Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota. Photo from North Dakota Tourism Department

The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation of North Dakota is awaiting the return of 30,500 acres around Lake Sakakawea.

The land represents about 20 percent of the 152,360 acres that were taken from the tribe and its members during construction of the Garrison Dam in the 1940s and 1950s. But under the Fort Berthold Minerals Restoration Act of 1984, only the tribe can reclaim the land, an issue of contention on the reservation.

“The land needs to go back to the original owners. That was always the effort of this,” Marilyn Hudson, whose grandmother lost 160 acres to the dam, told The Bismarck Tribune.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to return the 30,500 acres to the tribe after receiving funds to implement the transfer, the paper reported.

Get the Story:
Tribal land around lake set to expand (The Bismarck Tribune 4/23)
Federal law enables transfer to tribe only (The Bismarck Tribune 4/21)

Related Stories:
Roger Birdbear: Return land at lake to individual Indian owners (7/15)
Editorial: Return land at lake to original owners in North Dakota (6/19)
Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation seeks return of lake land (09/10)
N.D. tribe asks Congress to fulfill 50-year-old promise (6/13)