Facebook Twitter Email
MARCH 2, 2001

South Dakota Senators Tom Daschle (D) and Tim Johnson (D) and Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel (R) on Thursday introduced a bill to provide nearly $28 million to the Yankton Sioux Tribe and the Santee Sioux Tribe for losses from dam development on the Missouri River.

More than 4,000 acres of the tribes' land was flooded with the construction of the Fort Randall and Gavins Point dams in the 1950s. Of the amount, $23 would go to the Yankton Sioux of South Dakota and $4.7 million to the Santee Sioux of Nebraska.

The Crow Creek Sioux, the Lower Brule Sioux, the Standing Rock Sioux, the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, and the Cheyenne River Sioux have all been compensated through Congressional bills. The Cheyenne River's compensation was the largest and the tribe received a $290 million trust fund for economic development purposes.

The bill is S.434.

Related Stories:
Bill would put $290M in tribe's fund (Tribal Law 09/14)