Flooding

In the 1960s, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation built five large dams on the Missouri River, and implemented the Pick–Sloan Missouri Basin Program, forcing Native Americans to relocate from flooded areas. Over 200,000 acres on the Standing Rock Reservation and the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota were flooded by the Oahe Dam alone. As of 2015, poverty remains a problem for the displaced populations in the Dakotas, who are still seeking compensation for the loss of the towns submerged under Lake Oahe, and the loss of their traditional ways of life.^[12]

**see page 65 of the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program…

Quote: “Control of the water of the west is control of the west.”

**see page 151    About a pipeline by ETSI, Energy Transportation Systems ,Inc. September 1981 – You will find that #1 In the whole paper up to this page there is no mention of indigenous people, even though the water projects directly affected them, and #2 This issue of pipelines is a long one  and in 1981 there is a total repeat of what is happening currently. The similarities are eerie.

**page 155-156 Below is where the case went to the Supreme Court to determine if the state could grant permission about building on Army Corps land without permission from the Army Corps. The court said no, only the Secretary of the Army could issue such permission. This has direct implications to the current issue of the DAPL construction being carried out without permission, yet they have state and local police enforcing the construction.

**page. 166   Begins to go into detail how the Pick-Sloan Program did not consider indigenous water rights. This had led to constant issues revolving around Lake Oahe – the largest water reservoir created under Pick-Sloan on the Missouri. The Winters-Doctrine holds that indigenous land rights are linked to water rights. This a good fact to remember.

Reading the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program is a must read to understand how U.S. laws and government agencies were used against the indigenous to further the profits of individuals and corporations. This document is filled with the back-room deals, the use of timing to hurry something through legislation, and the favors granted to personal friends in terms of backing certain programs, construction, and permits.