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Home , Great Falls Tribune, June 1964, Marias River, Montana (character), Natural disaster

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This content downloaded from 161.7.98.62 on Tue, 25 Mar 2014 12:56:03 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions NaturalDisaster

The 1964 on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation

by Aaron Parrett

IN THE SECOND WEEK OF JUNE 1964, the worst naturaldisaster in 's recorded history descended on the state in the form of heavy rains that quickly turned once picturesque creeks into raging,mile-wide .Dams, roads, and railroadswashed out, homes and ranches were swept away,and thirty people died. The area affected by the flooding amounted to nearly thirty thousand squaremiles, or roughly 20 percent of the state. By Thursday,June11, President LyndonJohnson had declarednine counties in northwestand north-centralMontana a federaldisaster area. When mopping- up operations ended, damages stood at an estimated at $62 million.'

In its official report, the Geological mass moved against the mountains in northwestern Survey (USGS) offered a comprehensive analysis of the Montana, where cooler temperatures caused heavy rain. meteorological and hydrological conditions that created Ordinarily,moist air masses originatingfrom the Gulf drop the flooding. The first and most important factor was the their precipitationon the easternslopes of the Rockies. But inordinately heavy precipitation that preceded the . this was no ordinaryrainstorm: the air mass spilled over the While precipitation levels were normal from January Continental Divide and generated what the through March,and mountain snow pack was actuallyless Bureau referred to as a "lee-side storm" of nearly than normal through March, heavy snowfall in April unfathomable magnitude. A 1995 USGS report suggested brought mountain snow cover to well above averageby the that such a storm occurs only once every five thousand end of the month. In early May an unusually heavy snow- years.3 storm deposited record snowfall. Also contributing to the In practical terms, the storm's arrivalmeant that places flooding were below-normal temperatures from March to ordinarily reporting modest rainfall logged seemingly May that delayed significant snowmelt. By the end of May apocalyptic amounts for the twenty-four-hour period the nearly saturated soil in the mountains could absorb betweenJune 7 and 8: 8-plus inches in Browning, o1 inches little additional moisture.2 at McDonald in Glacier National Park, 13 inches These conditions combined with an unprecedented southwest of Augusta, and 11inches at Heart Butte. It also weather system that swept into the state in early June. meant majorflooding occurred, especially on the Flathead According to the United States Weather Bureau's official on the west side of the mountains and the Sun and report, when June began, "moist air from the Gulf of MariasRivers and their tributarieson the east. As the flood- Mexico was spreading north and north-northwest over the ing developed, the media focused its attention on the cities western plains and central Rocky Mountains."Through a of Great Falls and Kalispell, where damage was dramatic phenomenon known as "orographic lifting,"this moist air and easily documented from air and land.4

7. "C I On and 8,1964, the worst natural in Montana's recorded history occurred as a massive storm dropped heavy rain on late-season mountain snowpack. The resulting flood covered roughly 20 percent of the state, n but the Blackfeet Indian Reservation suffered the brunt of the disaster, with thirty lives lost, hundreds of homes and ranches 111 and the reservation's infrastructure the was the over (p0 inundated, severely damaged. Among property destroyed bridge cD six miles west of Browning, shown at left on .

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r ...... --...... -. _ CA NA DA a good example of how media coveragefailed to make clear " BLACKFEETINDIAN i GLACIER that the brunt of the disaster hit the reservation. Though NATIONAL CBrei RESERVATION ! PARK MI lCut Bank the article noted "at least 30 were drowned, 100 were miss- Ps She and over were left the brief text made ColumbiaFalls liby ing 1,200 homeless," no mention of the reservationand the accompanying pho- Kalispell tos of Great Falls seemed to that the victims were Conread suggest from the Great Falls area.A Newsweekarticle that appeared O \'. \ BentonFort ~ x . , + ,,Cho a few days later focused on the damage to the reservation, but the accompanying photograph, which had no caption, i\. eValier 7'.rFalls showed a bridge washed out by the south of :\ Falls Choteau, forty miles away.6 WESThILN& Missoula 1. U.S. ArmyCorps of Engineers,"Report of the Flood of June 1964 in the MissouriRiver Basin in Montana,"in F.C. Bonerand Frank t ques , hwever, the wrt of te damage Upper Stermitz, of June 1964 in NorthwesternMontana, U.S. Geological SurveyWater-Supply Paper 1840-B (Washington, D.C., 1967), 1-4. The Without , however, the worst of the damage $62 millionis the equivalentof $367 millionin 2003 dollars.Robert C. Sahr'sConsumer Price Index Conversion occurred roughly one hundred miles northwest of Great Factors,oregonstate.edu/dept/ accessed 18,2003. the Blackfeet Indian where pol_sci/fac/Sahr/cv2003.pdf, September Falls on Reservation, "raging 2. Bonerand Stermitz,Floods of une 1964, B13, B5, B6. In an August riversdestroyed 265 homes, 20,000 acres of hayland along 11,2003, telephoneinterview, Boner noted, "When you haverainfall on of are a situation." the creeks, two large dams,... irrigationfacilities on which top existingmelting snow, you facing potentialflooding In 1964 an rainfell on late-seasonsnowpack. acres of barns earlyJune unusuallyheavy 37,000 cropland depended, corrals, sheds, 3. Ibid.,B18; Charles Parrett, "Regionalization of AnnualPrecipitation and livestock, all bridges and much of the Reservationroad Maximain Montana,"in Associationof StateDam SafetyOfficials 1995 Annual 654. system, and, most tragic of all, claimed all the casualties of ConferenceProceedings (Lexington, Ky., 1995), 4. Bonerand Stermitz, Floods ofjune 1964,10, B29-B45. the the entire flood As Bob an Although area, thirty lives." Norris, damat HungryHorse Reservoir controlled flooding on the SouthFork of announcer for Shelby radio station KSEN, put it: "Tragedy theFlathead, the "Flathead River upstream from Flathead Lake underwent themost severe of modemtimes. All main from was to be found everywhere, but if any single segment of flooding bridgesupstream ColumbiaFalls were washed out or renderedunusable." Ibid., B66-67. the was hit and hit it was the Blackfeet population hardest, 5. Helen West, Flood: The Story of the 1964 BlackfeetDisaster Indians on the Reservation."5 (Kalispell,Mont., 1970), 4-5; Bob Norris,sound recordingof KSEN radio n.d. [June Oral 79, MontanaHistorical The way the flooding affectedthe BlackfeetReservation broadcast, 1964], History Archives,Helena. the the the event an Society versus way public perceived exposes 6. Life, , 1964, 38-39; "Montana:'The Dam is Busted,"' interestingdisparity. A two-page photo spread in Life offers Newsweek,June22,1964,30-31.

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On the west side of the divide, the Hungry Horse News storage opened at the local fairgrounds.Given that the Sun concentrated its coverage on the extensive damage to areas River did not crest until 12:45A.M. Wednesday, the biggest around Kalispell and Columbia Falls. Local newspaper- difference between the flood's effect on the Blackfeet and man Mel Ruder even won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage Great Falls residents was in the availability of advance of the flooding. But aside from its normal reprinting of warning. Whereas many reservationresidents had no time John Tatsey's column from the reservation's paper, the to plan an escape, citizens in GreatFalls had at least twenty- Browning Glacier Reporter,the Hungry Horse News made four hours to vacate their properties and move their posses- no mention of the reservationdamage in the weeks follow- sions to higher ground.8 ing the flood. The Browning The morning paper, the Glacier Reporter provided GreatFalls Tribune,began the best coverage of the its flood coverage on Tues- events on the reservation, day,June 9, with a lead arti- but its usefulness as a pri- cle that focused on the local mary news source was lim- threat. This article mistak- ited by its small circulation enly attributed the status of and weekly publication "chief troublemaker"to the schedule. The issue for the Sun River rather than to the week of the flood came out tributaries of the Marias, -'8 t ' a>-. three days after the worst confusing readers about the had passed.7 flood's geography and re- The neglect of the flood's inforcing the notion that the effects on the Blackfeet Res- Sun River was responsible ervation is a result of both for the deaths announced by was on the the media's to mar- Although flooding widespread reservation, the headline "Dam-Buster tendency tlhemost effects were seen on the two cultures devastating Floods Kill at Least Fear- ginalize minority streams where dams failed: Two Medicine and 8; of the ful Residents Evacuate." A and the contingencies Birch Creeks. Blackfeet artist Gary Schildt later drew event itself. For a few sidebar described days, his interpretation of these , Flooding River, front-page the reservation (already iso- to illustrate Helen B. West's Flood: The Story of the "dam-busting floods lated and remote)was almost the 1964 Blackfeet Disaster (p. 37). that swept down Monday completely cut off from the from Montana's northwest- rest of the world. While this ern mountains," but infor- isolation was largely responsible for the paucity of media mation was limited because communication with the coverage at the time, the lack of attention in later reports reservationhad been broken. Only one other brief article, and in historicalscholarship reflects the dominant culture's "IndianFamilies Isolated in 2 BrowningAreas," mentioned tendency to minimize or overlook such events when the the situation on the reservation.9 worst of the damage is experienced by a minority popula- By June o1 headlines in both Great Falls papers were tion. Perhaps the most subtle way the history of minority devoted almost entirely to the damage in the city and its peoples is suppressed is through unconscious neglect. outlying areas. The Great Falls Tribune'slead article ran Fortunately,the flood's fortiethanniversary offers an oppor- under the dramatic headline "Rampaging Sun River tunity to recover its significance as Montana's worst natu- Hammers at Southwest Great Falls Homes," while a front- ral disaster and as an event whose primary locus was the page sidebarvaguely noted "deadlydestructive floodwaters Blackfeet Reservation. poured over lowlands at record levels Tuesday leaving at For Great Falls, the urban center closest to the reser- least 30 dead upstream, dozens missing, and hundred [sic] vation and the largest city in the state, newspaper coverage homeless." In this context, "upstream"made little sense, of the flooding began on Monday,, when the city's given that the flooding creeks and rivers that were respon- afternoon paper, the Great Falls , ran the bold sible for the deaths sent their waters into the Missouri headline "Sun River Threatens Great Falls."By Monday downstream from Great Falls via the Marias. Neither afternoon families were evacuating the Sun River district 8. GreatFalls OnJune 10 the Great with assistance from MalmstromAir Force Base personnel, (Mont.)Tribune,June 8,9,1964. Falls Leaderreported a peakwater level of 24.6 feet at the Fourteenth and local Great units, government agencies. StreetSouthwest Bridge, 5.5 feethigher than during the 1953 flood. Falls citizens were able to move their possessions to the dry 9. GreatFalls (Mont.) Tribune,June 9, 1964. Eightof the state'smajor highwayswere closed, four of themon or nearthe BlackfeetReservation. Closureslisted in theJune 9 GreatFalls Tribuneincluded U.S. 2 near 7. Tom Lawrence,Pictures, a Park,and a Pulitzer:Mel Ruder and the Essex,U.S. 89 southof Babb,the Browningto Babbsecondary road, and HungryHorse News (Helena, Mont., 2000), 8-9. Montana49 nearEast Glacier.

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This content downloaded from 161.7.98.62 on Tue, 25 Mar 2014 12:56:03 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions News coverage concentrated on the flooding in Great Falls (right) and in the Kalispell and Columbia Falls areas west of the Continental Divide. These reports attributed "chief troublemaker" to the Sun River rather than to the tributaries of the Marias River that flow through the Blackfeet Reservation.

did "upstream"clearly indicate that the majorityof themissing and homeless were Indians.The articlewent on to repeatthe misconceptionthat the "chief troublemaker and record breakerwas the Sun River," reinforcingthe notion that the Sun River was responsiblefor the destruction.10 AJune9 GreatFalls Leader article was just as vague about the dams' collapse. Accordingto the paper'slead article,"A CivilDefense leader said the bodies of 26 flood victimswere found Tuesdayin one areaof NorthernMontana." Only later did readerslearn that "all the bodies were found in GlacierCounty and most were takento a missionsouth of Browning."It would fall to the New YorkTimes, famous for its fact-checkingstandards, to provide a more accuratedescription. A June o1 front-pageTimes article carefully separated events that occurred in the Sun River drainagefrom those on the tributariesof the Marias.Aside from a few sentences about the reservationin a follow-up article onJune ii, how- valley. However, the article failed to point out that Birch ever, even remained vague about specifics.11 Creek marksthe southern border of the reservationor that, By Thursday the newspapers' views of the events were as a tributaryof the Marias,its waters enter the Missouri at gaining clarity,but details took back seat to coverage of the Loma, fifty miles downstream from Great Falls.12 cresting Sun River near Great Falls. To its credit, the Great In the aftermath of the flood, Great Falls newspapers Falls Leader devoted a front-pagesidebar to the collapse of continued to blur details in a way that subsumed the reser- the dam on Birch Creek, offering chilling eyewitness vation tragedyinto the record of the flooding at Great Falls. descriptions of the wall of water that swept down the OnJune 14, for example, the reported: "Atleast 30 persons were dead, 38 missing and thousands 10. GreatFalls (Mont.) Tribune,,1964. Not untilthe final para- homeless as the massive flood crest moved down the Mis- graphson page 2 did readerslearn that the victimswere fromoutside GreatFalls and the Sun Riverarea. Even then, neither the reservationnor souri River over lowland areas past Great Falls, the state's the ethnicityof the victimswas mentioned.The articlealso confused largest city." Newswires disseminated this information detailsof the two damfailures. The which relied Lifearticle, apparently nationwide, leaving readers to infer that the dead and on the GreatFalls papers for much of its information,reinforced these were all victims of on the streams misconceptions. missing flooding flowing 11. GreatFalls (Mont.) Leader,June 9,1964;New YorkTimes,June 10, into the Sun River and that the flooding culminated in 11, 1964. The misinformationabout the numberof bodies recovered Great Falls. Newspaper coverage in the following weeks raisedthe ire of the GlacierCounty coroner, Bill Riddle,who statedthat only ten people had been confirmeddead at press time on . Browning(Mont.) Glacier Reporter,June 11, 1964. 12. GreatFalls (Mont.) Leader,June 11, 1964.

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This content downloaded from 161.7.98.62 on Tue, 25 Mar 2014 12:56:03 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions sentences longjumped from locale to locale in an attempt to convey the sense of wrought by the flood. Also typicalwas a dearth of details about the Blackfeettragedies. Full-pagephotographs with brief captions filled two-thirds of the book, but only two photographs-one of Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall shaking hands with "Old" Chief White Calf during Udall's visit-were of Indians.14 Testimony at a special House subcommittee meeting in furtherdownplayed the flood's impact on the reservation,focusing instead on the damage to urban areas and what could be done to protect them in the future.In his opening to the proceedings, Montana CongressmanJames F. Battinreferred to GreatFalls but made no mention of the Blackfeet. Bureau of Indian Affairsland operations officer WillJ. Pitner submitted a financialsummary of the reserva- tion's $10 million in flood damages in lieu of a statement.15 Fortunately,there are two written accounts of the Black- feet disaster: the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) official report filed by John R. "Bob" White in and a short book commissioned by the Blackfeet Tribal Council and written by Helen B. West, an archivist's assistant at the Museum of the Plains Indian in Browning. From these two sources it is possible to piece together events on the Blackfeet Reservation during the 1964 flood.16 In the mountains to the west of the reservation, the storm started sometime around midnight onJune 7, feed- ing small streams that were already carrying runoff from melting snow. Though it rained throughout the day on Sunday, most residents registered no alarm. George Kipp even remarkedto his wife that it was "a million dollar rain" in view of the of the last four years. Twenty-four hours later, rain was still pouring down relentlessly. In Browning, rain gauges registered nearly seven inches, half the averageyearly precipitation of 14.74 inches.17 At eight o'clock Monday morning agency superin- concentratedon mopping-up operations and flood-control tendent William W. Grissom waded into his Browning plans.13 office. After sending home employees whose basement Within two months of the disaster, the Great Falls Tri- offices were swamped with several inches of water, Gris- buneand the GreatFalls Leader compiled a magazine-style som drove to the agency's auxiliary office, "the Barracks," edition of the flood coverage that sold for one dollar. The where he encountered the first intimation of impending cover bore the title "Montana Flood 1964" in bold letters; disaster: a report of a man trapped by high water in the its subtitle promised "The Story of Flood Week in Mon- Two Medicine Valleyabout ten miles south of Browning.18 tana-June 1964."As a rehashing of the newspapers' flood coverage, the magazine was representative of the main- 14. GreatFalls (Mont.) Tribune and GreatFalls (Mont.) Leader, Mon- tana Flood1964 stream media news: it emphasized dramatic aerial photo- (GreatFalls, Mont., 1964). 15. House Committeeon Public Works,Hearing beforethe Special homes and around graphs of flood-ravaged neighborhoods Subcommitteeon MontanaFlood Damage of the Committeeon Public Great Falls, washed-out bridges, and shots of anguished Works,88th Cong.,2d sess., 1964, 2, 16. 16. Flood;Bureau of Indian "TheBlackfeet Flood," 1964, survivorsjuxtaposed with scenes of somber officials gath- West, Affairs, the Area Office,copy in the Montana tables. The text flowed in typescriptproduced by Billings ered around planning typical HistoricalSociety Library and Archives, Helena (hereafter MHS). Neither newspaper style: paragraphs seldom more than a few reportwas writtenby an Indian,but the BlackfeetTribal Council had madeit clearthat its intentionin commissioningWest was to producean accountthat focused on the Blackfeetperspective. West, Flood, preface. 13. Ibid.,June14, 1964. The GreatFalls Leader first used the phrase 17. West,Flood, 5; Bureauof IndianAffairs, "Blackfeet Flood," 1. "chieftroublemaker" in referenceto the Sun onJune 8. 18. Bureauof IndianAffairs, "Blackfeet Flood," 3.

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Appointed superintendent only three weeks prior, Grissom had spent ten years working in soil and moisture conservation and range management on the reservation. He was intimately familiarwith the region's topology and geography and knew that streams would soon be at flood stage. He was also well awarethat many of the reservation's sixty-five hundred residents lived near the creek bottoms that provided pasturage and a ready supply of firewood. Within an hour of the first notice of the high water, over a dozen agency employees were racing to Two Medicine Valley,Badger Valley, and other drainagesto alert residents and provide assistance to those in danger. Because telephone service had failed in various parts of the reservationearly that morning, agency employees relied almost entirely on two-way radios to direct rescue efforts. According to the BIA report, Superintendent Grissom's desk became the "nervecenter for all the rescue work in the field." Radio station KSEN also was instrumental in com- municating essential information and established itself as one of the reservation'sonly links to the outside world. On the air, KSEN coordinated messages among the sheriffs offices, ham radio operators, and rescue workers-a crude but effective means of transmittinginformation.19 Meanwhile, crew members for the Blackfeet Irrigation Project had been out 6:30 A.M.cutting the water flowing into canals. When water masterJohn Reid saw that Badger Creekwas rising at a frighteningrate, he radioed the project office at the Barracks.By 7:30 project personnel had begun warning people along Badger Creek to evacuate. By 9:30 Superintendent Grissom had dispatched two bureau school buses to the flood zones south of Browning to pick up evacuees-one went into the BlacktailCreek and Badger According to news reports, most of the bodies of those who drowned Creek drainagesand the other to the Two Medicine Valley. were taken to the flooded Holy Family Mission on Two Medicine Creek water the firstbus in the Grandview (above), a few miles southeast of Browning. Although high trapped School area, the other gathered several loads of refugees and brought them to the relief center set up in Browning.20 One of the flood's most tragicincidents occurred in the Two Medicine Valley. Around 9:30 A.M. agency road superin- tendent Elmer Morigeau was traveling along a gravelroad roughly parallel to Two Medicine Creek, which was already out of its banks and creeping toward Highway 89, when he saw a flatbed truck with

Blackfeetelder "Old"Chief White Calf greets Secretaryof the InteriorStewart L. Udall with a handshake during Udall's visit to review flood damage. Standing between them is Tribal Council Chairman Walter Wetzel, and at left is interpreter Earl Old Person.

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This content downloaded from 161.7.98.62 on Tue, 25 Mar 2014 12:56:03 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions On the windswept plains of the reservation, protected creek bottoms were favored locations for homes and ranches, putting many in harm's way during the flood. The buildings in the photograph above are part of a Blackfeet Irrigation Project work camp used during the construction of Two Medicine Dam and canals. The mountains in the distance are on the eastern edge of Glacier National Park.

twenty-one people crowded onto it swaying through water failed repeatedly.According to one account, the occupants up to its wheel wells. Morigeau continued down the road, understood what the rescuers intended." 'We understood offering assistance and making sure that families were all right,'Fay Grant said, 'But what could we do? The chil- moving out. When he eventually drove back toward the dren were too little to send in alone [on the tire] and we highway,he found the truck in serious danger.21 couldn't go ourselves and leave them behind on the Unable to follow a rough two-track through the truck.' " In the end, rescuers pulled two people to safety meadow, the driver had driven into a depression and and rescued five others by boat. In one of the few Great stalled. Two adults and three children managed to struggle Falls Tribunearticles devoted to the Blackfeet flood, Nel- to shore, but when the highway above the meadow washed lie Buel recounted the ordeal: "One by one Lucille's out, water almost immediately to within a foot of the [Guardipee] children floated away. The baby first, two- top of the cab, leaving sixteen people trapped. Currents months-old, who had been clinging to Lucille's neck, and "estimated at 25 knots or more" had formed both in front then the others. Then Fay's little five-year-old floated and behind the pickup, making it "impossible for the away."The flood claimed the lives of nine people who had strongestswimmer to reach the truck from shore" one hun- been trapped on the truck, eight of them children.23 dred yards away.Two Medicine Creek, normallya pastoral stream only ten yards across, now carried uprooted trees 23. West,Flood, 22; GreatFalls (Mont.)Tribune,June 11, 1964. West torn loose from their and buildings moorings. Morigeau liststhe victims as RoseGrant, eighty-four; Elaine Guardipee, four; Keith radioed Grissom and urged him to send a boat.22 Guardipee,two; Alvin Guardipee,three; Terry Lee Guardipee,two Robbie RolandaRose Galela In an attempt to rescue the truck's occupants, several months; GrantJr.,five; Grant,three; Lynn Cobell,fourteen; and LorraineLong Time Sleeping,five. In a July 23 waded out to a of land and people high point improvised letterto the editorof the BrowningGlacier Reporter, Lucille Guardipee a lifeline from barbed wire cut from a nearby fence and a wrote:"I've been hearingrumors yet-people wonderingwhy all my childrendrowned and I didn't.I wishsome of those hadbeen spare tire as a buoy. The rushing floodwaters and torren- why people in at that know the reason.... Peopleare made communication and rescue my place time-they'd saying tial rain difficult, attempts we werewarned and why didn'twe leavethen? We were not warned.I surewish people would quit talking because I feelbad enough and to hear 19. Ibid.,31. theseremarks and rumorsmakes me feel thatI'm to blamefor the death 20. Ibid.,7. of my children.I tried my best to save them,but God took them. No 21. Ibid., 10. one willever know how lonely I feel.I don'twant to hearany more rumors 22. Ibid., 12. like this."

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Despite efforts to evacuate people below Two Medicine Daml (above,June 9, i964), nine residents drowned in the rising creek.

Like their counterparts in the Two Medicine Valley, elderly father,scrambled up a hillside in time to watch their early-risingresidents along Birch Creek took note of the homes destroyed. They then began walking toward Heart rising waters below Swift Dam, a rock-filled earthen dam Butte. A truck that happened along drove them a few miles built in 1914. By 1o:oo A.M. the Merle Tatsey family, who before becoming mired in the mud. It took them nearly lived ten miles below the dam, had decided that the situa- seven hours to make it to the David Hall place less than tion warranted their leaving for Browning. An hour later, eight miles away.24 after securing the house and getting the children ready, The Tatseys were fortunate in their escape: nineteen Ramona Tatsey looked out the southwest window and saw others died within minutes of the dam's collapse.25 As huge trees along the creek being washed away."They were Shelby radio station KSEN announcer Bob Norris later falling like they were being chopped down," she later described the event, Swift Dam caved in with "a great remarked.To avoid the wall of water they could see sweep- crackingsound like a giant thunder and bolt,"and ing down the valley,the entire family,including the Tatseys' "thousands of tons of cascading water roared down into

24. West,Flood, 30; Bureauof IndianAffairs, "Blackfeet Flood," 17. At havebeen slowed somewhat by slightlybetter engineering. Both dams had 157 feet high, SwiftDam was the largestdam of its kind in the United a rock-filledcore, but Two MedicineDam also incorporated riprap in the States. formof log cribbing.Bureau of IndianAffairs, "Blackfeet Flood," 20. For 25. Manyof thevictims listed in the BIAreport were children: Thomas a historyand analysisof the surprisinglyhigh rateof failurefor Hall III, twelve;Margerie Hall, ten; MarthaHall, eight; Kathy Hall, six; dams,see NicholasJ. Schnitter'sA Historyof Dams (Rotterdam,1994), MarlinHall, four; Edward Hall, two;Jody Hall, one; Mrs.Tom HallJr., 158, wherehe states,"Of some 380 embankmentsconstructed [in the thirty-three;Peggy Bradley,eight; Jerry Wayne Thomas, three;Linda U.S.] between1850 and 1930, over9% failed." Arnoux,sixteen; Sam New BreastJr.,thirty-five; Mrs. Sam New Breast(no 27. Bureauof IndianAffairs, "Blackfeet Flood," 19. agelisted); Patricia New Breast(no agelisted, ); Ernest Lauffer, fifty- 28. West,Flood, 38. The normaldischarge at the mouthof the Missis- eight;Gilbert England, forty-three; Ralph Oberlack, sixty-five;Joe Ham- sippi Riveris about610,000 cubicfeet per second. line, fifty-two;and BeanTheakson, forty-five. Bureau of IndianAffairs, 29. By afternoonSuperintendent Grissom was able to arrangefor a "BlackfeetFlood," 14,19. In additionto victimskilled on Two Medicine planeto makean emergencysurvey to determinewhether any survivors and Birch Creeks,two men died earlier:Stanford Creighton, a Blood werestill in need of rescueand to assessdamages. He hadalso requested man fromCardston, Alberta, died of exposureon KennedyCreek after assistancefrom Malmstrom Air ForceBase, but the weatherwas too bad driving off the road, and highwaycrewman Ivan "Happy"Williams forhelicopters to fly.Ibid., 25,28-30. drownedin DivideCreek when he washedaway in his trucktrying to save 30. "Reporton CivilDefense Activities in Montanaduring Flood 8-15 fuel tanksnear the creek.West, Flood, 7-8. June 1964,"typescript report by the MontanaOffice of Civil Defense, 26. Norris, KSEN sound recording.Both Two Medicineand Swift copy in MHS.White categorically stated, "The recordalso shouldmake Dams were otherwisestable structures subjected to suddeninfluxes of it clearthat most of the destructionin the valleyoccurred before the dam waterthat caused overtopping. The failureof Two MedicineDam may broke."Bureau of IndianAffairs, "Blackfeet Flood," 22.

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the valley,snuffing out homes and lives in a matterof Officials were also concerned about Two Medicine seconds."26Approximately thirty-one thousand acre-feet of Dam, an earthen dam constructed in 1912by the Bureau of water,used for irrigationand to supplydrinking water to Reclamation to provide water for the Blackfeet Irrigation the town of Valier, rushed down- Project. That morning agency engi- streamat a rateof 880,ooo cubic feet "Thousands tons neer Mark Stout had dispatched per second, overwhelming nearly of of Harvey Brown to check the dam, but everything in its path.27The result- cascading water roared high water already blocked High- ing crest "reacheda height of twenty down into the way 2 through East Glacier and the to forty feet, sweeping all before it: valley." Looking Glass Mountain Highway. trees, power lines, homes, cattle, Jack B. Dodd, assistant Glacier horses and bodies of those who had superintendent, volunteered to send no chance."28A pilot hired by KSEN later estimated that a ranger from West Glacier. Around 11:30A.M., the ranger a wall of water thirty feet high was making its way through reported that water was within two feet of the top of the the valley toward Highway 89 at a rate of twenty-two miles dam. Stout quickly called KSEN, and a short time later an hour.29 reporter Frank Krshka reported in a live radio broadcast According to the report filed by State Civil Defense from East Glacier: "Last reports we had was that the water Deputy Director Howard A. McKinney, authorities received word of Swift Dam's ,.- . failureat 1:00 P.M.In retrospect, there was little that could have been done. By the time it dawned on the authorities that the dam might succumb to the intense pres- sure of the water building up behind it, it was too late for house-to-house warnings because "bridges to the north had all been washed out."30

This 1940o photograph taken by Ella Mad Plume Yellow Wolf shows Two Medicine Dam intact.

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ContrastTwo MedicineDam onJune 16, 1964, with the 1940S photographabove.

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now is comingover the top of the damand of courseif it example, the "Browning police contacted the Cut Bank startseroding behind the dam, the great fear is of losingthe police department by radio. They asked the Cut Bank dam."Two Medicine Dam gave way around 5:oo P.M.31 police to phone the officials Mrs. Babineau [head of the Throughoutthe afternoon,rescuers worked feverishly welfare department] wished to reach, and to request those in the BirchCreek, Two MedicineCreek, and Cut Bank officialsto call Mrs.Babineau at the Browningpolice station." Creek drainages.By the time residents near the Starr The same arrangementwas used for other essential calls.33 Schoolbegan to evacuate,Cut BankCreek was risingfast. The isolation was not merely a problem of telephone Agencyforester Robert C. Brownradioed for a rescueboat, connections: washed-out roads and bridges physically cut but the aluminumcraft with its three-horsepowermotor the reservation off from the rest of the world. Only High- was no match for the way 2 to Cut Bank, though at times powerfulcurrents. Aban- water covered, remained passable. doning the boat, expert Because of the reservation's physical horsemenFloyd and Gor- isolation and the difficulty sending don TakesGun rode into out communications, most of the rest thefloodwaters with lariats of the state was unaware of the crisis. and rescuedtwenty-seven As White remarkedin the last pages of people. By late afternoon, his report, "Much of Montana wasn't the waterwas too high for well informed on the Blackfeet situa- the horses, and a larger tion .... Great Falls and Kalispell boat arrivedto rescue the attracted most of the attention of the remaining families. news media."34 In the midst of these the rain ^A' < Though stopped falling efforts,the rescue of Les i \ r/, v JJ^ W i S sometime in the afternoonon Monday, Heuscher,the firstperson June 8, the floodwaters did not begin reported trapped, con- to subside until around 8:00 P.M. By tinued. An employee of this time, the water released by the rancher Merle Magee, 4"' collapse of Two Medicine Dam had Heuscher had stepped been absorbed by the Tiber Reser- out of his cabin around voir. Rescue operations continued Just minutes before the crest froin the collapse 5:00 A.M.Monday to find throughout the day on Tuesday. By of Two Medicine Dam weary rescuers TwoMedicine Creek up to arrived, the waters were managecdto save Les Heuscher, who had been Wednesday receding his He alerted and the laborious business of doorstep. trapped by rising water more than fourteen hours long, the Magees, then waded earlier. Gary Schildt depicted Heuscher's situa- cleaning up began. overto shed to releaselive- tion in Man in T7iee,in Helen B. West's Flood: Those forced to evacuate their stock, but rapidly rising The Story of the 1964 Blackfeet Disaster (p. 27). homes near Great Falls were able to waterforced him to climb return within a few days and begin a tree. By the time the shoveling mud from their basements Magees returned from Browning with help, the water was and replacing damaged floors and furniture.The situation moving too swiftly for boats. Throughout the day on the reservationwas altogether different:many residents Heuscher remained in his tenuous perch. At 7:00 P.M.the no longer had homes. Ten days after the flood, Super- rescuers received word that the Two Medicine Dam had intendent Grissom reported 256 homes destroyed or failed and that they had only twenty minutes to save damaged in the flood; 135families were living in tents. One Heuscher before the flood crest arrived.Their final attempt resident's comment captured the sense of resignation felt succeeded by a hair's breadth: "They pulled him into the by many who had suffered through the flood only to find boat, returned to shore, and watched as, a few minutes themselves homeless: "At first, everyone was joking and later,the crest hit, takingall of Magee's remainingbuildings happy about their narrow escapes. Then, when they were with it downstream."32 told they could go home, everyone realized that there were Irregularcommunications compounded the difficultyof no homes to go to." ByJune 25, at the urging of Senators rescue efforts. The agency could at times receive calls, but and Lee Metcalf, Congress had approved none could be made. To alert the county welfare depart- $12 million in relief funds, $8.2 million earmarkedfor the ment and the Red Cross representative in Cut Bank, for BIA in Browning. Officials estimated at the time that

31. Norris,KSEN sound recording. 33. Bureauof IndianAffairs, "Blackfeet Flood," 32. 32. West,Flood, 15. 34. Ibid.,36.

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This content downloaded from 161.7.98.62 on Tue, 25 Mar 2014 12:56:03 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SUMMER 2004 AARON PARRETT R t ination, their voices, points of view, and

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In the flood'saftertmath, the BlackfeetTribal Business Council declaredJune 8 an annualday of mourningin remembranceof thosewho lost theirlives. Above,flood watersfrom Two MedicineCreek still coveredU.S. 89 and nearbystructures onJune 9. a complete recovery on the reservationwould take becomethe semi-oicial narrativesthat eventually emerge twoyears.35 as "standard"history, a processthat overwhelms minority Forweeks after the floodwaters subsided, voicesas the eventis articulatedand retold. volunteerscombed the prairiesand mead- Evfer vone As literarycritic James Clifford has ob- ows forbodies in the piles of brushand silt f alongthe streambanks. Only daysafter the realz2zew { th a t intoserved, a historical"Whenevermarginal or ethnographicpeoples space come that worsthad passed the BlackfeetTribal Busi- therewd fflreno has been defined by the Western imag- ness Council voted to declareJune 8 an annualday of mourmng;;. m remembrance of homes; to g° °* 'distinct histories'tend to disappearwith thosewho lost theirlives duringthe flood." >< M astonishingrapidity." This process is not A memorialservice is held everyJuneat the alwaysan overtlysinister enterprise involv- Museumof the PlainsIndian in Browning.36 ing riflesor smallpox-infestedblankets. Often marginali- zationresults from a failureof awarenesson the part of IN RECENTDECADES multiculturalist scholars have begun historiansand the mainstreammedia. In the case of the to documenthow mainstreammedia accountsof events 1964flood, disregard for the tragic experience of the Black- feet mayhave been partlybenign due to communication 35. Browning(Mont.) GlacierReporter,, 25,1964; West,Flood. difficultiesand the geographicalisolation of the area,but The September17, 1964,BrowningGlacierReporterannounced that 129 new homeswere under construction in Browningand wereexpected to the end resulthas been a diminishedunderstanding and be "installedon site" beforewinter. appreciationof an Indiantragedy.37 o 36. Browning(Mont.) Glacier Reporter,June 18, 1964; Trish Kuka, assistantto Chief EarlOld Person,telephone conversation, August 11, 2003. MarthaHall's body was not founduntilJuly 15. AARONPARRETT is assistantprofessor of Englishat the 37. James Clifford,The Predicamentof Culture:ftentieth-Century Universityof GreatFalls. Ashgate Press recently published Ethnography,Literature and Art (Cambridge,Mass., 1988), 5. See his The EranslunarNarrative in the WesternEradition ArnoldKrupat's "Postcolonialism, Ideology, and NativeAmerican Liter- ature,"in fhe Gurnto the Native: Studies in Criticismand Culture (2004),a criticalhistory of narrativesabout traveling to the (Lincoln,1996), 30-54, fora detaileddiscussion of this process. moon.

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