THE DECLARATION OF INDIAN INDEPENDENCE Page THE PLOT 2 THE ST AGE SETTING 3 The Prologue- MAKING INDIANS INTO WHITE MEN 4 ACT I- THE REVOlUTION BEGINS 9 ACT II - ANOTHER KIND OF REVOlUTION 17 ACT III - THE DECLARA nON OF INDIAN INDEPENDENCE 27 The Epilogue- TURNING WHITE MEN INTO INDIANS 36 The Role of the Native American Rights Fund 38 THE CAST OF CHARACTERS (Some Background Notes) 40 The Winnebago 40 The Omaha 41 The Sioux 41 The Mandan, The Arikara, and The Hidatsa 44 The Crow 45 The Turtle Mountain Chippewa 45 The Chippewa Cree 45 The Blackfeet 46 The Assiniboine, The Gros Ventre and Some Teton Sioux 46 The Shoshone and The Arapaho 46 The Salish and The Kootenai 47 The Northern Cheyenne 47 TOMPAINE: chroniclers who arrange<}. for Indians to be made citizens of the, Chief Propagandist United States so they could live !Jf the ~vs Amer'iean Revolution under the same la that governed the whites. And it was) (reverently in 1775) they who inspired the producer to ' establish a universal governmenf ,\ It is at all times necessary, and more school system for Indian children • ~ particularly so during the progress of a to hasten their Americanization. revolution, and until right ideas The Indians were very well- jJ confirm themselves by habit, that we directed in this story as every\~ frequently refresh our patriotism by reference to the first principles" It is by reviewer of the effects of tracing things to their origin that we colonization on Indian society has learn to understand them, and it is by noted. Nonetheless, directing and .I keeping that line and that origin producing this saga has taken its " always in view that we never forget toll among the white participants; them, An inquiry into the origin of rights will demonstrate to us that as well, because, like the Indian: rights are not gifts from one man to players, the white actors, writers,' another, nor from one class of men to directors, producers, and another.. members of the audience have' Tom Paine also suffered losses. These losses are necessarily of a more subtle sort than those experienced by the. Indian players. They began to THE PLOT show up in the 1850's when there was a marked growth ill This story is about the 26 Indian Herein, then, is a depiction of hypocrisy among the script" tribes who came to live on the how native religions and writers, directors, and the, Northern Great Plains of languages were destroyed or producer as their so-called form! America. It is about the wars and suppressed - a record of how a of justice grew harder to the enemies of these people, and low status was assigned to vir­ rationalize. Then came a blunting' about their allies. It is a tale of tually all of the native Indian of conscience in the white greed and the power of individual customs and physical charac­ audience, followed by ~ men over other men. It is about teristics. And finally, it is an significant decline in huma explorers, cavalry and Indians; account of plunder and rape, not sensitivity, not only among th about lawyers, businessmen, just of goods and women, but of audience, but also among the government agents and Indians; entire Indian nations. scriptwriters, directors and th~ and finally a bout cowboys Instrumental to this drama of producer. 1 becoming Indians. the process of colonization of Ironically, as this story nears] Indian people were the advocates, an end it is only the Indian It is a portrayal of the process of the many white Christian members of the cast who have colonization, and therefore a reformers who called themselves maintained their integrity and record of the acquisition of wealth "friends of the Indians". They self-respect. White people, having, and high social status played by were really the scriptwriters and paid no real attention or respect to. an expanding white population at directors for this saga, who in­ red people for almost two cen~ the expense of a native red spired (and to some lesser degree turies, have lost sight of their first population. It is about a colonial are still inspiring) the policies of principles and their origins. Of system established 200 years ago the U.S. Government, the course, the script is not finished which required that native social producer of this epic, yet, and so it remains to be seeD! systems be broken up so as not to It was the friendly scriptwriters whether or not the audience will; impede the progress of the new who thought up the devices which yet be moved by the stoic por·: white dominant society. It is a the government-producer used to trayal of the Indians - one full ?f' recounting of how, although divide reservations into in­ wisdom, reverence for theIr rendered impotent, the self­ dividual homesteads for the In­ brothers, and respect for tbr conscious nationality of the native dians (sometimes spoken of as the Mother Earth, which the nativ, Indian population was never allotment of the land in actors have been playing so well completely liquidated. severalty). It was these for the past 200 years. i

2 THE STAGE SETTING

The setting for this drama is a gold, coal, oil and oil shale, from the jackrabbits and prairie part of America which is high and natural gas, silver, potassium, dogs. There are some, but not too barren, windswept and arid. The aluminum, clay, chalk, semi­ many eagles, ducks and geese. winters are frigid, with howling precious stones, and water. Only the prairie chickens still blizzards piling snowdrifts in all Once, huge herds of buffalo strut in sufficient numbers as they the cuts and coulees. Summers roamed by the millions up and perform their strange mating ~ unbearably hot with dry winds down the unending sea of grass on dance in dusty circles on the flats. ;:,caring the grasses and drying up the surface. They are gone now. the streams. Some mule deer still browse in the The plains described in this Along the wide and shallow wooded areas, as do a few setting encompass an area of land rivers, which often become raging remaining antelope on the high, within America thatis now part of torrents from the flash floods of rolling ground. There were and the states of Montana, Wyoming, spring, are groves of cottonwood still are (although many less) North Dakota, South Dakota and and box elders, chokecherries and black bear and grizzlies rum­ Nebraska. It is a big and fragile wild plums. On the high ridges are maging in search of berries, fish kind of land and the men who stands of ponderosa pine and and honey. There are only a few wrested a living from it had to be cedar. Underneath the ground is wolves and foxes left to grow fat strong. They still have to be.

3 · The Prologue MAKING INDIANS INTO WHITE MEN

SITTING BULL: them to survive on the fragile and Sioux barren plains. The new plains (prophetically in 1875) Indians made this transition remarkably well by absorbing We will yield to our neighbors - even what they could, not only from our animal neighbors - the same each other, but also from the right as we claim to inhabit the land. Spanish, British and French But we now have to deal with another breed of people .. They were few and explorers. They made weak when our forefathers first met magnificent use of the horse and them and now they are many and the buffalo, and they prospered as greedy They choose to till the soiL hunters and food gatherers. Love of possessions is the disease with During the second half of the them And they would make rules to suit themselves They have a religion 1800's, as their new plains life-role which they follow when it suits them was once again slowly being destroyed by an advancing They claim this Mother Earth of ours culture, they found themselves for their own and fence their neigh­ trapped. They had reached the bors away from them They degrade the landscape with their buildings and end of the stage and there was no their waste They compel the natural other place for them to move off Earth to produce excessively and when to. As a result they then had to it fails, they force it to take medicine somehow learn to sustain to produce mOle This is an evil themselves in their new roles This new population is like a river side-by-side with their oldest overflowing its banks and destroying Indian enemies, often on the same Although only a few of them all in its path .. We cannot live the way reservation. What they did not survived the 2,000 mile trek andj these people live and we cannot live learn how to do, however, was to or their pursuers, even then the beside them. They have little respect impersonate white men. Northern Cheyenne seemed for nature and they offend our ideals. Just seven years ago we signed a treaty Unable to accept the inevitable, destined to set a tone and pace on by which the buffalo country was to be some of their warriors struggled the Great Plains story-stage for ours and unspoiled forever Now they on in vain to preserve their those other tribes who were want it They want the gold in it. Will original roles on the plains until resisting the colonization of their we yield? They will kill me before I the end of the 19th Century. On peoples. will give up the land that is my land several occasions they were In 1887 the Dawes Act was victorious, as on June 25, 1876, passed. It was an attempt by the The Indians who migrated more when a group of Sioux, Cheyenne scriptwriters to make individual than two centuries ago to the and Arapaho gave a masterful Indians owners of individual plots Northern Great Plains, whether perform ance against General of land - so they could better act they came from the east, west or George Custer and his forces at like white men. What was left south, did so because of pressures the Little Big Horn near what is over after the Indians were given from other powerful Indian tribes, now Crow Agency, Montana. The their plots, was opened to non­ who were themselves fleeing the performance came just before the Indian people for settlement. The advance of European explorers nation's first centennial plains people resisted; some and settlers, most of whom were celebration. tribes did better than others. escaping pressures from still It was only three years later, in Although millions of acres passed another society an ocean away. the winter of 1879, that the from Indian ownership to non­ These migrating people had less tenacious Northern Cheyenne Indian ownership, Indians or ~h.e than half a century to change decided to return on foot to their plains and elsewhere continu .0 their woodland or agricultural home on the Northern plains from live communally and sustain their ways to roles which would enable the Oklahoma Indian Territory. parts as Indians.

4 The last warriors on the Great poverished, and stoic in their distributed the tribal assets Plains died in 1890 as the Nevada difference from white men. among shareholders in a cor­ p"iute Wovaka's Ghost Dance In 1949, Congress turned itself poration. The Menominee star­ s moving across the Great around again and instituted ved, and lost their land and their Plains. Sitting Bull was murdered another revision in the story line shares, but they remained Indians at the Standing Rock Reservation - this one was a kind of and were strong enough to finally in South Dakota on December 15, liquidation drive - the Indian persuade Congress to restore 1890. Thirteen days later a band of Relocation Program. Many of the their former role as a federally Sioux led by Big Foot was Indians who participated and who recognized tribe in 1973. massacred at Wounded Knee, were therefore relocated either Shortly before this, in 1971, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge starved or drank themselves to President Nixon had announced Reservation. Not much could death in the cities. Even when the yet another new policy-plot called have exceeded these dramatic backdrop was changed they chose Indian Self-Determin a tion. events in producing terror and not to impersonate white men. Today, in 1975, the concept of self­ revulsion in the white audience, In 1953 Congress decided to determination is still part of the yet for the most part they were have a rehearsal for yet another script, but because the white unmoved. new scenario. This one was directors are frightened and Soon thereafter the plains designed to eliminate some In­ entrenched in their own people were completely confined dians from the script entirely. To bureaucratic power struggles, to their reservations and suffered do so they terminated one of the few Indian players have yet been continuing decline in the human country's most prosperous tribes, allowed to determine what their spirit. Once confined and sub­ the Klamath of Oregon. As a part roles will be in the next act of the dued, their lines in the script were of this rehearsal the government­ American saga. The bulk of the continually changed in an effort to producer also liquidated the cast of Indians are still living as make them play the part the white Klamath tribal assets. Im­ Indians, which is not the part the producer had in mind for them. mediately some starved or drank white writers, directors, and Their religious ceremonies were themselves to death - most, producer had in mind for them outlawed or modified by the white although lost from their tribal when this story began two cen­ 1.. The men, as hunters, and existence, were still acting like turies ago. Whether the producer wives, as gatherers, could not Indians off stage. will now actually permit the In­ find enough food to provide for A year later the U.S. Senators dian members of the cast to share their children. They were not and Congressmen directors tried in the script writing, direction, acting like white men, but they another termination rehearsal, and production is what will most were at their mercy under their this time using the Menominee likely determine the survival of direction. Tribe as players. They created Native American people, and the In June 1924, Congress gave its another stage setting and made validity of the principles and approval to an act (or a script) the Menominee Reservation into concepts the American nation which made all Indians, including an American county and was founded upon 200 years ago. those of the plains, citizens of the United States. Despite this, In­ dians continued to starve and to play their life roles differently than white men wanted them to. In 1934 Congress revised the play and added another act which was designed to revitalize tribal governments which they had been destroying for more than 100 years in the form of white cor­ porations. Some plains tribes changed their remnant govern­ ments to conform with the new la w, known as the Indian Rp~~ganization Act, but regar­ dl of these new corporate entities the members of most tribes continued to be im-

5 - ''"''~ .-...... '~ ...... '."-,

A Synopsis of the Action

For 200 years the plams In­ What happened to the Great Regardless of their legal rig' dians, whose lives and lands were Plains Indians was not unlike the however, the Indians could •.• taken in trust by the U.S. relationship between the original use their water to develop their government, watched helplessly American colonies and the British reservations because they did not as their precious resources were Crown. And like an old late-night have the money for the costly either poorly directed, illegally television rerun, the Indians on dams and irrigation systems that booked (Le. leased), and reservations have played the part were needed. And regardless of generally mismanaged or ren­ of the colonists in the 13 colonies, the law and of trustee obligations, dered uninhabitable under the and the Secretary of Interior has time after time the U.S. Bureau of guidance of the federal trustee played the part of Britain's King Reclamation and Army Corps of and producer of the show. George III. Engineers built dams and As early as 1908 one of the most irrigation systems upstream from critical props for the last act of Indian land or condemned Indian this drama was being assembled. land to make dams and then In that year the U.S. Supreme diverted the water to non-Indian Court held in Winters v. U.S., a settlers. case arising on the Fort Belknap The Indians on the reservations Reservation in Montana, that \ were left alone on the stage Indians were entitled to as much without footlights, costumes, or water from rivers running scenery. It was the old story in through or bordering their lands Indian affairs and colonization. In as they needed to develop their order to advance the economic reservations. Without the water, growth of a developing white the Court noted, the treaties and community, the first stages of governmental acts reserving the economic development were land for Indian use would be being denied to an '10­ meaningless. The Court also said derdeveloped Indian comm y. the government, as the trustee of Indian lands, was duty bound to Eighteen years after the preserve Indian rights to the Supreme Court established the needed water. Winters Doctrine, the first laws 3'..' governing leasing of public '" ... -J federal lands for mining were passed. Eighteen years after that, in 1938, Congress passed the Omnibus Tribal Leasing Act which allowed Indians to leaSE coal rights on their tribal lands t< private corporations subject t< approval of the Secretary of In terior. These laws were also tl become critical props for stagin! this drama. Then for almost 3 years nothing happened wit regard to leasing of Indian land on the Northern Great Plains. An although several majc reclamation projects damage j Indian lands and water rights, tt J impact was less severe than fe the water-short reservations the Southwest. The de'''''' leasing of Indian coal wa e several factors. One, there 'II plenty of coal for the powe

6 hungry eastern cities in Ap­ on others primarily by non­ Indian lands. Peabody Coal palachi~, and the expense of Indians. But for the most p'art, picked up 16,000 acres of Northern transporting western coal to those regardless of who owned the Cheyenne land for 12~ an acre at Teas where there was a market surface, ~he tribe owned the one sale where they were the one ..or it was considered too great. mineral rights underneath. Ceded lone bidder .. There was also considerable land was land which had been Only two years later, at two natural gas and oil available. relinquished by the Indians to the other sales in the same area, Another stumbling block was the government for settlement or there were six bidders each. The complex procedural regulations homesteading by individual non­ winning bids then offered some and layers of approval within the Indians, and the mineral rights $16 an acre for prospecting per­ BIA and Interior which were, in some instances, still mits. discouraged development. retained by the tribes. In October, 1971, the Bureau of Beyond that were the unique On the Northern Great Plains it Reclamation released a massive factors of tribal governing was often the case with allotted report called the "North Central councils, the trust status of the and ceded lands that while the Power Study". The study, paid for lands, and the complexities of surface was owned by white by 35 power companies, outlined a surface vs. mineral rights on the cowboy ranchers, the Indians still complex and ill-planned process allotted or homesteaded lands. had the right to lease the lands by which the Northern Great In the 1960's as the Northern beneath the ranches for strip­ Plains would become the next Great Plains tribes continued to mining. Appalachia. find themselves in extreme Following the original Omnibus poverty, the coal, oil, and power Leasing Act, the Department of companies began to realize the Interior determined that Indian value of the coal underlying In­ land tracts larger than 2,560 acres dian lands. A few tentative con­ could only be leased if additional tacts were made and by 1966 the land was needed to ensure a first coal sales on the plains supply of coal "necessary to reservations were being closed. permit the construction of ther­ ... , For the Indians the stakes were mal electric power plants or other ,gh. The average unemployment industrial facilities near the rate on their reservations was reservation". A study sub­ over 50%; the average per capita sequently conducted by the income was about $1,600 per year, Council on Economic Priorities and alcoholism was affecting at (CEP) in 1974 found that "the least one member in 65% of the average Indian lease was eight families. times larger than that amount, or Some of the Indians believed 23,523 acres. The CEP study also that leasing their coal could showed that of all the coal mining provide a way out of the knot of leases on Indian lands, 10 of the 11 economic and social depression were larger than the 2,560 acre strangling their reservations. But limitation. Apparently a lot of some also knew that their tribal power facilities were going to be existence was at stake as strip­ needed near the reservations. mining could destroy the cultural In 1967, an ocean and a con­ continuity and integrity of the tinent away, another colonial lands, as well as their ability to project of white corporate ranch or farm their lands. American began to disintegrate, ..... ' ., The leasing problems varied and the impact reverberated back from one reservation to the next to the plains. Just as the Arab and , ~ .,(' because of individual tribal other oil producing companies =--'---.. -~~ government policies and the fact began to end American and other there were three categories of colonial domination of their land available - tribal land, natural resources, the coal -- . allotted land, and ceded land. On companies (who were for the ---'---~-_-:: \,i ne reservations the surface of most part also oil companies or Ute allotted land was owned their subsidiaries) began ex­ primarily by individual Indians, panding their lease holdings on

7 Suddenly everything was unpl~nned and rapid development happening at once. The oil of their coal reserves and their producing countries were water resources, coupled with an beginning to flex their muscles; influx of many thousands of non­ the power, companies were con­ Indian people to the reservation ducting an intense propaganda and off-reservation areas and a campaign to persuade Americans concomitant use of their precious to consume more power; Congress water, as well as environmental was passing the Clean Air Act pollution - all of which would ,; which prohibited burning threaten their viability and anything except the kind of low sovereignty. sulfur coal found on the plains; In the playbook as the roles of President Nixon was declaring a the plains Indians evolved in the new policy of Indian Self­ 1900's, so did the lives and make­ Determination; the environmen­ up of the Indians' adversaries. It talists were fighting the power was like re-staging a play in companies and other polluters; which the cast of characters inflation and corporate profits remains the same, only the· were on the rise; and the Indians costumes are changed. ' were still starving. Unfortunately, this new white After the Bureau of cavalry which was descending on~ Reclamation's study came out, a the Northern Great Plains Indians: ~. number of other volunteer, state, in the 1970's was far more com~' and national groups got together plex and well-disguised than the:, to do their own studies. Con­ troops that swarmed over the, ferences, reports, studies and plains in the late 1800's. The' committees, as well as a horde of repertoire or strategies of the new: lease brokers and coal company had been handled by General cavalry was so multi-faceted and­ agents, came onto the plains like a Custer himself. * was moving against the plains plague of grasshoppers. By 1973, most of the Great people from so many differen( In October, 1972, the Secretary Plains tribes had recognized that approaches that the Indians had, of Interior, Rogers C.B. Morton, perhaps the last great white little time or opportunity to take( seeing the chaotic planning, the onslaught was upon them. Their their cues. resulting concern, and he himself continuing performance which One of the reasons the new: hounded from all sides, resolved had been tenuous for so many white onslaught appeared so~ to take the situation in hand by years, was now even more treacherous was its characteristi6~ announcing the formation of yet threatened because of an increase diffuseness and total lack of ac~, another interagency federal-state in the insistent demands of the countability. The new actor­ task force called the Northern dominant audience. These troops played under stage name, Great Plains Resource Program demands, stimulated by the world like Meadowlark Farms, (a sot1 (NGPRP). The goals of NGPRP energy crisis, were centered on of sub-subsidiary of AMAX Coa were to "coordinate on-going the vast low sulfur coal and Company), Consolidated Coa activities and build a policy plentiful water resources located (Continental Oil), Island Creek framework which might help on their lands. The coal reserves Coal (Occidental Petroleum), a, guide resource management were now drawing international hoc committees, water quali. decisions in the future". attention and stimulating a subgroups, citizens advisor • 51 considerable amount of modern committees, federal agencle The situation was absurd. The day cupidity. And their water was upper and lower basin co~ Bureau of Reclamation study had being coveted in direct proportion missions, and special task forceS been issued in 1971, well after the to their coal. coal rush had already started. Complicating the scene waS tb The new NGPRP did not provide The plot began to thicken as fact that these modern da for any significant participation more and more of the Indians government agents and play" by the public, and further was not realized that there would be opponents had what the cavalrY", even scheduled to release its final the 1800's didn't have and w~. report until December, 1975. The • Custer graduated 34th in a dass of 34 the Indians had never had . strategy of Interior looked as if it from Welt Point Military Academy almost unlimited supply lineS.',

8 Act I

THE REVOLUTION BEGINS

THE PLAYERS FRED LAST BULL: Our old food we used to eat was good, Norther'n Cheyenne, The meat from buffalo and game was good It made us strong, These cows Sons of The Northern Keeper' of the are good to eat, soft, tender, but they Liberty Sacred ArTOWS Cheyenne are not like that meat Our people used to live a long time, Today we eat white The Redcoats The Bureau man's food, we cannot live so long­ (prophetically in 1957) of Indian maybe seventy, maybe eighty years, A/faitS not a hundred, Sweet Medicine told us They will be powerful people, strong, that He said the white man was too The East India The Consoli­ tough They will fly up in the air, into strong" He said his food would be Tea Company dated Coal the sky, they will dig under the earth, sweet, and after we taste that food we Company they will drain the earth and kill it All want it, and forget our own foods, over the earth they will kill the trees Chokecherries and plums, and wild King George The Secretary and the grass, they will put their own turnips, and honey from the wild III of Interior grass and their own hay, but the earth bees, that was our food This other will be dead - All the old trees and food is too sweet We eat it and forget. grass and animals It's all coming true, what He said.

They are coming closer all the time Between 1966 and 1971, the Back there, New York, those places, Northern Cheyenne Tribal the earth is already dead, Here we are Council granted permits for ex­ lucky, It's nice here It's pretty, We ploration and surface coal mining have the good air This prairie hay still grows, But they are coming all the to anumber of coal companies time, turn the land over and kill it, covering acreage which more and more babies being born, amounted to 56% of the total land more and more people coming That's on the Northern Cheyenne what He said Reservation in Montana. The Tribal Council, under the He said the white men would be so guidance and with the approval of powerful, so strong T hey could take the Bureau of Indian Affairs, had thunder, that electricity from the sky, leased the land in an effort to and light their houses Maybe they would even be able to reach up and provide a source of income to the take the moon, or stars maybe, one or 2,700 tribal members, 27%of whose King George two Maybe they still can't do that work force was unemployed.

9 All in all the Council had been of their minerals. The permits' were not reclaimable, and that advised to sign a total of 11 ex­ lease clauses also gave the 'coal western lands receiving more ploratory permits for the Tribe's companies the right to use the than 10 inches might be land. However, for the most part Indians'land for any kind of recoverable over a period of years the Tribal Council was very much building or other production, with very careful attention. On uninformed of the ramifications processing, and transportation the Northern Cheyenne reser­ , t~; of strip-mining and more im­ activities related to coal. vation rainfall averages slightly portantly of the omissions and Thus, under the BIA-devised over 12 inches annually and the deficiencies in the standard BIA contracts the coal companies natural grasses which are as contract coal leases. The permits were able to obtain the right to tenuous as the Northern Cheyenne did not even follow federal law for virtually transform the quality people cannot be reseeded. Indian lands because they were so and the character of the reser­ Hybrid seed must be used. loosely worded as to reclamation vation. Like ultimate set Strip-mining also taxes the and other environmental con­ designers they could engage in the water resources by lowering the siderations. construction of power, con­ water table. Worse is the fact that Economically, the permits were version, and petro-chemical coal itself is an aquifer which as flawed as the original British plants; the building of railroads stores water like a sponge and I Tory's Tea Tax. Not only did they and other industrial parks; as slowly releases it for vegetation .J bring in less money per acre than well as new towns of non-Indians on the surface. Removal of the .' was being paid on other privately whose populations would sub­ coal removes this aquifer which '{ leased lands, they gave the coal merge the small population of can never be replaced. Further, ~ companies the right to exercise Cheyenne and make them a vast amounts of water are needed :t lease options, which were ap­ minority in their own land. in the gasification process, which ') pended as a part of the original In 1969, new cost leasing produces not just the natural gas;;. energy-hungry~ exploratory permits. The options regulations were promulgated by needed by set the price for the coal at the the Secretary of Interior to make America, but also emissions;" time the prospecting permit was certain that Indians could make causing dangerous air and water issued and therefore before a informed decisions as to whether pollution. determination had been made of or not they wished to lease their Most threatening to the in·':i the coal's quantity, accessibility, land. The new regulations were in tegrity of the Cheyenne Nation, and probable market value. large part due to the terrible however, were the consequences; Under the terms of the BIA conflicts that had developed in the of industrialization - the influx of) contracts the coal companies Southwest with regard to leases thousands of non-Indian workers: were able to explore on the let in 1966 on the Navajo and Hopi and their families and the l Cheyenne Reservation for the reservations. boom bust economy. The land on \ the Northern Great Plains is; Indians' coal, discover its value, Unfortunately, but typically, and secure it without the fragile. But it does not compare; the BIA was either unable or with the vulnerability of an Indian ~, Cheyenne being able to negotiate unwilling to set up the necessary with them to obtain a royalty culture forced to exist side-by-(, procedures to make certain the side with a mammoth non-Indian' based upon the true market value new safeguards were im­ industrial complex. plemented. By 1971, at a time when th~' Therefore what a strip-mining Cheyenne Tribal Council was set on the Northern Great Plains engaged in its third major coa~ stage still meant in the 1970's was sale, the Tribal Council memberS, the destruction of the land for began to publicly express their grazing and wheat production. No concern with regard to the, other kind of surface activities reclamation provisions under th~ would be possible while the permits and their conformanc~ mining was actually going on, and with the federal strip-mining reclamation of the lands to their regulations for Indian land, original condition was considered passed in 1969. The ne unlikely at best. regulations, which had beel The National Academy of promulgated after two years t Sciences issued a report which study by the Interior Departmen,l projected that lands receiving were supposedly designed '. under 10 inches of rain per year insure that surface mining on ~ .,t 10 Indian reservation would only corner on the bulk of the Northern JOHN ADAMS: take place after federal studies Cheyenne's coal without con­ had established reclamation ducting the competitive bidding (defensively, in 1815) requirements and these had been that had taken place in con­ incorporated into the leases. junction with earlier permits. What do we mean by the Revolution? As soon as the Cheyenne's Whereas the prospecting The War? T hat was no part of the inquiries reached the BIA permits issued to other coal Revolution: it was only an effect and consequence of it The Revolution was Superintendent, Bureau officials companies, like Peabody and in the minds of the people, and was began a feeble document and AMAX and granted on com­ effected in the course of 15 years paper scramble to cover their petitive bids conducted by the before a drop of blood was shed at tracks "as a matter of record", BIA, were bringing the Cheyenne lexington .. not only with regard to the third an annual rental of about $1 an coal sale, but also for the first two acre, CONSOL suddenly purposed coal sales. Nothing in the way of a no-bid offer of $35 an acre ­ making real technical which would have yielded the examinations happened except impoverished Northern Cheyenne that memoranda between the Tribe $2 million a year in land Superintendent, the Area Office, rent alone" and Bureau officials in In addition, CONSOL said the Washington were exchanged. Tribe's royalty on each ton of coal Then in July, 1972, Consolidated extracted would be 25¢ rather Coal Company (CONSOL) made a than the 17.5~ agreed to by the rather extraordinary offer to the other companies prospecting on {Cheyenne. the reservation under BIA '~~- What CONSOL purposed to the guidance. It was the CONSOL Northern Cheyenne Tribal offer that prompted the Indians to ECONOMIC TYRANNY Council was to negotiate a virtual open the curtain on the revolution"

11 It Was Too Good To Be True

What the CONSOL project project of this magnitude comes Landowners Association to mov~ called for was strip-mining 1 again, if ever", said the CONSOL into action. Tribal members were billion tons of Northern Cheyenne representatives. Naturally CON­ urged to come to meetings an" coal, enough to fuel two or three SOL was in a hurry to get the new much discussion was held amo mammoth coal conversion plants permit signed. White men are them about the effect of th that would eventually produce 1 always in a hurry. mining and the problems with th billion cubic feet of pullution-free The problem was that rejecting permits. naturalgas for the consumption of CONSOL's new offer carried These meetings led to the dominant white audience. severe political implications for recognition on the part of most A $1.2 billion investment by the elected tribal council. Many of the Cheyenne, not just the Coun CONSOL in a coal conversion these members had been elected members, of the problems .. complex was the big hitch in the because of their support of the the permits. They saw, deal because it implied a city of policy of distributing two-thirds of whenever anyone of the c over 5,000 non-Indian people on any of the income received from companies decided to exer' the tiny Cheyenne reservation. At the mining companies on a per their rights to lease under 433,434 acres, the Northern capita basis. To reject the permits, that the Tribe was:; Cheyenne Reservation is one of CONSOL offer could have a direct going to be able to obtain a} the smallest reservations in and substantial impact on the royalty for its coal. They also' Montana, and is dwarfed by its individual incomes of the that there were no real gu<' Crow neighbor to the West which endemically impoverished tees that their land woul has 1.5 million acres. Cheyenne. reclaimed, even if itL CONSOL continued to press the CONSOL set a 15 day deadline reclaimable, and that:h, Northern Cheyenne Council in July, 1972, but CONSOL possibility of the comp" members throughout July, 1972, executives and members of the building conversion plants to skip the usual practice of tribal council were still other installations on the ~. asking for competitive bids for the negotiating in November, 1972. lead was a fearful threat· same leased acreage on the The situation was becoming future of the Cheyenne Tri, grounds that the Indians would more complicated because at '. lose several months of income. about the same time other coal Then as a final gesture of good company crews had begun test faith, CONSOL representatives drilling on previously leased land proposed that the company would along the Cheyenne burial make a contribution to the Tribe grounds and otherwise disrupting of a new $1.5 million health the lives of the tribal members. center. It was readily apparent to Uncertainty developed rapidly, the Cheyenne that the health not only among the tribal council center, although desperately representatives, some of whom needed by tribal members, was were replaced by new members in also being built for the non-Indian a Council election held in employees of CONSOL, who November, but also among those would, if the contract was ap­ Northern Cheyenne tribal proved, shortly be invading the members who held individual reservation. allotments of land on the reser­ Some pressures were subtle, vation. They became so alarmed others not so subtle. CONSOL's that they formed a group called people said that if they could not the Northern Cheyenne Land­ conclude the negotiations at an owners Association to oppose early date they would be forced to coal development. take their plans elesewhere and It had not taken long for the that the valuable project would be word of CONSOL's deadline offer lost to the Northern Cheyenne. "It to spread across the reservation may be a long time before a and for the Northern Cheyenne

12 At this point in the play what the Cheyenne Council members were In March, 1973, the Northern tribal council wanted were at seeking in putting together the Cheyenne people moved center J<>ast some gu-arantees that Natural Resources Code was a stage and passed a resolution ~yenne land would be treated way to use their land to provide which declared all permits and with as much respect and care as me best economic return to the lea se.s issued to corporations for possible. The Council met and Tribe while still preserving surface coal mining on their finally decided in December, 1972, Cheyenne heritage and a chance reservation null and void. The to call in attorneys from the for their children's future. resolution was sent by letter to the Native American Rights Fund to At every turn new legal issues' Billings area office of the BIA. look over the leases and for advice and new rumors had to be con­ in putting together a Northern fronted. A short telephone in­ Cheyenne Natural Resources terview between Brecher and a Code. Such a code, they hoped, reporter from the Billings Gazette would insure the preservation of in January, 1973, fatally injured their .land to the best degree the working relationship between possible and would require the Brecher and the Northern reclamation of those acres that Cheyenne. The paper carried a were strip-mined. story about the phone interview RESOLUTION NO. 132 (73) NARF staff attorney, Joseph J. which attributed a statement to A RESOLUTION OF THE NORTH­ Brecher, was assigned to the task. Brecher that the Cheyenne were ERN CHEYENNE TRIBAL COUN­ He was a non-Indian lawyer who gr.ing to cancel their leases. CIL RELATING TO THE CANCEL­ LATION AND TERMINATION OF had spent several years at NARF The Council was rightfully ALL EXISTING COAL PERMITS working on the environmental angered that he would speak on AND LEASES ON NORTHERN problems confronting the South­ their behalf. In addition, the CHEYENNE RESERVATION. west tribes by the construction of Gazette story made it appear as if WHEREAS, there now exists be­ the gigantic Four Corners Power the Council only acted to tween the Northern Cheyenne Tf'ibe complex. He was considered by safeguard the tribe's resources and various coal companies, leases most people who knew him to be after being prodded by the Nor­ and per'mits of our coal assets that thern Cheyenne Land Owners are not in compliance with 25 CFR ("putspoken environmentalist. 177; and .ri-s Brecher went to work on Association. This was not true; the Council had been seeking WHEREAS, the Northern Cheyenne behalf of the Cheyenne to evaluate Tribe does not know of any authority the leases and then to draft the expert advice and assistance for that allows any Interior Department Natural Resources Code it many months. Although Official to disregard the r'equir'e­ became clearer and clearer, both Brecher's story was corrected in mentsof25CFR 177; and to him and to the Council, that the a later issue of the Gazette, the WHEREAS, the Northern Cheyenne leases offered no real protections damage was done and NARF's Tf'ibe does not recognize the existing to the Cheyenne in terms of role in Act I with the Northern permits and leases as binding on the Cheyenne players ended abruptly Northem Cheyenne Tf'ibe due to the reclamation safeguards and that failure of the Bur'eau of Indian Af­ they were not likely to either in February 1973. fair'S to comply with 25 CFR 177; receive the fair market value for THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, their coal or to be paid for by the Northern Cheyenne Tribal damages that were almost certain Council that officials of the Bureau to be done to their property. of Indian Affairs and the Secretary of the Interior' are hereby directed Concerns were developing by the Northern Cheyenne Tribal rapidly and pressures were put on Council to withdraw the depar't­ all parties from all sides. Rumors ment's approval and terminate and were rampant that the Cheyenne, cancel all permittees and lessees, whereby permits and leases have in addition to placing a severance purportedly authorized and em­ or extraction tax on coal and powered permittees and lease hold­ passing a tribal reclamation ers to explore for and mine coal on ordinance, were going to cancel the Northern Cheyenne Indian all their existing permits and Reservation" leases, in addition to turning down PASSED, ADOPTED AND AP­ V·" -:ONSOL offer. The Code went PROVED by the Northern Cheyenne Tdbal Council by (11) votes for pas­ t\,","",ugh several drafts in sage and approval and no votes preparation for a detailed review against passage and approval this by the Council. What the (5th> day of March, A,D, 1973

13 For the Cheyenne the resolution them either the protection or the state, or federal agencies that was an act as daring as the one information they needed as might attempt to destroy their taken by the Sons of Liberty. It colonial subjects. What the environment; not to tolerate the was the Sons of Liberty, disguised Cheyenne announced to the BIA abuse of their sovereignty, their· as Mohawks, who led other and to the world was not unlike n

15 I I, I , . , ,

The Cheyenne knew they could without being co-opted and exploitation and neglect of their not survive another war with the contaminated by those playing resources by the BIA w.as a U.S., but they also knew how the role of the Tories in this play. government responsibility. They much extensive technical and Those who believed it would saw too that it also could even­ financial aid would be necessary work \vere encouraged by tually open the door to full for them to govern and develop Secretary Morton's decision to try governmental participation in a their own resources themselves. to pay for any necessary litigation program for Indian economic Many wondered if such a plan costs because they believed that independence which would benefit could ever be implemented recompensation for the years of the nation as a whole.

An Intermission and Rehearsal for the Northern Cheyenne " Mining activity at Northern recognized a crucial ambiguity in where the allottees are primarily" Cheyenne is minimal now. The its 1926 Act, that is, if the 1926 Act non-Indians) may come under i: NARF Natural Resources Code is had created a Fifth Amendment considerable pressure from the' still before the Council, and the protected property interest in the coal companies to lease their Ziontz petition to cancel the leases allottees and their heirs, Congress allotments which checkerboard is now on appeal. There are still could not subsequently take that the reservation before the tribe as conflicting political forces within away without payment of just a whole decides what it wants td~ the tribe, but they are working compensation. In order to resolve do. The coal and oil companies;; hard towards a resolution of their this ambiguity the 1968 Act strategy to date in their dealings problems. The tribal minutemen, therefore authorized the Northern with individual white ranchers resisting corporate domination, Cheyenne Tribe to commence a who own land near the reser­ are vigorously rehearsing a lawsuit in the federal district vation has been to divide and campaign to educate their fellow court in Montana "to determine conquer. The Tribal Council and' tribal members. They are tran­ whether under the provisions of many other Cheyenne now know: slating the strip-mining script into the Act of 1926, as amended, the that the Tribe's future existence the Cheyenne language and they allottees, their heirs or devisees, whether it includes more coa are planning to hold a referendum have received a vested property development or not, is dependen on strip-mining in 1976 sponsored right in the minerals protected by upon the strength that lies by the Tribal Council. the Fifth Amendment". The unity. Without it, their final pa 1976 also happens to be a crucial district court held in favor of the in this drama could become J year for the Northern Cheyenne Tribe saying there were no tragedy. for another reason. In 1926 property rights and no com­ pensation was due the allottees. Congress passed the Northern MORNING STAR: Cheyenne Allotment Act which The Court of Appeals recently Norther'n Cheyenne was one of the last to be passed reversed this decision and ruled before the complete abolishment against the tribe, and a petition (couTageo usly in 1877) of the Allotment Policy by for certiorari is now pending Tell the Great Father that Dull Knife~ Congress in 1932. before the Supreme Court. and his people ask to end their, It provided that the minerals The Cheyenne Tribal Council is days here in the north where they~ underlying the Northern now worried that if the mineral were born Tell him we want no more Cheyenne Reservation would be rights remain with individual war.. Tell him that if he lets us stay here, Dull Knife's people will hurt ncf reserved for the benefit of the allottees, they can more easily be one Tell him if he tries to send uS tribe, but "that at the expiration pressured to sell or be bought off back, we will butcher each other with. of 50 years from the date of ap­ by the mining companies. Or, in our own knives proval of this Act the coal or other the alternati've, if the tribe minerals, including oil, gas, and decides to mine, it may not have other natural deposits, shall an economically feasible unit of become the property of the land unless the individuals respective allotees or heirs". In holding allotments also want to 1968 Congress then amended the mine. Northern Cheyenne Allotment Act H the tribe loses before the or script to provide that the Supreme Court, the allottees (who minerals should remain tribally are primarily Indians unlike on owned. However, Congress other Montana reservations

16 Act II ANOTHER VERSION OF THE REVOLUTION

THE PLAYERS The Sons of The Crow The Crows began their formal Liberty Tribe relationship with the U.S. government by negotiating a TOM PAINE: The Committee The Crow on Corres­ Mineral treaty in 1851 which provided (adamently in 1776) pondence Committee them with 38.5 million acres in Montana and Wyoming. Between Silas Big Medicine While men could be persuaded they then and now, through other had no rights, or that rights ap­ A lex Bird-In-Ground pertained only to a certain class of Robert Howe treaties, Acts of Congress, and men, or that government was a thing Dale Kindnesr, Ir cessions of land, they have lost all existing in right of itself, it was not Eloise Pease but 1,554,253 acres. Although difficult to govern them Frank Plain Bull almost 2.5 million acres are in­ authoritatively. George Reed, Jr cluded within the exterior boundaries of the Crow reser­ The ignorance in which they were The Redcoats The Bureau held, and the superstition in which 0/ Indian vation, of this amount, only they were instructed, furnished the Affain 344,304 acres are still tribally means of doing it. But when the owned and 1,209,949 acres are ignorance is gone and the superstition The East India Westmoreland allotted. The other 1,000,000 acres with it, when they perceive the im­ Tea Company Resources have been transferred to white position that has been acted upon Company them, and when they reflect that the ownership. Nonetheless, on the cultivator and the manufacturer are King George III The Secretary remaining acres 4,200 members of the primary means of all the wealth 0/ Interior the Crow Tribe have continued in that exists in the world beyond what their traditional roles. nature spontaneously produces, when they begin to feel their consequences More members of the Crow Ironically, the future tribal by their usefulness and their right as Tribe, measured on a percentage existence of the Crow people may members of society, it is no longer basis, live on their reservation now hinge on something the Tribe possible to govern them as before. than do the members of any other agreed to in 1899. It was in that tribe on the Northern Great year the Crows agreed to cede The fraud, once detected, cannot be retracted To attempt it is to provoke Plains. Their tribal existence is about 1,150,000 acres of their derision or invite destruction. strong and their land, although reservation land on the southern greatly diminished, is large in border to the U.S. government for comparison to that of many other sale to homesteaders. The plains tribes. proceeds from the sale of these

17 acres (which were not to be sold ceded lands, while all of. the gentlemen brokers will do very for less than $4 per acre) were to Cheyenne's coal is directly well on the 5~ a ton proceeds from be used by the Secretary of In­ beneath their reservation. Tracts II and III. So it has often terior for special projects on the Like the Cheyenne, the Crows gone in the Indian coal business TT'" ...... 1....1~ .. :,.."...... , .... \...-._ 1 • • reservation, such as an irrigation signed permits and leases under ~u <1UU1W.VU, WUtU maKing the system, the construction of a the guidance of the BIA for lands, deal, the two gentlemen per­ hospital, buying cattle and sheep, both on the reservation and off the suaded the Crow Tribe that they and building a good fence around reservation in the ceded area, could not sell their coal on Tract I the remaining reservation. between 1966 and 1971. Leases unless they also gave them rights were given to Shell Oil Company, to 30,000 acre-feet of water per Congress didn't get around to year which the brokers argued ratifying the 1899 agreement until Westmoreland Resources, and AMAX. Permits were issued to would be needed for conversion " 1904 and at that time the surface facilities. The Crows agreed and rights to these lands went to the Gulf Mineral Resources and Peabody Coal Company. transferred one of their precious .. new homesteaders and the ~ater options from agricultural to J mineral rights were vested with In 1971, as alarm grew on the IndustrIal use and then to the two :\ the Crow Tribe. It may have been Cheyenne Reservation at the brokers. During this same period ,; one of the best deals the Crows prospect of strip-mining and the of time, the Crows altogether" ever made, because underneath unfairness of the royalties the turned over to different coal \ these acres were rich low sulfur Indians were obtaining, the Crow companies (Gulf, Shell and. coal deposits. also began to look more carefully Peabody) options on 140,000 acre.\ Like their next door neighbors, at their own permits and leases. fe~t. of water per year receiving; the Northern Cheyenne, the Crow In particular they were troubled mInImal payments in return. The people have suffered endemic by an agreement they had made BIA guided them through these poverty since the late 1800's when with two gentlemen brokers. The arrangements as well. So it has' lawy~rs, they were confined to their gentlemen, both were.in often gone in the Indian water~ reservation. If the Crows have the business of secunng permIts business. ••. fared slightly better than their and leases on coal rich lands, and Early in 1973, Gulf Mineral Cheyenne neighbors, it is because then transferring the rights to Resources (which had a permit) they were not so badly decimated mining companies for a per­ and Shell Oil Company (which as the Cheyenne, and thus they centage of each ton of coal had a coal lease) on Crow. were able through their strength removed. reservation lands began t01 and power to maintain a In the case of Crows they exercise these by beginning ex! significantly larger land base, negotiated an agreement for ploratory drilling. A rumor was which has since provided them something known as Tract I, one circulated that a non-Indian city with a correspondingly larger of three tracts of land in the ceded of up to 200,000 people was beiDi tribal income from grazing and area, which contained an considered for the neighborho mineral leases. This is not to say unknown amount of coal. (Tracts of Wyola or Lodge Grass on the that there are not a lot of cold II and III were leased by West­ reservation. Since it was aboll economic and social facts moreland Resources Company.) this time that the Cheyenne an, surrounding the Crow. Unem­ Their agreement with the Tribe nounced their intentions to cance ployment on the reservation provided that they would pay the their leases, the Crows begantQ stands at 29%; elsewhere in Crows 17.St per ton for coal realize the magnitude of wha Montana the figure is 7.8%. The removed from Tract I. Since the they had done. . average income among Crow two gentlemen were only brokers, Like the Cheyenne, families on the reservation is they were not able to develop the were also finding out that ther, about $2,800; state-wide the figure coal themselves. So in exchange were coal companies like CON is $10,137. for turning over their rights to the SOL which were willing to pay 25 Nonetheless, the Crow culture is coal on Tract I, they obtained an a ton for coal. Regardless ­ not yet as endangered as the agreement whereby West­ CONSOL's rate, it was now dea Cheyenne. Virtually all Crow moreland would pay them Sf per to them that if the Tribe ha youngsters speak the ancient ton on coal removed from all negotiated with Westmorelan language of the Crow, and Crow three tracts. It later turned out Resources Company direc ,­ religion and customs still flourish. that there was not enough coal on Westmoreland would have agre ' More importantly, however, is the Tract I to make it economically to pay them at least the 22.5c p fact that a large portion of the feasible to mine, and so both the ton royalty Westmoreland M Crow-owned coal is off the Crows and Westmoreland lost ended up paying the CrowS a~ reservation, lying under the 1899 money on the deal, while the two the two gentlemen brokers. '.'

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

MRS.. IRVING ALDERSON: STEVE CHARTER: North Central Power Study, alert Montana Rancher Montana Rancher Montanians and other white

(vehemently in 1971) (vehemently In 1973) residents of the Northern Great Plains states were alarmed. Even We feel, all of us, that this is our last a quick perusal of the massive To bully, discourage or threaten stand. That there's no place else, report told readers that the power people into giving up their homes is now, that we could go to live the kind and mineral conglomerates certainly wrong. To condemn the land of life we've built. If we tear this land on which an 30-year-old couple has up and dam the rivers and dry them up planned nothing short of built a life together is indecent. To and muck up the air with smokestacks destruction of the Great Plains threaten to condemn a young rancher and fill it full of people and ticky-tacky way of life. In response, the carving out a new life and planting houses, there just won't be any place whites put together a volunteer new roots for himself and his family is left, not in this whole Country; there action group, the Northern Plains also indecent won't be anything left Resource Council, which was composed of white ranchers, While the stage hands were fighting the same forces the In­ environmentalists, civic, cultural setting up the scenery behind the dians had had to fight and were and historical groups, and people curtain at the Crow Reservation, defeated by - the railroads, the who loved clean big skies, and most of the State of Montana was mining interests, and the federal open spaces. acting out its own version of the government. For a large number of ranchers '.~c" revolution. The white ranchers In 1971, when the Bureau of whose lands were above coal who had taken over Indian lands a Reclamation released its pon­ deposits, it was too late. Under t century or two earlier were derous, two-volume report, The pressure, coercion, and "~; :~ 19 sometimes fraud, they or their environmental safeguards anQ. there were no compliance or neighbors had sold their lands to extraordinarily long, 20-year performance bonds covering the speculators, brokers and power leases. Indian lease requirements, and companies. Indeed, at the time Because of the lack of com­ that in the few cases that there the North Central Power Study petition for western coal, those were, the amounts were in­ had been released, the coal rich companies and brokers who had sufficient to cover even the non-Indian lands were check­ secured permits and leases on estimated reclamation costs. boarded with mining-interest federal public lands from the With regard to both federal ownership. It was like a new and Bureau of Land Management public and federal Indian leases, horribly ironic version of the (BLM) were paying royalties so the problem seemed to be that Indian Allotment Act. In addition, low as to constitute a steal in neither the BLM nor the BIA had in Montana, although the existing present day terms. Un­ any "procedures" for the potential supply of water from the fortunately, most of the permits preparation of environmental rivers in the Yellowstone Basin and leases had been taken out in impact statements and so they was judged at 1,735,000 acre-feet the 1960's and it will be 1986 before were simply not being made. By of water per year, energy com­ the agreements run for the 20 year November, 1972, because neither panies had already received period and the royalties can be the BLM or BIA, or their boss, the options from the Bureau of adjusted. Secretary of Interior, had made Reclamation for 871,000 to any moves in response to the GAO 1,400,000 acre-feet per year in the Shortly after the formation of criticisms, the Environmental Basin. Further, they had the volunteer Northern Great Protection Agency (EPA) began requested or indicated interest in Plains Resource Council, the U.S. to pressure Interior to take some another 945,000 acre-feet per year Government's own General kind of remedial action. from those same streams. Worse, Accounting Office (GAO) came if possible, was the fact that not out with a report which severely everybody was in line yet or had criticized both the BLM and the BIA for their leasing practices. made their request for the water they would need to develop the The GAO pointed out that federal enormous mineral resources they land speculators could buy rights were buying in the area. These cheaply, hold on to them for long {inds of allocations did not leave periods of time with no plans to much for the ranchers and far­ mine the coal, and then sell the mers and they did not even take rights at a large profit in the into consideration the prior and rising market. Further, the GAO paramount water rights of the said that, with regard to the Indians. leases made in the 1960's, there were practically no provisions Meanwhile, back on the ranches} As the coal rush proceeded, the for any land reclamation or in Montana, the legislators were: Montana Congressional dele­ environmental considerations. becoming as upset and frustrated i gation began working hard on Nonetheless, the BLM and the with the Secretary of Interior as. legislation which would provide BIA were ignoring the deficien­ the Indians had been for a 100' some safeguards from the ex­ cies in the few safeguards that years and still were. Under the plosion of development that was there were, preferring apparently leadership of Montana Senators" happening in their state. There to wait instead for each lease to Mike Mansfield and Lee Metcalf,',: were, of course, mixed feelings in come up for renegotiation. the United States Senate passed a,1 Montana and in other Great Even the newer 1970's public resolution calling for a: Plains states about the land leases, which had stiffer moratorium on further leasing of. development. Some people stood reclamation and environmental federal lands for one year or until to benefit from it; for others it requirements, were not being the Senate could act on proposed. meant the destruction of their enforced. With regard to the BIA, strip-mining legislation. The; way of life. the GAO said that the technical Secretary of Interior refused to' Beyond the problems of the examinations of environmental uphold the resolution and told the individual land owners, the effects were not being done and Senators that they could relY; general public was worse off than the companies were being per­ instead on the already totallY; either the cowboys or the Indians. mitted to proceed with ex­ discredited policies of the Interior The law passed by Congress in ploration without any approved Department to guaranteed 1920 with regard to leasing of mining plans whatsoever. GAO "environmentally acceptabl~ public lands provided for few pointed out that for the most part, mining". The Montana delegation

20 ...... - I

and their supporters were in­ censed'. Nobody knew - not the Indians, not Interior, not the states in­ volved - how much land was actually under lease for coal mining purposes on the Northern Great Plains. In a token response, since the GAO report, the BLM had been holding up approval of any further coal permits and leases while it tried to learn how much public coal was already under lease. This was done in an effort to placate those who were angry about the rapid develop­ ment, as well as to placate the coal companies who were told by the BLM that the agency would proceed cautiously on a case-by­ case basis, (Le., "don't worry, we'll take care of your needs"). Act II (Continued) ­ Those on the other side, who were most angry about the strip­ Meanwhile Back on the Reservation mining, felt there should be no strip-mining at all if neither In­ terior, nor the states nor the coal In the fall of 1973, as the curtain Council is not unlike the original companies could ensure orderly went up on the Crow stage, the town councils which met as the 'lnd reasonable development. Crow players began another kind colonies proceeded to form and The result of the antagonism of revolution. What followed in the govern themselves into the new between the coal developers (and next 18 months was a remarkable United States. their supporters) and the ran­ drama between the Indians and Also coal was not the only chers and environmentalists (and one of the major coal companies problem of the Crows, and it was their supporters) was symbolized in America. concern over anumber of by an ugly bumper sticker seen The Crows knew one thing ­ problems that led them to the most often near major mine they wanted to be strong again. Native American Rights Fund in development areas. It read: "Let They were tired of their poverty the summer of 1973. After some the Bastards Freeze in the Dark." and they knew they had a way to preliminary discussions and a change it and most of them were request for help, Daniel Israel, a intent on doing this. They moved non-Indian NARF attorney, was onto the stage with their primary assigned to make a two-day visit motivation being their knowledge to the Crow Reservation in Sep­ that the royalties they were tern ber, 1973. During the visit, he receiving for the coal being mined met with tribal leaders, individual on the ceded lands were not what Indian allottees, parents of Crow they were fairly entitled to. school children, and tribal elders. Among the items the Crows It is perhaps important to note discussed with Israel were: here that the Crow Tribe did not submit to the provisions of the 1. Coal mining operation Indian Reorganization Act, and it problems on the Crow therefore still votes by the Reservation. traditional general council 2.. Crow hunting and fishing method. As a result, every male treaty rights problems. over the age of 21 and every 3, The problem of excess non­ female over the age of 18 is Indian land holdings in eligible to participate in tribal violation of Section 2 of the decisions. The Crow Tribal Crow Allotment Act.

21 4. Law and order jurisdiction on the reservation. Tbey were: three tracts it had leased and problems in Lodge Grass. Robert Howe, who was also because the company had con­ elected Chairman; George Reed, 5. Water rights problems on structed a $34 million mining the Crow Reservation in Jr., selected as Vice-Chairman; facility, as well as h; g conjunction with the Bureau and Eloise Pease, who was chosen financed a Burlington Northern of Reclamation's allocations as Secretary. The other Railroad spur, a great deal of to the tribe from the representatives were Dale Kind­ emphasis was placed on the Yellowtail Dam Project. ness, Jr., Alex Bird-In-Ground, Westmoreland lease. 6. Leasing problems on in­ Silas Big Medicine, and Frank In January, 1974, the Crow dividual allotments held by Plain Bull. Placed on these Crow Mineral Committee recom­ Indians. players was the heavy respon­ mended to the entire Council that sibility of playing roles which put it be authorized to enter into 7. Educational them in the position of confronting formal negotiations with West­ discrimination problems in the Department of Interior and public schools near the moreland Resources represen­ reservation. the energy companies. tatives with regard to adjusting the royalties which would be paid 8. Economic problems of the the Crows for their coal. The Crow Indian Land and Council agreed and passed a Livestock Association. resolution to this effect and also instructed the Mineral Committee There were other problems, of to support amendments before course, but as far as Israel could Congress that would insure see, the Crows could use the entire mining could take place on the 17-manNARFlegalteamjust as a ceded land where the tribe owned starter. He returned to Boulder the coal, but which white ranchers and began to digest what he had were unwilling to lease or sell. heard. For the next 18 months, he And finally, among other things, was to spend almost every waking the Council told the Mineral hour immersed in the legal The new Mineral Committee Committee to develop a set ()f problems of the Crow people, and was instructed to look into the environmental control re... 1­ during this time, he was to play existing permits and leases very tions which would cover mining virtually every role a legal ad­ carefully and to make a report on lands within the boundaries of vocate can play in a very con­ back to the General Council in the Crow Reservation itself. centrated period of time. January, 1974. Shortly thereafter At the same time, the Council Between the time the Northern the Mineral Committee made a recommended continuation of the Cheyenne announced their in­ formal request to NARF to assist ban on approving any further coal tention to cancel their leases in them in their effort. With monies leases or permits until the Council March, 1973, and the time NARF advanced by NARF, and later decided what it was going to do, became involved at Crow, the reimbursed by the Crow Com­ and tabled a resolution which Crow Mineral Committee, ap­ munity Action Program, the Crow would have divided the coal pointed by the General Council, Mineral Committee hired two royalties on a 50/50 basis between had had some informal independent coal experts to join per capita payments and the discussions with Westmoreland them and Israel in plowing tribal government. Some of the Resources. Westmoreland, unlike through the voluminous and Crows were particularly worried the other companies holding Crow highly technical paper props that passing such a motion would permits, had already constructed surrounding the coal leases. be like counting their chickens a mine and was targeted to Inquiries went out to each of the before they hatched and would be commence mining on July 1, 1975 permit and lease holders, as well taken by Westmoreland as an on Tract III of the ceded area off as to the BIA, seeking mining indication that the CrowS were the Crow Reservation. plans and contract details. Maps, satisfied with the 17.5t per ton In November, 1973, the Crow charts and data on estimated coal price. Tribal Council passed a resolution tonnage piled up. The magnitude which enlarged the respon­ of the sorting task alone was often sibilities of the Crow Mineral overwhelming. Committee and it also elected Because Westmoreland seven new Committee members Resources was ready to com­ representing the various districts mence mining on Tract III of the

22 December and January were of issues, but most importantly would be 35~ and 6%. Fur­ ! 25~ 30~ r,I exhausting months for the Crow increasing the royalties for the thermore, the to a ton Mineral Committee and Israel Crows from 17.5¢ per ton to 25~ toyalties would only apply to the because hours and hours of per ton.or 6% of the selling price 77 million tons of coal which rehearsals were required with FOB at the mine site, whichever Westmoreland Resources was regard to the renegotiations. The was greater. already under contract to sell to actual renegotiations began the The 25~ per ton figure was to four mid-western utility com­ second week of February and apply only to all coal mined panies. For the more than 800 were still going on when, in late during the remainder of 1974 and million tons of yet uncommitted March, a whole new troupe of in 1975. For coal shipped during or unsold coal, Westmoreland actors suddenly marched on 1976 and 1977, Westmoreland agreed to pay the Crows 40~ a ton stage. A group of white ranchers, agreed to pay 30~ a ton or 6%of the or 8% of the selling price FOB at who owned the surface rights to FOB price. In 1978 and 1979 it the mine price. the ceded Crow land, had filed suit against the Secretary of the In­ terior in federal district court in The Crows Said No Montana to stop the mining on The Crows, who once sold tons. The company clearly, by its environmental protection grounds Yellowstone Park for 5~ an acre, own admissions, had control of (John R. Redding et al v. said no to the new offer. They did much more Crow coal than it Secretary of Interior), Suddenly, so not so much because of the final needed to operate a profitable the Crows found themselves royalty price offered, but because mine. Further, the coal experts having to shift their energies and the lease contained too much hired by the Crow Mineral their attention to a new battle and Crow coal, given the long range Committee estimated that there ironically found themselves development plans of West­ were 1.1 billion tons of coal in the standing on the same side of the moreland Resources. tracts rather than 900 million battle line as Westmoreland Westmoreland's own con- estimated by Westmoreland. Resources. servative estimate placed the Many of those people in the \ Throughout the spring, Israel amount of coal in the tracts it had audience during this act of the /was consumed with the leased on the ceded land at 900 play were startled that the Crows preparation of legal papers, in­ million tons. But, Westmoreland decided to reject the amended cluding a motion for summary also admitted that it only had a Westmoreland lease. However, judgment. An environmental sales contract for 77 million tons, one close observer of the drama defense group, Friends of the with a sales option for another 300 said there was nothing startling at Earth, was also joining in the million, and that the mine it had all about the rejection. It was action, but this time on the side of constructed only had a maximum clearly the biggest issue to ever the white ranchers. The play was production capacity of 455 million hit the Crow Tribe and they had making for strange drama, as good reason to be very suspicious. well as strange bedfellows. The Crows knew that whatever they decided was likely to affect Despite the cloud of litigation them and their children for which threatened to stop the generations to come. mining entirely, negotiations between the Crow Mineral Following the "no" vote, the Committee and Westmoreland Crow Mineral Committee went proceeded. In May the federal back to the drawing tables. district court ruled against the Basically, their new directive ranchers and the en­ from the Council was to make a vironmentalists. By then, both more complete determination of sides were exhausted, and in late whether the amended lease was in June, 1974, after six months of fact the best lease and if the lease talks, the Crow Mineral Com­ contained too much coal. West­ mittee went back to the General moreland agreed to keep the Council with a new proposed amended lease proposal open for )ffer. The Committee had been 60 days to give the Crows more <,~ ~successful in obtaining an time to consider it, even though amended agreement with the Company had originally set a Westmoreland covering a number 15-day deadline for acceptance.

23 i.""'-~

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

,.' .; Northern Cheyenne's petition, '_ii \ The President of Westmoreland On July 13, 1974, a little mbre ; Resources, Penn Hutchinson than two weeks after the original was annoyed that the Crows were ,'{ ."". ' indicated to curious reviewers of no vote, the Crow Council passed now also on his doorstep. His 'r >; the drama that the terms of the a resolution which cancelled the underlings relayed the message to proposed amended lease were not Westmoreland lease and all the Crows that there was little going to be retroactive. He told others previously granted by the hope that the Secretary would thONe who asked that the company Tribe. This decision necessitated consider cancelling the Crow would begin to deliver its coal to a very quick costume change by leases - the pressures of the new its customers immediately even if everyone. Within a month, a Project Independence and the the amended lease was rejected, lengthy petition to declare the weight of the mining industry and that the tribe would receive Westmoreland Resources lease were too great for him to act like only the 17.5¢ per ton price which null and void had been prepared the Indian trustee that he was. All waR agreed to in the original by NARF and the new Crow tribal he would do, his messengers said lease. attorney, Thomas Lynaugh. The was to "arbitrate" the disput~ petition was filed with the between the Crows and West- .,; moreland. .~ l)ENN HUTCHINSON: Secretary of Interior, and the both·~ President. Crow Council decided to appoint a Thus, in October, 1974, West,moreland Resources special tribal delegation to handle sides were invited to Washington' (adamantly in June, 1974) this aspect of the coal effort, to iron out their differences before, rather than leave it to the Crow Interior personnel. The' Crows',,i ihis is the best coal deal in the North Mineral Committee. were understandably reluctant to' American continent for similar The Secretary of Interior, who go and there were many dif·? quality coal. Weare not in a position ferences of opinion as to just what' to negotiate further" We cannot go had just issued his half-yes, half­ higher. no decision with regard to the the official Crow negotiating' '" Perhaps Mr. Hutchinson was , new stage should 4. A provision which t{or~~~ saying something about what had were so high that Westmoreland to develop gone on in the Westmoreland Crow coal fields at an .very rough in the 1 camp. Nonetheless; Lhe day the ~~. articularly between aggressive rate, In fli d agreement was finalized, Tribe's new general ticular, the contract requ r~4 Westmoreland gave the Crow as Lynaugh. No one Westmoreland to mine Council a $1,717,200 check as a :~hat was going on million tons of coal a year by down payment and two days later nes in the West­ 1982 so that the Company the tribe mailed a $200 per capita p, but things could not hold onto ~e c~;; check to each of the tribe's 5,771 been much for speculation an ble members. The checks came to the Crows could count on a ;~~ ir Crows just before Christmas. once in the income from the '1i11e 0 led o the two sides met; coal. This provi.ion sb r~g 'and under the the problem of there e Better late Than Never .. t Standsoverbull, too much coal in the lease . '\:' 81 Chairman, and which had led the CroWs ~ In January, 1975, a few weeks , ' Jr" the Vice­ turn down the June oller an after the Westmoreland deal had . ally agreed. On then to cancel the leases been closed, the BIA released a ,.:4, the Secretary entirely in July. HOW, if t~~ report on the impact of coal , e Crow trustee) Company only mine' development on the Crow ' to ' .. nrJ it wUl be ct his stamp of m illion ns 10 U/QV, S of Reservation. The report indicated forced to pay the C,.OW~ 4 the that full-scale rapid development the market value Vj, of coal production could produce additional 4 minion tons royalties of up to $6 million per needed to fill the agreed year for the Crows or $6,395 for production quota. od Hon each tribal member annually. The Even greater pi' uc f r BrA report also predicted that as standards were flJJpoud t~e a result, the reservation's subsequent year. ~) that population would soar from about Crows could bave a 10,000 to 45,000 people. Although a predictable revenu-e 'OUtir~e "high level" of coal development from this ofl41:$erva 0 would produce more than 700 .....-t~nt1y mme.. M ost'1my,,,. - . f aJthea mining jobs for Indians, most of result of this pr~ n h d the newcomers to the reservation new lease, the CrOW' ad would be white, and that as a -~ ar more f1eXl'bili'ty w~ofregtheir result, the Crows would become a to the developm~ B minority on their own reservation remaining coal reurve , and find that their political power whether off the r~ation was diluted and their social arena or on the reservatJorl· disrupted. The report predicted that this pace of change would be arge their 5. Finally, the ne- lea: too fast to allow for adaptation by buying the contained an agr~ent the Indians. It seemed to say that om West­ come back to the ~ati~: low-level development meant . ining was tables to "ad~ decreased royalties and high­ royalties every U1J year., level development meant __ .-uf got from decreased Crows. What Westmoreun-- 1 u.se the Crows was a good bftb c a that As the Crows had been that assured the COf1IJpany proceeding towards a final deal the deal was a solid ~, with Westmoreland, the Montana State Legislature had been PESS HL'TCHISS(~~ proceeding towards a substantial (reflectiveIy, increase in their severance tax on December in 1974) coal. Because the Westmoreland We spenc a rraumatit:: ~ .,.-t,ok1l ~ lease was on ceded land, the state Crows sought to in'T..t~'-' '.lUf contended that coal mined there leases.. 25 was not exempt from such state drive away those companies strip mmmg legislation, finally taxes. Since these taxes, which interested in development of the passed a tightly controlled bill were included in the FOB selling Crows off-reservation coal. which provided stricter en­ price, had the effect of increasing Nothing ~bout being an Indian vironmental regulations and the Crow;s royalties the Crows was simpie. generaHy was not considered stood to gain by the state tax On the national scene, favorably by the coal companies. provided the severance taxes did Congress, having labored for well President Ford then vetoed the not go so high as to discourage or over 18 months on a new federal bill.

The Intermission -A Stalemate What has happened on stage the 30% severance tax imposed on rehearing with regard to a since the Crow/Westmoreland all Montana coal, which has determination of exactly whether deal can only be described as a caused energy companies to re­ or not the leasewide en­ stalemate or, perhaps in terms of evaluate their commitments in vironmental impact statement this drama, an intermission. No Montana and which is the kind of ordered by the Ninth Circuit must one knows whether there is going tax now being looked at by several include both Westmoreland leases to be a second Revolutionary War other Great Plains states as well. on the Crow ceded area, or can on the Northern Great Plains or There are the new restrictions on include only Tract III (which is not. state mining plan approvals being mined), with Tract II At the Northern Cheyenne camp which were recently imposed by (which is not yet being mined) to there is a moratorium on coal the Montana legislature and come in the future. development, while the Cheyenne which are also being watched Still additional uncertainties await the outcome of their carefully by the other Great persist and make immediate comprehensive community sur­ Plains states. massive coal development on the vey, as well as the outcome of Then there is the impact of the plains unlikely. There is, for in­ their petition before the Supreme case known as Sierra Club v. stance, the unknown status of the Court with regard to who owns the Morton, where the bureau­ federal strip mining bill which minerals on the allotted lands. cratically encumbered Depart­ may incorporate severe Presumably, sometime within ment of Interior is presently restrictions on the mining of the next year, the decision will be struggling to make a decision as alluvial valleys in the west. There made as to whether, and if so to whether or not the development is the unknown outcome of the under what circumstances, coal of all Northern Great Plains Environmental Defense Fund v. mining will resume on the Nor­ federal coal (and possibly Indian Secretary of Interior water thern Cheyenne Reservation. coal) constitutes a major federal litigation which may yet deprive action. If the Interior bureaucrats At Crow, the only Indian strip­ the energy companies of the l decide that such development mining on the Northern Great opportunity of actually taking the ,'; does constitute a major action, Plains is being done by West­ large quantities of Wyoming and then a multi-state environmental moreland Resources. In order to Montana water promised them by" impact statement will have to be do so, Westmoreland is paying the the Bureau of Reclamation for use', prepared, which will take at least in upgrading coal, for slurry" highest royalties in America to two years, and which will again the Crows. Although, Shell Oil has pipelines, or for oil and gas:' cause all mining plan approvals to conversion. made overtures at Crow to each of be suspended during its the individual tribal members to preparation - whether they are Finally, there are the players;1 try to get their on-reservation in Montana, Wyoming, North themselves - an unusual com- lease moving and AMAX has Dakota, South Dakota or bination of people (pro-, openly discussed the possibility of Nebraska. environmentalists, cowboys and renegotiating their lease in the Another reason for the in­ ranchers, and suspicious Indians) ; ceded area in 1976, the other termission is the Redding v. - all playing some kind of role' • t energy companies presently Morton litigation (ranchers and opposite the mining compames.; holding permits are just sitting environmentalists vs. the Up on the Northern Great Plains'A around waiting to see what government and the Indians) stage, one could say that people! happens. And so are the Crows. which is now going through a are waiting for the air to clear and There are several other factors lengthy process of clarification are breathing deeply of some of ;.' which have contributed to the via legal petition. Some time in the last clear air in the country", intermission/stalemate. There is the next year there will be a while doing so. .

26 ;f i> f r I' I ~, ~i .~. f_ ~; Act III J'" ~i t': THE DECLARATION f OF INDIAN INDEPENDENCE

~~{,} l'~'~ r, ~ "'i~ Thomas Jefferson, in preparing THE PLAYERS / the original Declaration of In- The First Members of dependence, wrote that not only is Continental the 26 Northern it the right of the people to revolt Congress Gr'eat Plains against arbitrary, undemocratic Indian Tribes rule, but it is the "duty" of every patriotic American to do so. The Declaration A lien Rowland, Committee Northern Jefferson then listed 18 Cheyenne grievances called "A history of THOMAS JEFFERSON: repeated injuries and usurpations Lyman Young, (deliberately in 1776) Fort Belknap Reservation all having as a direct object the establishment of an absolute He has refused his assent to laws, the ,A Ivina Grey Bear, ;, tyranny over these States". Some most wholesome and necessary for the Standing Rock Reseroation public good, of the indictments against King Ralph Wells, George III were as applicable to He has directed a multitude of new Fort Buthold Re,seroation :; the British Monarch as they were offices, and sent hither swarms of Gr'ace Es,tes, (~ to become to the U.S. Secretary of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance., Lower' Brule Reseroation }1" Interior. Wilber' Decoteau, He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without Winnebago Reseroation .:, consent of our legislatures, Starr Reid, Shoshone He has combined with others to Wind River Reseroation subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged Jess Miller, by our laws; giving his assent to their Arapaho acts of pretended legislation Wind Rivu Reservation In every stage of these oppressions we ha ve petitioned for a redress in the The Second The delegates most humble terms Our repeated Continental of the Native petitions have been answered only by Congress American repeated injury, A prince, whose Natural character is thus marked by every act Resources which may define a tyrant, is unfit to Development be a ru IeI' of a free people Federation

27 At this late hour the Depart­ Shoshone, and Jess Miller, an ment of Interior has decided to Arapaho, both from the Wind send a peace commissioner in the River Reservation. form of a representative from the This declaration committee met Northern Great Plains Resource several times over a period of Program (NGPRP) to meet with months. Then on February 28, the Indians and to ask for their 1974, all the tribal representatives comments with regard to federal met once again in Mobridge, development plans for the Not­ South Dakota, where the Standing thern Great Plains. Although the Rock Sioux Tribe acted as host. NGPRP study had been underway This meeting was the equivalent for over a year, no one had of the First Continental Congress, bothered to contact the Indians staged 200 years before. The until this day. approximately 100 delegates in The discussions and attendance spent the entire deliberations went on hour after meeting marking up the final hour. Recognizing that the issues draft of the input statement were too complex to be settled prepared by the declaration that day, Mr. John Vanderwalker, committee. As the tribal Director of the NGPRP study, delegates worked on their asked that the tribal delegates On December 18, 1973, more statement the vast problems they become "consultants" to the than 100 Northern Great Plains were facing concerning natural NGPRP study in a last minute Indian people met on the Fort resources and their survival came attempt to provide Indian input Berthold Reservation in North into painful focus. and avoid the upcoming conflict. Dakota. They had assembled that Vanderwalker told the That night and the next day the day to discuss their Winters representatives that the study delegates became determined to Doctrine water rights to the rivers report had already been drafted organize as quickly as possible flowing through and the ground and was shortly due to be into a formal federation, and water underneath their reser­ finalized, but that he was very before the meeting was adjourned vations. The atmosphere was full much anxious to have the Indians' a constitution and by-laws had of tension and concern due to the position included in the final been drafted to take home to their fact that federal agencies, the report. respective tribes for review. states and private interests were rapidly making plans to use more water than there was on the The Declaration Committee Northern Great Plains. Because of their endemic Because of the lateness of the poverty these tribes had not been hour, a temporary committee was able to develop their reservations chosen to work on drafting a and make use of the water which statement from the Indians to was rightfully theirs. Now there Interior. These people were to was a recognition that they had play a role as important in the marketable mineral resources events to come as the original which could, if they so chose, Declaration Committee made up bring them the income they of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin needed to develop their reser­ Franklin, John Adams, Roger vations and for which they would Sherman, and Robert Livingston. also then need their own water. This time, 200 ypars later, the From the beginning of the delegates for the new Indian meeting it was clear that a mutual declaration committee were to line of defense was about to be be: Allen Rowland, Northern formed of these tribes, some of Cheyenne; Lyman Young, Fort whom had only 100 years before Belknap; Alvina Grey Bear, been at war with each other. This Standing Rock; Ralph Wells, Fort time, however, they were going to Berthold; Grace Estes, Lower make one last stand on the Nor­ Brule; Wilber Decoteau, Win­ thern Great Plains together. nebago; and Starr Reid, a

28 the energy crisis which have the prior and makes the vast coal paramount rights to the resources of this area very water, including all appealing for immediate tributaries thereto, which development. The flow through; arise upon, development of this coal and underlie or border upon their the concomitant use of reservations. These prior water, air, and other natural and paramount rights would resources threatens the extend to all waters that may viability of our environment now or in the future be and the continued existence aritificially augmented or of the 26 tribes which occupy created by weather the Northern Great Plains modification, by desalination within the states of Montana, of presently unusable water Wyoming, North Dakota, supplies, by production of South Dakota and Nebraska. water supplies as a by­ product of geothermal power development, or by any other These tribes would be scientific or other type of severely burdened with means within the respective immense consequences reservations in the Northern resulting from any natural Great Plains area. resource development. It is for this reason that these tribes desire to submit the In view of the tribes' prior following declaration for and paramount rights to all inclusion in the report of the the waters to which they are The Second Northern Great Plains geographically related, it is Continental Congress Resources Program. The self-evident that any major tribes have been asked to diversion of said waters for participate in numerous any purpose would constitute On March 27, 1974, almost a work group statements on an encroachment upon In­ year after the Northern Cheyenne this matter, but it is readily dian water rights. All federal had started the revolution, the apparent that the major agents or agencies, including Northern Great Plains Indian impact upon the survival of but not limited to the Bureau delegates met again in Billings, these Indian tribes will be of Reclamation, Corps of foisted upon the erosion of Engineers, states, persons, Montana, to adopt a constitution their water rights and the parties or organizations are, and by-laws for what that day was depletion of water resources therefore, put on notice that named The Native American due to the need for massive any diversion or use of such Natural Resources Development quantities of water to tribal waters shall be at their Federation (NANRDF). Most develop the coal. The Indian own risk. water rights here involved, importantly, like the original then, are like the Indian Second Continental Congress, the fishing rights considered by Indian delegates also voted on and the United States Supreme unanimously passed A Court in United States v. Declaration of Indian Rights to Winans, 198 U.S. 371, 381, (1905); they are "not much the Natural Resources in the less necessary to the Northern Great Plains. existence of the Indians than the atmosphere they breathe". The Indian tribes and people of the Northern Great Plains, being confronted with an all­ The Indian tribes of the five pervasive crisis threatening states do hereby give notice the present and future uses of to the world that they will their natural resources, maintain their ownership to including but not limited to the priceless natural their land, right to use of resources which are water and their coal, do geographically and legally hereby declare as follows: related to their reservations. Indian tribes and people, both jointly and severally, The Northern Great Plains have declared and the courts area of the United States is have sustained that the presently attracting in­ American Indian tribes of ternational attention due to the Northern Great Plains

29 I I I

oil was growing, however, the imports were down by IT An Entre Act world oil market came to be barrels per day, reducing thE dominated by a few Middle East available supply of oil by Up until 1950, the U.S. was countries with massive reserves what was usually neede totally self-sufficient energy wise. and production costs of merely American consumers. At It was easily able to meet its pennies per barrel. same time prices for foreil growing thirst for energy with The disadvantage of this were jumping to unhear cheap and abundant domestic dependency came as a smoke levels. They rose from abc fuels - coal, oil, gas, and signal in 1967 when an oil embargo per barrel in September, 19 hydroelectric power. But by 1960, was imposed by these countries over $11 per barrel by Jan imports of crude oil and because of the tensions in the 1974. petroleum products had begun to Middle East. Few paid any at­ account for 15% of the total tention, however, and it was not domestic oil consumption, and by until the Middle East countries 1973 imports had jumped to 35%. imposed a total embargo on crude This growing dependence was the oil shipments to the U.S. and other result of increasing consumer countries in the winter of 1973, demand, cheap imports, and a that the full impact of America's steadily deteriorating domestic dependence on the Middle East supply situation. became apparent The U.S. Ironically, America's growing government was suddenly as dependence on foreign oil was helpless as it had made its Indian Medicine Bag considered a blessing by many. wards. Inexpensive foreign oil meant The oil embargo, which was lower consumer prices in imposed in October, 1973, just six America and a more competitive months before the Northern Great domestic industry in world Plains Tribes got together for the markets. At the same time as first time, was slow to take effect. It Quill Case America's dependence on foreign Nonetheless by January, 1974, oil

30 > Project Independence considered to be the key to the meeting, 19 of the 24 governing vs. whole effort. That coal had the bodies of the Northern Great The Declaration potential of making the Northern Plains Tribes had formally ap­ ~ Great Plains into the boiler room proved the constitution, and by­ I of Indian Independence of the nation - or as some called laws and governing officers were In response to the embargo, and it "a national sacrifice area". elected. I Mr. Robert Burnett, from the I in final realization of the ,,' tenuousness of the dominant Rosebud Sioux Reservation in r,l society's dependence on foreign South Dakota, was elected energy sources, President Nixon Chairman. Mr. Nathan Little ., announced "Project In­ Soldier, a Hidatsa-Arikara from

I dependence" _ a new federal the Fort Berthold Reservation, '. program with a goal of "energy was elected Vice-Chairman. independence for the United Alvina Grey Bear, a Standing States by 1980". Nixon's an­ Rock Sioux, was elected nouncement came in March, 1974, Secretary; and Joe Day, an '1 at the same time that the Nor- Assiniboine-Sioux, from Fort /. ~ thern Great Plains Tribes passed Peck, was chosen as Treasurer. " their own Declaration of Indian Representatives from each of the Independence with regard to their states also nominated a delegate. } valuable water and mineral Roger Yankton, a Sioux from resources. Devils Lake, was selected as the North Dakota delegate. Elnita Whatever Nixon's Project Rank, Crow Creek Sioux, was , Independen~e meant to the world, I ~. chosen as the South Dakota the Declaration of Indian Rights delegate. Laura Snake, Win­ ., to the Natural Resources in the nebago, and Allen Rowland, Northern Great Plains was the Northern Cheyenne, were first formal notice given to the The Native American selected to represent Nebraska ,( U.S. government, the states, and i' Natural Resources and Montana, respectively. The t individual corporate interests Wyoming tribes did not appoint a that the Indian tribes of the Great Development Federation delegate at this meeting. Plains intended to fight to protect, preserve, and conserve the At the time that the Because the new Federation resources which their forefathers representatives of the Northern was still without funds or staff, , gave their lives to retain. Great Plains got together for the Thomas W. Fredericks, the at­ first time in December, 1973, torney from the Native American The Declaration put all parties NARF had been asked by the Rights Fund who had been on notice that any further abuse of delegates to assist in the assisting the Federation from the Indian rights would not be preparation of the input beginning, was asked by the tolerated, and set out for federal statement (which eventually group to be its coordinator. officials, the states, and the rest of became the Declaration of Indian Fredericks, who was then also the country a summary of the Rights), as well as to provide the Deputy Director of the Native legal basis for the prior and necessary legal and technical American Rights Fund, was I paramount water rights of the 26 advice to assist them in locating personally familiar with the Tribes. It also stated Indian experts and the monies with problems of the Tribes inasmuch principles for planning and which to obtain them. as he himself is a Mandan Indian development of this water, the This was done because at that from the Fort Berthold Reser­ minerals, and the other natural time NARF was already working vation. resources on their land. with several of the member tribes Therefore, in the summer of The conflict was readily ap­ on their resource problems and 1974, NARF began a search for parent. A large portion of the had had considerable experience foundation support which would natural resources essential to the on behalf of other clients with the enable it to allocate the time of 'I" U.S. government's ability to meet kinds. of obstacles and handicaps one full-time attorney to the .;. the goals of Project Independence facing the new Federation. The Federation effort without .. ' were located on Indian reser- Federation met officially for the jeopardizing NARF's ability to : vations. In fact, the billions of tons first time in Billings, Montana in meet its other existing com­ of low sulfur Indian coal were May 1974. At the time of the mitments to Indian clients. After

31 . several months of discussion and conflicts of interest between the Interior to contract for the evaluation, the William H. Donner agencies under the Secretary's marketing of water for industrial Foundation agreed to join with jurisdiction~ Federation Members uses and incidental purposes from NARF in an effort to assist the are opposed to the biH as now the six main stem reservoirs built Federation in developing a real written. by the Army Corps of Engineers capacity to provide its 26 member In late March, 1975, NARF on the Upper Missouri River. tribes with the technical attorneys learned of a While the Memorandum contains assistance necessary to make Memorandum of Understanding language which prohibits the mutually beneficial decisions with between the Secretary of Interior Secretary from entering into any regard to the protection and use of and the Secretary of the Army. In contract which would encroach their land, water and minerals. essence, the Memorandum upon the need for irrigation, flood In October, 1974, the Donner authorized the Secretary of the control, and hydro-electric power Foundation approved a grant for $60,000 to provide about 1700 NARF attorney man-hours, along with corresponding support services, to the Federation. The Donner grant also provided initial seed monies for Federation consultants and traveling ex­ penses for the Federation's Executive Committee. Each day since the Federation first became organized it has become increasingly clear to their representatives, and to NARF, that the most difficult Indian natural resource to protect is water. The coal, oil, and gas and other mineral resource problems, although immense, are relatively simple in comparison. Not only is Indian water in demand by many powerful interests, it can be diverted or depleted before it ever reaches the reservation, and not even the Indians are sure how much is rightfully theirs. Therefore, protecting Indian water tests the very core of the concept of the trust relationship. By the beginning of 1975, Federation members had become concerned with the legislation being drafted in the Department of Justice which, if passed as drafted, would provide for a five­ year period in which all federal agencies would quantify their respective water rights. Under this plan, conflicts would then be resolved by litigation. The Justice Department's proposal also provides that the Secretary of Interior have the responsibility for quantifying Indian rights. Because of the considerable

32 f~, there is absolutely no propositions, involving hundreds their own private legal counsel for "to restrict the Secretary of thousands of dollars and the case so they can make certain tering into agreements requiring ~he best legal talent their rights are fully protected. 'uld infringe upon the available. NARF is representing The Crow Tribe, with income 'paramount water rights several tribes in such water rights from the Westmoreland lease, dian tribes on the Nor­ suits, but not even NARF can now has the ability to hire private 'at Plains. assume the financial and man­ counsel to represent its interests. on members have power responsibilities on behalf of Even though the BIA and the objected to the Indiand clients unless the federal Bureau of Reclamation agree that um and its total government trustee agrees to join many years will be required Of the water rights of the action and pay the ex­ before the full nature and extent ~believing that there is traordinary expenses associated of Indian water potential can be eSecretary of the In­ with such actions for expert accurately determined, and even enter into any contract witness and hydrological studies. though they recognize that the keting of water for When the federal trustee is exercise of the Northern Great luses without en­ willing, then NARF is able to Plains Tribe's water rights will " n the prior rights of represent its Indian clients as have a direct effect on the particularly until plaintiff-intervenors, to plan Missouri River basin, they have the Secretary knows litigation strategies and to done little or nothing to correct dextent of the Indian present the tribe's position to the the situation. eupper tributaries of court directly, free of any conflict Several years ago, in an at­ " River Basin. At the of interest. '~anyone tempt to advocate the interests of knows is that the tribes, the Secretary of In­ is. terior established within the BIA t'rights situation for ------_.~-- an Office of Indian Water Rights. rii Great Plains tribes This office now has responsibility "er complicated by the for water resource inventories, as 'e State of Montana has \~., preliminary steps well as related legal in­ volvements. It has only been able dication of Indian to fund limited inventories on in state court. some of the reservations in the iversally, Indians and states of Montana and Wyoming, ~'sprefer to have their t~.- and these are only intended to pctrine water rights On the Northern Great Plains, provide a very tentative estimate ,i{in federal courts. the Northern Cheyenne, still of the requirements of the tribes ~ersally, . states and setting the pace, went boldly into in these states. Studies on the ing under state law court on a pro se basis and filed reservations in other states in the e the Indians' water suit in January, 1975, to protect Upper Missouri River Basin have ined in state courts. their rights to the waters of not been initiated despite the fact ~,t is now pending Rosebud Creek and the Tongue that all parties concerned ppreme Court in two River which flow through their recognize that these needs will ,8, Colorado River reservation. With support of the range from "significant" to .~rvation.' District v. other Federation members, they "large". .~ (formerly known as then pressed the U.S. government Intead, to date the Secretary of ,,~es v. Akin) and to file a companion suit on behalf Interior has been focusing his :i United States. The of both the Northern Cheyenne energies on: (1) internationaI and '.'. n on who files first and Crow Tribes to adjudicate federal-state compacts which ,'is the state court or and quantify their rights to these specifically distribute waterflows . court that first and other Montana waters. between states, regions or .diction. Fortunately, the government nations; (2) federal and state te!y, whatever the agreed, and on March 1, 1975, filed laws which mandate specific y dian tribes have the suit in Federal District Court in riverflows to satisfy water quality ,purces necessary to Montana (U.S. v. Tongue River standards and instream fishing "to go to court, and Water Users Association, et al). needs; and (3) riverflows ll11ts know this. Most The Northern Cheyenne are protected by federal and state lto adjudicate Indian now attempting to find monies scenic and recreational river are 10 or 15 year which will enable them to retain acts.

33 It is Easier Not to Know reservations it is im{lortant to judicial responsibilities to control remember that Indian reserved the use of groundwater will be rights to the use of water also divided as between the state, Indian water rights on the extend to ground, as well as federal and tribal governp:1-Q{1ts t~orthern Great Plains v/iIl likely surface, waters. Several recent and/or courts. . continue to be ignored by both the court decisions have so held, and' federal trustee and the Northern In the water-short West, and despite fedenl and state reluc­ particularly on the Northern Great Plains states unless the tance to face this conclusion, Federation is able to mount an Great Plains, adjusting their life there is no escaping it. styles to conform with the In effective administrative ad­ The nation now appears to be vocacy effort on behalf of its dians' legal water rights could bE heading more or less inexorably the most difficult role members 0: members. There is a long and to a federal law of groundwater. It difficult haul ahead because so the dominant white society hav( is hard to overemphasize the ever had to play. many agencies and officials are practical and legal significance of involved, very few of which want this long overdue development. For the Indians, playing ou to even know about, much less be But much work lies ahead, not their new revolution will be ex concerned with, the protection of only for the Indians, but also for tremely difficult without sub Indian rights. It is easier for the the government and courts of the stantial aid from their trustee states and the federal agencies to dominant society for its contours, who is also their enemy. Fo not know they are taking Indian its perimeters, its very essence example, BIA monies for in water, because once water is have yet to be defined. Presently ventorying Indian resources othe taken it is so much harder for the there are no guidelines on how the than water are also limited, ani Indians to get it back. "prior and paramount" Indian on the basis of BIA ac There are several reservations rights will be measured in relation complishments to date, it wi on the Great Plains that do not to other, non-Indian or non­ take about 20 years to complete have sufficient surface water federal users rights in the same minimally adequate resourc available for any substantial groundwater basin, nor do people inventory on the Northern Grec development efforts. For these know how the administrative and Plains Reservations. '~~ ',''';~' ~ J ;c·..•.. 't'!!f('::t1~~~ ~J',.•'.. '~itl' '~,,~- k , .

J '.

34 STANLEYK. HATHAWAY: Secretary of Interior (addressing the National Congress of A meT/can indlllns, June 25, 1975)

The issue of energy development in the West is one which is squarely before me - before the Congress and the Nation - and before the Indian community.. It is among my concerns that areas proposed for increased production of coal lie within, or in­ termingle with Indian lands. I can readily unders tand your feelings of apprehension about the prospects of large scale energy developments To the extent that development is under our control, we will all have to work closely together to be sure energy projects are developed with long-range social, cultural and en­ vironmental impacts in proper per­ spective. We will attempt to keep the decision making process as open as possible, to aid in the flow of in­ formation so that all options are available and understood by the concerned entities In the meantime, the U.S. guide them in planning the But I see here an opportllnity - an Geological Survey and the U.S. use of their resources. opportunity for jobs and a more stable ~'Ireau of Mines, sister Interior Having the federal trustee economic base for many Indian .1reaus, will receive about call a moratorium on the communities, without the loss of the $50,000,000 to inventory, evaluate allocation of water within the unique Indian heritage which is so and classify resources located on Northern Great Plains for all valuable to us aiL I see also an op­ federal agencies until all portunity for the people in these places public lands this fiscal year ­ Indian rights are quantified to playa positive role in helping the more than 50 times the amount set and adjudicated. Nation meet its energy objectives aside for the BIA, even though It will be the test of the self­ one-third of the total remaining ~n.d finally, obtaining suf­ fICIent capital to initiate determination policy and of our ability mineral resources are located on Indian controlled develop­ to carry out our trust responsibilities if Indian lands. ment projects for those energy sources on Indian land can be developed meeting these multiple tribes who do choose to objectives - the people objectives as Since the Donner grant was develop their valuable resources. well as the energy and economic goals made to NARF, the Federation has been attempting to pull together the legal and other Ironically, just at the point in On July 25, 1975, President Ford accepted Secretary technical resources it will need time when national and world­ Hathaway's resignation after six just to make an assessment of wide interests are centered on the remaining water and mineral weeks of service. Hospitalized how to proceed in what may be and under psychiatric treatment, their last batile. resources of the Northern Great The first step was the formation Plains tribes, the Congress, other his supporters blamed his critics. of the Federation itself. The governmental agencies, and Meanwhile, the Indians on the second, third and fourth steps private philanthropic groups Great Plains are waiting for the have yet to be completed. These claim financial inability to appointment of still another include: provide the Northern Great trustee. Plains Indians with the monies they need for evaluating, plan­ NORTHERN CHEYENNE KIT FOX WARRIOR: ~~. Obtaining a congressional ning and protecting their appropriation of more than (peacefully in 1883) $700,000 enabling the Feder­ resources, resources thatare ?tion to obtain the necessary critical not only to Indian society, Nothing lives long mdependent specialists to but to the larger society as well. Except the rocks

35 The Epilogue TURNING WHITE MEN INTO INDIANS

WALLACE D. McRAE: Montana Rancher (testifying before EPA officials in 1973) Both of my grandfathers were early settlers, coming to Montana before the turn of the century, shortly after the Battle of the Little Big Horn where Custer met his demise while at­ tempting to rid the West of the Red Menace Custer was an implement of the policy of the United States Government that dictated that the Indian, his buffalo, and his way of life was an impediment to progress. The Indian, being an obstacle to economic development, had to be eliminated or overcome.

After nearly 100 years of honest endeavor, I have begun to discover that my family's effort does not amount to much I have become, for all practicabIe purposes, an Indian .. For like the Indian, I am standing in the way of progress because I like and work above part of the world's largest the members of the white who, as Benjamin Rush the known reserves of fossil fuel, but resist audience have gone up on the recalled, recognized that th,.-·ua the rapidity with which my part of the stage and are acting like Indians. all signed the Declaration I, .11 country is becoming industrialized Very few of the Indians are acting noose around our necks". Ber ann degraded, in an attempt to satisfy this Nation's apparently unsatiable like white men. jamin Franklin replied, half i appetite for energy. It is just past Labor Day and no humor, half in deadly earneS1 one has yet been selected to fill "Yes, we must all hang together In the language of my neighbors, the the part of the Secretary of In­ or we shall all hang separately' Cheyenne Indians, the name of white terior. Whom this man will be and man is the same as the name for spider The original signers and th - "Veho" As I see the webs of how he and the other supporting colonists who supported th high-voltage lines; the webs of members of the Department of Declaration of Independenc railroads and strip mines; and the Interior cast decide to play their poisons we exude from our activities; were striking out agaim roles in the next few months and economic tyranny imposed by the rivers sucked dry of their life­ years will be critical to the out­ giving juices; I am reminded of the government an ocean away, an wisdom of the Indian exhibited by his come of this drama. Few close the revolutionary war they fougr prophetic name for us. Truly, we observers believe that there will was against an army which had t exhibit all the characterisitcs of a ever be a m an selected to the be transported across that ocear Veho or a spider. Interior cabinet post who will be courageous enough to act like a By comparison, the India The drama is unfinished. The real trustee to the Indians. But it tribes of the Northern Gre; plot is too long and too complex. may yet happen for there have Plains are completely surroundE Like a theatre in-the-round there been some very remarkable and out-numbered 1,000 to is action everywhere and there is changes on the American stage Therefore, for all practic confusion. There are so many during the past 200 years. purposes they can only fight tl actors on the stage that it is im­ The Northern Great Plains Indian version of tl possible to include all of their Indian people who put together revolutionary war in the cour lines in the script and so the the new Declaration of Indian and in the halls of legislative ar directors (Congress) and the Independence face even greater administrative advocacy VI producer (the Executive branch) odds than the original signers of then the Indians are severe are arguing. Ironically, some of the Declaration of Independence, handicapped by the lack

36 adequate legal resources or the America's energy cnSl~ shortly once again. There are no more monies required to hire these before his resignation, U.S. coal frontiers on the world stage onto resources. So, with few ex­ producers were shopping around which they can expand. The time ceptions, they remain dependent for customers outside America to is past when growth means on the Secretary of the Interior ­ buy the coal they planned to mine . progress and bigger means their trustee and their frequent on Indian lands and pay minimal better. Fundamental changes enemy. royalties on. must now be made in the If the odds against the Indian Sadly, in spite of these American way of life - changes signers of the Declaration are disparities, getting Indian support in attitudes, changes in life styles, greater then they were against for the Declaration of Indian and changes in governmental the colonists, the economic Independence and for economi­ policies. tyranny behind the Indian's cally rewarding agreements like In a rapidly collapsing Declaration is even more the re-negotiated Crowl West­ timespan, it is becoming more disproportionate. For instance, moreland lease is difficult, not apparent each day that the In­ non-Indians, like Montana ran­ only among members of the dian's reverence for Mother cher John Redding, whose family dominant society, but also among Earth is an attitude that must be bought land on the ceded portion Indians. adopted by the dominant culture of the Crow Reservation and was In some tribes, particularly if either white men or Indian men forced to give up this land when among older Indian members, are to survive. Instead of the Crows decided to mine, have they still fear that if their tribes destroying Indian culture fared far better than the Indians. show progress of any kind, the Americans must now consider the Certainly it is no less painful for federal government will start possibility of adopting Indian a white family to give up land termination proceedings against respect for the fragility of the which has been their home for them. The same kind of hesitancy earth. Even now as the process of several generations than it is for also applies to accepting HEW or colonization continues, it has all an Indian tribe, but the Indians OEO (now Community Services but exhausted the wealth of the have never been given the kind of Administration) grants for fear native Indian population. compensation which permitted that monies received from these As a result the dominant society them to relocate and start a new sources will later be charged has begun to turn upon itself and life on another land base in better against them, if their tribe should to devour the land, the resources, economic condition than they be awarded a money judgment in and the individual freedoms it so were to begin with. This is not true a claims case against the U.S. recently acquired. On the Nor­ for the non-Indian ranchers of Other Indian people are thern Great Plains the process is Montana who have now been paid frightened because they have well under way. The new cycle of millions of dollars for their been dependent on the federal conquest has started to render the ranches or were handsomely government for as long as the Northern Great Plains farming reimbursed by the coal com­ early colonists depended on the and ranching population impotent panies for damages caused by test institution of the British as their institutions and customs drilling on their lands. Monarchy. In both instances ­ are destroyed - it is on the with the British Crown and now Northern Great Plains where Indian oil contracts may be an cowboys are becoming Indians. even more telling illustration of with the Department of Interior ­ When the curtain opens on Act the kind of economic tyranny the institutions became and have IV of this drama, instead of a gold strangling Indians and which the become so deified and entrenched rush in the Black Hills of the Northern Great Plains people are after hundreds of years of power Dakotas, it will likely be the coal determined to fight. The Navajo that most of the colonists and now and water rush on the Northern receive a 12.5':tto 16.5% royalty on the Indians simply could not / Great Plains, and instead of the the crude oil pumped from their cannot imagine how life would old cowboys vs. Indians scenario, land. Arab countries receive 50% proceed without such guiding another one will have replaced it to 56. of the companies' oil forces. Nonetheless, the colonists a - one where the cowboys and revenues. Although the costs of revolted, and so now too, it ap­ Indians are both clinging production are different, it is pears, have the Indians. tenuously to their old ways of life. clear that payments to American Regardless of the outcome of lt remains to be seen whether Indians by American companies this drama, if America is to either one or both will survive are substantially inferior to those overcome its current economic their last stand together. 1- made by the same companies to and energy crisis the members of foreign countries. And while its dominant society must be ~ President Nixon was bemoaning prepared to change their life-roles -1

37 ---_._----._---

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

NARF opened its national of­ Committee, called the letter "a was unsure if it wanted to proceen fices in Boulder, Colorado, just classic example of people trying with any coal development about the time the alarm with to exploit the ignorance of our whatsoever. The Crows could not regard to coal leases began on the people and their economic con­ afford to pay their private counsel Northern Cheyenne Reservation. dition". The $200 bonus was for that amount of legal advice It's work on behalf of the Nor­ treacherous because it came ata and advocacy, and, because the thern Cheyenne in drafting a time when the Crows could have tribe had already had a taste of natural resources code for the used the extra cash to buy the quality of advice the BIA as tribe was a prelude to the major costumes and provisions for the trustee could provide, it was more efforts that followed on the Crow annual Crow Fair which began than reluctant to depend on the Reservation. August 17. government for assistance. NARF's role at Crow has been The Crow Tribal Council In addition, NARF advanced not without trauma. The stakes in rejected the Shell offer, so Shell monies which enabled the tribe to this drama are too high and the set up a trailer at the Crow Fair in retain independent coal experts to pressures on individual men ­ a new attempt at "com­ evaluate the leases and permits Indian and non-Indian, lawyer munication". A sign outside the which the tribe had signed with and non-lawyer - too great for it Shell trailer promised: "Free the guidance and approval of the to be any other way. Corporate Movie and Gift". Inside, Shell BIA. In effect, NARF provided profits, cultures and life styles are representatives handed out key the Crows with a kind of legal threatened. Morever, at Crow the chains and pen lights after independence - the kind which first steps in the process which is showing a 1S-minute film on the made the final Crow/West­ vital to continued Indian tribal virtues of coal development. The moreland lease possible. existence, but threatening to the film's narrator, noting that the The Crows are now able to use dominant society, have been Crow had once relied on the private legal counsel entirely to taken. At Crow a move towards buffalo to provide for their work with tribal leaders, the Crow de-colonization has been made. economic well-being declared Minerals Committee and the The Crows have begun de­ "Earth Mother is still providing Tribal Council, with regard to colonization by benefiting from for her children" by giving the further coal development both on their rights to the mineral Crow "the new buffalo - a new and off the reservation. Because resources beneath their ceded kind of nourishment - coal". of this NARF is now con­ land, and this has given them a That may well be the case, but centrating its work on behalf of degree of economic independence the Crows must be allowed to the Crows on reservation land­ which will enable them to have make the decision to partake of ownership problems whereby the financial resources and the that nourishment as carefully and non-Indians have obtained lands time necessary to make an in­ freely of coercion as possible, on the reservation totalling more formed decision about what they because a decision to do so may than 1 million acres, many of want to do with regard to the coal well be more threatening to their which are in excess of the which lies beneath their reser­ survival than the colonization of maximum acreage allowances vation. the west and the destruction of the under the Crow Allotment Act. This is not to say that the in­ buffalo. NARF is also assisting individual come from the Westmoreland Crow allottees who have been lease has made them immune kept in economic bondage by from pressures or free from other leasing practices which have also treacherous aspects of circumvented the maximum colonization. In August, Shell Oil lease terms allowed by law. Company, in an attempt to per­ Finally, NARF attorneys are suade individual tribal members working on several education­ to accept new conditions for a related matters on the reser­ permit lease signed in 1971, sent A Kind of vation. each Crow tribal member a letter The legal roles played by NARF Legal Independence which promised an August on the Northern Great Plains payment of $200-per-person if the During this drama NARF have been complex and have tribe would come to terms im­ provided over 800 attorney man­ required a tremendous com­ mediately. Robert Howe, the hours of free legal assistance to mitment of manpower. At Nor­ Chairman of the Crow Mineral the Crows at a time when the tribe thern Cheyenne NARF began by

38 acting .as evaluators of coal leases have almost unlimited options. or by sharing any tax savings and as drafters of a tribal natural They can seek to have all or which might result from partial resources code. At Crow NARF portions of existing permits and Indian ownership. started by evaluating leases and leases legally set aside and then Finally, like L'1e Crows, any oi ended up, not only evaluating, but either elect to prevent large scale the six tribes with significant coal re-negotiating, litigating, mining from taking place now or reserves could obtain land pur­ monitoring state and federal in the future or invite operators chase option agreements with legislation, and filing ad­ and those presently on the respect to the portions of their ministrative appeals. reservations to work with them in lease land which is no longer At the same time NARF extracting their reserves. required for mining. recognized that the odds facing Those who decide to can Regardless of their options, for the Northern Great Plains tribes renegotiate new royalties on any of the 23 tribes to accept were so great that even a large existing permits and leases on a federal policy direction in the amount of legal advocacy, was percentage of the selling price, future with regard to their only one aspect of what was and can make certain that ad­ resources, coal, other minerals or needed. NARF saw that if the vance royalties are tied into water, the federal trustee will Indians were to succeed they were production schedules. They can have to demonstrate that he can going to have to stand together as withhold approval of conversion guarantee the Indians that they a single political entity. As a facilities which coal companies will be able to exercise maximum result NARF has worked hard to might be using with regard to coal discretion over the manner in assist with the development of the from their leases and which are which development on their Native American Natural located upon or near the reser­ reservations takes place. Resources Development Feder­ vations. Indian tribes are sovereign ation. This effort has also not been They can also consider joint entities and this, together with the easy. venturing or joint ownership of fact that Indian land, while held in The five-state Northern Great mining operations on existing trust, is a privately-owned Plains area encompasses all or leases. The Crow Tribe was resource, can lead Indians to parts of 23 Indian reservations unable to obtain approval of joint withhold their strategic resources vhich provide a resource and venturing Westmoreland from development all together. cultural base for over 80,000 Resources, primarily because Therefore, America must accept Native American people. Among Westmoreland had large pre­ this ultimate possibility, while these people there is a great existing financial commitments still seeking to create a com­ amount of institutional com­ to mining on the ceded land which patible involvement for Indians to plexity - each reservation has its gave the company the powerful pool their resources with those of own political structure and legal argument that the Crow Tribe the rest of the nation. codes. And there is a great ought not be allowed to joint ANONYMOUS SIOUX POET: diversity in the Indian's approach venture after Westmoreland to economic and social problems, Resources had put up such a large (prophetically in 1776) however common these may be. portion of the venture capital. Despite this diversity, and some This kind of argument cannot be YOU SHALL LIVE old and strong adversities among made by other companies now A thunder-being nation I am, I have the member tribes, the holding existing permits and said Federation has stayed together leases on any of the Northern A thunder-being nation I am, I have for over a year and a half. NARF Great Plains reservations said is now preparing formal in­ because they have not yet made You shall live corporation papers and it is likely the kind of capital investments You shall live You shall live that within the next six months made by Westmoreland. For NANDRF will have established these tribes to attain a significant an independent office to coor­ share of the profits, they would dinate all the resource in­ have to make a capital con­ ventories, litigation efforts, and tribution to the mining operation. development programs of the 26 This capital contribution could member tribes. be in the form of outright cash As a result of the decision made contribution or in the alternative by the Northern Cheyenne and it could be achieved by the tribe's Crow people in this drama, those giving up a portion of their tribes who do have coal reserves royalties as the owner of the coal

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

Some Background Notes on THE CAST OF o-IARACTERS

THE WINNEBAGO suddenly found it impossible to The agents ofthe early Indian bureau diS'tinguish between the Winnebago and and the suppliers with whom they From time immemorial the Win­ the Santee Sioux and demanded that all contracted were having a field day with nebago people were woodland Indians. Indians be r'emoved from the limits of funds and foods intended for the They greeted the first P,'enchman the State Winnebago" SoldierJ patrolled the area Nicolet in 1634 near what is now called Under /Jolitical pr'essure, Congress to keep the starving and sick Winnebago Green Bay,. WiS'consin. They were tore up its treaty with tho Winnebago from leaving their new reservation to recruited as allies of the French, then and ordered them to a place where there hunt or to attempt to get food from Great Britain and finally the was wpposedly no danger of intrwion other tribes. Desper'ate, some escaped Americans, who only wanted their from whites The remaining. Win­ andfled to their old friends, the Omaha lands nebago, who by then numbered a mere Tribe, then located in Nebraska, where Under coercive legal and political 2, 000, were taken on steamboats down they were welcomed and protected..,' ~ , -f. power they signed a treaty in 1825 St Peter:s River, then down the all of their memberJ escaped thoL, ceding all of their territorial claims in Mississippi to the Missouri, then up the many were shot down while attempting Wisconsin to the US Government In Missouri to a new reservation called to leave and "squaws" were raped by retum they were given a small reser­ Crow Creek The new reservation was drunken trooper:s" However, once they vation above the upper Iowa River 2,363 mileS' by river from their old saw the bulk of tho Winnebago at the There many of them contracted small­ Minnesota home, but only about 300 Omaha Reservation, the government pox and died In 1846, U.S Cavalry miles by land The transfer was like a decided to take halfofthe Omaha's land soldiers were sent to drive them to a modem day bureaucratic snarl in Indian and to give it to the Winnebago, reservation in Minnesota Two years affairs, Men, women and children were In 1970 the US government decided later the soldiers came once more and jammed like animals on the boats and to condemn almost half of the. Win­ drove them to another location were tran,sported more than 2, 000 miles nebago Reservation, including the best Then, twice more in 1853 and 1856, when they might just as well have river-front lands of the. Winnebago they were forced to move again" At the reached their destination without along the Missouri Riv(; for a time ofthe move of1856, they signed a hardship in covered wagons on the recreation lake complex. new treaty with the U.S Government overland joumey of only about 300 which gave them a re.suvation at Blue miles As a not-so-final painful twist, The case of the Winnebago is Earth, Minnesota •'in perpetuity" the government required the Win­ one of peculiar hardship ... It is to be feared that it will be many years They made a difficult adjustment and nebago to pay the cost of this strange before their confidence in the good tumed from woodland people into removal from treaty funds that were faith of our Government, in its agricultural people and were considered already long overdue to them professed desire to ameliorate and to be in a "Flourishing condition" by Upon their arrival the Winnebago improve their condition, will be the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in were dumped from the boats onto a restored, 1860 desolate bank by the river There were - Report of the Commissioner Two years later their neighbors, the no houses to shelter them from the of Indian Affairs, 1863 Santee Sioux of Minnesota, were burning summer heat, They had been starving and they went on the warpath promised farm implements, but none Today, only 877 memben 0)_._ because of unmet promises by the came They had been promised food, Winnebago Tribe live on 01 near their federal government, The white Min­ but none came for months and then reservation which coven about 27,500 newta neighborJ of the Winnebagos much of it was rotten acres, 61 %of them are without jobs

40 THE OMAHA It was not until 20 year:s later that l'Ome $400,000 of the Indians' aI any Europeans met the InYians to whom nuities As early as 1690, the Omaha people these names applied They were Indians Within afewyears after the signing', roamed back and forth from the north­ fro.m the four tribes comprising the the Treaties 0/ 1851 the two rese eastern woods to what IS now Omaha, Santee Sioux In their boraelatid, whiG); vatiOM were completely surrounded L Nebraska They had skin tents to use was to become the state 0/ Minnesota, white farmen who were demanding th, they lived near the headwaters 0/ the the Santee lands be drastically reduC'e< ,I when hunting in the woods and earth \ homes to live in when they were far­ greatest 0/ all the river's on the Santee leaders were taken ; ~ ming on the plains In 1802 the tribe A merica n continent, the Mississippi, Washington andpersuaded to relinquis was decimated by ,small pox and the few and depended on the natural bounties of about 1,000,000 0/ their remaini" remaining Omaha became friendly with the forests, lakes and marshes for their acres for which the Senate decidedto Pt, the few r'emaining Winnebago, as the survival them $.30 an acre, When the mom latter/led into the upper plains territory, When the first exploring traders wasfinallyappropriated, they got half, The culture and languages of the reached the Santee Sioux in 1660, the it, the other half once again went i Omaha and Winnebago were similar, as Indians were eager to develop trade with settle the claims 0/ traders, most , were their experiences with white men, them because other hostile tribes to the which were fraudulent, northeast had for some years been During the winter of1862 the Santi In 1854 the Omaha were induced to receiving French goods, particularly nearly starved. In desperate conditic sign a scandalous treaty under which weapons, which gave them a decided they waited for June when they we; they sold all their land, some 93 million advantage over the Santee, supposed to receive food and cash 01 acres, to the US and were left with less The Santee were still in their historic nuities. Nothing came in .June; nothi" than 80,000 acres. It was only 12 years Minnesota homelands when the came in .July, nothing came in Augus later that the government took the American period began for them with The delay was due to the fact that tl northern halfofthe reservation for their the Upper MisfOuri Expedition in 1805, treasury people in. Washington we friends, the Winnebago. which was sent to oust the British debating whether to ifJue the Sant, For the next ten years they clung traders operating on u.s. soil. The Sioux paper money or coins. de,sperately to their few remammg Expedition opened the road to min for In starving de,speration about 5,OC lands, as they were buffeted by white the Santee Santee from several bands descended c settlers who wanted to see them, and In 1851, ajier several decades 0/ ilI­ the upper Minnesota agency, For once the Winnebago, removed to "Indian treatment from both westward-moving Us. l'Oldier-commander kept his he, Territory" in Oklahoma The Omaha settlers and the new American and restrained his troops, and the Sant, were finally' 'saved' , by a white woman government, the Wahpeton and were given the food which they enthnologiJt who persuaded Congress to Sis,seton bands 0/ the Santee Sioux desperately needed. Unfortunately, grant the Omaha's lands in severalty, people ceded to the Us. their lands in was not enough to keep them full, aI Today about 1,400 people live on the l'Outhem and western Minnesota, as finally on August 17, 1862, son small (39,000 acres) Omaha Reser­ well as some in Iowa and Dakota. They Santee, led by Little Crow, swept ov vation,. 63 ',{, 0/ the labor force is redeived $1,665,000 in cash and an­ settlements and farms - 300 whl unemployed nuities/orthis gesture" In August 0/ the settlers and 100 soldiers were slain same year, the two remaining bands oj the Santee Sioux signeda waiver to their territorial claims, which embraced most 0/ the southeastern quarter of Min­ ne,sota, For this they rueived $1,410,000 in cash and annuities over a 50-year period In all the Santee ceded about THE SIOUX 24,000,000 acres 0/ rich timber and Pursued by cavalry, these Santee fit agriculture lands. Left for their use were westward, finding refuge among tl Sometime before 1640 French two relatively small reservations, each Dakota o/the Great Plains The othe missionaries' and traden heard about a about 20 miles wide and 70 miles long, went to Canada, Chief Little Crow at, strong people who dwelt in greatness through which flowed the upper 39 other leaders were either killed ( and lived many streams far to the west Minnesota River" 0/ course there were captured and condemned to death TI beyond the large inland seas, the Great the usual unforeseen loopholes in the remaining Santee, who numbered on Lakes In translation between Indian 1851 treaties The bands were tricked several thousand, were held in COl languages and the French language, the into signing a trader's paper which had centration camps Their reservation w, name was distorted from Nadouessioux, never been explained to them and thiJ taken from them and opened to whl, to Scioux and then finally to Sioux paper gave to traders and half-breeds settlement

4 The Teton Sioux fought their white ==~===--==:e; destroyers with courage and deter­ mination unsurpassed by any people in the history of the world But the u forces· were so large that there was no hope ofprevailing For all their bravery, spirit, and beliefin themselves, and for all their moral, mental and physical strength, the Teton Sioux were helpless in attempting to combat the criminal violations of legal treaties. They were helpless in the face of wanton disregard ofhuman rights, the breaking ofsolemn Finally in 1863, Congress authorized with ceremonies and games, and to promises, and the starvation inflicted President Lincoln to set apart another perform their sacred Sun Dance. upon them by a corrupt political system and a society that turned standards of reservation for these Santee Under They continued to move about the decency and justice on and off to serve military guard they were taken to a new plains as they experienced shortages or the greed and desire of the moment "homeland" selected for them in the hunger in one place, but they always In the end, like their Santee brothers, Dakota Territory. found abundance in another. Only one the Teton Sioux were .splintered and other group of Indians, the Apache, confined to small portions of unwanted The Teton Sioux survived the onslaught of the white lands on the Great Plains. Since that forces as long as they did. During the last part of the 1600's time they have developed separate other groups ofSioux people known as Over the better part of lOOyears the governments and tribal memberships, the Teton Sioux, who were also living in Black Hills became a "holy land" to but the sense of the old Sioux Nation the Northwest, were driven away by the Teton Sioux. Because of thir they still smolders within them whether they Frenchmen and by the powerful made certain that the hills were in the are on the Cheyenne River Re.servation, Chippewa region which became a part ofthe great at Lower Brule, or at Pine Ridge These bands slowly moved from the re.5e rvation assigned for their exclusive western extremities of Lake Superior occupation under the Treaty of 1868 The Sioux of the Cheyenne Ri down, out, and across the Upper But when gold was discovered a few Reservation Missouri It was a 50~year trip, during years later, and the miners and settlers which they transformed themselves came in hordes, .swarming over the Under the Treaty of 1868 the Sioux from woods people to plains people and Black Hills and surrounding the Nation as a whole agreed to a territory began not only to survive but to prosper territory, the US conveniently forgot encompassed by the western slopes of in a totally different environment on the about the terms of the treaty. the Black Hills, the Niobrara River on Great Plains. The Sioux didn't forget. Nor did their the south, the Missouri River on the The group eventually evolved into old enemy, the Cheyenne - whom they east, and the Cannonball River to the seven bands and today these Teton had once driven out oftheir country ­ north A/ter gold was discovered in the Sioux are remembered as the colorful and who came back to fight beside them Black Hills, an 1889 Act of Congress media Indians of western history. They against the invader:s. The Black Hills established six reservations for the are also remembered for their courage, still bear the stains ofthese battles, and Teton Sioux, including 2,700, 000 bravery, and beauty,. and for the the names ofSitting Bull, Crazy Horse, acres for the "Cheyenne River" Sioux complexity and drama in their social and Gall, Rain-in-the-Face, and American By other Acts of Congress in 1909 religious ceremonies .. Among Indians, Horse will always be a part of the and 1910, all unallocated and unsold they are remembered for their A merican saga land on the Cheyenne River Reservation cohesiveness and unity and for their On June 25, 1975, 100 years afier was opened for homesteading to non­ conftdence and ability to overcome all Custer was defeated, fresh stains were Indian.s As a result, 47 'J, of the obstacles, all adversities, and all added to the Black Hills when the Court remaining reservation land area oj enemres of Claims, with one judge dissenting, 1,400,000aeres is now owned by non­ By 1750 the Teton Sioux controlled held that the Sioux were not entitled to Indians A n additional 104, 044 acres of all ofthe country between the Missouri any interest payments· for the govern­ the best agricultural and residential River and the Black Hills, and between ment's taking of the Black Hills. The lands were flooded by the Bureau of the Little Missouri and the North Platte interest payments involved in the case Reclamation in order to create Oahe

Rivers Despite the great distances, they represented the difference between Reservoir in the last decade r- '1Y got together as often as possible to .settle judgments of $17, 000, 000 and there are 4,300 Sioux at (he" "ne their problems, to feast and celebrate $100, 000, 000 for the Sioux River, 27 %of them are without work

42 The Sioux of the Lower Brule The Sioux of the Fort Totten The Sioux of the Yankton Reservation Reservation Reservation At the Lower Brule Reservation a A band 0/ the Teton Sioux Indians The Yankton Sioux Tribe IS an lmall group ofthe Sioux Tribe took up who are living near Fort Totten, North the few Santee Sioux band5' W residence after beinglplintered during Dakota, are called the Devill Lake Sioux reservation ltill encompasses the / the last 0/the plains wars. Today there Tribe. Their history is similar to that of 0/ their second traditional home, are 70 1 of them living on or near the all the other Teton Sioux Bandl Today These people never fought against reservation at Lower Brule, South there are about 2,000 people at Fort US and generally lived in peace Dakota, 23 % 0/ their work force is Totten, the acreage o/the reservation is other tribes unemployed The tribe still owns ap­ 244,50 7, but only 473 acres are tribally Still, due to disease and pov, proximately 75,000 acres 0/ the owned Non-Indians control 192, 794 about 1,400 remain on the 435 remaining 120,000 acre reluvation acres, the rest is either allotted to In­ acre reservation, whose headqua dians or to govemment agenciel The are at Wagoner, South Dakota The Sioux of the Pine Ridge yearly tribal income is $3,400 59 % 0/ tribe ownl only 5,560 acres, ; Reservation the people are unemployed Indians own 400, 000 acres VI }' ployment ajfects 66 %of the tribal i The Oglala Sioux are one of the force largest bandl 0/ the Teton Sioux, Their history is pain/ully distinguil'hed by the The Sioux of the Sisseton fact that in late December, 1890, troops Reservation from the u.s. Cavalry intercepted a group 0/ them under the leadership 0/ The Indian people now living on Chief Big Foot on the Pine Ridge Siueton Reluvation, which strae Reservation at Wounded Knee Creek The Sioux of the Standing Rock North Dakota avd South Dakota, Now they are remembered as the Reservation also descendants of the Santee SI When they were still living in j descendants 0/ the victims 0/ the The Indian people at Standing Rock nesota, on theirfirJt re.lervation, t Wounded Knee Malsacre There are are also delcendants o/the Teton Sioux leaders ruled that all whites on about 7, .500 surviving Oglala Sioux Their tribal headquarters is at Fort reservation must dress like Indians I living at Pine Ridge today The tribe Yates, North Dakota, and there are effort to prevent soldienfrom aSlau controll about 372,009 acrel of the about 4, 700 ofthem living near there, 2, 778, 000 acre reservation, non­ the reservation in re lponse to outbl 34 % of them are unemployed The of violence among other Indian b Indianl 0wn 1,270, 000 acres within the remaining reservation land base is about nearby Delpite this creative ellol boundaries 0/ the reservation The 848, 000 acres, a little over 33% 0/ the lurvive through costumery, the j unemployment rate ofthe Sioux at Pine land is tribally owned Ridge is 42% was ultimately forced to flee to Can and was not able to retum until 1 The Sioux of the Santee when they signed another treaty The Sioux of the Rosebud Reservation Reservation the US Govemment at Enemy S At first the largest band ofthe Santee Lake The Rosebud Sioux Tribe is another Sioux Tribe were inclined to stand and The current Sisseton Reservation large band 0/ the Teton Sioux They fight /or their rights to remain in their eltablished by Congress in 1867, were relegated to the Rosebud Reser­ homeland in Minnesota That in­ there are 2,500 Sisseton- Wahp vation in 1890 after the Wounded Knee clination caused the death 0/ most oj Santee Sioux people living on Mauacre Today the tribal rolll include their warriors, who were killed at the 106, 000 acre reservation Only 7,500 people, 26%0/the adults have no New VIm Massacre in 1862 In 1863 a acres are tribally owned The t work The relervation now comprises large group of the remaining tribal headquarters are at Sisseton, S more than 978,000 acres, the tribe members, mostly old men, women and Dakota. Reports show 42 %of the t owns a little less than haifa/these acrel children, were moved from Minnesota membership il unemployed to new land near what became the Crow Creek Reluvation in South Dakota Then in 1866 the surviving members 0/ the band were once again moved to their present reservation near Niobrara, Nebraska There are about 360 tribal members living on 5, 791 acres, of which 3,599 are owned by the tribe, and 60% 0/ them are unemployed The Sioux of the Crow Creek away from it Day alier day ai the St. Reservation Peters moved upstream the Indians swarmed about the cargo and became Under the Treaty of Fort Laramie in contaminated 1868, all ofthe land held by the Sioux In all the villages of the Manda. eai't ojthe Missouri River was ceded to Hidatsa and Arikara, from Fort Piene the US government with the exception to the mouth of the Yellowrtone, no of the previously established Crow imoke rose from the lodges. There were Creek, Yankton, and Sisseton Reier­ no soundi, except the screams of the vations, whose people were sti1/ hunting dying Many wanion, returning to over a wide area Four years later when THE MANDAN, ARIKARA their vi1/ages after the St. Peters had the buffalo herds were systematically passed by, killed themselves because ilaughtered by white commercial AND HIDATSA they could not stand to see the flesh hunters, the Indiani' who were rotting on their dying wives and descendants of the Wicijela Band of Many decadei before the Sioux children Santee Sioux were finally forced once migrated into the Dakotasfrom the eait, Thus that summer in 1837 more than andfor all to accept reservation life and three sedentary tribei' had settled along 15,000 Indian r were the first to pay the rationed food Today a small portion oj the Miiiouri River, which now biiectr price ofthe corpor'fJte greed ofone ofthe them, about 1,200, are still on the the states of North and South Dakota earliest American corporations. Some 122,500 acre Crow Creek Reservation, Of these, the Mandan are believed to historians say 30 Mandans sU1'vived the near Fort Thompson, South Dakota. have arrivedfirst. They lived in vii/ages epidemic, lOme say 37. No such There they are continuing their struggle of half-buried earth lodger and slowly exactness shows in the recordr of the to preserve their tn'bal exirtence - 69% migrated north along the Mirrouri. The Hidatsa or Arikar'fJ, but it is known that of them are unemployed. Mandan were the most competent and all were nearly wiped out ,iucce.nful agriculturalists on the The remnants of the tribes moved Northern Great Plains They grew more The Sioux of the Flandreau slowly together towards the Little com than any other Upper Mii'wuri Reservation Mii50uri River, near Fort Berthold, tribe. Due to a strange lack ofmelanin, North Dakota In 1871 a reservation of In March 1869, a year after the Fort the Mandan were light of complexion, about 1 million acres was established/or Laramie Treaty, 25 Indian families and many of the younger men and what was to become the Three Affiliate t living at the original Santee Agency left women in the tribe had ,iilvery gray hair. Tribes After their land was opened jL and took homesteadi at Flandreau in the Their arrival along the Missouri was allotment in 1884 more than 57%ofthe Dakota Territory Because ojtheir small followed by that of the Arikara and reservation passed into non-Indian size they were forced to adopt the life Hidati'a The Arikara, who were al50 ownership style of the surrounding white settlers agriculturalists, occupied villages oj In 1948, the US Government and today are among the most fully earth lodgei between the Grand and the condemned a iubstantial portion of the integrated Indian people There are 267 Cannonball Riven The Hidatsa people remaining landi to create the Ganison people who count themielves members had established an agricultural life near Dam and Garri50n Lake that flooded the of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe present-day Devils Lake, but were Indian agency and the cemeteries oj the living on 2,356 acres at Flandreau A pUihed west by the firrt groups ofSioux comparatively imall number oj them Mandan, Hidatia and Arikara The and therefore settled at the junction of remaining memben wer'e moved once (9%) are without work the Heart and Minouri RiverT not far again to an area west of the lake which from the Arikara and Mandan was named New Town, North Dakota These tribes experienced little if any Today there are about 2, 700 memben conflict with the white explorers. Afier ofthe Three Affiliated Tribes living on ieveral decades of trading, they may the remaining 980, 500 acre reser­ have peneived the greed of the white vation, 40% oj them are unemployed men, but they were not preparedfor the Non-Indians own 563,000 acres ofland insidiousnen of it In 1837, within the re iervation boundaries representatives of the American Fur Company left St Louis on the rteamboat St Peters, Within a day of St Louis, imallpox wai discovered on board the ihip Instead of turning back, the St. Peters, carrying its uncontrolled pestilence, went on The Indians, knowing the boat was filled with sup­ pliei they needed, could not be kept

44 ---:... .'

• THE TURTLE MOUNTAIN

> • "'.'.:. ~,;!."",,,~~~~t' CHIPPEWA The Chippewa,:sometimes called ~ ':' Ojibway, wer'e once one of the largest /,;;;'1HI: CROW and most powerful tribes in North TheC;'C~W;~ruied America. They were confederated with THE ROCKY BOY'S ,. to be a part of the the· Ottawa and Pottawatomi in the Hidats~'Tribe::The , shared tradition by Three Fires _Confederacy, but were both group/is that they parted on the ,R~SERVATION driven west by the Iroquois (who were Upper;Miss~ft,r£,~;ver,because l " of some under pressure themselves fr9m ex­ "J "political. ri1l4I,ry~{U!hichocc~ried in the the,l}a~tern '.C:~n.7~era,c~/~kl1 )8ih:gfntu,rj)'7fience~ the~people plorers) to the area ofthe Great Lakes. c. As' who Shortly thereafter tbe three tribes in the dtans was shattered due to'''he ceconom ,b~c~n;~:Sr.~~t~a~ ;' to (turn fro,m being Confede-rac.y disbanded. Then it was not warfare waged; amont}P;1ihe "'b, ~rte.,...... '..a.. "'~J:ul.....tu.".,.·.,:, ...;''O.l.,sts...~J ..."l,;'it'l'·:'.. I..r.; .. lnt.o.,'.'.. '.' 'p'.'. 'Ia...ins.. Ind.. ..ia..ns. lo~g ulft.iI t~~ Chippewa became friendly fol/owing the intrOducii6v;;~~~<, re~, i,t!?!eY)rno~e.~;/~cross(the '.' .. ,- ,.~":~.;;''.~;1'-:~.:t;,,,_ ;:;;,."".;~~ 'land without WIt!? the, french trappers in the area and bi,i!!lltfZ~~/jJMU ii;orse~;~iq:~;~Ji~~dn the'shadow of the gunsandtools,wi¥ iR?c~J;~You.~~a.;'/s"'and obtaineifFrench weapons. and Cree jkdon botkl~f!~!~fiJl!~e~t there they were .'" "1 now the Canadian border..1'!I'lien'Jthe ,;,'su'TPuTJd~dj:.py.ienemy tribes like the It was the Chippewa who later used trails led from the '9fe:at:;;ak~{'aJfi • ,B,,!~k!e,et':'J~~~J1:rapaho,the Cheyenne, these weapons to drive som~, of the ;. ,_. C}~-,'~"'-~"" ·':r-;~'·';.' , west. as nOrlhern:1M{)~tan,!:,\c1ar. ,)an(!.t#~'iS.~gl~q~ec,For , Sioux tribes west to the plains. Near the almosta century 'Saskatchewan. One i~'-Siich}t~ba~d'; ( f:aft.e!j,!,e~r,a.rri!la,1no,yearpissed without Great Lakes, the Chippewa;became Chippewa led by ChiejRdfk}po)//ro; warfare.' ' woodland Indians who lived primarily Minnesota moved ,'Into' '.>'1zoithe1 The.i(;~w ~y , 'were physically strong, hunting game, fishing, gathering M ontanaand nearby'Canada ] in tl i highly., intelligent and' extremely wild rice, living in wigwam~ and latter part of the i 9th Cent';;y. superstitiour. From the beginning ofthe traveling by canoe. They believed that a earliest contact, they sought to avoid power dwelt in all objects, animate and During this same period, a larg white men, despising them and their inanimate. These powers, or monitors, g~oup of Cree Indians, led by Chi, way oflife. The Crow called their land were wakeful in summer, but dormant uttle Be~r, were a!s'o driven /0 the sam Absarokafrom the word by which they in cold weather, area .. Netthergroup had a land base an were known to other Indians - Ab­ both bands were forced to squat o.n th sarokee or "children ofthe large beaked For 100 ,years they survived by remaining north of the traffic moving ,fringes of Montana' settlements an bird". ' reservations. They were officially, bu Unfbk to remain totally immune out on the American f1'Ontier. Then, at the end ofthe century, as the white men unsuccessfully, deported to Canada i; .t:~m thf! white men, the Crow ,finally 1896 by Congress. Jorned the. United States soldiers in began to recognize the value of the refuge the Chippewa had taken from the fighting other Indian tribes with whom Fiti"ally in 1916, through th~ efforts ( t~e tr'ea~y Sioux, they moved in on the Chippewa L ;Cro.,wwere at war. In the Ch,iefs Rocky Boy and Uttle Bear an and imposed the Treaty of 1862, which szgnediltFort Laramie, Wyoming, in some friendly white citizens; ;/107,00 wasn't ratified by Congress until 1940. 1851, the Crow were confined to their acr'e reservation, named. Rocky Bo.y In the treaty the Chippewa exchanged present reservation ofabout 1.5 million was established on part ofthe Fort Pee their' claim to 9 mil/ion acr'es of woods acres near what has now become the military reserve by Executive Order' an and lakes for $1 million and a reser­ .-1. Custer 13attlefield National Monument the two groups ofIndians, who were b vation of 72,000 acres on the barren Today there are 4,200 Crow on or near then merged, were aI/owed to r'etun and 'remote border' between North the 1,550,000 acre r'eservation The Ther'e they have remained until toda) Dakota and Canada, near' Turtle tribe owns 344,30~ acres of this, the Their population is about 1,200; 60 %( Mountain remainder is a(lotted The unem­ the labor' force is idle. ployment rate of the C1'OWS is 27%. Today the annual income of the Tribe, whose headquarters are in Belcourt, North Dakota, is $10,000, There are about 7,300 members living on the 70,000 acre reservation, halfof which is' al/otted Ofthe total workforce 42% are unemployed. . "

THE BLACKFEET settlets spread for the second' time into their home territory. This friendship The Blackfeet are descendants of a, with the whites was the downfall ofthe confederacy of Indians known as the A.ssiniboine for it was far mOTe Piegan, the Blood, and the Siksikd. treacherous than the adversary ,Until the late 1800's the Blackfeet relationships they carried on with the roamed most of the turitory between other' Great Plains tribes. Their the North Saskatchewan River in friendship with whites bT'Ought them Canada to the southern headstreams of whis~ey, disease and injustice.

the.Missouri River in Montana. The In 1836 traders brought smallpox to','.:,~".r,)i.,,;;, ..E,.:.. S,...H.•.".,.OSHONE . first treaty they signed with the white their area, which killed 4, 000 ; ':'.c ~.. ; 'AND <./met} set aside a vast area.·.!orthe' Tribe. h 'ld " ' ; .:, < I 'la' . . Assiniboine men, women and c I ren. , ..... A s,usua, a few years ter a maJor;,-.'h .. bId "',THE,ARAPAHO ". . , . • . .L, e remaIning mem ers str'ugg e on /; . i~ , .'.portlonofthelandwa,sdeslgnated,by~he for almost' 40 more ye~rs, but they 0"" .~; • ~~;'.:.- •• ~. I "U.S. government as common hunting d th' t th The is onei,Tnbe onglnally lIVed ':1 .' , • - 'never recovere elr s reng . .'"'~'-"'f,1;j,.!I'/,.' &~";" h' '. :~ground~ to be shared ,bY,Jpe :Blackfeet ";.' 1 ' ,I' h .. In the,:Jl.!~a~,;;;.!!,!~,!"\ area ~etween.t e~ .~ with -the Elathead Ipdians,_,the:, Gros . ~ .18?3, some OJ t e survIVIng . Rocky ltf.ountf1If.1S°and the Sle"a ~e1Jad4.~ ", Ventre .Indians, .flnd the ,A,!siniboine ; AssInlbome wer~ .mo~ed to the Fort ,'range.;:.:.There '1';' we.re '.. ja1J'l,ers.'t. . ~I~ians.:,·:;~:.. :1 / '. :';:, t,:~~~::~, . ,;r~, Belknap ,~eservat!on_' near !I!ar/en:~ - 'Fo//owi~g4'~;- ,i(;ugh~abo'uti6QQ~' ~·.:;:~~qn;~i888:;:the .re~~i~inilp};ckie~t,\,}:-Mont~na, and were fa.rc:/ .~~ I;e. WI~ :{ they m'()~ta tbJh~~lainij"us{la:rj'olt ,;~';;h(/~jike"'dnany ot6~; Plaiizs~';~'iib~s"haJ?: ~ some ~f the most hate, OJ t elr a - ·i:h'!i;;iid: ~h~ii~:iuj;j;,~. -'? ;t~~iA:d~?j#~tedbyjh~jfiieafi~fl#fite.'}~;j,pcrsa~~t~··theGro,s V~~tre!'1Uho s/r:p~ke,;' )be'c}J"~, :!f~t~[i~t1,~~"¥~;'.to:!f~'J:i#e~:~aJ~'; )their:presen~;"< .~~guage, ha~tng Tke.r'lrsOnCo'ftf!erc4.;tlJh!te~,,!en",n~' "'f: 11ZeiJ/,were ,gathered onto oflother come.. om,. . ~,re}e1vatlon. Todaj'i6'200 ;Blackfeet.': the .Red. RIver po.unlry, at. the eastern the' eaf,1,)i'i!.?9.0 's.:~~Th,~y Jike(f·to.tr44~'j ~;re#4.~i~on' or nearth~i;950,'OQQ:acre'f:t,edgeo! the plainS. ,Untll.;the:. .1?th :with:¥€?fj{f1U11's~:;emai?ed J:ien'dl/3fi : :;reseroation, 'whoseheadcjuarters 'are (Jt)'fCe~tury ~he, Gros Ventre Itfjed In the 1863 they:wer~coer~ed Into negotIating, Browning, Montana,' 37'J, of them are' ,Mtlk RIVer .area across,. Northern the Fori Bridgei' Treaty with the' U.S: _unemployed. .Montana. Dunng the 1800 s they were government _. whicb gave them moved by for~e to Fort B~lknap. Today 44,675,900 ac,-es ofland ~ying in the reservat~on comprtses 616, 000 states~ A few years later additional THE ASSINIBOINE, acres, of whIch 427; 580 are al/otted. cessions reduced the reservation to GROS VENTRE The remaining Assiniboine members 1,88,6,556 acres, 'a 96'J,reduction. Then were shunted to another reserve at Fort in 1878, as a final insult, the Arapaho AND Peck, Montana, with yet another set of, :people, long-time enemies of the SOME TETON SIOUX advusaries, a remnant Band of the Shoshone, were ..settled on the same, Teton Sioux. Even today at Fort Peck greatly ,'educed reserv~tion "tem- The Assiniboine started out as woods these groups live in two distinct tribal porarily , '. They are still there today. people in the izke of the Woods and groups - the Assiniboine occupying The Ar'apaho, whose culture had Lake. Winnipeg ar'eas of Canada. Like the southwestern and the Sioux oc- also evolved from sedentary farming to others they came under press'ure /r'om cupying the southeastern portions ofthe semi-nomadic' buffalo hunting, had theear/iest French and British explorers 964,865 acre reservation. competed with the Shoshone for over a and were forced to move further into At Fort Belknap there are 2, 000 100 years and had been at war' with Canada and Montana. There they Indian people,. 55'J, ofthem are without them/frequently. Their fate was sealed ~xpert, evolved into the most of the work. At Fort Peck the population is because some' of their people fought buffalo hunters, and fought many wars about 5, 000,. 48'J, of the eligible work against the white men. A few Arapaho with the other plains tribes. force is idle. had been with the Sioux and Cheyenne For some unknown reason they It shouldbe noted that it was in a case when Custer was defeated at Little Big maintained friendly relationships with arising on the Fort Belknap Reservation Hom. The,; were finally starved into whites even afteT' the explorer:s and that the Supreme Court held in 1908 submission on the Wind River' ' that Indian tribes are entitled to prior Reset'vation with the Shoshone. and paramount rights to the water Today the two tribes maintain flowing through their'reset'vations The separate governments, but, for matters case, Winters v. United States, laid the which concern the reservation as a basis for what has subsequently come to whole, a joint business council is known as th~ Winters Doctrine, which convened. There are a little ove,' 4, '_'_ is now a critical supporting prop to the members ofboth tribes remaining on or Northern Great Plains Indians in their' near the reservation,' 47% of them are struggle to gain independence~ out of work. "

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NARF DIRECTORSHIP NARF STEERING COMMITTEE

On June 1, 1975, Thomas W. JACOB ADAMS, Inupiat E~" 1,0 A Fredericks, a .Mandan Indian Vice President, 4 oa.rCtiC' P{ Native, Association; Barrow from the Fort Berthold Reser­ Alaska. vation in North Dakota, was , appointed as Executive Director LaNADA BOYER, Shoshone' of NARF. Mr. Fredericks had Bannock, Resident, Fort Hal been Vice Executive Director Indian Reservation; Blackfoot since' April, 1974,' and a NARF Idaho. .(', staff attorney since June, 1972, He JOHN CLIFFORD, Rosebud is 'a' '1972 I graduate of the Sioux, Educator, Native Ameri University of,Colorado School of can Studies; 'South' Milwaukee "i/,'Lawand is~dmittedtopractice in Wisconsin.". !';:::~, ._"<:.:~.J., I:";~::'~ ~',:, {."~," Colorado arid ~N"orth'Dakota. . . )J _ ,} "'~; VA!-- C9RD.0VA;j\ Taos,Pueb.lo, ':1J"ohn K Echohawk Executive ,~,M,e~cc " ." '.. '.. ..' Umverslty. ,·nof .•••••.'. t'TeW. ~j":'ijirectorof'!NARF from April, Department'~L}i ofl:·';;'i'C Albuquerque;;New' C' '~',L' tmwng,With. the prog~am.m,llfull-'i,";,:, ,; ;;~~TIS'., L'l'i~~~~T ..J';~1' .~ .~. ,}"::, tfme':~j'" Utiglltion'~~'i~}~~ole;"~f:¥Mr :: 2F'< '. t:' . Ii: , '.nt~i\'~;' Echoiia~k':is1~"'P~wn~ea;nd ", M~ ttaponi;6;;~C!rl~~l}~~~¥a.ttp.~pni "the <,;' WestPomti,,~;Vlrgmla.4i. j:_~"'::" . -'c,.. ,"'. -~ "?' ~ ;-.: -(>~- ,"'" -',' _-_" ," _" . ,Tribe; ':',:f" first graduatefof the University of t::~ .:':':':. _,':~L:: ::~~~-':\::-:~' ~":-~,<, >~ '~':<,"~i-~,;}}>1'~';': {~.: '~,':,;.New;MeXico's'si>ecial .'LUCILLE'!'DAWSON,'.T"N'arra· program to' .' _.' ' _ ,_:' t,:.' •• _ ;,1<. .~ ',c'. ' "_'~':. .' . ," ': ',A'_ :," . j .. ' ,,~: .• " •• - :::,' .. I Native American Rights FU,nd .,_'.!.'\';" Secretary,'~Coalibonf01 , :' ,';;. train' 'Indian (t'aawye'rs.':"~'He, .!:;~ •. gansett, 1506 Broadway' " 'Eastern '. Native';';'Amer~cans; ',.: gi-'aduated fromthe'University'of' Boulder, Colorado 80302 Shohola, .Pennsylvania;' ' "', ;. r r , ,; New Mexico School of Law in 1970 Telephone (303) oU7·8760 ..!'; ...... and has been with NARF since its . MARTHA GRASS, ,: ]CPonca, inception. He is "admitted to 1712 N Street, N.W. Director, American < Indian practice in Colorado. Washington, D.C. 20036 Referral Center; Ma( d, Oklahoma. Telephone (202) 785·4166 SUBSCRIPTION REQUEST LEO J. LaCLAIR, ,Muckleshoot, Executive Director, Small Tribes Pleasesend me Announcements: of Western Washington; Seattle, NARF is a non"profit, charitable organization incorporated in 1971 Washington. Name under the laws of the District of (please print) Columbia. NARF js exempt from RODNEY.. LEWIS, Pima" federal income tax under the provi­ Maricopa, Director, Gila River prganization ----::-:-----:---:-:-:- sions of Section 50Hc)(3) of the Legal Services; Sacaton, Arizona (if applicable) Internal Revenue Code, and contri- , butions to NARF are tax deductible" . Address The Internal Revenue Service has LEROY LOGAN, .osage, Ran· (number' and street) ruled that NARF is not a "private cheri Hominy, Oklahoma. foundation" as defined in Section 509(a) ofthe Intermd Revenue Code. JANET McCLOUD," TuIalip, (city) (state) (zip) Member, Tulalip Tribe; residing Please indicate subscription at Yelm,Washington. ', category: DAVID RISLING/ JR., Hoopa, Coordinator, Native American library : 0 Studies, University of California; Non~Indian Organization 0 Davis, California. • Payment Enclosed_ Amount $, _ JOHN STEVENS, Passama­ • Please bill _ quoddy, State Commissioner of Indian tribe 0 Indian Affairs; Augusta, Maine Indian Organization 0 Indian Individual. 0 * * * ** * * * * • NoCharge Announcements is published quarterly by the Native American Rights Fund, II''' Attorney O 1506 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado 80302; Joan C. Lieberman, Editor; Diana ~_._ Other Individual, 0 Garry, NILL Supplement; Jeanette Arquero, circulation. Third class postage p... at Boulder, Colorado,. All rights reserved .. Subscription rates: libraries ~.d non, • Contribution Enclosed Indian organizations, $10 per year; Indian tribes, organizations and indiViduals, Amount $, _ no charge. Attorneys and other individuals by contribution"

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