong" He said his food would besweet, and after we taste that food wewant it, and forget our own foods,Chokecherries and plums, and wildturnips, and honey from the wildbees, that was our food This otherfood is too sweet We eat it and forget.

It's all coming true, what He said.

Between 1966 and 1971, theNorthern Cheyenne TribalCouncil granted permits for ex­ploration and surface coal miningto anumber of coal companiescovering acreage whichamounted to 56% of the total landon the Northern CheyenneReservation in Montana. TheTribal Council, under theguidance and with the approval ofthe Bureau of Indian Affairs, hadleased the land in an effort toprovide a source of income to the2,700 tribal members, 27%of whosework force was unemployed.

9

All in all the Council had beenadvised to sign a total of 11 ex­ploratory permits for the Tribe'sland. However, for the most partthe Tribal Council was very muchuninformed of the ramificationsof strip-mining and more im­portantly of the omissions anddeficiencies in the standard BIAcontract coal leases. The permitsdid not even follow federal law forIndian lands because they were soloosely worded as to reclamationand other environmental con­siderations.

Economically, the permits wereas flawed as the original BritishTory's Tea Tax. Not only did theybring in less money per acre thanwas being paid on other privatelyleased lands, they gave the coalcompanies the right to exerciselease options, which were ap­pended as a part of the originalexploratory permits. The optionsset the price for the coal at thetime the prospecting permit wasissued and therefore before adetermination had been made ofthe coal's quantity, accessibility,and probable market value.

Under the terms of the BIAcontracts the coal companieswere able to explore on theCheyenne Reservation for theIndians' coal, discover its value,and secure it without theCheyenne being able to negotiatewith them to obtain a royaltybased upon the true market value

10

of their minerals. The permits'lease clauses also gave the 'coalcompanies the right to use theIndians'land for any kind ofbuilding or other production,processing, and transportationactivities related to coal.

Thus, under the BIA-devisedcontracts the coal companieswere able to obtain the right tovirtually transform the qualityand the character of the reser­vation. Like ultimate setdesigners they could engage in theconstruction of power, con­version, and petro-chemicalplants; the building of railroadsand other industrial parks; aswell as new towns of non-Indianswhose populations would sub­merge the small population ofCheyenne and make them aminority in their own land.

In 1969, new cost leasingregulations were promulgated bythe Secretary of Interior to makecertain that Indians could makeinformed decisions as to whetheror not they wished to lease theirland. The new regulations were inlarge part due to the terribleconflicts that had developed in theSouthwest with regard to leaseslet in 1966 on the Navajo and Hopireserva tions.

Unfortunately, but typically,the BIA was either unable orunwilling to set up the necessaryprocedures to make certain thenew safeguards were im­plemented.

Therefore what a strip-miningset on the Northern Great Plainsstage still meant in the 1970's wasthe destruction of the land forgrazing and wheat production. Noother kind of surface activitieswould be possible while themining was actually going on, andreclamation of the lands to theiroriginal condition was consideredunlikely at best.

The National Academy ofSciences issued a report whichprojected that lands receivingunder 10 inches of rain per year

were not reclaimable, and thatwestern lands receiving morethan 10 inches might berecoverable over a period of yearswith very careful attention. Onthe Northern Cheyenne reser­vation rainfall averages slightlyover 12 inches annually and thenatural grasses which are astenuous as the Northern Cheyennepeople cannot be reseeded.Hybrid seed must be used.

Strip-mining also taxes thewater resources by lowering thewater table. Worse is the fact thatcoal itself is an aquifer whichstores water like a sponge and I

slowly releases it for vegetation .Jon the surface. Removal of the .'coal removes this aquifer which '{can never be replaced. Further, ~

vast amounts of water are needed :tin the gasification process, which ')produces not just the natural gas;;.needed by energy-hungry~

America, but also emissions;"causing dangerous air and waterpollution.

Most threatening to the in·':itegrity of the Cheyenne Nation,however, were the consequences;of industrialization - the influx of)thousands of non-Indian workers:and their families and the lboom bust economy. The land on \the Northern Great Plains is;fragile. But it does not compare;with the vulnerability of an Indian ~,

culture forced to exist side-by-(,side with a mammoth non-Indian'industrial complex.

By 1971, at a time when th~'

Cheyenne Tribal Council wasengaged in its third major coa~sale, the Tribal Council memberS,began to publicly express theirconcern with regard to the,reclamation provisions under th~permits and their conformanc~

with the federal strip-miningregulations for Indian land,passed in 1969. The neregulations, which had beelpromulgated after two years tstudy by the Interior Departmen,lwere supposedly designed '.insure that surface mining on ~

.,t

, t~;

Indian reservation would onlytake place after federal studieshad established reclamationrequirements and these had beenincorporated into the leases.

As soon as the Cheyenne'sinquiries reached the BIASuperintendent, Bureau officialsbegan a feeble document andpaper scramble to cover theirtracks "as a matter of record",not only with regard to the thirdcoal sale, but also for the first twocoal sales. Nothing in the way ofmaking real technicalexaminations happened exceptthat memoranda between theSuperintendent, the Area Office,and Bureau officials inWashington were exchanged.Then in July, 1972, ConsolidatedCoal Company (CONSOL) made arather extraordinary offer to the

{Cheyenne.'~~- What CONSOL purposed to the

Northern Cheyenne TribalCouncil was to negotiate a virtual

corner on the bulk of the NorthernCheyenne's coal without con­ducting the competitive biddingthat had taken place in con­junction with earlier permits.

Whereas the prospectingpermits issued to other coalcompanies, like Peabody andAMAX and granted on com­petitive bids conducted by theBIA, were bringing the Cheyennean annual rental of about $1 anacre, CONSOL suddenly purposeda no-bid offer of $35 an acre ­which would have yielded theimpoverished Northern CheyenneTribe $2 million a year in landrent alone"

In addition, CONSOL said theTribe's royalty on each ton of coalextracted would be 25¢ ratherthan the 17.5~ agreed to by theother companies prospecting onthe reservation under BIAguidance. It was the CONSOLoffer that prompted the Indians toopen the curtain on the revolution"

JOHN ADAMS:

(defensively, in 1815)

What do we mean by the Revolution?The War? T hat was no part of theRevolution: it was only an effect andconsequence of it The Revolution wasin the minds of the people, and waseffected in the course of 15 yearsbefore a drop of blood was shed atlexington ..

ECONOMIC TYRANNY

11

It Was Too Good To Be True

What the CONSOL projectcalled for was strip-mining 1billion tons of Northern Cheyennecoal, enough to fuel two or threemammoth coal conversion plantsthat would eventually produce 1billion cubic feet of pullution-freenatural gas for the consumption ofthe dominant white audience.

A $1.2 billion investment byCONSOL in a coal conversioncomplex was the big hitch in thedeal because it implied a city ofover 5,000 non-Indian people onthe tiny Cheyenne reservation. At433,434 acres, the NorthernCheyenne Reservation is one ofthe smallest reservations inMontana, and is dwarfed by itsCrow neighbor to the West whichhas 1.5 million acres.

CONSOL continued to press theNorthern Cheyenne Councilmembers throughout July, 1972,to skip the usual practice ofasking for competitive bids for thesame leased acreage on thegrounds that the Indians wouldlose several months of income.Then as a final gesture of goodfaith, CONSOL representativesproposed that the company wouldmake a contribution to the Tribeof a new $1.5 million healthcenter. It was readily apparent tothe Cheyenne that the healthcenter, although desperatelyneeded by tribal members, wasalso being built for the non-Indianemployees of CONSOL, whowould, if the contract was ap­proved, shortly be invading thereservation.

Some pressures were subtle,others not so subtle. CONSOL'speople said that if they could notconclude the negotiations at anearly date they would be forced totake their plans elesewhere andthat the valuable project would belost to the Northern Cheyenne. "Itmay be a long time before a

12

project of this magnitude comesagain, if ever", said the CONSOLrepresentatives. Naturally CON­SOL was in a hurry to get the newpermit signed. White men arealways in a hurry.

The problem was that rejectingCONSOL's new offer carriedsevere political implications forthe elected tribal council. Many ofthese members had been electedbecause of their support of thepolicy of distributing two-thirds ofany of the income received fromthe mining companies on a percapita basis. To reject theCONSOL offer could have a directand substantial impact on theindividual incomes of theendemically impoverishedCheyenne.

CONSOL set a 15 day deadlinein July, 1972, but CONSOLexecutives and members of thetribal council were stillnegotiating in November, 1972.

The situation was becomingmore complicated because atabout the same time other coalcompany crews had begun testdrilling on previously leased landalong the Cheyenne burialgrounds and otherwise disruptingthe lives of the tribal members.Uncertainty developed rapidly,not only among the tribal councilrepresentatives, some of whomwere replaced by new members ina Council election held inNovember, but also among thoseNorthern Cheyenne tribalmembers who held individualallotments of land on the reser­vation. They became so alarmedthat they formed a group calledthe Northern Cheyenne Land­owners Associa tion to opposecoal development.

It had not taken long for theword of CONSOL's deadline offerto spread across the reservationand for the Northern Cheyenne

Landowners Association to mov~

into action. Tribal members wereurged to come to meetings an"much discussion was held amothem about the effect of thmining and the problems with thpermits.

These meetings led torecognition on the part of mostthe Cheyenne, not just the Counmembers, of the problems ..the permits. They saw,whenever anyone of the ccompanies decided to exer'their rights to lease underpermits, that the Tribe was:;going to be able to obtain a}royalty for its coal. They also'that there were no real gu<'tees that their land woulreclaimed, even if itLreclaimable, and that:h,

possibility of the comp"building conversion plantsother installations on the ~.

lead was a fearful threat·future of the Cheyenne Tri,

'.

At this point in the play what thetribal council wanted were atJ<>ast some gu-arantees that

~yenne land would be treatedwith as much respect and care aspossible. The Council met andfinally decided in December, 1972,to call in attorneys from theNative American Rights Fund tolook over the leases and for advicein putting together a NorthernCheyenne Natural ResourcesCode. Such a code, they hoped,would insure the preservation oftheir .land to the best degreepossible and would require thereclamation of those acres thatwere strip-mined.

NARF staff attorney, Joseph J.Brecher, was assigned to the task.He was a non-Indian lawyer whohad spent several years at NARFworking on the environmentalproblems confronting the South­west tribes by the construction ofthe gigantic Four Corners Powercomplex. He was considered bymost people who knew him to be("putspoken environmentalist.

. ri-s Brecher went to work onbehalf of the Cheyenne to evaluatethe leases and then to draft theNatural Resources Code itbecame clearer and clearer, bothto him and to the Council, that theleases offered no real protectionsto the Cheyenne in terms ofreclamation safeguards and thatthey were not likely to eitherreceive the fair market value fortheir coal or to be paid fordamages that were almost certainto be done to their property.

Concerns were developingrapidly and pressures were put onall parties from all sides. Rumorswere rampant that the Cheyenne,in addition to placing a severanceor extraction tax on coal andpassing a tribal reclamationordinance, were going to cancelall their existing permits andleases, in addition to turning downV·" -:ONSOL offer. The Code wentt\,","",ugh several drafts inpreparation for a detailed reviewby the Council. What the

Cheyenne Council members wereseeking in putting together theNatural Resources Code was away to use their land to provideme best economic return to theTribe while still preservingCheyenne heritage and a chancefor their children's future.

At every turn new legal issues'and new rumors had to be con­fronted. A short telephone in­terview between Brecher and areporter from the Billings Gazettein January, 1973, fatally injuredthe working relationship betweenBrecher and the NorthernCheyenne. The paper carried astory about the phone interviewwhich attributed a statement toBrecher that the Cheyenne weregr.ing to cancel their leases.

The Council was rightfullyangered tha t he would speak ontheir behalf. In addition, theGazette story made it appear as ifthe Council only acted tosafeguard the tribe's resourcesafter being prodded by the Nor­thern Cheyenne Land OwnersAssociation. This was not true;the Council had been seekingexpert advice and assistance formany months. AlthoughBrecher's story was corrected ina later issue of the Gazette, thedamage was done and NARF'srole in Act I with the NorthernCheyenne players ended abruptlyin February 1973.

In March, 1973, the NorthernCheyenne people moved centerstage and passed a resolutionwhich declared all permits andlea se.s issued to corpora tions forsurface coal mining on theirreservation null and void. Theresolution was sent by letter to theBillings area office of the BIA.

RESOLUTION NO. 132 (73)

A RESOLUTION OF THE NORTH­ERN CHEYENNE TRIBAL COUN­CIL RELATING TO THE CANCEL­LATION AND TERMINATION OFALL EXISTING COAL PERMITSAND LEASES ON NORTHERNCHEYENNE RESERVATION.

WHEREAS, there now exists be­tween the Northern Cheyenne Tf'ibeand various coal companies, leasesand per'mits of our coal assets thatare not in compliance with 25 CFR177; and

WHEREAS, the Northern CheyenneTribe does not know of any authoritythat allows any Interior DepartmentOfficial to disregard the r'equir'e­mentsof25CFR 177; and

WHEREAS, the Northern CheyenneTf'ibe does not recognize the existingpermits and leases as binding on theNorthem Cheyenne Tf'ibe due to thefailure of the Bur'eau of Indian Af­fair'S to comply with 25 CFR 177;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED,by the Northern Cheyenne TribalCouncil that officials of the Bureauof Indian Affairs and the Secretaryof the Interior' are hereby directedby the Northern Cheyenne TribalCouncil to withdraw the depar't­ment's approval and terminate andcancel all permittees and lessees,whereby permits and leases havepurportedly authorized and em­powered permittees and lease hold­ers to explore for and mine coal onthe Northern Cheyenne IndianReservation"

PASSED, ADOPTED AND AP­PROVED by the Northern CheyenneTdbal Council by (11) votes for pas­sage and approval and no votesagainst passage and approval this(5th> day of March, A,D, 1973

13

For the Cheyenne the resolutionwas an act as daring as the onetaken by the Sons of Liberty. Itwas the Sons of Liberty, disguisedas Mohawks, who led otherAmerican patriots in the BostonTea Party. The reverberationsfrom the Northern Cheyenne's actof saying "no" to the BIA, toCONSOL, and to other energycompanies were tremendous.

The BIA had led the Indians tothe coal companies without giving

them either the protection or theinformation they needed ascolonial subjects. What theCheyenne announced to the BIAand to the world was not unlikewhat Thomas Paine said to theAmerican colonists and theBritish Crown in his revolutionarytract Common Sense published in1776. Almost 200 years later theNorthern Cheyenne Indianpatriots were pledging tovigorously oppose all corporate,

state, or federal agencies thatmight attempt to destroy theirenvironment; not to tolerate theabuse of their sovereignty, their·n<J.tural rights, or their treatycommitments; and finally not toallow mining interests to deter­mine what their future was goingto be. If economic tyranny was notthe cause of the first revolution, itwas certainly the cause of thissecond one.

The Northern Cheyenne Minutemen

Within a few weeks the Nor­hern Cheyenne Tribal Councilcf'"" ',ed the Seattle law firm of1 l, Pirtle, Morisset and Ern­loff to file an administrativectition to the Secretary on theirehalf requesting the can­cUation. In January, 1974, thectition was filed by the Ziontzrm against the Secretary of1terior alleging 36 specificiolations of the trust respon­bility in regard to the leases. Inle petition the Cheynne-minded the Secretary-trustee1d the BIA of the terrible'~trayal of their trust to the In­ians - that the Secretary hadcrmitted violation of his own1vironmental regulations, that

had ignored the acremitations set by his Department1 Indian leases, and that he,rough the BIA, had failed toake the coal companies preparec necessary mining and en­tonmental studies required byory" law.

qCheyenne's position waslee-o.

J

one of common sense.,netheless, it took 14 moths for

then Secretary of Interior,)gers C. B. Morton, who hadIyed the role of King George III

the most recent events in theama, to act in response to thecyenne.

On June 4, 1974 Morton an­unced he would not cancel thelses, but he did declare aoratorium on furthervelopment on the reservationtil there was a mutualreement between the coalmpanies and the Indians.knowledging some, but by no'ans all, of the Cheyenneegations, he argued that theres not sufficient basis to justify\ ersing his previous approval of~ leases, but that the IndiansJuld now make certain that-ir / leases did comply with!e(aw. If the Indians werene"\vriat encouraged, the coalmpanies and other holders ofrmits were enraged.

Making an important aside,'Secretary Morton moved stage­left and stated that if anylitigation arose out of theCheyenne's action, the gov~rn­

ment would pay the Tribe's legalexpenses to the extent of hisstatutory authority. These newlines in the play, althoughsomewhat conditional, werecritical to the Cheyenne, whoseincome to provide tribal govern­ment and other local communityservices to their mem bers wasthen less than $300,000 a year.

The threat of strip-mining, likethe Tory Tea Tax of 1773,awakened the Northern Cheyennepeople just as the Tea Tax had theAmerican minutemen 200 yearsearlier. It was the kind ofeconomic tyranny that fosteredthe growth of political groups onthe reservation who wanted topreserve their rights to their land,culture and heritage. Most im­portantly the CheyenneMinutemen recognized that theywanted the right to govern theirown future.

The major result of the wholepolitical revolution on the Nor­thern Cheyenne Reservation was

That amount could easily be spenton legal fees alone, even in a shortcourt battle against the coalcompanies, and a short bat.tleappeared unlikely.

Secretary Morton's decisionironically also finally forced theBIA to impose an unofficialmoratorium on the sale of leasesand permits on Indian land allacross the country until theBureau's leasing policies andprocedures for Indian lands couldbe reviewed.

that the Tribe saw that if theywere going to mine they could, ifthey so chose, develop the coalresources on their reservationthemselves in accordance withthe social and political needs oftheir people - a decision notunlike the one made by thecolonists 200 years earlier. Thedifference was, that doing sowould require a kind of com­mitment and cooperation betweenthe Northern Cheyenne and thefederal government that hadnever before existed - one whichhad not been possible between theAmerican colonies and the BritishCrown until after theRevolutionary War.

15

, I

I

II,I

An Intermission and Rehearsal for the Northern Cheyenne

The Cheyenne knew they couldnot survive another war with theU.S., but they also knew howmuch extensive technical andfinancial aid would be necessaryfor them to govern and developtheir own resources themselves.Many wondered if such a plancould ever be implemented

Mining activity at NorthernCheyenne is minimal now. TheNARF Natural Resources Code isstill before the Council, and theZiontz petition to cancel the leasesis now on appeal. There are stillconflicting political forces withinthe tribe, but they are workinghard towards a resolution of theirproblems. The tribal minutemen,resisting corporate domination,are vigorously rehearsing acampaign to educate their fellowtribal members. They are tran­slating the strip-mining script intothe Cheyenne language and theyare planning to hold a referendumon strip-mining in 1976 sponsoredby the Tribal Council.

1976 also happens to be a crucialyear for the Northern Cheyennefor another reason. In 1926Congress passed the NorthernCheyenne Allotment Act whichwas one of the last to be passedbefore the complete abolishmentof the Allotment Policy byCongress in 1932.

It provided that the mineralsunderlying the NorthernCheyenne Reservation would bereserved for the benefit of thetribe, but "that at the expirationof 50 years from the date of ap­proval of this Act the coal or otherminerals, including oil, gas, andother natural deposits, shallbecome the property of therespective allotees or heirs". In1968 Congress then amended theNorthern Cheyenne Allotment Actor script to provide that theminerals should remain triballyowned. However, Congress

16

without being co-opted andcontaminated by those playingthe role of the Tories in this play.

Those who believed it wouldwork \vere encouraged bySecretary Morton's decision to tryto pay for any necessary litigationcosts because they believed thatrecompensation for the years of

recognized a crucial ambiguity inits 1926 Act, that is, if the 1926 Acthad created a Fifth Amendmentprotected property interest in theallottees and their heirs, Congresscould not subsequently take thataway without payment of justcompensation. In order to resolvethis ambiguity the 1968 Acttherefore authorized the NorthernCheyenne Tribe to commence alawsuit in the federal districtcourt in Montana "to determinewhether under the provisions ofthe Act of 1926, as amended, theallottees, their heirs or devisees,have received a vested propertyright in the minerals protected bythe Fifth Amendment". Thedistrict court held in favor of theTribe saying there were noproperty rights and no com­pensation was due the allottees.The Court of Appeals recentlyreversed this decision and ruledagainst the tribe, and a petitionfor certiorari is now pendingbefore the Supreme Court.

The Cheyenne Tribal Council isnow worried that if the mineralrights remain with individualallottees, they can more easily bepressured to sell or be bought offby the mining companies. Or, inthe alterna ti've, if the tribedecides to mine, it may not havean economically feasible unit ofland unless the individualsholding allotments also want tomine.

H the tribe loses before theSupreme Court, the allottees (whoare primarily Indians unlike onother Montana reservations

exploitation and neglect of theirresources by the BIA w.as agovernment responsibility. Theysaw too that it also could even­tually open the door to fullgovernmental participation in aprogram for Indian economicindependence which would benefitthe nation as a whole.

"where the allottees are primarily"non-Indians) may come under i:

considerable pressure from the'coal companies to lease theirallotments which checkerboardthe reservation before the tribe asa whole decides what it wants td~

do. The coal and oil companies;;strategy to date in their dealingswith individual white rancherswho own land near the reser­vation has been to divide andconquer. The Tribal Council and'many other Cheyenne now know:that the Tribe's future existencewhether it includes more coadevelopment or not, is dependenupon the strength that liesunity. Without it, their final pain this drama could become J

tragedy.

MORNING STAR:

Norther'n Cheyenne

(couTageo usly in 1877)

Tell the Great Father that Dull Knife~and his people ask to end their,days here in the north where they~

were born Tell him we want no morewar.. Tell him that if he lets us stayhere, Dull Knife's people will hurt ncfone Tell him if he tries to send uSback, we will butcher each other with.our own knives

, ., ,

Act II

ANOTHER VERSION OFTHE REVOLUTION

THE PLAYERS

More mem bers of the CrowTribe, measured on a percentagebasis, live on their reservationthan do the members of any othertribe on the Northern GreatPlains. Their tribal existence isstrong and their land, althoughgreatly diminished, is large incomparison to that of many otherplains tribes.

TOM PAINE:

(adamently in 1776)

While men could be persuaded theyhad no rights, or that rights ap­pertained only to a certain class ofmen, or that government was a thingexisting in right of itself, it was notdifficult to govern themauthoritatively.

The ignorance in which they wereheld, and the superstition in whichthey were instructed, furnished themeans of doing it. But when theignorance is gone and the superstitionwith it, when they perceive the im­position that has been acted uponthem, and when they reflect that thecultivator and the manufacturer arethe primary means of all the wealththat exists in the world beyond whatnature spontaneously produces, whenthey begin to feel their consequencesby their usefulness and their right asmembers of society, it is no longerpossible to govern them as before.

The fraud, once detected, cannot beretracted To attempt it is to provokederision or invite destruction.

The Sons ofLiberty

The Committeeon Corres­pondence

The Redcoats

The East IndiaTea Company

King George III

The CrowTribe

The CrowMineralCommittee

Silas Big MedicineA lex Bird-In-GroundRobert HoweDale Kindnesr, IrEloise PeaseFrank Plain BullGeorge Reed, Jr

The Bureau0/ IndianAffain

WestmorelandResourcesCompany

The Secretary0/ Interior

The Crows began their formalrelationship with the U.S.government by negotiating atreaty in 1851 which providedthem with 38.5 million acres inMontana and Wyoming. Betweenthen and now, through othertreaties, Acts of Congress, andcessions of land, they have lost allbut 1,554,253 acres. Althoughalmost 2.5 million acres are in­cluded within the exteriorboundaries of the Crow reser­vation, of this amount, only344,304 acres are still triballyowned and 1,209,949 acres areallotted. The other 1,000,000 acreshave been transferred to whiteownership. Nonetheless, on theremaining acres 4,200 members ofthe Crow Tribe have continued intheir traditional roles.

Ironically, the future tribalexistence of the Crow people maynow hinge on something the Tribeagreed to in 1899. It was in thatyear the Crows agreed to cedeabout 1,150,000 acres of theirreservation land on the southernborder to the U.S. government forsale to homesteaders. Theproceeds from the sale of these

17

gentlemen brokers will do verywell on the 5~ a ton proceeds fromTracts II and III. So it has oftengone in the Indian coal business

TT'" .... ....1....1~ .. :,.."..... .., .... \...-._ 1 • •~u <1UU1W.VU, WUtU maKing the

deal, the two gentlemen per­suaded the Crow Tribe that theycould not sell their coal on Tract Iunless they also gave them rightsto 30,000 acre-feet of water peryear which the brokers arguedwould be needed for conversion "facilities. The Crows agreed andtransferred one of their precious ..~ater options from agricultural to JIndustrIal use and then to the two :\brokers. During this same period ,;of time, the Crows altogether"turned over to different coal \companies (Gulf, Shell and.Peabody) options on 140,000 acre.\fe~t. of water per year receiving;mInImal payments in return. TheBIA guided them through thesearrangements as well. So it has'often gone in the Indian water~business. ••.

Early in 1973, Gulf MineralResources (which had a permit)and Shell Oil Company (whichhad a coal lease) on Crow.reservation lands began t01

exercise these by beginning ex!ploratory drilling. A rumor wascircula ted that a non-Indian cityof up to 200,000 people was beiDiconsidered for the neighborhoof Wyola or Lodge Grass on thereservation. Since it was abollthis time tha t the Cheyenne an,nounced their intentions to cancetheir leases, the Crows begantQrealize the magnitude of whathey had done. .

Like the Cheyenne,were also finding out that ther,were coal companies like CONSOL which were willing to pay 25a ton for coal. Regardless ­CONSOL's rate, it was now deato them that if the Tribe hanegotia ted with WestmorelanResources Company direc ,­Westmoreland would have agre 'to pay them at least the 22.5c pton royalty Westmoreland Mended up paying the CrowS a~

the two gentlemen brokers. '.'

ceded lands, while all of. theCheyenne's coal is directlybeneath their reservation.

Like the Cheyenne, the Crowssigned permits and leases underthe guidance of the BIA for lands,both on the reservation and off thereservation in the ceded area,between 1966 and 1971. Leaseswere given to Shell Oil Company,Westmoreland Resources, andAMAX. Permits were issued toGulf Mineral Resources andPeabody Coal Company.

In 1971, as alarm grew on theCheyenne Reservation at theprospect of strip-mining and theunfairness of the royalties theIndians were obtaining, the Crowalso began to look more carefullyat their own permits and leases.In particular they were troubledby an agreement they had madewith two gentlemen brokers. Thegentlemen, both lawy~rs, were .inthe business of secunng permItsand leases on coal rich lands, andthen transferring the rights tomining companies for a per­centage of each ton of coalremoved.

In the case of Crows theynegotiated an agreement forsomething known as Tract I, oneof three tracts of land in the cededarea, which contained anunknown amount of coal. (TractsII and III were leased by West­moreland Resources Company.)Their agreement with the Tribeprovided that they would pay theCrows 17.St per ton for coalremoved from Tract I. Since thetwo gentlemen were only brokers,they were not able to develop thecoal themselves. So in exchangefor turning over their rights to thecoal on Tract I, they obtained anagreement whereby West­moreland would pay them Sf perton on coal removed from allthree tracts. It later turned outthat there was not enough coal onTract I to make it economicallyfeasible to mine, and so both theCrows and Westmoreland lostmoney on the deal, while the two

acres (which were not to be soldfor less than $4 per acre) were tobe used by the Secretary of In­terior for special projects on thereservation, such as an irrigationsystem, the construction of ahospital, buying cattle and sheep,and building a good fence aroundthe remaining reservation.

Congress didn't get around toratifying the 1899 agreement until1904 and at that time the surfacerights to these lands went to thenew homesteaders and themineral rights were vested withthe Crow Tribe. It may have beenone of the best deals the Crowsever made, because underneaththese acres were rich low sulfurcoal deposits.

Like their next door neighbors,the Northern Cheyenne, the Crowpeople have suffered endemicpoverty since the late 1800's whenthey were confined to theirreservation. If the Crows havefared slightly better than theirCheyenne neighbors, it is becausethey were not so badly decimatedas the Cheyenne, and thus theywere able through their strengthand power to maintain asignificantly larger land base,which has since provided themwith a correspondingly largertribal income from grazing andmineral leases. This is not to saythat there are not a lot of coldeconomic and social factssurrounding the Crow. Unem­ployment on the reservationstands at 29%; elsewhere inMontana the figure is 7.8%. Theaverage income among Crowfamilies on the reservation isabout $2,800; state-wide the figureis $10,137.

Nonetheless, the Crow culture isnot yet as endangered as theCheyenne. Virtually all Crowyoungsters speak the ancientlanguage of the Crow, and Crowreligion and customs still flourish.More importantly, however, is thefact that a large portion of theCrow-owned coal is off thereservation, lying under the 1899

18

An Interlude - "Let the Bastards Freeze in the Dark"

MRS.. IRVING ALDERSON:Montana Rancher

(vehemently in 1971)

To bully, discourage or threatenpeople into giving up their homes iscertainly wrong. To condemn the landon which an 30-year-old couple hasbuilt a life together is indecent. Tothreaten to condemn a young ranchercarving out a new life and plantingnew roots for himself and his family isalso indecent

While the stage hands weresetting up the scenery behind thecurtain at the Crow Reservation,most of the State of Montana wasacting out its own version of the

'.~c" revolution. The white rancherswho had taken over Indian lands a

t century or two earlier were"~;

:~

STEVE CHARTER:Montana Rancher

(vehemently In 1973)

We feel, all of us, that this is our laststand. That there's no place else,now, that we could go to live the kindof life we've built. If we tear this landup and dam the rivers and dry them upand muck up the air with smokestacksand fill it full of people and ticky-tackyhouses, there just won't be any placeleft, not in this whole Country; therewon't be anything left

fighting the same forces the In­dians had had to fight and weredefeated by - the railroads, themining interests, and the federalgovernment.

In 1971, when the Bureau ofReclam a tion released its pon­derous, two-volume report, The

North Central Power Study, alertMontanians and other whiteresidents of the Northern GreatPlains states were alarmed. Evena quick perusal of the massivereport told readers that the powerand mineral conglomeratesplanned nothing short ofdestruction of the Great Plainsway of life. In response, thewhites put together a volunteeraction group, the Northern PlainsResource Council, which wascomposed of white ranchers,environmentalists, civic, culturaland historical groups, and peoplewho loved clean big skies, andopen spaces.

For a large number of rancherswhose lands were above coaldeposits, it was too late. Underpressure, coercion, and

19

sometimes fraud, they or theirneighbors had sold their lands tospeculators, brokers and powercompanies. Indeed, at the timethe North Central Power Studyhad been released, the coal richnon-Indian lands were check­boarded with mining-interestownership. It was like a new andhorribly ironic version of theIndian Allotment Act. In addition,in Montana, although the existingpotential supply of water from therivers in the Yellowstone Basinwas judged at 1,735,000 acre-feetof water per year, energy com­panies had already receivedoptions from the Bureau ofReclamation for 871,000 to1,400,000 acre-feet per year in theBasin. Further, they hadrequested or indicated interest inanother 945,000 acre-feet per yearfrom those same streams. Worse,if possible, was the fact that noteverybody was in line yet or hadmade their request for the waterthey would need to develop theenormous mineral resources theywere buying in the area. These{inds of allocations did not leavemuch for the ranchers and far­mers and they did not even takeinto consideration the prior andparamount water rights of theIndians.

As the coal rush proceeded, theMontana Congressional dele­gation began working hard onlegislation which would providesome safeguards from the ex­plosion of development that washappening in their state. Therewere, of course, mixed feelings inMontana and in other GreatPlains states about thedevelopment. Some people stoodto benefit from it; for others itmeant the destruction of theirway of life.

Beyond the problems of theindividual land owners, thegeneral public was worse off thaneither the cowboys or the Indians.The law passed by Congress in1920 with regard to leasing ofpublic lands provided for few

20

environmental safeguards anQ.extraordinarily long, 20-yearleases.

Because of the lack of com­petition for western coal, thosecompanies and brokers who hadsecured permits and leases onfederal public lands from theBureau of Land Management(BLM) were paying royalties solow as to constitute a steal inpresent day terms. Un­fortunately, most of the permitsand leases had been taken out inthe 1960's and it will be 1986 beforethe agreements run for the 20 yearperiod and the royalties can beadjusted.

Shortly after the formation ofthe volunteer Northern GreatPlains Resource Council, the U.S.Government's own GeneralAccounting Office (GAO) cameout with a report which severelycriticized both the BLM and theBIA for their leasing practices.The GAO pointed out that federalland speculators could buy rightscheaply, hold on to them for longperiods of time with no plans tomine the coal, and then sell therights at a large profit in therising market. Further, the GAOsaid that, with regard to theleases made in the 1960's, therewere practically no provisionsfor any land reclamation orenvironmental considerations.Nonetheless, the BLM and theBIA were ignoring the deficien­cies in the few safeguards thatthere were, preferring apparentlyto wait instead for each lease tocome up for renegotiation.

Even the newer 1970's publicland leases, which had stifferreclamation and environmentalrequirements, were not beingenforced. With regard to the BIA,the GAO said that the technicalexaminations of environmentaleffects were not being done andthe companies were being per­mitted to proceed with ex­ploration without any approvedmining plans whatsoever. GAOpointed out that for the most part,

there were no compliance orperformance bonds covering theIndian lease requirements, andthat in the few cases that therewere, the amounts were in­sufficient to cover even theestimated reclamation costs.

With regard to both federalpublic and federal Indian leases,the problem seemed to be thatneither the BLM nor the BIA hadany "procedures" for thepreparation of environmentalimpact statements and so theywere simply not being made. ByNovember, 1972, because neitherthe BLM or BIA, or their boss, theSecretary of Interior, had madeany moves in response to the GAOcriticisms, the EnvironmentalProtection Agency (EPA) beganto pressure Interior to take somekind of remedial action.

Meanwhile, back on the ranches}in Montana, the legislators were:becoming as upset and frustrated i

with the Secretary of Interior as.the Indians had been for a 100'years and still were. Under theleadership of Montana Senators"Mike Mansfield and Lee Metcalf,',:the United States Senate passed a,1resolution calling for a:moratorium on further leasing of.federal lands for one year or untilthe Senate could act on proposed.strip-mining legislation. The;Secretary of Interior refused to'uphold the resolution and told theSenators that they could relY;instead on the already totallY;discredited policies of the InteriorDepartment to guaranteed"environmentally acceptabl~mining". The Montana delegation

......-I

Act II (Continued) ­

Meanwhile Back on the Reservation

and their supporters were in­censed'.

Nobody knew - not the Indians,not Interior, not the states in­volved - how much land wasactually under lease for coalmining purposes on the NorthernGreat Plains. In a token response,since the GAO report, the BLMhad been holding up approval ofany further coal permits andleases while it tried to learn howmuch public coal was alreadyunder lease. This was done in aneffort to placate those who wereangry about the rapid develop­ment, as well as to placate thecoal companies who were told bythe BLM that the agency wouldproceed cautiously on a case-by­case basis, (Le., "don't worry,we'll take care of your needs").Those on the other side, who weremost angry about the strip­mining, felt there should be nostrip-mining at all if neither In­terior, nor the states nor the coalcompanies could ensure orderly'lnd reasonable development.

The result of the antagonismbetween the coal developers (andtheir supporters) and the ran­chers and environmentalists (andtheir supporters) was symbolizedby an ugly bumper sticker seenmost often near major minedevelopment areas. It read: "Letthe Bastards Freeze in the Dark."

In the fall of 1973, as the curtainwent up on the Crow stage, theCrow players began another kindof revolution. What followed in thenext 18 months was a remarkabledrama between the Indians andone of the major coal companiesin America.

The Crows knew one thing ­they wanted to be strong again.They were tired of their povertyand they knew they had a way tochange it and most of them wereintent on doing this. They movedonto the stage with their primarymotiva tion being their knowledgethat the royalties they werereceiving for the coal being minedon the ceded lands were not whatthey were fairly entitled to.

It is perhaps important to notehere that the Crow Tribe did notsubmit to the provisions of theIndian Reorganization Act, and ittherefore still votes by thetraditional general councilmethod. As a result, every maleover the age of 21 and everyfemale over the age of 18 iseligible to participate in tribaldecisions. The Crow Tribal

Council is not unlike the originaltown councils which met as thecolonies proceeded to form andgovern themselves into the newUnited States.

Also coal was not the onlyproblem of the Crows, and it wasconcern over anumber ofproblems that led them to theNative American Rights Fund inthe summer of 1973. After somepreliminary discussions and arequest for help, Daniel Israel, anon-Indian NARF attorney, wasassigned to make a two-day visitto the Crow Reservation in Sep­tern ber, 1973. During the visit, hemet with tribal leaders, individualIndian allottees, parents of Crowschool children, and tribal elders.Among the items the Crowsdiscussed with Israel were:

1. Coal mining operationproblems on the CrowReservation.

2.. Crow hunting and fishingtreaty rights problems.

3, The problem of excess non­Indian land holdings inviolation of Section 2 of theCrow Allotment Act.

21

4. Law and order jurisdictionproblems in Lodge Grass.

5. Water rights problems onthe Crow Reserva tion inconjunction with the Bureauof Reclamation's allocationsto the tribe from theYellowtail Dam Project.

6. Leasing problems on in­dividual allotments held byIndians.

7. Educationaldiscrimination problems inpublic schools near thereservation.

8. Economic problems of theCrow Indian Land andLivestock Association.

There were other problems, ofcourse, but as far as Israel couldsee, the Crows could use the entire17-manNARFlegalteamjust as astarter. He returned to Boulderand began to digest what he hadheard. For the next 18 months, hewas to spend almost every wakinghour immersed in the legalproblems of the Crow people, andduring this time, he was to playvirtually every role a legal ad­vocate can play in a very con­centrated period of time.

Between the time the NorthernCheyenne announced their in­tention to cancel their leases inMarch, 1973, and the time NARFbecame involved at Crow, theCrow Mineral Committee, ap­pointed by the General Council,had had some informaldiscussions with WestmorelandResources. Westmoreland, unlikethe other companies holding Crowpermits, had already constructeda mine and was targeted tocommence mining on July 1, 1975on Tract III of the ceded area offthe Crow Reservation.

In November, 1973, the CrowTribal Council passed a resolutionwhich enlarged the respon­sibilities of the Crow MineralCommittee and it also electedseven new Committee membersrepresenting the various districts

22

on the reservation. Tbey were:Robert Howe, who was alsoelected Chairman; George Reed,Jr., selected as Vice-Chairman;and Eloise Pease, who was chosenas Secretary. The otherrepresentatives were Dale Kind­ness, Jr., Alex Bird-In-Ground,Silas Big Medicine, and FrankPlain Bull. Placed on these Crowplayers was the heavy respon­sibility of playing roles which putthem in the position of confrontingthe Department of Interior andthe energy companies.

The new Mineral Committeewas instructed to look into theexisting permits and leases verycarefully and to make a reportback to the General Council inJanuary, 1974. Shortly thereafterthe Mineral Committee made aformal request to NARF to assistthem in their effort. With moniesadvanced by NARF, and laterreimbursed by the Crow Com­munity Action Program, the CrowMineral Committee hired twoindependent coal experts to jointhem and Israel in plowingthrough the voluminous andhighly technical paper propssurrounding the coal leases.Inquiries went out to each of thepermit and lease holders, as wellas to the BIA, seeking miningplans and contract details. Maps,charts and data on estimated coaltonnage piled up. The magnitudeof the sorting task alone was oftenoverwhelming.

Because WestmorelandResources was ready to com­mence mining on Tract III of the

three tracts it had leased andbecause the company had con­structed a $34 million miningfacility, as well as h; gfinanced a Burlington NorthernRailroad spur, a great deal ofemphasis was placed on theWestmoreland lease.

In January, 1974, the CrowMineral Committee recom­mended to the entire Council thatit be authorized to enter intoformal negotiations with West­moreland Resources represen­tatives with regard to adjustingthe royalties which would be paidthe Crows for their coal. TheCouncil agreed and passed aresolution to this effect and alsoinstructed the Mineral Committeeto support amendments beforeCongress that would insuremining could take place on theceded land where the tribe ownedthe coal, but which white rancherswere unwilling to lease or sell.And finally, among other things,the Council told the MineralCommittee to develop a set ()fenvironmental control re... 1­

tions which would cover miningon lands within the boundaries ofthe Crow Reservation itself.

At the same time, the Councilrecommended continuation of theban on approving any further coalleases or permits until the Councildecided what it was going to do,and tabled a resolution whichwould have divided the coalroyalties on a 50/50 basis betweenper capita payments and thetribal government. Some of theCrows were particularly worriedthat passing such a motion wouldbe like counting their chickensbefore they hatched and would betaken by Westmoreland as anindication that the CrowS weresatisfied with the 17.5t per tonprice.

\ Throughout the spring, Israel/was consumed with thepreparation of legal papers, in­cluding a motion for summaryjudgment. An environmentaldefense group, Friends of theEarth, was also joining in theaction, but this time on the side ofthe white ranchers. The play wasmaking for strange drama, aswell as strange bedfellows.

Despite the cloud of litigationwhich threatened to stop themining entirely, negotiationsbetween the Crow MineralCommittee and Westmorelandproceeded. In May the federaldistrict court ruled against theranchers and the en­vironmentalists. By then, bothsides were exhausted, and in lateJune, 1974, after six months oftalks, the Crow Mineral Com­mittee went back to the GeneralCouncil with a new proposed)ffer. The Committee had been

<,~ ~successful in obtaining anamended agreement withWestmoreland covering a number

The Crows Said No

would be 35~ and 6%. Fur­thermore, the 25~ to 30~ a tontoyalties would only apply to the77 million tons of coal whichWestmoreland Resources wasalready under contract to sell tofour mid-western utility com­panies. For the more than 800million tons of yet uncommittedor unsold coal, Westmorelandagreed to pay the Crows 40~ a tonor 8% of the selling price FOB atthe mine price.

tons. The company clearly, by itsown admissions, had control ofmuch more Crow coal than itneeded to operate a profitablemine. Further, the coal expertshired by the Crow MineralCommittee estimated that therewere 1.1 billion tons of coal in thetracts rather than 900 millionestimated by Westmoreland.

Many of those people in theaudience during this act of theplay were startled that the Crowsdecided to reject the amendedWestmoreland lease. However,one close observer of the dramasaid there was nothing startling atall about the rejection. It wasclearly the biggest issue to everhit the Crow Tribe and they hadgood reason to be very suspicious.The Crows knew that whateverthey decided was likely to affectthem and their children forgenerations to come.

Following the "no" vote, theCrow Mineral Committee wentback to the drawing tables.Basically, their new directivefrom the Council was to make amore complete determination ofwhether the amended lease was infact the best lease and if the leasecontained too much coal. West­moreland agreed to keep theamended lease proposal open for60 days to give the Crows moretime to consider it, even thoughthe Company had originally set a15-day deadline for acceptance.

of issues, but most importantlyincreasing the royalties for theCrows from 17.5¢ per ton to 25~

per ton.or 6% of the selling priceFOB at the mine site, whicheverwas greater.

The 25~ per ton figure was toapply only to all coal minedduring the remainder of 1974 andin 1975. For coal shipped during1976 and 1977, Westmorelandagreed to pay 30~ a ton or 6%of theFOB price. In 1978 and 1979 it

The Crows, who once soldYellowstone Park for 5~ an acre,said no to the new offer. They didso not so much because of the finalroyalty price offered, but becausethe lease contained too muchCrow coal, given the long rangedevelopment plans of West­moreland Resources.

Westmoreland's own con-servative estimate placed theamount of coal in the tracts it hadleased on the ceded land at 900million tons. But, Westmorelandalso admitted that it only had asales contract for 77 million tons,with a sales option for another 300million, and that the mine it hadconstructed only had a maximumproduction capacity of 455 million

December and January wereexhausting months for the CrowMineral Committee and Israelbecause hours and hours ofrehearsals were required withregard to the renegotiations. Theactual renegotiations began thesecond week of February andwere still going on when, in lateMarch, a whole new troupe ofactors suddenly marched onstage. A group of white ranchers,who owned the surface rights tothe ceded Crow land, had filed suitagainst the Secretary of the In­terior in federal district court inMontana to stop the mining onenvironmental protection grounds(John R. Redding et al v.Secretary of Interior), Suddenly,the Crows found themselveshaving to shift their energies andtheir attention to a new battle andironically found themselvesstanding on the same side of thebattle line as WestmorelandResources.

r!I,

23

The President of WestmorelandResources, Penn Hutchinsonindicated to curious reviewers ofthe drama that the terms of theproposed amended lease were notgoing to be retroactive. He toldthONe who asked that the companywould begin to deliver its coal toits customers immediately even ifthe amended lease was rejected,and that the tribe would receiveonly the 17.5¢ per ton price whichwaR agreed to in the originallease.

l)ENN HUTCHINSON:President.West,moreland Resources

(adamantly in June, 1974)

ihis is the best coal deal in the NorthAmerican continent for similarquality coal. Weare not in a positionto negotiate further" We cannot gohigher.

On July 13, 1974, a little mbrethan two weeks after the originalno vote, the Crow Council passeda resolution which cancelled theWestmoreland lease and allothers previously granted by theTribe. This decision necessitateda very quick costume change byeveryone. Within a month, alengthy petition to declare theWestmoreland Resources leasenull and void had been preparedby NARF and the new Crow tribalattorney, Thomas Lynaugh. Thepetition was filed with theSecretary of Interior, and theCrow Council decided to appoint aspecial tribal delegation to handlethis aspect of the coal effort,rather than leave it to the CrowMineral Committee.

The Secretary of Interior, whohad just issued his half-yes, half­no decision with reg ard to the

Northern Cheyenne's petition,was annoyed that the Crows werenow also on his doorstep. Hisunderlings relayed the message tothe Crows that there was littlehope that the Secretary wouldconsider cancelling the Crowleases - the pressures of the newProject Independence and theweight of the mining industrywere too great for him to act likethe Indian trustee that he was. Allhe would do, his messengers saidwas to "arbitrate" the disput~between the Crows and West- .,;moreland. .~

Thus, in October, 1974, both·~sides were invited to Washington'to iron out their differences before,Interior personnel. The' Crows',

,i

were understandably reluctant to'go and there were many dif·?ferences of opinion as to just what'the official Crow negotiating'

'"

i.""'-~

."".;;'~.~.i.:,~ .

.' ;, .

'_ii \;

,'{

. ''r >;

Perhaps Mr. Hutchinson wassaying something about what hadgone on in the Westmorelandcamp. Nonetheless; Lhe day theagreement was finalized,Westmoreland gave the CrowCouncil a $1,717,200 check as adown payment and two days laterthe tribe mailed a $200 per capitacheck to each of the tribe's 5,771members. The checks came to theCrows just before Christmas.

25

Better late Than Never

In January, 1975, a few weeksafter the Westmoreland deal hadbeen closed, the BIA released areport on the impact of coaldevelopment on the CrowReservation. The report indicatedthat full-scale rapid developmentof coal production could produceroyalties of up to $6 million peryear for the Crows or $6,395 foreach tribal member annually. TheBrA report also predicted that asa result, the reservation'spopulation would soar from about10,000 to 45,000 people. Although a"high level" of coal developmentwould produce more than 700mining jobs for Indians, most ofthe newcomers to the reservationwould be white, and that as aresult, the Crows would become aminority on their own reservationand find that their political powerwas diluted and their social arenadisrupted. The report predictedthat this pace of change would betoo fast to allow for adaptation bythe Indians. It seemed to say thatlow-level development meantdecreased royalties and high­level development meantdecreased Crows.

As the Crows had beenproceeding towards a final dealwith Westmoreland, the MontanaState Legislature had beenproceeding towards a substantialincrease in their severance tax oncoal. Because the Westmorelandlease was on ceded land, the statecontended that coal mined there

PESS HL'TCHISS(~~

(reflective Iy,December in 1974)

We spenc a rraumatit::~ .,.-t,ok1l~Crows sought to in'T..t~'-' '.lUf

leases..

4. A provision which t{or~~~Westmoreland to developCrow coal fields at anaggressive rate, In fli 1dticular, the contract requ r~4Westmoreland to minemillion tons of coal a year by1982 so that the Companycould not hold onto ~e c~;;for speculation an bleCrows could count on a ;~~ irincome from the '1i11e 0 ledcoal. This provi.ion sbo r~gthe problem of there etoo much coal in the leasewhich had led the CroWs ~turn down the June oller anthen to cancel the leasesentirely in July. HOW, if t~~Company only mine'

illi' to ' .. nrJ it wUl bem on ns 10 U/QV, S offorced to pay the C,.OW~4 thethe market value Vj,

additional 4 minion tonsneeded to fill the agreed

production quota. od HonEven greater pi' uc f r

standards were flJJpoud t~esubsequent year. ~) thatCrows could bave apredictable revenu-e 'OUtir~efrom this ofl41:$erva 0

. M t' .....-t~nt1y aJ amme. os 1my,,,. - . f theresult of thispr~ n h dnew lease, the CrOW' ad

f1 'bili't -~ regarmore eXl y w~of theirto the developm~ Bremaining coal reurve ,whether off the r~ationor on the reservatJorl·

5. Finally, the ne- lea:contained an agr~entcome back to the ~ati~:tables to "ad~royalties every U1J year.,

__ .-uf got fromWhat Westmoreun-- 1 u.se

the Crows was a good bftb c athatthat assured the COf1IJpanythe deal was a solid ~,

arge theirbuying theom West­. ining was

once in thethe two sides met;'and under the

.. t Standsoverbull,. '\:'81 Chairman, and, ' Jr" the Vice­

. ally agreed. On,.:4, the Secretary, e Crow trustee)ct his stamp of

, new stage shouldwere so high that

.very rough in the~~. articularly between

Tribe's new generalas Lynaugh. No one

:~hat was going onnes in the West­p, but things

been much

was not exempt from such statetaxes. Since these taxes, whichwere included in the FOB sellingprice, had the effect of increasingthe Crow;s royalties the Crowsstood to gain by the state taxprovided the severance taxes didnot go so high as to discourage or

drive away those companiesinterested in development of theCrows off-reservation coal.Nothing ~bout being an Indianwas simpie.

On the national scene,Congress, having labored for wellover 18 months on a new federal

strip mmmg legislation, finallypassed a tightly controlled billwhich provided stricter en­vironmental regulations andgeneraHy was not consideredfavorably by the coal companies.President Ford then vetoed thebill.

The Intermission - A StalemateWhat has happened on stage

since the Crow/Westmorelanddeal can only be described as astalemate or, perhaps in terms ofthis drama, an intermission. Noone knows whether there is goingto be a second Revolutionary Waron the Northern Great Plains ornot.

At the Northern Cheyenne campthere is a moratorium on coaldevelopment, while the Cheyenneawait the outcome of theircomprehensive community sur­vey, as well as the outcome oftheir petition before the SupremeCourt with regard to who owns theminerals on the allotted lands.Presumably, sometime withinthe next year, the decision will bemade as to whether, and if sounder what circumstances, coalmining will resume on the Nor­thern Cheyenne Reservation.

At Crow, the only Indian strip­mining on the Northern GreatPlains is being done by West­moreland Resources. In order todo so, Westmoreland is paying thehighest royalties in America tothe Crows. Although, Shell Oil hasmade overtures at Crow to each ofthe individual tribal members totry to get their on-reservationlease moving and AMAX hasopenly discussed the possibility ofrenegotiating their lease in theceded area in 1976, the otherenergy companies presentlyholding permits are just sittingaround waiting to see whathappens. And so are the Crows.

There are several other factorswhich have contributed to theintermission/stalemate. There is

26

the 30% severance tax imposed onall Montana coal, which hascaused energy companies to re­evaluate their commitments inMontana and which is the kind oftax now being looked at by severalother Great Plains states as well.There are the new restrictions onstate mining plan approvalswhich were recently imposed bythe Montana legislature andwhich are also being watchedcarefully by the other GreatPlains states.

Then there is the impact of thecase known as Sierra Club v.Morton, where the bureau­cratically encumbered Depart­ment of Interior is presentlystruggling to make a decision asto whether or not the developmentof all Northern Great Plainsfederal coal (and possibly Indiancoal) constitutes a major federalaction. If the Interior bureaucratsdecide that such developmentdoes constitute a major action,then a multi-state environmentalimpact statement will have to beprepared, which will take at leasttwo years, and which will againcause all mining plan approvals tobe suspended during itspreparation - whether they arein Montana, Wyoming, NorthDakota, South Dakota orNebraska.

Another reason for the in­termission is the Redding v.Morton litigation (ranchers andenvironmentalists vs. thegovernment and the Indians)which is now going through alengthy process of clarificationvia legal petition. Some time inthe next year there will be a

rehearing with regard to adetermination of exactly whetheror not the leasewide en­vironmental impact statementordered by the Ninth Circuit mustinclude both Westmoreland leaseson the Crow ceded area, or caninclude only Tract III (which isbeing mined), with Tract II(which is not yet being mined) tocome in the future.

Still additional uncertaintiespersist and make immediatemassive coal development on theplains unlikely. There is, for in­stance, the unknown status of thefederal strip mining bill whichmay incorporate severerestrictions on the mining ofalluvial valleys in the west. Thereis the unknown outcome of theEnvironmental Defense Fund v.Secretary of Interior waterlitigation which may yet deprivethe energy companies of the l

opportunity of actually taking the ,';large quantities of Wyoming andMontana water promised them by"the Bureau of Reclamation for use',in upgrading coal, for slurry"pipelines, or for oil and gas:'conversion.

Finally, there are the players;1themselves - an unusual com-bination of people (pro-,environmentalists, cowboys andranchers, and suspicious Indians) ;- all playing some kind of role'

• topposite the mining compames.;Up on the Northern Great Plains'Astage, one could say that people!are waiting for the air to clear andare breathing deeply of some of ;.'the last clear air in the country",while doing so. .

27

The delegatesof the NativeAmericanNaturalResourcesDevelopmentFederation

Members ofthe 26 NorthernGr'eat PlainsIndian Tribes

Jess Miller,Arapaho

Wind Rivu Reservation

Wilber' Decoteau,Winnebago Reseroation

Starr Reid,Shoshone

Wind River Reseroation

A lien Rowland,NorthernCheyenne

Lyman Young,Fort Belknap Reservation

THE PLAYERS

Gr'ace Es,tes,Lower' Brule Reseroation

, A Ivina Grey Bear,Standing Rock Reseroation

Ralph Wells,Fort Buthold Re,seroation

The FirstContinentalCongress

The DeclarationCommittee

The SecondContinentalCongress

Act III

THOMAS JEFFERSON:

(deliberately in 1776)

He has refused his assent to laws, themost wholesome and necessary for thepublic good,

He has directed a multitude of newoffices, and sent hither swarms ofofficers to harass our people, and eatout their substance.,

He has kept among us, in times ofpeace, standing armies withoutconsent of our legislatures,

He has combined with others tosubject us to a jurisdiction foreign toour constitution, and unacknowledgedby our laws; giving his assent to theiracts of pretended legislation

In every stage of these oppressions weha ve peti tioned for a redress in themost humble terms Our repeatedpetitions have been answered only byrepeated injury, A prince, whosecharacter is thus marked by every actwhich may define a tyrant, is unfit to

be a ru IeI' of a free people

THE DECLARATION

OF INDIAN INDEPENDENCE

.:,

;fi>

fr I'I ~,

~i.~.

f_

~;J'"~i

t':f

"~~{,}l'~'~r, ~

'i~ Thomas Jefferson, in preparing/ the original Declaration of In-

dependence, wrote that not only isit the right of the people to revoltagainst arbitrary, undemocraticrule, but it is the "duty" of everypatriotic American to do so.

Jefferson then listed 18grievances called "A history ofrepeated injuries and usurpationsall having as a direct object theestablishment of an absolute

;, tyranny over these Sta tes". Someof the indictments against KingGeorge III were as applicable to

:; the British Monarch as they were(~ to become to the U.S. Secretary of}1 Interior.

"

On December 18, 1973, morethan 100 Northern Great PlainsIndian people met on the FortBerthold Reservation in NorthDakota. They had assembled thatday to discuss their WintersDoctrine water rights to the riversflowing through and the groundwater underneath their reser­vations. The atmosphere was fullof tension and concern due to thefact that federal agencies, thestates and private interests wererapidly making plans to use morewater than there was on theNorthern Great Plains.

Because of their endemicpoverty these tribes had not beenable to develop their reservationsand make use of the water whichwas rightfully theirs. Now therewas a recognition that they hadmarketable mineral resourceswhich could, if they so chose,bring them the income theyneeded to develop their reser­vations and for which they wouldalso then need their own water.From the beginning of themeeting it was clear that a mutualline of defense was about to beformed of these tribes, some ofwhom had only 100 years beforebeen at war with each other. Thistime, however, they were going tomake one last stand on the Nor­thern Great Plains together.

28

At this late hour the Depart­ment of Interior has decided tosend a peace commissioner in theform of a representative from theNorthern Great Plains ResourceProgram (NGPRP) to meet withthe Indians and to ask for theircomments with regard to federaldevelopment plans for the Not­thern Great Plains. Although theNGPRP study had been underwayfor over a year, no one hadbothered to contact the Indiansuntil this day.

The discussions anddeliberations went on hour afterhour. Recognizing that the issueswere too complex to be settledthat day, Mr. John Vanderwalker,Director of the NGPRP study,asked that the tribal delegatesbecome "consultants" to theNGPRP study in a last minuteattempt to provide Indian inputand avoid the upcoming conflict.Vanderwalker told therepresentatives that the studyreport had already been draftedand was shortly due to befinalized, but that he was verymuch anxious to have the Indians'position included in the finalreport.

The Declaration Committee

Because of the lateness of thehour, a temporary committee waschosen to work on drafting asta tement from the Indians toInterior. These people were toplay a role as important in theevents to come as the originalDeclaration Committee made upof Thomas Jefferson, BenjaminFranklin, John Adams, RogerSherman, and Robert Livingston.This time, 200 ypars later, thedelegates for the new Indiandeclaration committee were tobe: Allen Rowland, NorthernCheyenne; Lyman Young, FortBelknap; Alvina Grey Bear,Standing Rock; Ralph Wells, FortBerthold; Grace Estes, LowerBrule; Wilber Decoteau, Win­nebago; and Starr Reid, a

Shoshone, and Jess Miller, anArapaho, both from the WindRiver Reservation.

This declaration committee metseveral times over a period ofmonths. Then on February 28,1974, all the tribal representativesmet once again in Mobridge,South Dakota, where the StandingRock Sioux Tribe acted as host.This meeting was the equivalentof the First Continental Congress,staged 200 years before. Theapproximately 100 delegates inattendance spent the entiremeeting marking up the finaldraft of the input statementprepared by the declarationcommittee. As the tribaldelegates worked on theirstatement the vast problems theywere facing concerning naturalresources and their survival cameinto painful focus.

That night and the next day thedelegates became determined toorganize as quickly as possibleinto a formal federation, andbefore the meeting was adjourneda constitution and by-laws hadbeen drafted to take home to theirrespective tribes for review.

The Second

Continental Congress

On March 27, 1974, almost ayear after the Northern Cheyennehad started the revolution, theNorthern Great Plains Indiandelegates met again in Billings,Montana, to adopt a constitutionand by-laws for what that day wasnamed The Native AmericanNatural Resources DevelopmentFederation (NANRDF). Mostimportantly, like the originalSecond Continental Congress, theIndian delegates also voted on andunanimously passed ADeclaration of Indian Rights tothe Natural Resources in theNorthern Great Plains.

The Indian tribes and peopleof the Northern Great Plains,being confronted with an all­pervasive crisis threa teningthe present and future uses oftheir natural resources,including but not limited totheir land, right to use ofwater and their coal, dohereby declare as follows:

The Northern Great Plainsarea of the United States ispresently attracting in­terna tional attention due to

the energy crisis whichmakes the vast coalresources of this area veryappealing for immediatedevelopment. Thedevelopment of this coal andthe concomitant use ofwater, air, and other naturalresources threatens theviability of our environmentand the continued existenceof the 26 tribes which occupythe Northern Great Plainswithin the states of Montana,Wyoming, North Dakota,South Dakota and Nebraska.

These tribes would beseverely burdened withimmense consequencesresulting from any naturalresource development. It isfor this reason that thesetribes desire to submit thefollowing declaration forinclusion in the report of theNorthern Great PlainsResources Program. Thetribes have been asked toparticipate in numerouswork group statements onthis matter, but it is readilyapparent that the majorimpact upon the survival ofthese Indian tribes will befoisted upon the erosion oftheir water rights and thedepletion of water resourcesdue to the need for massivequantities of water todevelop the coal. The Indianwater rights here involved,then, are like the Indianfishing rights considered bythe United States SupremeCourt in United States v.Winans, 198 U.S. 371, 381,(1905); they are "not muchless necessary to theexistence of the Indians thanthe atmosphere theybreathe" .

The Indian tribes of the fivestates do hereby give noticeto the world that they willmaintain their ownership tothe priceless na turalresources which aregeographically and legallyrelated to their reservations.Indian tribes and people,both jointly and severally,have declared and the courtshave sustained that theAmerican Indian tribes ofthe Northern Great Plains

have the prior andparamount rights to thewater, including alltributaries thereto, whichflow through; arise upon,underlie or border upon theirreservations. These priorand paramount rights wouldextend to all waters that maynow or in the future bearitificially augmented orcreated by weathermodification, by desalinationof presently unusable watersupplies, by production ofwater supplies as a by­product of geothermal powerdevelopment, or by any otherscientific or other type ofmeans within the respectivereservations in the NorthernGreat Plains area.

In view of the tribes' priorand paramount rights to allthe waters to which they aregeographically related, it isself-evident that any majordiversion of said waters forany purpose would constitutean encroachment upon In­dian water rights. All federalagents or agencies, includingbut not limited to the Bureauof Reclamation, Corps ofEngineers, states, persons,parties or organiza tions are,therefore, put on notice thatany diversion or use of suchtribal waters shall be at theirown risk.

29

imports were down by IT

barrels per day, reducing thEavailable supply of oil bywhat was usually needeAmerican consumers. Atsame time prices for foreilwere jumping to unhearlevels. They rose from abcper barrel in September, 19over $11 per barrel by Jan1974.

Quill Case

Medicine Bag

It

oil was growing, however, theworld oil market came to bedominated by a few Middle Eastcountries with massive reservesand production costs of merelypennies per barrel.

The disadvantage of thisdependency came as a smokesignal in 1967 when an oil embargowas imposed by these countriesbecause of the tensions in theMiddle East. Few paid any at­tention, however, and it was notuntil the Middle East countriesimposed a total embargo on crudeoil shipments to the U.S. and othercountries in the winter of 1973,that the full impact of America'sdependence on the Middle Eastbecame apparent The U.S.government was suddenly ashelpless as it had made its Indianwards.

The oil embargo, which wasimposed in October, 1973, just sixmonths before the Northern GreatPlains Tribes got together for thefirst time, was slow to take effect.Nonetheless by January, 1974, oil

Up until 1950, the U.S. wastotally self-sufficient energy wise.It was easily able to meet itsgrowing thirst for energy withcheap and abundant domesticfuels - coal, oil, gas, andhydroelectric power. But by 1960,imports of crude oil andpetroleum products had begun toaccount for 15% of the totaldomestic oil consumption, and by1973 imports had jumped to 35%.This growing dependence was theresult of increasing consumerdemand, cheap imports, and asteadily deteriorating domesticsupply situation.

Ironically, America's growingdependence on foreign oil wasconsidered a blessing by many.Inexpensive foreign oil meantlower consumer prices inAmerica and a more competitivedomestic industry in worldmarkets. At the same time asAmerica's dependence on foreign

An Entre Act

30

III

31

meeting, 19 of the 24 governingbodies of the Northern GreatPlains Tribes had formally ap­proved the constitution, and by­laws and governing officers wereelected.

Mr. Robert Burnett, from theRosebud Sioux Reservation inSouth Dakota, was electedChairman. Mr. Nathan LittleSoldier, a Hidatsa-Arikara fromthe Fort Berthold Reservation,was elected Vice-Chairman.Alvina Grey Bear, a StandingRock Sioux, was electedSecretary; and Joe Day, anAssiniboine-Sioux, from FortPeck, was chosen as Treasurer.Representatives from each of thestates also nominated a delegate.Roger Yankton, a Sioux fromDevils Lake, was selected as theNorth Dakota delegate. ElnitaRank, Crow Creek Sioux, waschosen as the South Dakotadelegate. Laura Snake, Win­nebago, and Allen Rowland,Northern Cheyenne, wereselected to represent Nebraskaand Montana, respectively. TheWyoming tribes did not appoint adelegate at this meeting.

Because the new Federationwas still without funds or staff,Thomas W. Fredericks, the at­torney from the Native AmericanRights Fund who had beenassisting the Federation from thebeginning, was asked by thegroup to be its coordinator.Fredericks, who was then alsoDeputy Director of the NativeAmerican Rights Fund, waspersonally familiar with theproblems of the Tribes inasmuchas he himself is a Mandan Indianfrom the Fort Berthold Reser­vation.

Therefore, in the summer of1974, NARF began a search forfoundation support which wouldenable it to allocate the time ofone full-time attorney to theFederation effort withoutjeopardizing NARF's ability tomeet its other existing com­mitments to Indian clients. After

considered to be the key to thewhole effort. Tha t coal had thepotential of making the NorthernGreat Plains into the boiler roomof the nation - or as some calledit "a national sacrifice area".

The Native American

Natural Resources

Development Federation

At the time that therepresentatives of the NorthernGrea t Plains got together for thefirst time in December, 1973,NARF had been asked by thedelegates to assist in thepreparation of the inputstatement (which eventuallybecame the Declaration of IndianRights), as well as to provide thenecessary legal and technicaladvice to assist them in locatingexperts and the monies withwhich to obtain them.

This was done because at thattime NARF was already workingwith several of the member tribeson their resource problems andhad had considerable experienceon behalf of other clients with thekinds. of obstacles and handicapsfacing the new Federation. TheFederation met officially for thefirst time in Billings, Montana inMay 1974. At the time of the

> Project Independencevs.

The Declaration

I ~ of Indian Independence

I In response to the embargo, andI in final realization of the

,,' tenuousness of the dominantr,l society's dependence on foreign

energy sources, President Nixon., announced "Project In­

I dependence" _ a new federal'. program with a goal of "energy

independence for the UnitedStates by 1980". Nixon's an­nouncement came in March, 1974,

'1 at the same time that the Nor-/.

~ thern Great Plains Tribes passed" their own Declaration of Indian

Independence with regard to their} valuable water and mineral

resources.

Whatever Nixon's Project, Independen~e meant to the world,

I ~.

the Declaration of Indian Rights., to the Natural Resources in the

Northern Great Plains was thefirst formal notice given to the

,( U.S. government, the states, andi't individual corporate interests

that the Indian tribes of the GreatPlains intended to fight to protect,preserve, and conserve theresources which their forefathers

, gave their lives to retain.

The Declaration put all partieson notice that any further abuse ofIndian rights would not betolerated, and set out for federalofficials, the states, and the rest ofthe country a summary of theleg al basis for the prior and

I paramount water rights of the 26Tribes. It also stated Indianprinciples for planning anddevelopment of this water, theminerals, and the other naturalresources on their land.

The conflict was readily ap­parent. A large portion of thenatural resources essential to the

'I" U.S. government's ability to meet.;. the goals of Project Independence

.. ' were located on Indian reser-: vations. In fact, the billions of tons

of low sulfur Indian coal were

several months of discussion andevaluation, the William H. DonnerFoundation agreed to join withNARF in an effort to assist theFederation in developing a realcapacity to provide its 26 membertribes with the technicalassistance necessary to makemutually beneficial decisions withregard to the protection and use oftheir land, water and minerals.

In October, 1974, the DonnerFoundation approved a grant for$60,000 to provide about 1700NARF attorney man-hours, alongwith corresponding supportservices, to the Federation. TheDonner grant also provided initialseed monies for Federationconsultants and traveling ex­penses for the Federation'sExecutive Committee.

Each day since the Federationfirst became organized it hasbecome increasingly clear to theirrepresentatives, and to NARF,that the most difficult Indiannatural resource to protect iswater. The coal, oil, and gas andother mineral resource problems,although immense, are relativelysimple in comparison. Not only isIndian water in demand by manypowerful interests, it can bediverted or depleted before it everreaches the reservation, and noteven the Indians are sure howmuch is rightfully theirs.Therefore, protecting Indianwater tests the very core of theconcept of the trust relationship.

By the beginning of 1975,Federation members had becomeconcerned with the legislationbeing drafted in the Departmentof Justice which, if passed asdrafted, would provide for a five­year period in which all federalagencies would quantify theirrespective water rights. Underthis plan, conflicts would then beresolved by litigation. The JusticeDepartment's proposal alsoprovides tha t the Secretary ofInterior have the responsibilityfor quantifying Indian rights.Because of the considerable

32

.conflicts of interest between theagencies under the Secretary'sjurisdiction~Federation Membersare opposed to the biH as nowwritten.

In late March, 1975, NARFattorneys learned of aMemorandum of Understandingbetween the Secretary of Interiorand the Secretary of the Army. Inessence, the Memorandumauthorized the Secretary of the

Interior to contract for themarketing of water for industrialuses and incidental purposes fromthe six main stem reservoirs builtby the Army Corps of Engineerson the Upper Missouri River.While the Memorandum containslanguage which prohibits theSecretary from entering into anycontract which would encroachupon the need for irriga tion, floodcontrol, and hydro-electric power

f~, there is absolutely no"to restrict the Secretarytering into agreements'uld infringe upon the'paramount water rightsdian tribes on the Nor­'at Plains.

on members haveobjected to the

um and its totalOf the water rights of

~believing that there iseSecretary of the In­enter into any contract

keting of water forluses without en­" n the prior rights of

particularly untilthe Secretary knowsdextent of the Indian

eupper tributaries of" River Basin. At the'~anyone knows is thatis.t'rights situation for

rii Great Plains tribes"er complica ted by the'e State of Montana has\~., preliminary steps

dication of Indianin state court.

iversally, Indians and~'sprefer to have theirt~.-

pctrine water rights,i{in federal courts..~ersally, sta tes and

ing under state lawe the Indians' waterined in sta te courts.

~,t is now pendingppreme Court in two,8, Colorado River.'.~rvation District v.

.~ (formerly known as,,~es v. Akin) and:i United States. The'.'. n on who files first,'is the state court or. court that first.diction.

te!y, whatever they dian tribes have the,purces necessary to"to go to court, and

ll11ts know this. Mostlto adjudica te Indian

are 10 or 15 year

propositions, involving hundredsof thousands of dollars andrequiring ~he best legal talentavailable. NARF is representingseveral tribes in such water rightssuits, but not even NARF canassume the financial and man­power responsibilities on behalf ofIndiand clients unless the federalgovernment trustee agrees to jointhe action and pay the ex­traordinary expenses associatedwith such actions for expertwitness and hydrological studies.When the federal trustee iswilling, then NARF is able torepresent its Indian clients asplaintiff-intervenors, to planlitigation strategies and topresent the tribe's position to thecourt directly, free of any conflictof interest.

-------_.~--

On the Northern Great Plains,the Northern Cheyenne, stillsetting the pace, went boldly intocourt on a pro se basis and filedsuit in January, 1975, to protecttheir rights to the waters ofRosebud Creek and the TongueRiver which flow through theirreservation. With support of theother Federation members, theythen pressed the U.S. governmentto file a companion suit on behalfof both the Northern Cheyenneand Crow Tribes to adjudicateand quantify their rights to theseand other Montana waters .Fortunately, the governmentagreed, and on March 1, 1975, filedsuit in Federal District Court inMontana (U.S. v. Tongue RiverWater Users Association, et al).

The Northern Cheyenne arenow attempting to find monieswhich will enable them to retain

their own private legal counsel forthe case so they can make certaintheir rights are fully protected.The Crow Tribe, with incomefrom the Westmoreland lease,now has the ability to hire privatecounsel to represent its interests.

Even though the BIA and theBureau of Reclamation agree thatmany years will be requiredbefore the full nature and extentof Indian water potential can beaccurately determined, and eventhough they recognize that theexercise of the Northern GreatPlains Tribe's water rights willhave a direct effect on theMissouri River basin, they havedone little or nothing to correctthe situation.

Several years ago, in an at­tempt to advocate the interests ofthe tribes, the Secretary of In­terior established within the BIAan Office of Indian Water Rights.This office now has responsibilityfor water resource inventories, aswell as related legal in­volvements. It has only been ableto fund limited inventories onsome of the reservations in thestates of Montana and Wyoming,and these are only intended toprovide a very tentative estimateof the requirements of the tribesin these sta tes. Studies on thereservations in other states in theUpper Missouri River Basin havenot been initiated despite the factthat all parties concernedrecognize that these needs willrange from "significant" to"large".

Intead, to date the Secretary ofInterior has been focusing hisenergies on: (1) interna tiona I andfederal-state compacts whichspecifically distribute waterflowsbetween sta tes, regions ornations; (2) federal and statelaws which mandate specificriverflows to satisfy water qualitystandards and instream fishingneeds; and (3) riverflowsprotected by federal and statescenic and recreational riveracts.

33

It is Easier Not to Know

Indian water rights on thet~orthern Great Plains v/iIl likelycontinue to be ignored by both thefederal trustee and the NorthernGrea t Plains states unless theFederation is able to mount aneffective administrative ad­vocacy effort on behalf of itsmembers. There is a long anddifficult haul ahead because somany agencies and officials areinvolved, very few of which wantto even know about, much less beconcerned with, the protection ofIndian rights. It is easier for thestates and the federal agencies tonot know they are taking Indianwater, because once water istaken it is so much harder for theIndians to get it back.

There are several reservationson the Great Plains that do nothave sufficient surface wateravailable for any substantialdevelopment efforts. For these

't'!!f(':: J '~~;c·..•..J',.•'.. ',''';~' itl' ~t1~~~ ~ '~'~,,~- k

, .J '.

34

reservations it is im{lortant toremember tha t Indian reservedrights to the use of water alsoextend to ground, as well assurface, waters. Several recentcourt decisions have so held, and'despite fedenl and sta te reluc­tance to face this conclusion,there is no escaping it.

The nation now appears to beheading more or less inexorablyto a federal law of groundwater. Itis hard to overemphasize thepractical and legal significance ofthis long overdue development.But much work lies ahead, notonly for the Indians, but also forthe government and courts of thedominant society for its contours,its perimeters, its very essencehave yet to be defined. Presentlythere are no guidelines on how the"prior and paramount" Indianrights will be measured in relationto other, non-Indian or non­federal users rights in the samegroundwater basin, nor do peopleknow how the administrative and

judicial responsibilities to controlthe use of groundwater will bedivided as between the state,federal and tribal governp:1-Q{1tsand/or courts. .

In the water-short West, andparticularly on the NorthernGreat Plains, adjusting their lifestyles to conform with the Indians' legal water rights could bEthe most difficult role members 0:the dominant white society hav(ever had to play.

For the Indians, playing outheir new revolution will be extremely difficult without substantial aid from their trusteewho is also their enemy. Foexample, BIA monies for inventorying Indian resources othethan water are also limited, anion the basis of BIA accomplishments to date, it witake about 20 years to completeminimally adequate resourcinventory on the Northern GrecPlains Reservations.

In the meantime, the U.S.Geological Survey and the U.S.~'Ireau of Mines, sister Interior.1reaus, will receive about

$50,000,000 to inventory, evaluateand classify resources located onpublic lands this fiscal year ­more than 50 times the amount setaside for the BIA, even thoughone-third of the total remainingmineral resources are located onIndian lands.

Since the Donner grant wasmade to NARF, the Federationhas been attempting to pulltogether the legal and othertechnical resources it will needjust to make an assessment ofhow to proceed in what may betheir last ba tile.

The first step was the formationof the Federation itself. Thesecond, third and fourth stepshave yet to be completed. Theseinclude:

~~. Obtaining a congressionalappropriation of more than$700,000 enabling the Feder­?tion to obtain the necessarymdependent specialists to

guide them in planning theuse of their resources.

Having the federal trusteecall a moratorium on theallocation of water within theNorthern Great Plains for allfederal agencies until allIndian rights are quantifiedand adjudicated.

~n.d finally, obtaining suf­fICIent capital to initiateIndian controlled develop­ment projects for thosetribes who do choose todevelop their valuableresources.

Ironically, just at the point intime when national and world­wide interests are centered on theremaining water and mineralresources of the Northern GreatPlains tribes, the Congress, othergovernmental agencies, andprivate philanthropic groupsclaim financial inability toprovide the Northern GreatPlains Indians with the moniesthey need for evaluating, plan­ning and protecting theirresources, resources tha tarecritical not only to Indian society,but to the larger society as well.

STANLEYK. HATHAWAY:Secretary of Interior

(addressing theNational Congress ofA meT/can indlllns,June 25, 1975)

The issue of energy development inthe West is one which is squarelybefore me - before the Congress andthe Nation - and before the Indiancommunity.. It is among my concernsthat areas proposed for increasedproduction of coal lie within, or in­termingle with Indian lands. I canreadily unders tand your feelings ofapprehension about the prospects oflarge scale energy developments

To the extent that development isunder our control, we will all have towork closely together to be sureenergy projects are developed withlong-range social, cultural and en­vironmental impacts in proper per­spective. We will attempt to keep thedecision making process as open aspossible, to aid in the flow of in­formation so that all options areavailable and understood by theconcerned entities

But I see here an opportllnity - anopportunity for jobs and a more stableeconomic base for many Indiancommunities, without the loss of theunique Indian heritage which is sovaluable to us aiL I see also an op­portunity for the people in these placesto playa positive role in helping theNation meet its energy objectives

It will be the test of the self­determination policy and of our abilityto carry out our trust responsibilities ifenergy sources on Indian land can bedeveloped meeting these multipleobjectives - the people objectives aswell as the energy and economic goals

On July 25, 1975, PresidentFord accepted SecretaryHathaway's resignation after sixweeks of service. Hospitalizedand under psychiatric treatment,his supporters blamed his critics.Meanwhile, the Indians on theGreat Plains are waiting for theappointment of still anothertrustee.

NORTHERN CHEYENNEKIT FOX WARRIOR:

(peacefully in 1883)

Nothing lives longExcept the rocks

35

The EpilogueTURNING WHITE MEN INTO INDIANS

WALLACE D. McRAE:Montana Rancher

(testifying before EPAofficials in 1973)

Both of my grandfathers were earlysettlers, coming to Montana beforethe turn of the century, shortly afterthe Battle of the Little Big Horn whereCuster met his demise while at­tempting to rid the West of the RedMenace Custer was an implement ofthe policy of the United StatesGovernment that dictated that theIndian, his buffalo, and his way of lifewas an impediment to progress. TheIndian, being an obstacle to economicdevelopment, had to be eliminated orovercome.

After nearly 100 years of honestendeavor, I have begun to discoverthat my family's effort does notamount to much I have become, forall practicab Ie purposes, an Indian ..For like the Indian, I am standing inthe way of progress because I like andwork above part of the world's largestknown reserves of fossil fuel, but resistthe rapidity with which my part of thecountry is becoming industrializedann degraded, in an attempt to satisfythis Nation's apparently unsatiableappetite for energy.

In the language of my neighbors, theCheyenne Indians, the name of whiteman is the same as the name for spider- "Veho" As I see the webs ofhigh-voltage lines; the webs ofrailroads and strip mines; and thepoisons we exude from our activities;the rivers sucked dry of their life­giving juices; I am reminded of thewisdom of the Indian exhibited by hisprophetic name for us. Truly, weexhibit all the characterisitcs of aVeho or a spider.

The drama is unfinished. Theplot is too long and too complex.Like a theatre in-the-round thereis action everywhere and there isconfusion. There are so manyactors on the stage that it is im­possible to include all of theirlines in the script and so thedirectors (Congress) and theproducer (the Executive branch)are arguing. Ironically, some of

36

the members of the whiteaudience have gone up on thestage and are acting like Indians.Very few of the Indians are actinglike white men.

It is just past Labor Day and noone has yet been selected to fillthe part of the Secretary of In­terior. Whom this man will be andhow he and the other supportingmembers of the Department ofInterior cast decide to play theirroles in the next few months andyears will be critical to the out­come of this drama. Few closeobservers believe that there willever be a m an selected to theInterior cabinet post who will becourageous enough to act like areal trustee to the Indians. But itmay yet happen for there havebeen some very remarkablechanges on the American stageduring the past 200 years.

The Northern Great PlainsIndian people who put togetherthe new Declaration of IndianIndependence face even greaterodds than the original signers ofthe Declaration of Independence,

who, as Benjamin Rush therecalled, recognized that th,.-·uaall signed the Declaration I, .11noose around our necks". Berjamin Franklin replied, half ihumor, half in deadly earneS1"Yes, we must all hang togetheror we shall all hang separately'

The original signers and thcolonists who supported thDeclaration of Independencwere striking out agaimeconomic tyranny imposed bygovernment an ocean away, anthe revolutionary war they fougrwas against an army which had tbe transported across that ocear

By comparison, the Indiatribes of the Northern Gre;Plains are completely surroundEand out-numbered 1,000 toTherefore, for all practicpurposes they can only fight tlIndian version of tlrevolutionary war in the courand in the halls of legislative aradministrative advocacy VI

then the Indians are severehandicapped by the lack

1-

~-1

adequate legal resources or themonies required to hire theseresources. So, with few ex­ceptions, they remain dependenton the Secretary of the Interior ­their trustee and their frequentenemy.

If the odds against the Indiansigners of the Declaration aregreater then they were againstthe colonists, the economictyranny behind the Indian'sDeclaration is even moredisproportionate. For instance,non-Indians, like Montana ran­cher John Redding, whose familybought land on the ceded portionof the Crow Reservation and wasforced to give up this land whenthe Crows decided to mine, havefared far better than the Indians.

Certainly it is no less painful fora white family to give up landwhich has been their home forseveral generations than it is foran Indian tribe, but the Indianshave never been given the kind ofcompensation which permittedthem to relocate and start a newlife on another land base in bettereconomic condition than theywere to begin with. This is not truefor the non-Indian ranchers ofMontana who have now been paidmillions of dollars for theirranches or were handsomelyreimbursed by the coal com­panies for damages caused by testdrilling on their lands.

Indian oil contracts may be aneven more telling illustration ofthe kind of economic tyrannystrangling Indians and which theNorthern Great Plains people aredetermined to fight. The Navajoreceive a 12.5':tto 16.5% royalty onthe crude oil pumped from theirland. Arab countries receive 50%to 56.a of the companies' oilrevenues. Although the costs ofproduction are different, it isclear that payments to AmericanIndians by American companiesare substantially inferior to thosemade by the same companies toforeign countries. And whilePresident Nixon was bemoaning

America's energy cnSl~ shortlybefore his resignation, U.S. coalproducers were shopping aroundfor customers outside America tobuy the coal they planned to mineon Indian lands and pay minimalroyalties on.

Sadly, in spite of thesedisparities, getting Indian supportfor the Declaration of IndianIndependence and for economi­cally rewarding agreements likethe re-negotia ted Crowl West­moreland lease is difficult, notonly among members of thedominant society, but also amongIndians.

In some tribes, particularlyamong older Indian members,they still fear that if their tribesshow progress of any kind, thefederal government will starttermination proceedings againstthem. The same kind of hesitancyalso applies to accepting HEW orOEO (now Community ServicesAdministration) grants for fearthat monies received from thesesources will later be chargedagainst them, if their tribe shouldbe awarded a money judgment ina claims case against the U.S.

Other Indian people arefrightened because they havebeen dependent on the federalgovernment for as long as theearly colonists depended on theinstitution of the BritishMonarchy. In both instances ­with the British Crown and nowwith the Department of Interior ­the institutions became and havebecome so deified and entrenchedafter hundreds of years of powerthat most of the colonists and nowthe Indians simply could not /cannot imagine how life wouldproceed without such guidingforces. Nonetheless, the colonistsrevolted, and so now too, it ap­pears, have the Indians.

Regardless of the outcome ofthis drama, if America is toovercome its current economicand energy crisis the members ofits dominant society must beprepared to change their life-roles

once again. There are no morefrontiers on the world stage ontowhich they can expand. The timeis past when growth means

. progress and bigger meansbetter. Fundamental changesmust now be made in theAmerican way of life - changesin attitudes, changes in life styles,and changes in governmentalpolicies.

In a rapidly collapsingtimespan, it is becoming moreapparent each day that the In­dian's reverence for MotherEarth is an attitude that must beadopted by the dominant cultureif either white men or Indian menare to survive. Instead ofdestroying Indian cultureAmericans must now consider thepossibility of adopting Indianrespect for the fragility of theearth. Even now as the process ofcolonization continues, it has allbut exhausted the wealth of thenative Indian population.

As a result the dominant societyhas begun to turn upon itself andto devour the land, the resources,and the individual freedoms it sorecently acquired. On the Nor­thern Great Plains the process iswell under way. The new cycle ofconquest has started to render theNorthern Great Plains farmingand ranching population impotentas their institutions and customsare destroyed - it is on theNorthern Great Plains wherecowboys are becoming Indians.

When the curtain opens on ActIV of this drama, instead of a goldrush in the Black Hills of theDakotas, it will likely be the coaland water rush on the NorthernGreat Plains, and instead of theold cowboys vs. Indians scenario,another one will have replaced it- one where the cowboys andIndians are both clingingtenuously to their old ways of life.lt remains to be seen whethereither one or both will survivetheir last stand together.

37

---_._----._---

~ The Role of the Native Americ'an Rights Fund "

NARF opened its national of­fices in Boulder, Colorado, justabout the time the alarm withregard to coal leases began on theNorthern Cheyenne Reservation.It's work on behalf of the Nor­thern Cheyenne in drafting anatural resources code for thetribe was a prelude to the majorefforts that followed on the CrowReservation.

NARF's role at Crow has beennot without trauma. The stakes inthis drama are too high and thepressures on individual men ­Indian and non-Indian, lawyerand non-lawyer - too great for itto be any other way. Corporateprofits, cultures and life styles arethreatened. Morever, at Crow thefirst steps in the process which isvital to continued Indian tribalexistence, but threatening to thedominant society, have beentaken. At Crow a move towardsde-colonization has been made.

The Crows have begun de­colonization by benefiting fromtheir rights to the mineralresources benea th their cededland, and this has given them adegree of economic independencewhich will enable them to havethe financial resources and thetime necessary to make an in­formed decision about what theywant to do with regard to the coalwhich lies beneath their reser­vation.

This is not to say that the in­come from the Westmorelandlease has made them immunefrom pressures or free from othertreacherous aspects ofcolonization. In August, Shell OilCompany, in an attempt to per­suade individual tribal membersto accept new conditions for apermit lease signed in 1971, senteach Crow tribal member a letterwhich promised an Augustpayment of $200-per-person if thetribe would come to terms im­mediately. Robert Howe, theChairman of the Crow Mineral

38

Committee, called the letter "aclassic example of people tryingto exploit the ignorance of ourpeople and their economic con­dition". The $200 bonus wastreacherous because it came atatime when the Crows could haveused the extra cash to buycostumes and provisions for theannual Crow Fair which beganAugust 17.

The Crow Tribal Councilrejected the Shell offer, so Shellset up a trailer at the Crow Fair ina new attempt at "com­munication". A sign outside theShell trailer promised: "FreeMovie and Gift". Inside, Shellrepresentatives handed out keychains and pen lights aftershowing a 1S-minute film on thevirtues of coal development. Thefilm's narrator, noting that theCrow had once relied on thebuffalo to provide for theireconomic well-being declared"Earth Mother is still providingfor her children" by giving theCrow "the new buffalo - a newkind of nourishment - coal".

That may well be the case, butthe Crows must be allowed tomake the decision to partake ofthat nourishment as carefully andfreely of coercion as possible,because a decision to do so maywell be more threatening to theirsurvival than the colonization ofthe west and the destruction of thebuffalo.

A Kind of

Legal Independence

During this drama NARFprovided over 800 attorney man­hours of free legal assistance tothe Crows at a time when the tribe

was unsure if it wanted to proceenwith any coal developmentwhatsoever. The Crows could notafford to pay their private counselfor that amount of legal adviceand advocacy, and, because thetribe had already had a taste ofthe quality of advice the BIA astrustee could provide, it was morethan reluctant to depend on thegovernment for assistance.

In addition, NARF advancedmonies which enabled the tribe toretain independent coal experts toevaluate the leases and permitswhich the tribe had signed withthe guidance and approval of theBIA. In effect, NARF providedthe Crows with a kind of legalindependence - the kind whichmade the final Crow/West­moreland lease possible.

The Crows are now able to useprivate legal counsel entirely towork with tribal leaders, the CrowMinerals Committee and theTribal Council, with regard tofurther coal development both onand off the reservation. Becauseof this NARF is now con­centrating its work on behalf ofthe Crows on reservation land­ownership problems wherebynon-Indians have obtained landson the reservation totalling morethan 1 million acres, many ofwhich are in excess of themaximum acreage allowancesunder the Crow Allotment Act.NARF is also assisting individualCrow allottees who have beenkept in economic bondage byleasing practices which have alsocircumvented the maximumlease terms allowed by law.Finally, NARF attorneys areworking on several education­related matters on the reser­vation.

The legal roles played by NARFon the Northern Great Plainshave been complex and haverequired a tremendous com­mitment of manpower. At Nor­thern Cheyenne NARF began by

acting .as evaluators of coal leasesand as drafters of a tribal naturalresources code. At Crow NARFstarted by evaluating leases andended up, not only evaluating, butre-negotiating, litigating,monitoring state and federallegislation, and filing ad­ministrative appeals.

At the same time NARFrecognized that the odds facingthe Northern Great Plains tribeswere so great that even a largeamount of legal advocacy, wasonly one aspect of what wasneeded. NARF saw that if theIndians were to succeed they weregoing to have to stand together asa single political entity. As aresult NARF has worked hard toassist with the development of theNative American NaturalResources Development Feder­ation. This effort has also not beeneasy.

The five-state Northern GreatPlains area encompasses all orparts of 23 Indian reservationsvhich provide a resource and

cultural base for over 80,000Native American people. Amongthese people there is a greatamount of institutional com­plexity - each reservation has itsown political structure and legalcodes. And there is a greatdiversity in the Indian's approachto economic and social problems,however common these may be.

Despite this diversity, and someold and strong adversities amongthe member tribes, theFederation has stayed togetherfor over a year and a half. NARFis now preparing formal in­corporation papers and it is likelythat within the next six monthsNANDRF will have establishedan independent office to coor­dina te all the resource in­ventories, litigation efforts, anddevelopment programs of the 26member tribes.

As a result of the decision madeby the Northern Cheyenne andCrow people in this drama, thosetribes who do have coal reserves

have almost unlimited options.They can seek to have all orportions of existing permits andleases legally set aside and theneither elect to prevent large scalemining from taking place now orin the future or invite operatorsand those presently on thereservations to work with them inextracting their reserves.

Those who decide to canrenegotiate new royalties onexisting permits and leases on apercentage of the selling price,and can make certain that ad­vance royalties are tied intoproduction schedules. They canwithhold approval of conversionfacilities which coal companiesmight be using with regard to coalfrom their leases and which arelocated upon or near the reser­vations.

They can also consider jointventuring or joint ownership ofmining operations on existingleases. The Crow Tribe wasunable to obtain approval of jointventuring WestmorelandResources, primarily becauseWestmoreland had large pre­existing financial commitmentsto mining on the ceded land whichgave the company the powerfulargument that the Crow Tribeought not be allowed to jointventure after WestmorelandResources had put up such a largeportion of the venture capital.

This kind of argument cannot bemade by other companies nowholding existing permits andleases on any of the NorthernGreat Plains reservationsbecause they have not yet madethe kind of capital investmentsmade by Westmoreland. Forthese tribes to attain a significantshare of the profits, they wouldhave to make a capital con­tribution to the mining operation.

This capital contribution couldbe in the form of outright cashcontribution or in the alternativeit could be achieved by the tribe'sgiving up a portion of theirroyalties as the owner of the coal

or by sharing any tax savingswhich might result from partialIndian ownership.

Finally, like L'1e Crows, any oithe six tribes with significant coalreserves could obtain land pur­chase option agreements withrespect to the portions of theirlease land which is no longerrequired for mining.

Regardless of their options, forany of the 23 tribes to acceptfederal policy direction in thefuture with regard to theirresources, coal, other minerals orwater, the federal trustee willhave to demonstrate that he canguarantee the Indians that theywill be able to exercise maximumdiscretion over the manner inwhich development on theirreservations takes place.

Indian tribes are sovereignentities and this, together with thefact that Indian land, while held intrust, is a privately-ownedresource, can lead Indians towithhold their strategic resourcesfrom development all together.Therefore, America must acceptthis ultimate possibility, whilestill seeking to create a com­patible involvement for Indians topool their resources with those ofthe rest of the nation.

ANONYMOUS SIOUX POET:

(prophetically in1776)

YOU SHALL LIVE

A thunder-being nation I am, I havesaidA thunder-being nation I am, I havesaidYou shall liveYou shall liveYou shall live

39

-----,--------------_.__ __.._ _-_._-- ----.. -_.

Some Background Notes on

THE CAST OF o-IARACTERS

THE WINNEBAGO

From time immemorial the Win­nebago people were woodland Indians.They greeted the first P,'enchmanNicolet in 1634 near what is now calledGreen Bay,. WiS'consin. They wererecruited as allies of the French, thenGreat Britain and finally theAmericans, who only wanted theirlands

Under coercive legal and politicalpower they signed a treaty in 1825ceding all of their territorial claims inWisconsin to the US Government Inretum they were given a small reser­vation above the upper Iowa RiverThere many of them contracted small­pox and died In 1846, U.S Cavalrysoldiers were sent to drive them to areservation in Minnesota Two yearslater the soldiers came once more anddrove them to another location

Then, twice more in 1853 and 1856,they were forced to move again" At thetime ofthe move of 1856, they signed anew treaty with the U.S Governmentwhich gave them a re.suvation at BlueEarth, Minnesota •'in perpetuity"They made a difficult adjustment andtumed from woodland people intoagricultural people and were consideredto be in a "Flourishing condition" bythe Commissioner of Indian Affairs in1860

Two years later their neighbors, theSantee Sioux of Minnesota, werestarving and they went on the warpathbecause of unmet promises by thefederal government, The white Min­newta neighborJ of the Winnebagos

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suddenly found it impossible todiS'tinguish between the Winnebago andthe Santee Sioux and demanded that allIndians be r'emoved from the limits ofthe State

Under /Jolitical pr'essure, Congresstore up its treaty with tho Winnebagoand ordered them to a place where therewas wpposedly no danger of intrwionfrom whites The remaining. Win­nebago, who by then numbered a mere2, 000, were taken on steamboats downSt Peter:s River, then down theMississippi to the Missouri, then up theMissouri to a new reservation calledCrow Creek The new reservation was2,363 mileS' by river from their oldMinnesota home, but only about 300miles by land The transfer was like amodem day bureaucratic snarl in Indianaffairs, Men, women and children werejammed like animals on the boats andwere tran,sported more than 2, 000 mileswhen they might just as well havereached their destination withouthardship in covered wagons on theoverland joumey of only about 300miles As a not-so-final painful twist,the government required the Win­nebago to pay the cost of this strangeremoval from treaty funds that werealready long overdue to them

Upon their arrival the Winnebagowere dumped from the boats onto adesolate bank by the river There wereno houses to shelter them from theburning summer heat, They had beenpromised farm implements, but nonecame They had been promised food,but none came for months and thenmuch of it was rotten

The agents ofthe early Indian bureauand the suppliers with whom theycontracted were having a field day withfunds and foods intended for theWinnebago" SoldierJ patrolled the areato keep the starving and sick Winnebagofrom leaving their new reservation tohunt or to attempt to get food fromother tribes. Desper'ate, some escapedand fled to their old friends, the OmahaTribe, then located in Nebraska, wherethey were welcomed and protected..,' ~ , - f.

all of their memberJ escaped thoL,many were shot down while attemptingto leave and "squaws" were raped bydrunken trooper:s" However, once theysaw the bulk of tho Winnebago at theOmaha Reservation, the governmentdecided to take halfof the Omaha's landand to give it to the Winnebago,

In 1970 the US government decidedto condemn almost half of the. Win­nebago Reservation, including the bestriver-front lands of the. Winnebagoalong the Missouri Riv(; for arecreation lake complex.

The case of the Winnebago isone of peculiar hardship ... It is tobe feared that it will be many yearsbefore their confidence in the goodfaith of our Government, in itsprofessed desire to ameliorate andimprove their condition, will berestored,

- Report of the Commissionerof Indian Affairs, 1863

Today, only 877 memben 0)_._

Winnebago Tribe live on 01 near theirreservation which coven about 27,500acres, 61 %of them are without jobs

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THE OMAHA

As early as 1690, the Omaha peopleroamed back and forth from the north­eastern woods to what IS now Omaha,Nebraska They had skin tents to usewhen hunting in the woods and earthhomes to live in when they were far­ming on the plains In 1802 the tribewas decimated by ,small pox and the fewremaining Omaha became friendly withthe few r'emaining Winnebago, as thelatter/led into the upper plains territory,The culture and languages of theOmaha and Winnebago were similar, aswere their experiences with white men,

In 1854 the Omaha were induced tosign a scandalous treaty under whichthey sold all their land, some 93 millionacres, to the US and were left with lessthan 80,000 acres. It was only 12 yearslater that the government took thenorthern halfofthe reservation for theirfriends, the Winnebago.

For the next ten years they clungde,sperately to their few remammglands, as they were buffeted by whitesettlers who wanted to see them, andthe Winnebago, removed to "IndianTerritory" in Oklahoma The Omahawere finally' 'saved' , by a white womanenthnologiJt who persuaded Congress togrant the Omaha's lands in severalty,Today about 1,400 people live on thesmall (39,000 acres) Omaha Reser­vation,. 63 ',{, 0/ the labor force isunemployed

THE SIOUX

Sometime before 1640 Frenchmissionaries' and traden heard about astrong people who dwelt in greatnessand lived many streams far to the westbeyond the large inland seas, the GreatLakes In translation between Indianlanguages and the French language, thename was distorted from Nadouessioux,to Scioux and then finally to Sioux

It was not until 20 year:s later thatany Europeans met the InYians to whomthese names applied They were Indiansfro.m the four tribes comprising theSantee Sioux In their boraelatid, whiG);was to become the state 0/ Minnesota,they lived near the headwaters 0/ thegreatest 0/ all the river's on theA merican continent, the Mississippi,and depended on the natural bounties ofthe forests, lakes and marshes for theirsurvival

When the first exploring tradersreached the Santee Sioux in 1660, theIndians were eager to develop trade withthem because other hostile tribes to thenortheast had for some years beenreceiving French goods, particularlyweapons, which gave them a decidedadvantage over the Santee,

The Santee were still in their historicMinnesota homelands when theAmerican period began for them withthe Upper MisfOuri Expedition in 1805,which was sent to oust the Britishtraders operating on u.s. soil. TheExpedition opened the road to min forthe Santee

In 1851, ajier several decades 0/ ilI­treatment from both westward-movingsettlers and the new Americangovernment, the Wahpeton andSis,seton bands 0/ the Santee Siouxpeople ceded to the Us. their lands inl'Outhem and western Minnesota, aswell as some in Iowa and Dakota. Theyredeived $1,665,000 in cash and an­nuities/or this gesture" In August 0/ thesame year, the two remaining bands ojthe Santee Sioux signed a waiver to theirterritorial claims, which embraced most0/ the southeastern quarter of Min­ne,sota, For this they rueived$1,410,000 in cash and annuities overa 50-year period

In all the Santee ceded about24,000,000 acres 0/ rich timber andagriculture lands. Left for their use weretwo relatively small reservations, eachabout 20 miles wide and 70 miles long,through which flowed the upperMinnesota River" 0/ course there werethe usual unforeseen loopholes in the1851 treaties The bands were trickedinto signing a trader's paper which hadnever been explained to them and thiJpaper gave to traders and half-breeds

l'Ome $400,000 of the Indians' aI

nuitiesWithin afewyears after the signing',

the Treaties 0/ 1851 the two resevatiOM were completely surrounded Lwhite farmen who were demanding th,the Santee lands be drastically reduC'e<Santee leaders were takenWashington andpersuaded to relinquisabout 1,000,000 0/ their remaini"acres for which the Senate decidedto Pt,them $.30 an acre, When the momwasfinallyappropriated, they got half,it, the other half once again went i

settle the claims 0/ traders, most ,which were fraudulent,

During the winter of 1862 the Santinearly starved. In desperate conditicthey waited for June when they we;supposed to receive food and cash 01

nuities. Nothing came in .June; nothi"came in .July, nothing came in AugusThe delay was due to the fact that tltreasury people in. Washington wedebating whether to ifJue the Sant,Sioux paper money or coins.

In starving de,speration about 5,OCSantee from several bands descended cthe upper Minnesota agency, For onceUs. l'Oldier-commander kept his he,and restrained his troops, and the Sant,were given the food which theydesperately needed. Unfortunately,was not enough to keep them full, aI

finally on August 17, 1862, sonSantee, led by Little Crow, swept ovsettlements and farms - 300 whlsettlers and 100 soldiers were slain

Pursued by cavalry, these Santee fitwestward, finding refuge among tlDakota o/the Great Plains The othewent to Canada, Chief Little Crow at,39 other leaders were either killed (captured and condemned to death TIremaining Santee, who numbered onseveral thousand, were held in COl

centration camps Their reservation w,taken from them and opened to whl,settlement

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Finally in 1863, Congress authorizedPresident Lincoln to set apart anotherreservation for these Santee Undermilitary guard they were taken to a new"homeland" selected for them in theDakota Territory.

The Teton Sioux

During the last part of the 1600'sother groups of Sioux people known asthe Teton Sioux, who were also living inthe Northwest, were driven away byFrenchmen and by the powerfulChippewa

These bands slowly moved from thewestern extremities of Lake Superiordown, out, and across the UpperMissouri It was a 50~year trip, duringwhich they transformed themselvesfrom woods people to plains people andbegan not only to survive but to prosperin a totally different environment on theGreat Plains.

The group eventually evolved intoseven bands and today these TetonSioux are remembered as the colorfulmedia Indians of western history. Theyare also remembered for their courage,bravery, and beauty,. and for thecomplexity and drama in their social andreligious ceremonies .. Among Indians,they are remembered for theircohesiveness and unity and for theirconftdence and ability to overcome allobstacles, all adversities, and allenemres

By 1750 the Teton Sioux controlledall of the country between the MissouriRiver and the Black Hills, and betweenthe Little Missouri and the North PlatteRivers Despite the great distances, theygot together as often as possible to .settletheir problems, to feast and celebrate

42

with ceremonies and games, and toperform their sacred Sun Dance.

They continued to move about theplains as they experienced shortages orhunger in one place, but they alwaysfound abundance in another. Only oneother group of Indians, the Apache,survived the onslaught of the whiteforces as long as they did.

Over the better part of lOOyears theBlack Hills became a "holy land" tothe Teton Sioux. Because of thir theymade certain that the hills were in theregion which became a part of the greatre.5e rvation assigned for their exclusiveoccupation under the Treaty of 1868But when gold was discovered a fewyears later, and the miners and settlerscame in hordes, .swarming over theBlack Hills and surrounding theterritory, the US conveniently forgotabout the terms of the treaty.

The Sioux didn't forget. Nor did theirold enemy, the Cheyenne - whom theyhad once driven out of their country ­and who came back to fight beside themagainst the invader:s. The Black Hillsstill bear the stains of these battles, andthe names ofSitting Bull, Crazy Horse,Gall, Rain-in-the-Face, and AmericanHorse will always be a part of theA merican saga

On June 25, 1975, 100 years afierCuster was defeated, fresh stains wereadded to the Black Hills when the Courtof Claims, with one judge dissenting,held that the Sioux were not entitled toany interest payments· for the govern­ment's taking of the Black Hills. Theinterest payments involved in the caserepresented the difference betweenjudgments of $17, 000, 000 and$100, 000, 000 for the Sioux

The Teton Sioux fought their whitedestroyers with courage and deter­mination unsurpassed by any people inthe history of the world But the uforces· were so large that there was nohope ofprevailing For all their bravery,spirit, and belief in themselves, and forall their moral, mental and physicalstrength, the Teton Sioux were helplessin attempting to combat the criminalviolations of legal treaties. They werehelpless in the face of wanton disregardofhuman rights, the breaking of solemnpromises, and the starvation inflictedupon them by a corrupt political systemand a society that turned standards ofdecency and justice on and off to servethe greed and desire of the moment

In the end, like their Santee brothers,the Teton Sioux were .splintered andconfined to small portions of unwantedlands on the Great Plains. Since thattime they have developed separategovernments and tribal memberships,but the sense of the old Sioux Nationstill smolders within them whether theyare on the Cheyenne River Re.servation,at Lower Brule, or at Pine Ridge

The Sioux of the Cheyenne RiReservation

Under the Treaty of 1868 the SiouxNation as a whole agreed to a territoryencompassed by the western slopes ofthe Black Hills, the Niobrara River onthe south, the Missouri River on theeast, and the Cannonball River to thenorth A/ter gold was discovered in theBlack Hills, an 1889 Act of Congressestablished six reservations for theTeton Sioux, including 2,700, 000acres for the "Cheyenne River" Sioux

By other Acts of Congress in 1909and 1910, all unallocated and unsoldland on the Cheyenne River Reservationwas opened for homesteading to non­Indian.s As a result, 47 'J, of theremaining reservation land area oj1,400,000aeres is now owned by non­Indians A n additional 104, 044 acres ofthe best agricultural and residentiallands were flooded by the Bureau ofReclamation in order to create OaheReservoir in the last decade r- '1Ythere are 4,300 Sioux at (he" "neRiver, 27 %of them are without work

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The Sioux of the Lower BruleReservation

At the Lower Brule Reservation almall group of the Sioux Tribe took upresidence after beinglplintered duringthe last 0/ the plains wars. Today thereare 701 of them living on or near thereservation at Lower Brule, SouthDakota, 23 % 0/ their work force isunemployed The tribe still owns ap­proximately 75,000 acres 0/ theremaining 120,000 acre reluvation

The Sioux of the Pine RidgeReservation

The Oglala Sioux are one of thelargest bandl 0/ the Teton Sioux, Theirhistory is pain/ully distinguil'hed by thefact that in late December, 1890, troopsfrom the u.s. Cavalry intercepted agroup 0/ them under the leadership 0/Chief Big Foot on the Pine RidgeReservation at Wounded Knee CreekNow they are remembered as thedescendants 0/ the victims 0/ theWounded Knee Malsacre There areabout 7, .500 surviving Oglala Siouxliving at Pine Ridge today The tribecontroll about 372,009 acrel of the2, 778, 000 acre reservation, non­Indianl 0wn 1,270, 000 acres within theboundaries 0/ the reservation Theunemployment rate ofthe Sioux at PineRidge is 42%

The Sioux of the RosebudReservation

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe is anotherlarge band 0/ the Teton Sioux Theywere relegated to the Rosebud Reser­vation in 1890 after the Wounded KneeMauacre Today the tribal rolll include7,500 people, 26%0/the adults have nowork The relervation now comprisesmore than 978,000 acres, the tribeowns a little less than haifa/these acrel

The Sioux of the Fort TottenReservation

A band 0/ the Teton Sioux Indianswho are living near Fort Totten, NorthDakota, are called the Devill Lake SiouxTribe. Their history is similar to that ofall the other Teton Sioux Bandl Todaythere are about 2,000 people at FortTotten, the acreage o/the reservation is244,50 7, but only 473 acres are triballyowned Non-Indians control 192, 794acres, the rest is either allotted to In­dians or to govemment agenciel Theyearly tribal income is $3,400 59 %0/the people are unemployed

The Sioux of the Standing RockReservation

The Indian people at Standing Rockare also delcendants o/the Teton SiouxTheir tribal headquarters is at FortYates, North Dakota, and there areabout 4, 700 of them living near there,34 % of them are unemployed Theremaining reservation land base is about848, 000 acres, a little over 33% 0/ theland is tribally owned

The Sioux of the SanteeReservation

At first the largest band of the SanteeSioux Tribe were inclined to stand andfight /or their rights to remain in theirhomeland in Minnesota That in­clination caused the death 0/ most ojtheir warriors, who were killed at theNew VIm Massacre in 1862 In 1863 alarge group of the remaining tribalmembers, mostly old men, women andchildren, were moved from Minnesotato new land near what became the CrowCreek Reluvation in South DakotaThen in 1866 the surviving members 0/the band were once again moved to theirpresent reservation near Niobrara,Nebraska There are about 360 tribalmembers living on 5, 791 acres, ofwhich 3,599 are owned by the tribe,and 60% 0/ them are unemployed

The Sioux of the YanktonReservation

The Yankton Sioux Tribe IS anthe few Santee Sioux band5' W

reservation ltill encompasses the /0/ their second traditional home,These people never fought againstUS and generally lived in peaceother tribes

Still, due to disease and pov,about 1,400 remain on the 435acre reservation, whose headquaare at Wagoner, South Dakotatribe ownl only 5,560 acres,Indians own 400, 000 acres VIployment ajfects 66 %of the tribal i

force

The Sioux of the SissetonReservation

The Indian people now living onSiueton Reluvation, which straeNorth Dakota avd South Dakota,also descendants of the Santee SIWhen they were still living in j

nesota, on theirfirJt re.lervation, tleaders ruled that all whites onreservation must dress like Indians I

effort to prevent soldienfrom aSlauthe reservation in re lponse to outblof violence among other Indian bnearby Delpite this creative ellollurvive through costumery, the j

was ultimately forced to flee to Canand was not able to retum until 1when they signed another treatythe US Govemment at Enemy SLake

The current Sisseton Reservationeltablished by Congress in 1867,there are 2,500 Sisseton- WahpSantee Sioux people living on106, 000 acre reservation Onlyacres are tribally owned The theadquarters are at Sisseton, SDakota. Reports show 42 %of the tmembership il unemployed

The Sioux of the Crow CreekReservation

Under the Treaty of Fort Laramie in1868, all of the land held by the Siouxeai't oj the Missouri River was ceded tothe US government with the exceptionof the previously established CrowCreek, Yankton, and Sisseton Reier­vations, whose people were sti1/ huntingover a wide area Four years later whenthe buffalo herds were systematicallyilaughtered by white commercialhunters, the Indiani' who weredescendants of the Wicijela Band ofSantee Sioux were finally forced onceand for all to accept reservation life andrationed food Today a small portion ojthem, about 1,200, are still on the122,500 acre Crow Creek Reservation,near Fort Thompson, South Dakota.There they are continuing their struggleto preserve their tn'bal exirtence - 69%of them are unemployed.

The Sioux of the FlandreauReservation

In March 1869, a year after the FortLaramie Treaty, 25 Indian familiesliving at the original Santee Agency leftand took homesteadi at Flandreau in theDakota Territory Because oj their smallsize they were forced to adopt the lifestyle of the surrounding white settlersand today are among the most fullyintegrated Indian people There are 267people who count themielves membersof the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribeliving on 2,356 acres at Flandreau Acomparatively imall number oj them(9%) are without work

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THE MANDAN, ARIKARA

AND HIDATSA

Many decadei before the Siouxmigrated into the Dakotasfrom the eait,three sedentary tribei' had settled alongthe Miiiouri River, which now biiectrthe states of North and South DakotaOf these, the Mandan are believed tohave arrived first. They lived in vii/agesof half-buried earth lodger and slowlymigrated north along the Mirrouri. TheMandan were the most competent and,iucce.nful agriculturalists on theNorthern Great Plains They grew morecom than any other Upper Mii'wuritribe. Due to a strange lack of melanin,the Mandan were light of complexion,and many of the younger men andwomen in the tribe had ,iilvery gray hair.

Their arrival along the Missouri wasfollowed by that of the Arikara andHidati'a The Arikara, who were al50agriculturalists, occupied villages ojearth lodgei between the Grand and theCannonball Riven The Hidatsa peoplehad established an agricultural life nearpresent-day Devils Lake, but werepUihed west by the firrt groups of Siouxand therefore settled at the junction ofthe Heart and Minouri RiverT not farfrom the Arikara and Mandan

These tribes experienced little if anyconflict with the white explorers. Afierieveral decades of trading, they mayhave peneived the greed of the whitemen, but they were not prepared for theinsidiousnen of it In 1837,representatives of the American FurCompany left St Louis on the rteamboatSt Peters, Within a day of St Louis,imallpox wai discovered on board theihip Instead of turning back, the St.Peters, carrying its uncontrolledpestilence, went on The Indians,knowing the boat was filled with sup­pliei they needed, could not be kept

away from it Day alier day ai the St.Peters moved upstream the Indiansswarmed about the cargo and becamecontaminated

In all the villages of the Manda.Hidatsa and Arikara, from Fort Pieneto the mouth of the Yellowrtone, noimoke rose from the lodges. There wereno soundi, except the screams of thedying Many wanion, returning totheir vi1/ages after the St. Peters hadpassed by, killed themselves becausethey could not stand to see the fleshrotting on their dying wives andchildren

Thus that summer in 1837 more than15,000 Indian r were the first to pay theprice ofthe corpor'fJte greed of one oftheearliest American corporations. Somehistorians say 30 Mandans sU1'vived theepidemic, lOme say 37. No suchexactness shows in the recordr of theHidatsa or Arikar'fJ, but it is known thatall were nearly wiped out

The remnants of the tribes movedslowly together towards the LittleMii50uri River, near Fort Berthold,North Dakota In 1871 a reservation ofabout 1 million acres was established/orwhat was to become the Three Affiliate t

Tribes After their land was opened jLallotment in 1884 more than 57%ofthereservation passed into non-Indianownership

In 1948, the US Governmentcondemned a iubstantial portion of theremaining landi to create the GanisonDam and Garri50n Lake that flooded theIndian agency and the cemeteries oj theMandan, Hidatia and Arikara Theremaining memben wer'e moved onceagain to an area west of the lake whichwas named New Town, North DakotaToday there are about 2, 700 membenof the Three Affiliated Tribes living onthe remaining 980, 500 acre reser­vation, 40% oj them are unemployedNon-Indians own 563,000 acres oflandwithin the re iervation boundaries

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THE ROCKY BOY'S,

,R~SERVATION

c. As' the,l}a~tern '.C:~n.7~era,c~/~kl1dtans was shattered due to'''he ceconomwarfare waged; amont}P;1ihe "'b,fol/owing the intrOducii6v;;~~~<, re~,

'.' .. ,- ,.~":~.;;''.~;1'-:~.:t;,,,_ ;:;;,."".;~~

guns and tools,wi¥ bi,i!!lltfZ~~/jJMUand Cree jkdon botkl~f!~!~fiJl!~e~tnow the Canadian border..1'!I'lien'Jthetrails led from the '9fe:at:;;ak~{'aJfi

;. ,_. C}~-,'~"'-~"" ·':r-;~'·';.'

, west. as nOrlhern:1M{)~tan,!:,\c1ar.'Saskatchewan. One i~'-Siich}t~ba~d'; (Chippewa led by ChiejRdfk}po)//ro;Minnesota moved ,'Into' '.>'1zoithe1M ontanaand nearby'Canada ] in tllatter part of the i 9th Cent';;y.

During this same period, a largg~oup of Cree Indians, led by Chi,uttle Be~r, were a!s'o driven /0 the samarea.. Netther group had a land base anboth bands were forced to squat o.n th,fringes of Montana' settlements anreservations. They were officially, buunsuccessfully, deported to Canada i;1896 by Congress.

Fiti"ally in 1916, through th~ efforts (Ch,iefs Rocky Boy and Uttle Bear ansome friendly white citizens; ;/107,00acr'e reservation, named. Rocky Bo.ywas established on part of the Fort Peemilitary reserve by Executive Order' anthe two groups of Indians, who were bthen merged, were aI/owed to r'etunTher'e they have remained until toda)Their population is about 1,200; 60 %(

the labor' force is idle.

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THE TURTLE MOUNTAIN

CHIPPEWA

The Chippewa,:sometimes calledOjibway, wer'e once one of the largestand most powerful tribes in NorthAmerica. They were confederated withthe· Ottawa and Pottawatomi in theThree Fires _Confederacy, but weredriven west by the Iroquois (who wereunder pressure themselves fr9m ex­plorers) to the area of the Great Lakes.Shortly thereafter tbe three tribes in theConfede-rac.y disbanded. Then it was notlo~gulft.iIt~~ Chippewa became friendlyWIt!? the, french trappers in the area andobtaineifFrench weapons.

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It was the Chippewa who later usedthese weapons to drive som~, of the

, Sioux tribes west to the plains. Near theGreat Lakes, the Chippewa;becamewoodland Indians who lived primarily~y hunting game, fishing, gatheringwild rice, living in wigwam~ andtraveling by canoe. They believed that apower dwelt in all objects, animate andinanimate. These powers, or monitors,were wakeful in summer, but dormantin cold weather,

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For 100 ,years they survived byremaining north of the traffic movingout on the American f1'Ontier. Then, atthe end ofthe century, as the white menbegan to recognize the value of therefuge the Chippewa had taken from theSioux, they moved in on the Chippewaand imposed the Treaty of 1862, whichwasn't ratified by Congress until 1940.In the treaty the Chippewa exchangedtheir' claim to 9 mil/ion acr'es of woodsand lakes for $1 million and a reser­vation of 72,000 acres on the barrenand 'remote border' between NorthDakota and Canada, near' TurtleMountain

Today the annual income of theTribe, whose headquarters are inBelcourt, North Dakota, is $10,000,There are about 7,300 members livingon the 70,000 acre reservation, halfofwhich is' al/otted Of the total workforce42% are unemployed. .

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~,;!."",,,~~~~t'/,;;;'1HI: CROW

,. TheC;'C~W;~ruied to be a part of theHidats~'Tribe::The shared tradition byboth group/is that they parted on the

" Upper;Miss~ft,r£,~;ver,because of some"political. ri1l4I,ry~{U!hichocc~ried in the)8ih:gfntu,rj)'7fience~ the~people who

;',b~c~n;~:Sr.~~t~a~ to (turn fro,m being.....'..a.. ~rte.,.ul...tu.".'O.l.,sts.. I..r.; .. lnt.o.. '.' 'p'.'Ia...ins.. Ind.ia..ns........ "'~J:.. ,.·.,:, ...;' ...~J ..."l,;'it'l'·:' .,'.' '. . ..

i,t!?!eY)rno~e.~;/~cross(the'land withoutii;orse~;~iq:~;~Ji~~dnthe'shadow of theiR?c~J;~You.~~a.;'/s"'and there they were,;,'su'TPuTJd~dj:.py.ienemy tribes like the•,B,,!~k!e,et':'J~~~J1:rapaho,the Cheyenne,,)an(!.t#~'iS.~gl~q~ec,Foralmost a century

f:aft.e!j,!,e~r,a.rri!la,1no,yearpissed withoutwarfare.' ', The.i(;~w 'were physically strong,

i highly., intelligent and' extremelysuperstitiour. From the beginning oftheearliest contact, they sought to avoidwhite men, despising them and theirway of life. The Crow called their landAbsarokafrom the word by which theywere known to other Indians - Ab­sarokee or "children ofthe large beakedbird". '

Unfbk to remain totally immune.t:~m thf! white men, the Crow ,finallyJorned the. United States soldiers infighting other Indian tribes with whom

L t~e ;Cro.,wwere at war. In the tr'ea~yszgnediltFort Laramie, Wyoming, in1851, the Crow were confined to theirpresent reservation ofabout 1.5 millionacres near what has now become theCuster 13attlefield National MonumentToday there are 4,200 Crow on or nearthe 1,550,000 acre r'eservation Thetribe owns 344,30~ acres of this, theremainder is a(lotted The unem­ployment rate of the C1'OWS is 27%.

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THE BLACKFEET

THE ASSINIBOINE,

GROS VENTRE

ANDSOME TETON SIOUX

The Assiniboine started out as woodspeople in the izke of the Woods andLake. Winnipeg ar'eas of Canada. Likeothers they came under press'ure /r'omtheear/iest French and British explorersand were forced to move further intoCanada and Montana. There theyevolved into the most ~xpert, of thebuffalo hunters, and fought many warswith the other plains tribes.

For some unknown reason theymaintained friendly relationships withwhites even afteT' the explorer:s and

settlets spread for the second' time intotheir home territory. This friendship

The Blackfeet are descendants of a, with the whites was the downfall of theconfederacy of Indians known as the A.ssiniboine for it was far mOTePiegan, the Blood, and the Siksikd. treacherous than the adversary,Until the late 1800's the Blackfeet relationships they carried on with theroamed most of the turitory between other' Great Plains tribes. Theirthe North Saskatchewan River in friendship with whites bT'Ought themCanada to the southern headstreams of whis~ey, disease and injustice.

the.Missouri River in Montana. The In 1836 traders brought smallpox to','.:,~".r,)i.,,;;,..E,.:.. S,...H.•.".,.OSHONE. first treaty they signed with the white their area, which killed 4, 000 ; ':'.c ~.. ; 'AND<./met} set aside a vast area.·.!orthe' Tribe. h 'ld " ' ; .:,

A < I 'la' . . Assiniboine men, women and c I ren. , .....s,usua, a few years ter a maJor;,-.'h . . bId "',THE,ARAPAHO". . , . • . .L, e remaIning mem ers str'ugg e on /; . i~ ,

.'.portlonofthelandwa,sdeslgnated,by~he for almost' 40 more ye~rs, but they 0"" .~; • ~~;'.:.- •• ~. I

"U.S. government as common hunting d th' t th The is onei,Tnbe onglnally lIVed':1 .' , • - 'never recovere elr s reng . . ' "'~'-"'f,1;j,.!I'/,.' &~";" h' '.:~ground~ to be shared ,bY,Jpe :Blackfeet ";.' 1 ' ,I' h . . In the,:Jl.!~a~,;;;.!!,!~,!"\ area ~etween.t e~.~ with -the Elathead Ipdians,_,the:, Gros . ~ .18?3, some OJ t e survIVIng . Rocky ltf.ountf1If.1S°and the Sle"a ~e1Jad4.~

", Ventre . Indians, .flnd the ,A,!siniboine ; AssInlbome wer~ .mo~ed to the Fort ,'range.;:.:.There '1';' we.re '.. ja1J'l,ers.'t.. ~I~ians.:,·:;~:..:1 / '. :';:, t,:~~~::~, . ,;r~, Belknap ,~eservat!on_' near !I!ar/en:~ - 'Fo//owi~g4'~;- ,i(;ugh~abo'uti6QQ~'~·.:;:~~qn;~i888:;:the .re~~i~inilp};ckie~t,\,}:-Mont~na, and were fa.rc:/ .~~ I;e. WI~ :{ they m'()~tatbJh~~lainij"us{la:rj'olt,;~';;h(/~jike"'dnanyot6~;Plaiizs~';~'iib~s"haJ?: ~ some ~f the most hate, OJ t elr a - ·<Rocki ' ~>i:h'!i;;iid: ~h~ii~:iuj;j;,~. -'?

;t~~iA:d~?j#~tedbyjh~jfiieafi~fl#fite.'}~;j,pcrsa~~t~··theGro,s V~~tre!'1Uho s/r:p~ke,;' )be'c}J"~, :!f~t~[i~t1,~~"¥~;'.to:!f~'J:i#e~:~aJ~';"'f:11ZeiJ/,were ,gathered onto )their:presen~;"<oflother .~~guage, ha~tng come.. om,. . Tke.r'lrsOnCo'ftf!erc4.;tlJh!te~,,!en",n~'~,re}e1vatlon. Todaj'i6' 200 ;Blackfeet.': the .Red. RIver po.unlry, at. the eastern the' eaf,1,)i'i!.?9.0 's.:~~Th,~y Jike(f·to.tr44~'j~;re#4.~i~on' or nearth~i;950,'OQQ:acre'f:t,edgeo! the plainS. ,Untll.;the:. .1?th :with:¥€?fj{f1U11's~:;emai?ed J:ien'dl/3fi

: :;reseroation, 'whoseheadcjuarters 'are (Jt)'fCe~tury ~he, Gros Ventre Itfjed In the 1863 they:wer~coer~ed Into negotIating,Browning, Montana,' 37'J, of them are' ,Mtlk RIVer .area across,. Northern the Fori Bridgei' Treaty with the' U.S:

_unemployed. .Montana. Dunng the 1800 s they were government _. whicb gave themmoved by for~e to Fort B~lknap. Today 44,675,900 ac,-es of land ~ying inthe reservat~on comprtses 616, 000 states~ A few years later additionalacres, of whIch 427; 580 are al/otted. cessions reduced the reservation to

The remaining Assiniboine members 1,88,6,556 acres, 'a 96'J,reduction. Thenwere shunted to another reserve at Fort in 1878, as a final insult, the ArapahoPeck, Montana, with yet another set of, :people, long-time enemies of theadvusaries, a remnant Band of the Shoshone, were ..settled on the same,Teton Sioux. Even today at Fort Peck greatly ,'educed reserv~tion "tem-these groups live in two distinct tribal porarily , '. They are still there today.groups - the Assiniboine occupying The Ar'apaho, whose culture hadthe southwestern and the Sioux oc- also evolved from sedentary farming tocupying the southeastern portions ofthe semi-nomadic' buffalo hunting, had964,865 acre reservation. competed with the Shoshone for over a

At Fort Belknap there are 2, 000 100 years and had been at war' withIndian people,. 55'J, of them are without them/frequently. Their fate was sealedwork. At Fort Peck the population is because some' of their people foughtabout 5, 000,. 48'J, of the eligible work against the white men. A few Arapahoforce is idle. had been with the Sioux and Cheyenne

It should be noted that it was in a case when Custer was defeated at Little Bigarising on the Fort Belknap Reservation Hom. The,; were finally starved intothat the Supreme Court held in 1908 submission on the Wind River' 'that Indian tribes are entitled to prior Reset'vation with the Shoshone.and paramount rights to the water Today the two tribes maintainflowing through their'reset'vations The separate governments, but, for matterscase, Winters v. United States, laid the which concern the reservation as abasis for what has subsequently come to whole, a joint business council isknown as th~ Winters Doctrine, which convened. There are a little ove,' 4, '_'_is now a critical supporting prop to the members ofboth tribes remaining on orNorthern Great Plains Indians in their' near the reservation,' 47% of them arestruggle to gain independence~ out of work. "

46

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Announcements is published quarterly by the Native American Rights Fund, II'''1506 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado 80302; Joan C. Lieberman, Editor; Diana ~_._Garry, NILL Supplement; Jeanette Arquero, circulation. Third class postage p...at Boulder, Colorado,. All rights reserved .. Subscription rates: libraries ~.d non,Indian organizations, $10 per year; Indian tribes, organizations and indiViduals,no charge. Attorneys and other individuals by contribution"

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LEO J. LaCLAIR, ,Muckleshoot,Executive Director, Small Tribesof Western Washington; Seattle,Washington.

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LEROY LOGAN, .osage, Ran·cheri Hominy, Oklahoma.

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JOHN CLIFFORD, RosebudSioux, Educator, Native American Studies; 'South' MilwaukeeWisconsin.".

)J _ ,} !';:::~, ._"<:.:~.J., I:";~::'~ ~',:,VA!-- C9RD.0VA;j\Taos,Pueb.lo,Umverslty. ,·nof .•••••.'. t'TeW. ,~,M,e~cc

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NARF DIRECTORSHIP

On June 1, 1975, Thomas W.Fredericks, a .Mandan Indianfrom the Fort Berthold Reser­vation in North Dakota, wasappointed as Executive Directorof NARF. Mr. Fredericks hadbeen Vice Executive Directorsince' April, 1974,' and a NARFstaff attorney since June, 1972, Heis 'a' '1972 I graduate of theUniversity of,Colorado School of

"i/,'Lawand is~dmittedtopractice in{."~," Colorado arid ~N"orth'Dakota. . .

"'~; ':1J"ohn K Echohawk Executive" ." '.. '.. ..'

~j":'ijirectorof'!NARF from April,JJfL\",i~l3!~t,@~ilt~~#e~;;{~~~7~, .is .•·con~ '>;;'i'C'~',L' tmwng,With. the prog~am.m,llfull- 'i,";,:, ,;

.~ .~. ,}"::, tfme':~j'" Utiglltion'~~'i~}~~ole;"~f:¥Mr :: 2F'< '. t:''.nt~i\'~;' Echoiia~k':is1~"'P~wn~ea;nd "the <,;'j:_~"'::" . -'c,.. ,"'. -~ "?' ~ ;-.: -(>~- ,"'" -',' _- _" ," _" .':',:f" first graduatefof the University of'~,':,;.New;MeXico's'si>ecial program to'

.~ .,_'.!.'\';" ',c'. ' "_'~':. .' . ," ': ',A'_ :," . j .. ' ,,~: .• " •• - :::,' . . I

, :' ,';;. train' 'Indian (t'aawye'rs.':"~'He,',.: gi-'aduated fromthe'University'of'

,; New Mexico School of Law in 1970. and has been with NARF since its

inception. He is "admitted topractice in Colorado.

48