Sioux land bill changed by House GOP

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2002

The House on Tuesday approved legislation to compensate two Sioux tribes for more than 4,000 acres of lost land after Republicans tacked on a controversial amendment.

Just days after an unrelated land deal was declared dead in Congress, GOP leaders revived it on the House floor. Without any debate or a full roll call vote on the issue, the $28 million Sioux bill was amended to include the sale of 1,000 acres of federal property to the Church of Latter Day Saints.

The move, according to Indian advocates in the Senate, jeopardizes justice "long overdue" to the Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota and the Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) decried the change.

"I am troubled by this development and perplexed at why the Republican leadership in the House would want to make this bill harder to pass," said Daschle.

"Playing politics with this important legislation is unacceptable," added Johnson, who is up for re-election.

The bill in question compensates the tribes for land they lost to the massive Pick-Sloan water project of the 1950s. Dams were constructed along the Missouri River, disrupting tribal homes, burial grounds and sacred sites.

The measure is considered uncontroversial because Congress has already enacted similar legislation for other tribes along the river. The Yankton and Santee tribes would be the last to be compensated.

But the addition of the Mormon Church deal risks alienation of lawmakers from Wyoming. They have consistently opposed the sale of land in their state, and while the House approved the bill, Sen. Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.) last week said his committee wasn't going to advance it.

For the two tribes in question, the bill creates a trust fund. The Yankton Sioux will receive $23 million for 2,851 acres of land and the Santee Sioux will receive $4.8 million for 539 acres.

The trust fund will be used to develop economic development plans for the tribes. The dams destroyed prime agricultural property, resulting in a loss of an important tribal livelihood, and entire families were uprooted.

"Many of our tribal elders who experienced first hand the taking of tribal land and the removal have passed on," said Yankton Sioux Chairwoman Madonna Archambeau at a May 2000 hearing on the bill. "It has been long enough for a just and equitable resolution to the devastating impacts of the Pick-Sloan program on our tribe.

The Crow Creek Sioux, the Lower Brule Sioux, the Standing Rock Sioux, the Cheyenne River Sioux and the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation have already been compensated for Missouri River losses.

Get the Bill:
A bill to provide equitable compensation to the Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota and the Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska (S.434)