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Article Title: The Biggest Partner, The Federal Government and Sioux County, Nebraska

Full Citation: Francis Moul, “The Biggest Partner: The Federal Government and Sioux County, Nebraska,” Nebraska History 80 (1999): 150-165.

URL of Article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/1999-Fed_Gov_Sioux.pdf Date: 1/20/2010

Article Summary: The federal government has invested significant resources in Sioux County since the treaties with the Lakota Sioux freed the land for Euro-American settlement. It has been the major partner in providing infrastructure funding for projects: large irrigation systems, small pipeline systems, relief aid, and restoration of the land. The Homestead Act and other land laws provided nearly free land to Sioux County settlers, and the 1902 National Reclamation Act began the important work of irrigating farmable acres. Federal farm commodity support programs, conservation programs, and other federal programs continue, sometimes with unexpected results.

Cataloging Information:

Surnames: Sheldon; Truman; Holt; Lincoln; Hitchcock; Sparks; Cleveland; Harrison; Groff; Freeman; Smythe; Thayer; Grote; Bryan; Warrick; Bowden; Weaver; Roosevelt; Hoover; Gray; Tugwell; Wilson; Forbes; Pitman; Schnurr; Meng; Ellis; Pettipiece; Martinson; Peterson; Denney; Martin; Berg

Place Names: Horse Creek; Pathfinder Dam; Casper, Wyoming; Whalen Dam; Torrington, Wyoming; Lake Alice; Lake Minatare; Scottsbluff, Nebraska; Sioux County, Nebraska; North Platte River; Sheep Creek; Spotted Tail Creek; Coyote Creek; City of Crawford; White Clay Creek; Hat Creek basin; Spring Ranch; Oglala National Grassland; Klamath National Forest; ButteValley; Buffalo Gap National Grassland; Pine Ridge Escarpment; Sugarloaf Grazing District; Dawes County; Gilbert-Baker Wildlife Management; Peterson Wildlife Management; Fort Robinson State Park; University Lake

Keywords: “treaty of peace of 1783" “Louisiana Purchase” “Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851" “Sioux” “Lakota” “Cheyenne” “Arapaho” “Indian Claims Commission” “Lakota Sioux” “Mexican War” “military bounty” “land warrant” “Homestead Act” “Morrill Act” “endowment fund” “college scrip” “School Lands Act” “Timber Culture Act” “Desert Land Act” “Kinkaid Act” “Stock Raising Homestead Act” “C F Coffee” “Dakota Stock & Grazing” “J R Hunter” “Dakota Stock” “Niobrara River Cattle” “War Bonnet Live Stock” “Preemption Act of 1841" “patent” “land patent” “homestead patent” “Taylor Grazing Act” “Yellowstone National Park: “National Reclamation Act” “North Platte Project” “Interstate Canal” “Pathfinder Irrigation District” “Lona Thayer” “Coffee and Son” “Panic of 1893" “Dirty Thirties” “drought” “Populist” “New Deal” “Yearbook of Agriculture” “Public Works Administration” “AAA” “Agricultural Adjustment Administration” “Land Utilization” “L-U” “Resettlement Administration” “RA” “Soil Conservation Service” “SCS” “Farm Security Administration” “Bankhead-Jones” “Farm Tenant Act” “Farm Credit Administration” “Resettlement Administration” “Harrison Sun” “AUM” “animal units per month” “Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act” “Freedom to Farm Act” “Conservation Reserve Program” “Great Plains Conservation Program” Photographs: Map of Woodland and Wildlife Management Area Sioux County; Rangeland northwest of Crawford; Chart of Sioux County Homestead Title Patents Filed, 1886-1939; Main canal, Pathfinder Irrigation District in early 1930s; Badlands near Orella; Catchment basin, Oglala National Grasslands, 1963; Pipe for irrigation outlet, Andrew Andrews farm, Sioux County; Pipeline installation northwest of Harrison, White River Soil and Water Conservation District, 1966 By Francis Moul Marching stepbystep with the Euro- tions imposed by social consent, under jor treaty, the Fort Laramie Treaty of pean settlers into Sioux County, Ne- which men might occupy and use the 1851 at Horse Creek on the North Platte braska-and the entire West-was earth's surfa~e."~ River just south of present Sioux County, settlement's biggest partner, the federal Europeans acquired the land in established the broad boundaries of government.' The settlers' objective was Sioux County by fiat. The colonial pow- Plains tribes, while securing free pas- to own the land, a most precious re- ers claimed all lands discovered and ex- sage through the Platte River Valley for source. The government first appropri- plored by them, including the English emigrants west. The treaty also at- ated that land, then explored it, idea that the crown held title to these tempted to bring peace to the various wrenched it from its native occupants newly discovered lands, to be passed warring nations, but its provisions were and protected it, dispersed it, and finally out by royal patent. The United States quickly abrogated when traditional ri- preserved what was left. In times of peril earned its land claim to the original valries flared up again. Later treaties from warring Indians, settlers called on colonies and all their holdings by force opened all of eastern Nebraska to settle the U.S. Army for protection. In times of of arms over the British, ratified by the ment, especially after territorial status drought and depression, the settlers treaty of peace of 1783. The 1803 Louisi- was obtained in 1854.4 called for federal relief. The government ana Purchase doubled the size of the In the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 the helped farmers find the best crops to , nation and added the lands that were to Sioux were further limited to a range plant. Railroads to bring the settlers west become Nebraska and Sioux County. In north of the North Platte River and west and haul their crops to market received applying colonial legal theory, the US. of the Missouri River, with hunting rights low or no-interest loans and millions of govemment considered that Indian extending south to the Republican acres of free land to use to build their tribes residing on the land were "cov- River, and won exclusion of whites from corporate empires. Similarly, free land ered by some color of title," and it there the Black Hills. Final treaties with the for homesteading or ranching was the fore negotiated with the tribes for that Sioux in 1875 and 1876, near the end of goal of the settlers who swarmed into territ~ry.~Those negotiations, of course, the Plains Indian Wars, eventually the Great Plains. were between two widely divergent cul- forced them onto reservations in South Addison E. Sheldon, preeminent Ne- tures, were sometimes conducted under Dakota. Sioux County figures in two of braska historian, gave one of the stron- the duress of arms or military threat, the Sioux land cessions. In 1875 the gest statements on the importance of and were often held with small minori- Lakotas ceded 7,115,904 acres in the land to humans in the introduction to ties of the tribes who inappropriately current Nebraska Panhandle, north of his 1936 treatise, Land Systems and Land spoke for an amorphous political entity the North Platte River, to the United Policies in Nebraska. "Land is the first es- that had no white counterpart. Often, States and a year later-with the North- sential to the life of man on our planet," treaties bargained for in the field were em Cheyennes and the Arapahos- Sheldon wrote. Further, the regulatory changed and shortchanged by the US. ceded another 4,807,520 acres along system for using land "is the most impor- Senate without'recompense to the the upper Niobrara Ri~er.~ tant element in the success of any hu- tribes, were mangled by bureaucracy These treaties were disputed almost man society. ..no other one thing and embezzling agents when enacted from the beginning, disputes that will among the agreements under which and enforced, or were simply ignored likely continue into the twenty-first cen- men have inhabited this earth has been by the signatories. tury. Indian treaty claims were exarn- of so much importance as the condi- A series of treaties with Indian tribes ined by an Indian Claims Commission, residing in Nebraska eventually cleared established by President Harry Truman Francis Moul ofLincoln, a retired newspaper the state of all tribes, except for small in 1946, with William McKinley Holt of publisher, recently completed a Ph.D. degree in reservations in northeast Nebraska and Lincoln, Nebraska, as one of the original environmental histoy. a tiny plot in Richardson County. A ma- three commissioners and the longest ~he~ederalGovernment and Sioux Countv, Nebraska serving. The commission was given broad powers to settle treaty and other claims by tribes, but the process dragged on for three decades with rela- tively small awards to the Indians. In all, the commission awarded some $2 bil- lion in claims, but offsets for lawyer fees, previous annuities, food and cloth- ing, farm equipment, and other ex- penses "reduced final awards to $818 million-less than the amount spent on the thirty-oneyear claims pr~cess."~Fi- nal adjudication has not been reached in some cases. The Lakota Sioux have not accepted a settlement for the Black Hills worth several hundred million dol- lars. They want the land back, not greenback7 Land was the primary resource of the fledgling U.S. government, and its sale was one of the country's major sources of revenue. Sales were first held by auction of huge chunks of the everexpanding western territories, after surveys had been made, with speculators most often getting high bid and dividing the land for settlement. In 1811 this regulation was modified to allow land offered in Louisiana Territory, but not sold within three weeks, to be "subject to entry by anyone at the minimum price and in any quantity." An 1820 law amended this timetable to two weeks of open bids, then the land would be offered in eighty-acre tracts. In 1841 the original preemption act approved the sale of iso- lated and disconnected tracts after thirty days notice, providing that surveys were made. The law was amended in 1854 to allow settlers in Nebraska (among other territories and states) to settle on unsurveyed land and then pick the 160 acres that most closely matched the ac- tual surveys, paying $1.25 per acre. Mexican War veterans were eligible for military bounty land warrants, many of which were redeemed in Nebraska be tween 1854 and 1862; these warrants could be assigned to others, and land speculators acquired large tracts by pur- chasing warrants at discounted prices? Abraham Lincoln's presidential cam- paign promise of free land came true Nebraska Historv -Winter 1999 with passage of the Homestead Act in erboard style with public sections. Stock Raising Homestead Act of 1916." 1862, whereby persons twenty-one years These railroad lands were exempt from The largesse of the federal govern- or older could claim a quarter-section of taxation until sold, usually at a price of ment was not without substantial abuse land with a.$10 fee, provided he or she $2.50 per acre.I0 and deep-rooted problems. The overall lived on the land and improved it, gain- Phineas W. Hitchcock, US. Senator objective of the many land laws was to ing title in five years. Also passed was from Nebraska, introduced the Timber quickly open up large amounts of ar- the Morrill Act, donating to states 30,000 Culture Act in 1873 to further encourage able land for agricultural production as acres for each member of Congress land disbursement. It required planting family farms. This objective, for the most (House and Senate) to support a perma- at least forty acres of trees in a quarter part, was realized. Millions of immi- nent endowment fund for agricultural section and cultivating them for ten grants from Europe participated in one and mechanical colleges. These acres years to acquire a patent. Existing of the world's greatest land booms dur- were converted into "college scripn in homesteaders could add a quarter sec- ing the cool, wet, and highly productive the southern and eastern states and sold tion and also accelerate their original years of the late 1870s and the 1880s. At at about fifty cents per acre to specula- claim from five to three years by plant- the same time, thousands of public land tors and brokers, who used it to buy land ing one acre of woods on their 160-acre filings "were made by persons who had in the West. Nebraska had a 500,000-acre homesite. To further promote settlement no intention of completing them" ac- land grant from the School Lands Act, in the arid West, Congress passed the cording to Sheldon. Speculators.held which provided that sections 16 and 36 Desert Land Act in 1877 to advance irri- prime lands for quick sale, and settlers in every township, or their equivalent, be gation agriculture, with settlers able to had to deal with them or farm less desir- held in support of school^.^ purchase 640 acres at $1.25 per acre able land. The Kinkaid and Desert Land Land was also disbursed in Nebraska within three years, provided they irri- Acts greatly facilitated illegal actions by through grants to railroads building gated the land. Nebraskans benefitted providing full section claims, which track in the state. The railroad compa- from the Kinkaid Act of 1904, which then were often fenced by ranchers, nies received the odd-numbered sec- opened thirty-two western Nebraska along with other unclaimed land." tions in a ten- or twenty-mile strip on ei- counties, including Sioux, to 640-acre Many of the pioneer ranchers in ther side of the track--or its equivalent homesteads; this opportunity was ex- Sioux County settled on land that had elsewhere-which was matched check- tended throughout-the West by the not been surveyed, and those who beat

Rangeland northwest of Crawford. NSHS-RG257034-37 The Federal Government and Sioux County, Nebraska the survey crews got the best land and Chart I water sources. They were often able to keep the land, through various means, Sioux County Homestead Title Patents Filed, 1886 - 1939 after the.government survey was done and federal acres identified. One way was to get family members and hired hands to claim a quarter section under the various federal land laws, close to the home ranch or at strategic spots on the range. Others used veterans or wid- ows of veterans who were entitled to land under soldier claims, bringing them west from Grand Island or Omaha by the trainload to claim their acres, sending them back east after a few days of adventure that left some dollars in their pockets. The checkerboard rail- Source: General Index Grantee and Grantor, Sioux County Courlhouse, Harrison, Nebraska. road sections also facilitated abuse. Buying a railroad tract in the checker- board usually meant control over ad- Coffee & Co. (6,000 acres, removing), While the 1862 Homestead Act was joining public land as well, and so the Dakota Stock & Grazing Co. (5,380 used from the beginning in Nebraska, bargain was two-for-one. Two sections acres, removing), J. R. Hunter (100,000 with Daniel Freeman filing the alleged of school lands in each township were acres), Dakota Stock Co. (61,968 acres, first claim near Beatrice in 1863, Sioux also available for leasing, and for a pe- removing), Niobrara River Cattle Co. County's initial homestead claims came riod federal land was leased.I3 (20,000 acres), and War Bonnet Live more than two decades later. The first New land commissioner William A. J. Stock Co. (5,272 acres).'= patents for title to government land did Sparks, appointed by Democratic Presi- When the Republicans swept back not appear in county records until 1886, dent Grover Cleveland, spent three con- into power nationally with President when twelve were recorded, with no de troversial years trying to clean up this Benjamin Harrison in 1888, a Nebras- lineation between cattle range and farm fraudulent situation. His field inspectors kan-Judge Lewis A. Groff of Omaha- ground. There were 224 more 160-acre sent in reports in 1885 that noted: was appointed land commissioner. patents in the next three years (with 100 I have traveled over hundreds of miles of Naturally, the Republicans offered a dif- in 1888), but fewer than twenty were re land in western Kansas, Nebraska, and ferent interpretation of the land laws corded during the entire 1890s, with central Dakota, nearly one-fourth of which and their practical effect. One report none in 1890,1891, 1893,1896, and has been taken under the "timber culture noted that under the Democrats, "The 1898, reflecting the drought and depres- act," without seeing an artificial grove even in incipiency. . . . A "cattle king" em- great body of honest settlers were erro- sion. The first six years of the twentieth ploys a number of men as herders; "cow- neously tainted with suspicion, created century saw a flurry of 268 patents, then boys" is the popular designation for them. by the acts of a very small percentage of the number dropped to only thirteen in The herd is located on a favorable portion evildisposed persons." Nonetheless, it the next seven years, until 1912. None of the public lands, where grass, water, were filed in 1909, and only one patent and shelter are convenient, and each was under the Republicans in 1891 that herder is expected and required to make both the Preemption Act of 1841 and each year was noted for 1907,1908, a timber culture entry of lands along the the Timber Culture Act with its amend- 1910, and 191 1. Nearly 60 percent of all stream. These entries often very nearly if ments were repealed. The Homestead 1,702 Sioux County homestead patents not quite occupy all the watered lands in Act was amended to "require residence were recorded in the next seven years, a township and render the remainder un- desirable for actual settlement for farming and cultivation for at least fourteen from 1913 to 1919 (with a high of 450 purposes. l4 months before final proof and payment patents in 1914), when both record on the land," and prohibited owners of commodity prices and yields, plus surg- An 1886 land commissioner's report more than 160 acres from taking a home ing exports to a war-torn Europe, cre- noted that six Sioux County ranches or stead claim.16The terrible drought and ated the best farming years ever on the ranch corporations had unlawful enclo- depression of the 1890s and the new law Plains. In that period, the vast majority sures totaling 198,620 acres, although caused a sharp decline in homestead of Sioux County land grants were more three ranches were in the process of re claims, with only nineteen patents filed than 160 acres, ranging in uneven plots moving the fences. The firms were C. F. in Sioux County in the entire decade. of some 200 acres to a high of 800 acres, Nebraska Historv -Winter 1999

Main canal, Pathfinder Irrigation District, northwest of Morrill, early 1930s. NSHS-RG2570:84-22 with about 550 patents of 600 acres or grassland instead of giving it away. revolving fund, with no other claim on it more, representing Kinkaid Act claims. The federal government became a than more and more reclamation," ac- Prosperity ended, however, as did the partner with westem settlers in a new cording to historian Donald Worster. Re- large numbers of patents in Sioux way in 1902 when the National Recla- payment by farmers was later extended County, with the beginning of the two- mation Act was passed by Congress, to forty years, and was even forgiven un- decade farm crisis in 1921. From 1921 to with immediate results for Sioux der certain circumstances. Nebraska 1939 only 563 patents were recorded, County. The act was the culmination of was one of sixteen western states origi- with a high of 100 in 1937 and a low of a long series of national conferences, nally eligible for reclamation projects nine in 1932.17 (See Chart 1.) reports, and congressional lobbying by (joined by Texas in 1906), and the water The Homestead Act was repealed western promoters that brought irriga- was distributed under state laws.Is with passage of the Taylor Grazing Act tion to the arid West. This effort was led, One of the first irrigation projects un- in 1934 and all unclaimed public lands in large part, by William Smythe of der the act, authorized in 1903, was the reverted to various federal agencies.I8 Omaha and Keamey, Nebraska. The act North Platte Project that encompassed While the United States has a long his- provided for the sale of western lands to the construction of five major reservoirs tory of saving priceless vistas as national provide for an "arid land reclamation and six power plants with enough stor- parks or monuments, beginning with fund" that would pay for constructing age to irrigate 400,000 acres in Wyoming Yellowstone National Park, that method dams and large storage reservoirs, ca- and Nebraska. The principal storage of land preservation did not hold true nals, and lateral diversions to irrigate structure of the project is the Pathfinder for the Great Plains and western grass- farms. Public land within the irrigation Dam southeast of Casper, Wyoming, be- lands. The huge range that once sup project lines was withdrawn from sale, gun in 1905 and completed in five years. ported millions of bison was at first to be sold later to individuals in parcels But the first undertaking of the North thought to be wasteland or desert, then of forty to 160 acres, or even smaller Platte Project was the Interstate Canal was disastrously plowed for short-term tracts as determined by federal officials. begun in July 1905 to transport water wheat and grain harvests, and was fi- The price of the land was "to be deter- from the Whalen Dam northwest of nally restored to pasture, in large part. mined by the waterdevelopment costs Torrington, Wyoming, ninety-five miles Only with the Taylor Grazing Act did and to be reimbursable in ten annual in- to the Lake Alice and Lake Minatare res- Congress turn to preserving this massive stallments. Repayment would create a ervoirs northeast of Scottsbluff, Ne- The Federal Government and Sioux County, Nebraska braska. The canal took ten years to con- testimony of old settlers. Flooding dur- claims have the senior right and all jun- struct and wanders across the contours ing construction at four areas "afforded ior rights are subordinate. In all, 293 cur- in Sioux County's southeast corner, irri- valuable information relative to the run- rent water appropriations are now on gating 27,365 acres of farmland thereFO off." Ten bridges were built in the Sioux record for Sioux County, besides those A report from about 1913 details con- County section. Farmers in the area sup in the Pathfinder District, in four river struction of the Second Division of the plied work animals with grain and hay, basins, with about 41,600 acres irrigated Interstate Canal, 75 percent of which is and "many of the farmers were em- in 1997. While much of the water is in Sioux County. A reconnaissance line ployed on the works either by the day pumped directly from streams, there are was first run in autumn 1904, with engi- or as subcontractors hauling freight, ex- also many small, private storage reser- neers plotting the canal location the cavating structure sites or screening and voirs and canals in the county, includ- next spring and letting bids for the hauling gravel and sand." Extensions on ing some abandoned canals. In the earthwork on November 8, 1905. Engi- contracts were sometimes given, "owing North Platte River basin, only five water neering work was "very simple, due to to the unusual scarcity and low effi- rights are claimed, three for Sheep the open rolling prairie and the absence ciency of labor and the extreme diffi- Creek and two for Spotted Tail Creek. of all brush, trees and rocks," the report culty in obtaining deliveries of materials," Farther north in the Niobrara River ba- noted, although high winter winds according to the report. Construction sin, there are twenty-five appropriations, slowed progress. The contractors made continued on all structures, including twenty-one on the river and a tributaly, flat curves of two to twelve degrees to the last laterals, until December 1912. and four for Coyote Creek. The White follow the land where possible, but with Total cost of the structures for this por- River and White Clay Creek basins have many fourteen and sixteen degree tion of the Interstate Canal was thirty-four appropriations, including the curves and a few at eighteen degrees. $187,763.02?3 City of Crawford and the Nebraska "It is very probable that more attention The Pathfinder Irrigation District Game and Parks Commission. By far, should have been paid to the making of claimed a large water appropriation however, the most appropriations are in flat curves," the report noted?' from the North Platte River in 1904, un- the Hat Creek basin, with 230 claims for During construction, which began in der Nebraska irrigation laws, for 1,572 irrigation from natural streams as well as the spring of 1906, two-horse teams cubic feet per second (cfs) of water, a for storage on private reservoirs. Two moved 37.1 cubic yards of earth per major portion of the 2,100 cfs rated di- appropriations were filed in 1880-the day, at a cost of twelve cents per cubic version capacity of the Interstate Canal. oldest in the county-now held by Gary yard. According to the report, "the soil Nebraska law allows for first in time, and Lona Thayer and Coffee and Son, is a light sandy to medium loam and the first in right appropriation of surface wa- both in the Hat Creek basin. Coffee also topography fairly smooth, with rolling ter from natural streams, so the earliest filed an 1881 claim. An early claim on hills covered with buffalo grass. There are no trees, brush or rocky land to in- terfere with construction work. The earth excavation, or Class 1, was very easy to handle." Major contractors hired up to seventy-five men and seventy horses to do about one-third of the work-the most difficult-but two-thirds of the work was done by subcontractors who provided their own teams and la- bor. Explosives were used in places. The total cost for canal earthwork was $666,737.27:' The second phase of construction of the Second Division of the Main Canal, Interstate Unit, was for watercontrolling structures to provide cross drainage, bridges for highways, water diversion to the laterals, waste water sluicing, and water elevation regulation. Maximum water levels were determined by high water marks on the ground or from the Badlands near Orella. NSHS-RG2570:84-1

155 Nebraska History -Winter 1999 the Niobrara River was in 1883, now Sioux County was the disaster of the since then, to 3,124 (1950), 2,575 (1960), held by Melvin and Klara Grote, and the 1920s and 1930s. Well before the 1929 2,034 (1970), 1,845 (1980), and 1,549 same year a claim was filed for the stock market crash caught the attention (1990). Current population meets the Spring Ranch on the White River.24 of Americans, both drought and eco- frontier definition of less than two per- Irrigation systems and water rights to nomic depression hit agriculture hard. sons per square supply them are among the primary de- Wartime demands and high prices for A consequence of the ten- to fifteen- fenses in agriculture against droughts, commodities ended quickly by 1920, year dry period, culminating in the which are endemic to the Great Plains. but mortgages and bank loans to pay 1930s drought (with 1934 the worst Drought helped brjng the familiar boom for expanded land and new equipment year) in the short and mixed-grass prai- and bust eras to the Plains in the late remained. They combined with dry rie areas, was "another tremendous set- nineteenth century. Although a twelve weather to provide nearly a decade back to range forage production, al- year drought was recorded from 1884 to headstart for the farm depression. Per ready reduced as a result of previous 1895 at Ash Hollow in Garden County of capita farm income in the 1920s was long, severe, and nearly unrestricted the Nebraska Panhandle, it was uneven one-third the national average, and by use," according to a government report. and many sections had bumper crops. 1929 total farm debt was almost $10 bil- That heavy grazing load, inspired by New machinery, new seed varieties, lion nationwide. Net farm income de World War 1 needs, barely began to new methods of dryland crop produc- clined from $6.1 billion in 1929 to $2 lessen when the livestock price slump tion, new export markets, and easier billion in 1932.27 and drought "combined to increase use transportation via railroads all encour- Going into the Dirty Thirties, farmers and reduce forage production." Deple- aged a rise in the state's commercial were perhaps the least prepared seg- tion of the range included a 50 percent farming productivity. This led to lower ment of American society to withstand or more loss of short grasses, and Sioux commodity prices while production the double blows of drought and de County was listed in the categories of costs increased. In Nebraska, the "great pression and millions simply gave up, "material" depletion for 25 to 50 per- crop of 1889-the best in a decade- leaving their farms for nearby cities or cent, and for most of the county, "se brought with it some of the lowest faraway dreams on the West Coast. This vere" depletion of 50 to 75 percent. prices the farmers of Nebraska had yet exodus deeply depleted rural counties Specifically, plants found in more arid recei~ed."~~ in the Great Plains of a population that environments-western wheatgrass, The great crop was immediately fol- has not been replenished, until now blue gramma, and buffalo grass-in- lowed by a drought in 1890. Then the many qualify as "frontier" counties with vaded all the way to the former tall grass Panic of 1893 struck at the same time as fewer than two persons per square mile. areas of the prairies east of the Great dry weather hit hard with the drought of Severe population depletion was the Plains. This was "by far the most striking 1894. The heartiest "crop" of the eastern case in Sioux County. In the 1880 census feature of the drastic modifications of part of the state became the protest the still-huge county (which included the prairie" during the drought, accord- movements of the Populist era, culmi- present day Dawes and Sheridan coun- ing to J. E. Weaver, noted Nebraska nating in farmer support in 1896 for the ties) had only 699 persons, mostly con- ecologi~t.~~ Great Commoner of Nebraska, Demo- nected with ranch operations or aligned Fortunately, the range was not de crat William Jennings Bryan, in his first with the military posts. By the 1890 cen- stroyed by the drought although it was of three presidential nominations. That sus of a much smaller county with the severely weakened. With normal pre- 1890s drought has been seen as the "first same borders as today, the population cipitation in the late 1930s and 1940s, great crushing defeat" of the American had exploded to 2,452 people. That num- growth increased and "the splendid sod farmer. It was a disaster where the flood ber dipped to 2,055 by 1900 as immigra- grasses at least partly refilled the bare of farmers into the uncultivated margins tion dried up and drought and depres- spots. Where the grasses were killed, the of farmable lands was reversed. "Many sion emptied the Plains of homesteaders. ground was occupied by other plants areas lost between half and three The highest Sioux County population which, though of lesser palatability and quarters of their population," according was recorded in 1910, with 5,599, reflect- smaller forage value, the animals still to geographers Warrick and Bowden. ing the effect of the 640-acre Kinkaid ate." Shortgrass prairie dominated by Many Nebraska counties never regained homestead provision. More than a thou- blue gramma and buffalo grass, such as their population peak of 1890.26 sand fewer persons were recorded by in Sioux County, had relatively small In Sioux County, where settlement 1920, with a population of 4,528, though losses when ungrazed. "Rapid stolon started late (1880s) and peaked later with a small increase by 1930 to 4,667. growth allowed buffalograss to quickly (1910) than in most of Nebraska, few During the desperate 1930s, however, the reclaim bare areas when moisture condi- people were affected by those late nine county's population dropped to 4,001 in tions improved temporarily," according teenth-century droughts. More telling in 1940 and has declined continuously to one report. Native drought-resistant The Federal Government and Sioux County, Nebraska shrubs and forbs with spreading or very tion drastically, greatly increasing prices timber and grass. The federal govern- deep root systems also increased. These of those commodities for livestock feed- ment would buy up such lands. In 1928 included broom snakeweed, snowberry, ing supplements. "Thus, the impact of the U.S. General Land Office reported heath aster, goldenrod, western rag- the 1988 drought on livestock producers that all available public lands where dry weed, and scarlet gl0bemarrow.3~ became the most serious during the farming 640 acres would support a fam- Following a rainy period that coin- spring of 1989."32 ily had been largely reduced. That find- cided with World War I1 and up to 1949, With the farm depression antedating ing led President Herbert Hoover to ap drought returned to the Great Plains in the Great Depression by a decade, dur- point a commission to look into land the 1950s, with a midpoint of 1953. That ing the 1920s several programs were put use, and a 1931 national conference in episode almost equaled the 1930s in du- forward to remedy the ills of overpro- Chicago set the stage for the formation ration and nearly matched the early duction, low prices, and the huge farm of the National Land Use Planning Com- 1890s drought in intensity. "It was one of debt. These included flooding the world mittee in 1932. That group proposed the three most severe droughts on market by dumping surpluses, storing federal purchase of submarginal farm- record," one writer notes. However, the grain during good years for sale during land to remove it from cultivation, and economic impact was less than earlier poor crop years (an idea put forward Hoover asked Congress to approve such droughts because people were more earlier by the Populists), subsidies based a plan, but only to lease the land. The prepared and summer rainfall was suffi- on parity, and eliminating the middle committee continued in the New Deal cient. Rainfall in the northern Great man in agribusiness via cooperatives with creation of the National Resources Plains approached normality, while (another Populist concept). Comprehen- Board in 1934, calling for a long-term, drought continued in the southern sive land-use planning by the federal land-use policy that would buy more Plains states. Where rainfall did decline, government was also one of those plans, than 86 million acres of submarginal there was a drastic reduction in soil and it came to fruition during the presi- land. Only 11.3 million acres were actu- moisture and groundwater recharge, re dency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. ally purchased in the sulting in sharply declining runoff and One of the permanent features of the The first land purchases came stream flow. Major stream flows in the New Deal programs was a controversial through a grant of $25 million from the Great Plains dropped 40 to 60 percent plan for the federal government to pur- Public Works Administration to the Fed- during the 1950s drought, and stream sa- chase submarginal land in the Great eral Emergency Relief Administration, linity increased threefold. In such major Plains and the South, resettle the own- as part of the initial frenzy of relief ac- droughts, low-flow months might see a ers and tenants to planned garden cities tivities by President Roosevelt to treat drop-off to 10 percent or even 1 percent or subsistence forty-acre homesteads the early, worst days of the Great De- of normal flows over much of the outside the regions, and restore the pression. Four different federal agencies plain^.^' abused rangeland. That plan, after long received money to buy land, with agri- The latest drought to hit the High study and debate, ultimately resulted in cultural projects coming under the Land Plains was a nineteen-month period the 1960 establishment of the Oglala Na- Policy Section of the Agricultural Adjust- from January 1988 to July 1989, al- tional Grassland of Sioux and Dawes ment Administration (AAA). Lands pur- though it struck some areas as early as counties, one of twenty such national chased were known as Land Utilization, 1984. The year 1988 was very dry, ex- preserves in the West. or L-U, projects. On May 1,1935, all com- ceeded only by 1910,1917, and 1956, A broad land-use plan was first pro- ponents of the L-U program were consoli- with 1963 not far behind. According to posed by L. C. Gray of the U.S. Depart- dated under the newly created Resettle- one report, the "overall pattern of the ment of Agriculture (USDA). Writing in ment Administration (RA), headed by 1987-1989 drought most resembles the the 1923 Yearbook ofAgriculture, Gray Rexford Tugwell, undersecretary of agri- drought of 1936." It seemed especially called for rural zoning "according to culture and one of Roosevelt's Brain harsh because the two decades preced- soil, climate, population centers, histori- .Trusters. This program became one of ing the drought were very wet nation- cal development, cultural conditions, the more controversial "social engineer- ally, with the 1970s the wettest decade and recent changes in agricultural ing" projects of the New Deal, as it com- of the century and the 1980s a close run- methods. Farming was to become more bined purchase of submarginal land ner-up. This drought was particularly intensified around small, industrial com- with the creation of new towns and gar- hard on Nebraska livestock producers, munities." A key feature was classifying den cities, to be populated by resettled where the spring of 1988 was the second lands in terms of supermarginal, mar- families from the drought-devastated driest since 1895. This continuing ginal, and submarginal. In areas with heartland.34 drought greatly reduced grass quality on submarginal land, people would be re- Tugwell early saw the need for con- pastures and rangelands, and the 1988 settled on subsistence homesteads, and servation and was instrumental in creat- drought cut corn and soybean produc- surplus lands would be turned back to ing the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Nebraska Histow -Winter 1999 of the USDA. For him, the RA assign- Grassland in that state, both adminis- program was announced to assist in set- ment was twofold: to help farmers and tered through a Chadron, Nebraska, tling cases, without court action, where ranchers with federal professional su- headquarters. Located in the gumbo debt was clearly more than could be pervision and extension education pro- land of Sioux County, much of the paid and foreclosure imminent. Local grams. But where submarginal land of- Oglala National Grassland is Pierre shale committees would "devise an adjust- fered no security for farmers, the land or clay. It also contains broken land, ment" agreeable to both parties.39 would be converted to new uses, re- with threads of trees only along the river In many cases, however, the solution stored to grassland or forests, and the in- banks and edging down from the high to overwhelming debt and poverty was habitants re~ettled.3~ buttes to the south. There are dry alka- to sell out to the federal government, There was never congressional au- line flats with little life existing on them. which at the time was about the only en- thorization of the Resettlement Adminis- Although the land wasn't as badly mis- tity buying land. Under the old AAA pro- tration. It was created by executive or- used as that in the 1930s Dust Bowl at the grams, federal appraisers were sent to der and given funds from the Federal junction of Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, the field as early as 1933 to help set up Emergency Relief Act that provided and New Mexico, there were many aban- land purchases. This process acceler- President Roosevelt with nearly $5 bil- doned farms at the time of its purchase. ated with the birth of the Resettlement lion for discretionary projects. Nearly Drought conditions throughout the Administration. Sioux County's only $50 million was made available for rural 1920s and 1930s culminated in the driest newspaper, the weekly Hamson Sun, an- resettlement projects. Responding, in year, 1934. All farm commodity prices nounced in late 1935 that about part, to criticism of the RA programs by were at record lows. Corn that sold for $700,000 was available to purchase conservative Republicans during $1.56 per bushel in 1920 had dropped to some 155,000 acres in Sioux and Dawes Roosevelt's first reelection campaign in thirteen cents per bushel in 1932. Wheat counties. The purchases would be of 1936, Tugwell resigned from the RA af- went from $2.08 to twentyseven cents "dry land farms, drought damaged ter the November electi0n.3~ per bushel. Oats were selling for a dime ranges, abandoned crop land, cut-over By September 1937 the RA was re- a bushel and barley for thirteen cents. woodlands and young timber on the placed with the Farm Security Adminis- In 1929 cattle were at a high price of Pine Ridge Escarpment." Those areas tration, created by the Bankhead-Jones $1 1.06 per hundredweight and three would then be developed for grazing, Farm Tenant Act. Title I11 of that act, Re years later were selling for $4.10. Grass forestry, and recreation along with flood tirement of Submarginal Land, finally on the range died out, and there was vir- control, water conservation, game pres- gave congressional approval to correct tually no pasture for livestock. Many of ervation, and an addition to a state park. maladjustments in land use and to pur- the cattle were starving and the govern- The aim was to shift land unsuited to chase submarginal land. The lands were ment purchased millions of head na- cropping over to grazing use. "The de- transferred to the U.S. Forest Service of tionwide, just to give farmers and ranch- velopment of large, well managed graz- the USDA on November 2,1953. A man- ers some cash for relief?8 ing areas should enable the farmers and date ensured a "sustained yieldn of the In the midst of this devastation, the ranchers to obtain a more stable income grasses as well as multiple use of the opportunity to sell out and relocate on than is possible under present condi- land under the Forest Service. Eventu- more productive land, or to just have tions and the grass cover will protect the ally, many of these lands were trans- some cash for vital necessities or to soil from further erosion," according to a ferred to other state and federal agen- move on, must have seemed like a gift 1937 RA press release in Nebra~ka.~' cies, and on June 20, 1960, the from heaven. As early as 1933, the Farm E. P. Wilson, a contemporary histo- remaining 3,804,000 acres were desig- Credit Administration formed a commit- rian writing in 1938, noted that the "ulti- nated as nineteen national grasslands, tee of volunteers in Sioux County to mate readjustment" of use for the fed- to be managed for outdoor recreation, bring debtors and creditors together to eral purchases of Nebraska Panhandle range, timber, watershed, and wildlife reach a "satisfactory adjustment of mort- "high risk land" was to "return thou- and fish. A twentieth national grassland gages or other debts." This program was sands of acres of land turned wrong side of 18,425 acres, Butte Valley in northern taken over by the Resettlement Adminis- up by plows during the World War [I] California, was dedicated in July 1991 as tration in 1935, which could then ad- period to grass and tree growth," and to part of the Klamath National Forest?' vance money to farm families to pur- prevent such actions in the future. The One of the original nineteen grass- chase or lease land in a loan program. aim was to assure longtime tenure to lands was the Oglala National Grassland, Those eligible were farmers on marginal ranch families within the area.41 consisting today of 94,435 acres. It is lo- land "which will not yield a satisfactory For those selling out and leaving, re- cated in northern Sioux and Dawes living," tenants, and young married settlement could be done at eight RA counties on the South Dakota border couples just starting out. In November farmstead project sites in Nebraska. and adjoining the Buffalo Gap National 1935 a Nebraska State Debt Conciliation They were located at Scottsbluff, Loup The Federal Government and Sioux County, Nebraska

City, Keamey, Grand Island, Fairbury, ports. Some of those out-of-area pur- place for fieldmen to list why the land Falls City, South Sioux City, and at the chases were from former residents who should be purchased, and those com- site of Two Rivers, twenty miles west of had already moved elsewhere. In sev- ments are revealing about the nature of Omaha.& late as Septembel: 1938 there eral cases, Jane and John Doe were the national grassland purchase pro- were still vacancies on these projects. listed as owners, because the records gram. In sixteen cases, "owner wishes to There, successful applicants would live were unclear about who the actual own- sell" was given as a reason for purchase. in a "new, modern home" where they ers were or where they lived. This lack In twenty-one cases, the purchase was could "raise a garden, chickens, have a of information was also often the situa- to fill in a block of land. "Overgrazed" cow and a sow," and join a cooperative tion in estate settlements, when the ex- was a comment on fourteen tracts, and farming enterprise with financial and act list of heirs was unknown. Public "submarginal" land was noted twice. technical help from the Farm Security and private institutions were involved in Nonresident status of ownership was Administration, successor to the RA. at least twenty-two tracts, including out- given nineteen times. Good timber land Leases were available for "very reason- of-area corporations, federal courts, was noted on fortytwo tracts. Good able terms" with the chance to buy the Sioux or Dawes County delinquent tax grazing ground was noted on thirty-six farmsteads later. Some of the homes are lands, and banks. In two cases, land tracts, and "for development" on twenty- still standing west of Sc0ttsbluff.4~ mortgaged by failed banks was sold to two tracts. In reality, 41 percent of the land pur- repay depositors who had a claim on One of the most frequent comments, chases made in Sioux County were from the bank. relating to forty tracts, was the equiva- individuals, families, or institutions liv- Of the 319 tracts, records show that lent of "no income to owner," with ing outside the area, often in other 139 were leased at the time of appraisal. "heavy debt" listed on four tracts. For ~tates.4~A case-by-case examination of Some improvements, beyond fencing, thirtyfive tracts, the comment was "not 319 tracts purchased (involving the vast were shown on 112 tracts. They could large enough unit" or not a "suitable" majority of land in the Oglala National include an elaborate ranch headquar- farm. Condemnations accounted for Grassland) shows 189 tracts were pur- ters with house and outbuildings. Usu- nine tracts. In at least one case, the ap chased from people or institutions in ally, however, the improvements were praiser recommended that land not be Sioux or Dawes counties, or contiguous listed as old homes, wells and wind- purchased, writing that "These people counties in South Dakota and Wyoming. mills, sheds and outbuildings, and are thrifty and can make a living on this Purchases from owners living outside dams. Most tracts had no improvements. tract." However, the land, 760 acres that area totaled 129 tracts. Four cases Until the appraisal forms changed in plus improvements, was purchased for were uncertain, according to the re- the later years of purchases, there was a $2,827.20. Prices for land ranged from

Catchment basin, Oglala National Grasslands, 1963. NSHS-RG2570:84-72 Nebraska History -Winter 1999

Pipe for irrigation outlet, Andrew Andrews farm, Sioux County. NSHS-RG4290-2746 fifty cents per acre for "waste" land, up tional $2,340 for Pitman and his total their meat, which was given out as relief to $4 and $4.50 for good farmland, in- sale was $9,491.50 on April 23, 1937, a supplies. cluding the more tillable loam soils. small fortune at the time. Meng remembered he got a govern- Most land sold for $2 and $3 per acre. A survivor of the Great Depression ment loan and bought thirty head of Among the tracts sold was one by was the late Albert Meng, who retired to cattle at $30 per head to feed over the William M. Forbes, a single man, on Crawford, Nebraska. He and his wife, winter. He bought cane, a form of Sudan September 10,1936. He had two hun- Helen, were newlyweds in 1934 and grass, for $30 a ton at Whitney, with a dred acres in Dawes County, which sold lived through the heart of the Dirty Thir- one-ton bundle needed for each cow. for an average of $1 per acre, with forty ties in Sioux County (Helen Meng died However, in early May there was a snow- acres going for $2 each, another forty on November 27,1994; Albert Meng storm. "We lost a bunch of calves," he acres listed at $1.50 each, and 120 acres died on September 7, 1998). The couple said. "But, we survived." As a reminder of of wasteland for fifty cents an acre. sold three tracts to the federal govem- how tough times were, Meng remem- Notes by the appraiser indicate the land ment under the resettlement program, bered that his father was treasurer of the was leased by the owner, apparently for although they remained as ranchers in local phone line, and a neighbor came in grazing, and there were no improve the county. One tract of nearly eighty to pay his annual bill of $3. "He counted ments shown or paid for. The owner acres was sold for $168.22, another of out the change and had a little left, and had the right to occupy and graze the 320 acres went for $1,019. They also would have no more money for a year," land under a temporary cropping agree- sold nearly 375 acres near the now Meng said. "He didn't know where any ment, to February 28,1937. Forbes re ghost town of 0rella?4 more money would come from." ceived his $200 in cash on October 2 1, Meng recalled the times in a March When selling land to the government, 1936. 1994 interview. Life "got desperate" in Meng recalled that fieldmen would ap On another tract, Benjamin F. Pit- the 1930s and people were destitute and praise the tract and make a bid. "Misrep man, a widower, sold 2,400 acres in hungry. He said 1934 was a bad year, resentation was done at times, because Dawes County for prices ranging from the worst one to ever hit the county. It the appraisers got a bonus for each lot $4.50 to $1.60 per acre. There was "good was dry, with total rainfall of only 4.5 sold." Appraisers told people they could buffalo and wheat grass on 1,855 acres," inches, he remembered. Cattle were sell their ranch headquarters and lease according to the appraiser, with a lower sold out of the county when possible. it back, but they were then forced to grade on 120 acres of forest land and But Meng witnessed the government move off. This practice was also noted twenty-five acres of waste land (sold for buying up cattle and watched as ditches by another survivor of the times, Carroll fifty cents an acre). This was a substan- were dug and diseased and emaciated Schnurr, a former legal secretary in tial holding, with a five-year-old frame cattle were shot and buried. Calves sold Harrison. She grew up in the area where house, barn, granary, corral, three wells, for a top price of $6 per head, and $16 land "was acquired by the government 1,600 rods of fencing, and two dams. to $18 was paid for cows, Meng said. through misrepresentation, condemna- The improvements brought an addi- Cattle in good shape were butchered for tion, or otherwise," she wrote in a 1994 The Federal Government and Sioux County, Nebraska letter. Federal agents contacted her par- 90,450 acres of federally owned land Association is Wes Pettipiece, Albert ents about selling their ranch and told (later designated the Oglala National Meng's son-in-law. He and his wife, them they could sell to the government Grassland), 12,475 acres of Nebraska Gerry, live on the Meng home ranch, and live on the place "at less cost than state land, and 122,320 acres of private isolated at the end of Sand Creek Road owning it." This seemed too good to be land, for a total of 225,335 acres. The north of Harrison. He said the associa- true, so her parents decided not to sell. federal grasslands were rented by the tion charged its members $6.50 per "People who were influenced by the district, which then leased small tracts AUM for permits in 1994 (down to $4.25 govemment agents were less fortunate. back to area ran~hers.4~ in 1998), using the extra funds for main- After selling, they were forced to vacate In 1970 the Sugarloaf Grazing District tenance and to hire a range rider to take the land. The improvements were de was incorporated to assume the duties head counts of livestock and check pas- molished and burned. Some buildings of a Soil Conservation Service district. A tures. Nearly all improvements on fed- were sold by sealed bids. My father ac- management plan'was prepared and ap eral land are costshared between the quired a few buildings for a very mini- proved by the Forest Service, whereby permit holders and the Forest Service, mal amount, which he moved to his the association pays a federally estab- but belong to the federal government. ranch," she wrote. A neighbor had his lished grazing fee for most of the Oglala Half of the $1.35 AUM fee paid to the land condemned and was forced to sell National Grassland, and then rents the Forest Service goes to the U.S. Treasury for $3.50 an acre, she noted.45 grazing privileges to member ranchers. and a fourth is used for conservation In October 1938 the submarginal Under the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant practice activities, such as spraying for land utilization program, encompassing Act, which still applies to national grass- noxious weeds, maintaining stock 105 projects on 7.1 million acres (in- lands management along with scores of dams, and reseeding. Another 25 per- cluding the Pine Ridge L-U project in other laws, the land can be used for cent is used to pay in-lieu property taxes Sioux and Dawes counties) was trans- livestock grazing, among other uses. to Sioux County. Some conservation ferred to the Soil Conservation Service "The promotion of grassland agriculture dollars are used in pipeline construction of the USDA. Land purchases continued and sustain [sic]yield management of to bring water for livestock and home- chiefly in the northern Great Plains, in- forage, fish and wildlife, water, recre- steads from wells on and near the Pine cluding some in Nebraska, with empha- ation and minerals will be emphasized," Ridge. Water is delivered to stock tanks sis on "acquiring larger areas and en- the plan notes. Specific goals are out- in the pastures and to ranch houses.50 larging established agricultural lined for livestock grazing, wildlife habi- The drought and depression that fos- adjustment projects." By 1943 all acqui- tat, and riparian area management.@ tered the New Deal also brought a great sitions ended with 11.3 million acres Butch Ellis, a Forest Service range variety of agriculture programs to prop having been purchased nationally. A conservationist in Chadron, Nebraska, up the farm economy and preserve and brief report in the Harrison Sun noted explained the financial agreement with rehabilitate land that was savagely that, in April 1939, the land-buying pro- the Sugarloaf Grazing Association. wounded during the 1930s. Many of these gram was being used "to set up more There are about 28,000 animal units per programs continue, in one form or an- economical sized units in the Pine month (AUM) on the 94,000 grassland other, while others such as commodity Ridge region." There was much less acres under grazing permits, for an aver- price supports are being phased out dur- need for relief and resettlement by then, age of 3.5 acres per AUM. One AUM is ing the coming years under the Federal so purchases were used mainly to fill in listed as a 1,000-pound unit of live- Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act blocks. Even so, public and private stock-cattle, sheep, or horses. For the of 1996 (Freedom to Farm Act).51 lands are interspersed checkerboard Forest Service, a horse counts as 1.2 Except for the southwest corner of style in the Oglala National Grassland.46 AUM, for example. The permits can run Sioux County in the North Platte River As part of the management and reha- from May 1 through December annu- Valley, few county farms or ranches are bilitation of govemment lands pur- ally, although most end on October 31. eligible for crop loan support payments. chased under the resettlement program, The cost to the Sugarloaf Association for Those payments do not apply to live- the Sugarloaf Soil Conservation District an AUM was $1.35 in 1998, down from stock, and that excludes much of the was formed for Sioux and Dawes coun- an earlier fee of $2.08 per AUM in 1994. county's agricultural output. In 1997 the ties. This was in lieu of establishing graz- "We sell the right to occupy the land, price support payments under the new ing districts, which are used to manage space for a certain number of live Agricultural Marketing Transition Act and lease much of the public range stock," Ellis said. The association then (AMTA) totaled $699,593 for Sioux elsewhere in the West. A referendum distributes permits to its members, usu- County. Most were from the southwest was held July 31, 1940, with property ally ranchers with land contiguous to comer of the county, and these pay- owners within the district boundary vot- the grassland.49 ments are slated to end in the year 2002 ing to create it. The district included A past president of the Sugarloaf unless Congress changes the law, ac- Nebraska History -Winter 1999

Pipeline installation northwest of Harrison by the White River Soil and Water Conservation District, 1966. NSHS-~6257034-75 cording to Larry Martinson, Farm Ser- New Deal. The programs included reha- taking land out of production and plant- vice Agency county executive director. bilitation of depleted rangeland, water ing it in native grasses and trees where In the recent past, those payments storage and conservation practices appropriate. This is entirely in the north- could total as high as $1 million annu- through stock dams, grassy waterways, ern two-thirds of Sioux County, Martinson ally in some years, while there would be terraces, and other methods; reseeding said. About 13,500 acres were enrolled at no loan deficiency payments in high in- rangeland to native grasses; and pipe an average bid of $45 to $50 per acre in come years. During the Depression, al- lines mostly in the northern half of the original ten-year CRP, according to most all farmers were-one way or an- Sioux County to provide water for stock Jeff Peterson, also a Farm Service other-eligible for relief payments, but tanks as well as for home consumption. Agency county executive director. In even here Sioux County fared worse For the past twenty years there was 1998 under the new CRP program there than most of the droughtstricken Great about $50,000 a year in Agriculture Con- were only thirteen contracts with an av- Plains. Between 1933 and 1936, Sioux servation Program funds for the county, erage bid of $26.30 on 3,513 acres in County was in the second lowest cat- with half going to grasslands and range, southern Sioux County. North of the egory of Great Plains drought counties and the other half for cropland, accord- Niobrara River, thirteen contracts total- for per capita federal relief aid, from $58 ing to Martinson. The ACP has been re ing 1,725 acres had an average bid of to $84. The highest category was $175 or placed by the Environmental Quality $37.62 per acre. Peterson and Martinson more, the lowest was less than $58.52 Improvement Program (EQIP), where share duties in Sioux County, splitting it Sioux County also receives federal farm producers can request funds for at the Niobrara River, with Peterson tak- benefits for soil conservation. The old pipelines, livestock dams, water im- ing the north half and Martinson direct- Soil Conservation Service and Agricul- poundment reservoirs, sod waterways, ing farm programs south of the river. tural Stabilization and Conservation Ser- terraces, and water di~ersions.5~ Sioux is one of very few counties in the vice, now combined in the Natural Re- The Conservation Reserve Program nation to be split into two service areas, sources Conservation Service, provided has provided about $500,000 a year from according to Peterson." programs. since they began during the 1987 to 1997 to Sioux County ranches for Fears of another Dust Bowl tragedy The Federal Government and Sioux County, Nebraska sparked the creation of the Great Plains nent grass those cropland fields that walk several miles to water, few animals Conservation Program on August 7, should never have been plowed in the are now more than a mile from fresh 1956, for the ten-state region. The pro- first place." The average contract, across supplies, according to EiteLS9 gram was designed to assist long-term the ten states, in 1968 covered 1,604 The federal presence is also keenly complete conservation planning on acres with "an average Federal cost- felt because of the relatively large farms and ranches, with sixty-one Ne- share obligation of $3,471," according to amount of public land in Sioux County, braska counties-everything west of U.S. Norman Berg of the USDA. The Great compared to the rest of Nebraska and, Highway 81-involved. The program Plains Conservation Program was re indeed, the Great Plains. The county guaranteed "federal costsharing for ap- newed to 1981 and again to 1991.57 probably has more federal land than plying needed soil and water conserva- The Great Plains program helped es- any other county in the state, with fed- tion practices for a long period," accord- tablish unusual nonprofit pipeline cor- eral preserves of the Oglala National ing to one report. It emphasized "land porations to bring water to northern Grassland and the Soldier Creek Na- use changes and wind-erosion conserva- Sioux and Dawes County acres, accord- tional Wilderness Area, part of the Ne- tion and management practices." Ne- ing to Ed Eitel of the Natural Resources braska National Forest; the Agate Fossil braska was the initial leader in contracts and Soil Conservation office in Beds National Monument; and the implemented under the program, with Chadron. He said the pipeline entities Hudson-Meng Bison Bonebed. State 200 agreements worth $1,029,167 signed are seldom, if ever, seen outside this re- lands must also be added, including the in early 1959 averaging contract lengths gion. In that "Gumbo Country" of north- scenic Gilbert-Baker Wildlife Manage of four and one-half years.55 em Sioux County, groundwater is not ment Area, the Peterson Wildlife Man- At 1969 congressional hearings to re- readily available and what is there is agement Area, a small portion of Fort new the Great Plains program to 1981, highly mineralized and not fit for hu- Robinson State Park, and a University of Nebraska Representative Robert Denney man consumption, according to a 1967 Nebraska research site at University praised it as "highly successful." He Extension Service survey. The survey Lake near the southeast county border. noted that eligible conservation mea- noted that livestock dams and dugouts In all, public lands total about 200,000 sures were that store water in northern Sioux acres, or about 15 percent of Sioux establishing permanent plant cover, field County silt up easily and are dry for County. The state as a whole has about or contour stripcropping, contour cultiva- three out of every ten years, with poor 6 percent public land. There are com- tion, improving range cover, planting trees water quality affecting them another plaints in Sioux County that all these or shrubs for windbreaks or shelterbelts, three out of ten years, on average.58 public acres are not included on county establishing waterways, building terrace systems, chiseling or pitting rangeland, irn- With the development of PVC (plas- property tax rolls, or are often proving dams or ponds for irrigation, con- tic) pipe in the early 1960s. however, it undertaxed, and are thus a drain on lo- structing wells for livestock, installing became feasible to pipe water into this cal revenue sources. However, those pipe, fencing, and controlling brush.56 area from the Pine Ridge to the south public lands also represent opportuni- In Nebraska, grass seeding, or con- and from wells located as far away as fif- ties for the county and its residents, with verting cropland to permanent native teen to twenty miles. Work on this pro- multiple uses for recreation, tourism, grass, is the "number one practice." By gram began in 1966, with financial aid wildlife development, and environmen- June 30, 1968, fifty-four contracts had from the Great Plains program and the tal protection. been let in Sioux County. regional Upper Niobrara-White River The federal government has invested Representative David Martin, repre- Natural Resource District, as well as significant resources in Sioux County senting western Nebraska including from user fees paid by ranchers in the since the treaties with the Lakota Sioux Sioux County, noted there were nearly pipeline district, based on the number freed the land for Eurc-American settle 4,500 Nebraska farmers and ranchers us- of cattle, acres, or water used as mea- ment. It has been the major partner in ing the program, with many efforts to re- sured by meters. Eighteen pipeline orga- providing infrastructure funding for turn unsuitable cropland to grass and nizations were formed between 1968 such projects as large irrigation systems "to reestablish depleted ranges so that and 1981 to construct and maintain and small pipeline systems, for relief aid adequate cover exists to protect the pipelines in Sioux and Dawes counties, in desperate times of drought and de- land from the ravages of strong winds and some registered as nonprofit corpc- pression, and important help in restor- that often plague the Plains." In Ne- rations. Each has an elected board of di- ing the land to its original use as a large braska, this program involved about 5.5 rectors and officers, though one person pasture of native grasses for grazing ani- million acres and about $13.5 million may often serve in more than one office. mals. The Homestead Act and other since the program began. Martin testi- There are also numerous small, private land laws provided nearly free land to fied, "Significant to me is the emphasis pipelines not incorporated that had fed- Sioux County settlers, and the 1902 Na- being placed upon returning to perma- eral help. Where cattle once had to tional Reclamation Act began the im- Nebraska History -Winter 1999 portant work of irrigating the readily peoples, the partnership has been pro- Treaty of 1851 were held on Hone Creek because found, affecting nearly every part of the pastures and wild game around the fort had farmable acres. Relief from the Great been depleted by the large contingent of tribes Depression came from the New Deal's their lives at one time or another. waiting for the council. Thus it was agreed to Resettlement Administration and its pur- It is also worth noting two facts about move the entire body downstream where ample chase of submarginal land. That land is Sioux County and how they relate to his- grass was available. The text of the 1851 and other tory. In the terrible years of the Dirty nineteenthcentury treaties is in Charles J. Kappler. now being leased back to ranchers at Indian Affairs, Laws and Trealies, vol. 2 (Washing- discounted rates. The federal farm com- Thirties, the value of some Sioux County ton: GPO, 1903). modity support programs provide pay- farmland was about the same, or less, as that paid by treaty to Indian tribes in the U.S. Statutes at Large 15 (1868): 63547; 19 ments to farmers in the North Platte (1877): 254-64; Report of the Commissioner ofIn- River Valley, while several conservation 1870s. And the current population of dian Affairs (Washington: GPO, 1875), 179; programs have helped Sioux County Sioux County today was probably Sheldon, Land Systems, 2 1-22. farmers renew their droughtstricken matched, or exceeded, by the Lakota Francis Moul, "William McKinley Holt and the lands, and continue today with EQIP Sioux during the florescence of their Indian Claims Commission." Great Plains Quarterly and the renewed Conservation Reserve culture on the Plains, as they traveled 16 (Summer 1996): 171. Program. Most important for northern across these same lands and established For a history of the Lakota claim to the Black ranches in Sioux County has been water villages for periods of hunting or annual Hills, see Edward Lazarus, Black Hills, White Jus- gatherings of various bands. Obviously, tice: The Sioux Nation Versus the United States, pipeline construction under the Great 1775to the Presenl (Lincoln: University of Ne- Plains Conservation Program the modern computer, satellitedriven braska Press, Bison Books, 1999). world village of 1999 is incomparable to It is nearly impossible to sum up the US. Stalutes at Large 2 (1820): 566-67; 10, total public investment in these numer- the Plains Indians' heyday or the pio- (1854): 308-10; Thomas Donaldson, The Public ous federal programs, but it seems clear neer days of the Euro-American settler. Domain: Its Histoy with Statistics (Washington: that in a few isolated cases, the cost of Yet, some of the bedrock facts of life in GPO, 1884). 214; Sheldon, Land Systems, 25-27. the program may have outweighed the Sioux County are strangely similar. Per- Sheldon, Land Systems, 87. value of the land enrolled. An example haps there are lessons to be learned loIbid, 77-78,90-103. from that. And, perhaps all the money is the first ten years of the Conservation U.S. Statutes at Large, 17 (1873): 605-6; 19 Reserve Program where payments of and effort expended by the federal gov- (1877): 377; 33 (1904): 54743; and 39 (1916): $45 to $50 per acre per year were made ernment in its partnership with Sioux 344-45. County produced results that were un- to take land out of production-more j2 Sheldon. LandSystems, 104. 105-41, passim. expected. than the value of land that ranges from l3 For a review of how public lands were ac- $100 to $200 per acre. Yet, the CRP is quired or enclosed in the Nebraska Sand Hills, see scarcely used and the number of acres Notes C. Barron Mclntosh, The Sand Hills: The Human Landscape (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, enrolled in Sioux County is tiny, com- I Sioux County, on the northwest comer of the 1996), esp. chap. 14. pared to eastern Nebraska counties. On state, is likely the most picturesque area of Ne- the other hand, the $854,500.29 paid in braska, with treetopped escarpments and deep l4Sheldon, Land Systems, 116-17. canyons, rolling grasslands and stark badlands, 1912 dollars to build the Interstate Canal Islbid., 129. and buttes that overlook three states. It is the most seems like a great bargain now, accord- diverse of all lands in Nebraska, and the only l6lbid., 140, 143. ing to the annual value of crops grown county to encompass seven of the eight major to- l7 Sioux County, Nebraska, General Index, in irrigated fields of the North Platte pographic regions (plus badlands), missing only Grantee and Grantor, Sioux County courthouse, River Valley. That 1912 amount today large, manmade reservoirs (though there are Harrison. There were also seventy-two claims filed equals $55,166,538, based on the March many small ones). It has more public land from 1911 to 1928 that are variously called re (200,000 acres, or more than 15 percent of its land ceiver receipts, acceptance of proof, and final cer- 1998 Construction Cost Index. Just the area) than most Nebraska and Great Plains coun- tificate. These are receipts issued to homesteaders annual maintenance costs for the Sioux ties, and is a long, rectangular area, bigger than before the patents were completed in Washington, County portion of the canal nearly the state of Delaware. D.C. and returned. The receipts were useful as equal the original construction costs.60 Addison E. Sheldon, Land Systems and Land proof of ownership for bank loans and land sales. For Native Americans who departed Policies in Nebraska (Lincoln: Nebraska State His- Sometimes patents were lost. and the receipts were substituted. The year of highest receipt regis- Sioux County, the federal partnership torical Society. 1936). 1. See also David J. Wishart. An Unspeakable Sadness: The Dispossession of [he tration was 1920 with sixteen, followed by 1921 was a harsh contract that took from Nebraska Indians (Lincoln: University of Nebraska with eight. Receipts are still being used to provide them some of their richest and favorite Press, 1994) for much important information on proof of land ownership or to obtain duplicate hunting grounds; land they lived on for the treatment of Nebraska Indian tribes in the patents. Sioux County, Nebraska, General Index for extended periods of time and, though nineteenth century, with specific reference to land Miscellaneous Records, Sioux County courthouse. negotiations and sales. not readily proved, land they may have laU.S. Statutes at Large 48 (1934): 1269-75. cultivated for their food. For Euro- Wishart. Unspeakable Sadness. 14-15. lbid.. 32 (1902): 388-90; Donald Worster. Rio- Americans who replaced the first Negotiations and signing of the Fort Laramie ers of Empire: Water. A~idiv,and the Crowlh of the The Federal Government and Sioux County, Nebraska

American West (New York: Oxford University 'Major Changes in Grassland as a Result of Contin- 46 Frederick W. Obermiller, 'The Evolution of Press. 1985). 160. ued Drought." The Botanical Gazefte 100 (March Regulated Livestock Grazing Systems on the Na- 1939): 584. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Rec- tional Grasslands," paper presented at the Center for Great Plains Studies Grasslands Symposium, lamation, North Platte River Projects: Wyoming-Ne- 30 Stewart, "History of Range Use." 131; Patrick E. braska (Washington, D.C.: n.d.), 3. Reece, et al.; Drought Management and University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Apr. 8, 1994, 11; Pastureland: A Handbook for Nebraska ond South Harrison Sun, Apr. 27,1939. 2' Dennis Strauch, manager, Pathfinder Irrigation Dakota (Lincoln: Cooperative Extension EC-91- District, Mitchell, Nebraska, phone interview with '' Harrison Sun. Dec. 5,1940. 123, 1991),2 author, Aug. 6, 1998; U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, "U.S. Forest Service, Grazing Association Plan: Project History, Part Nine, Earthwork, Second Divi- 3' John R. Borchert, "The Dust Bowl in the Sugarloaf Grazing Association and Oglala National sion Moin Canal North Platte (7nterstate) Project: 1970s,"Annals ofthe Association ofAmerican Grassland (Chadron, Nebr.: U.S. Forest Service. Investigations and Surveys (Mills, Wyo.: 1913), 1-5. Geographers 61 (January 1971): 5,1041. 1987), 1-5. 10-11. 32 William E. Riebsame, et al. Drought and Natu- "Butch Ellis, U.S. Forest Service range conserva- 22 Ibid., 13-14, 16, 22. ral Resources Management in the United States: tionist. Chadron, Nebraska, interview with author, Impacts and implications of the 1987-89 Drought Mar. 21, 1994. Zj U.S. Bureau of Reclsmation, History ofthe (Boulder: Westview Press. 1991), 30-31,38. 74. North Platte Project, Nebraska-Wyoming: Part Ten, " Wes Pettipiece, rancher, Hamson, Nebraska, Structures, Second Division Main Canal. Interstate Paul Bonnifield, The Dust Bowl: Men, Dirt, and interview with author, Mar. 22, 1994. Unit (Mills. Wyo.: 1913). 23-26, 38.48.55. Depression (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1979), 111. j1US. Statutes at Large 110 (1996): 888-1 197. 2' Fiftyfirst Biennial Report (Lincoln: Nebraska Department of Water Resources, 199S96). Paul K. Conkin. Tomorrow a New World: The j2Lany Martinson, Farm Service Agency county New Deal Communiry Program (Ithaca, N.Y.: executive director, Scottsbluff, phone interview " Hany E. Weakly, "History of Drought in Ne Cornell University Press, 1959), 150. with author. Jan. 12, 1998; Irene Link, Research braska," Journal ofsoil and Water Conservation 17 Bulletin: Relief and Rehabilitation in the Drought (June 1962): 272; James C. Olson, History ofNe- Ibid., 153. Area (Washington: Works Progress Administration. braska. 2d. ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska 36 Ibid., 161. 1937), 18. Press. 1966), 220. 37 Ibid., 15657; Teny West, "USDA Forest Service j3 Martinson interview. 26 Olson. History ofNebraska, 233-34; Harlan H. Management of the National Grasslands," Agricul- Ibid.; Jeff Peterson. Farm Service Agency Barrows. "Lectures on the Historical Geography of turol History 64 (Spring 1990): 89; "Butte Valley Na- county executive director, Chadron, Nebraska, in- the United States as Given in 1933," Department of tional Grassland General Information Sheet," terview with author, Jan. 12, 1998. Geography Research Paper No. 77, Universiv of Macdoel, Calif., ca. 1991. Chicago (Chicago: 1962), 231; R. A. Wamck and Gaylord P. Godwin, 'Great Plains Conservation 38 Olson, History of Nebraska. 28690. M. J. Bowden, "The Changing Impacts of Drought Plan Will Leave Legacy of Good Soil," Lincoln Sun- in the Great Plains" in M. P. Lawson and M. E. 39 Harrison (Nebraska) Sun, Oct. 24, Nov. 14, day Journal-Star, May 10, 1959; Roger Langenheim, Baker, eds., The Great Plains: Perspectives and 1935. "Nebraska Leads Plains Program," ibid., Feb. 8, Prospects (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Ibid., Oct. 31, 1935; Dec. 23, 1937. 1959. 1981). 126. E. P. Wilson, "Brief History of Dawes County." j6U.S. House Committee on Agriculture, Hear- Anthony J. Badger, The New Deal: The Depres- in Pioneer Tales oflhe North Platte Volley and Ne- ings Before the Subcommittee on Conservation and sion Years, 1933-1940 (New York: Hill and Wang, braska Panhandle (Gering. Nebr.: Courier Press. Credit ofthe Committee on Agriculture, 91st Cong.. 1989). 15. 1938). 204. 1st sess. (Washington: GPO, 1969). 54-57. 28 U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the 42 Hamson Sun, Sept. 29,1938. " Ibid., 4546,20. Census, Populotian of Counties by Decennial Cen- sus, 1860-1990, Decennially Nebraska and Coun- 43 All quotations and information concerning " Ed Eitel, manager, U.S. Natural Resources and ties, Bureau of Business Research, University of Oglala National Grassland tract purchases come Soil Conservation Service, Chadron, Nebraska, in- Nebraska-Lincoln, Mar. 13, 1998. from U.S. Forest Service, Land Purchases ofthe terview with author, Mar. 8, 1996; Warren Peden, Oglala National Grassland, microfiche files, "Plastic Pipelines for Livestock Water in Northwest George Stewart. "History of Range Use." in The Chadron, Nebraska. 193641. Nebraska," Journal ofRange Management 24 Western Range: Letter from the Secretory of Agricul- (November 1971). 473. ture. ..A Report ofthe Western Range-A Great "Albert Meng, Crawford, Nebraska, interview but Neglected Natural Resource (Washington: GPO, with author. Mar. 22, 1994. j9Eitel interview. 1936). 131,4-5; J. E. Weaver and R. W. Albertson, 'j Carroll Schnurr to author, Feb. 25, 1994. Engineering News-Record 240 (Mar. 30, 1998): 41.