Native American families were foreced to sale of 155,000 acres of land for the Garrison Dam and Reservoir

FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2003

HEAVY HEART: George Gillette, second from left, chairman of Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, and other tribal officials at the 1948 signing of the Garrison Dam agreement. (Click photo to enlarge). File AP.

Fifty years ago this week, on June 11, 1953, the United States dedicated the Garrison Dam. For the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation of North Dakota, the anniversary is not one to be celebrated.

In creating the dam, the federal government flooded 156,000 acres of prime real estate, including the tribe's capital. More than 300 families and 1,700 residents -- 80 percent of the membership at the time -- were forced to relocate, prompting the loss of an entire way of life, tribal members say.

"The Mandan people -- we called ourselves Nueta -- moved to an area called Twin Buttes," wrote Jodi Rave Lee, a tribal member and reporter for The Lincoln Journal Star, in a May 25 article. "The language was slow to follow, its memory now nearly as flooded as the tribe's sacred sites."

Tribal leaders opposed the project, suggesting alternatives to limit the impact. But it moved forward anyway, and George Gillette, the tribe's chairman at the time, reluctantly signed an agreement to give up one-quarter of the Fort Berthold Reservation.

"We will sign this contract with a heavy heart," he said in 1948. "With a few scratches of the pen, we will sell the best part of our reservation. Right now the future doesn't look too good to us."

Gillette can be seen crying in a photo taken at the event. https://www.indianz.com/