use value is approximately $21,981,000. Therefore, the United States, by making the settlement at $14,605,625, will obtain the reservoir right-of-way at about two-thirds of its basic value and its annual use value to the Three Affiliated Tribes. The favorable report of the Department of the Interior is set forth below as appendix I of this report. House Joint Resolution 33 is explained in detail in the Department's communication. Certain clarifying amendments proposed by the Department of the Interior have been adopted by the committee. The committee also has adopted an amendment designed to protect the United States against any further demands by the Indians for additional compensation. The Committee on Public Lands unanimously recommends the prompt enactment of House Joint Resolution 33, as amended. PROVIDING FOR THE RATIFICATION BY CONGRESS OF A CONTRACT FOR THE PURCHASE OF CERTAIN INDIAN LANDS BY THE UNITED STATES FROM THE THREE AFFILIATED TRIBES OF FORT BERTHOLD RESERVATION, N. DAK. MAY 9, 1949.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. LEMKE, from the Committee on Public Lands, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. J. Res. 33] The Committee on Public Lands, to whom was referred the joint resolution (H. J. Res. 33) providing for the ratification by Congress of a contract for the purchase of certain Indian lands by the United States from the Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold Reservation, N. Dak., and for other related purposes, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with amendments and recommend that the joint resolution as amended do pass. The amendments are as follows: Page 20, line 18, strike out the first "East" and insert in lieu thereof "West". Page 69, line 11, capitalize the word "land". Page 69, line 12, strike out the words "Commissioner of Indian Affairs" and insert in lieu thereof the words "Secretary of the Interior, or his duly authorized representative". Page 69, line 16, delete the second "d" from the word "period". Page 70, line 4, strike out the words "Commissioner of Indian Affairs" and insert in lieu thereof the words "Secretary of the Interior, or his duly authorized representative". Page 70, lines 12 to 14, strike out the following sentence: Preference shall be given to the original allottee in the purchase of or exchange for lands acquired by the tribes under this section. Page 70, line 25, strike out the word "all" and insert in lieu thereof the words "any and all claims which they may have for". Page 71, line 2, insert before the semicolon the words "by reason of the construction and operation of Garrison Dam and Reservoir project, North Dakota". Page 71, line 2, insert after the word "the" the words "disregard or". Page 72, line 2, strike out the words "Commissioner of Indian Affairs" and insert in lieu thereof the words "Secretary of the Interior, or his duly authorized representative". Page 72, line 3 to 23, strike out all of section 5 and insert in lieu thereof the following: SEC. 5. When electric power is available from the Garrison Dam, there is hereby reserved and set aside a block of power of 20,000 kilowatts for sale and distribution by the Three Affiliated Tribes for use of such power on the residual Fort Berthold Reservation as it may be extended. This block of power shall be delivered at such point or points on the reservation and at such voltage as may be determined by the Secretary of the Interior. Payment shall be made for the power actually used at the lowest wholesale rate or rates, applicable to the same class of service, made available to other customers receiving electric power from the Garrison Dam power plant. The transmission and distribution system necessary for the delivery of such block of power to the customers of the said Three Affiliated Tribes shall be constructed from time to time as needed by the said Tribes, with funds made available therefor by the United States without cost to the said Tribes, and there is hereby authorized to be appropriated from time to time such sums as may be required for the construction of the said distribution system to make available to the customers of the said Three Affiliated Tribes the block of power herein reserved to them. The rates for the sale of the power by the Three Affiliated Tribes shall be subject to approval by the Secretary of the Interior. Until such time as the said Three Affiliated Tribes shall require all of the electric power reserved to them, any amount in excess of that actually required by the said Three Affiliated Tribes shall be available to the Secretary of the Interior for sale or disposition off the Fort Berthold reservation as extended. Page 73, lines 1 to 8, strike out the following: within the residual areas of the Fort Berthold Reservation and there shall be constructed, maintained, and operated irrigation works on the lands within the residual area upon the findings of feasibility of providing such irrigation facilities. The provisions for such investigations and irrigation works shall extend to any Indian individual or tribal trust lands acquired in the future. Insert in lieu thereof the following: for any Indian individual or tribal trust lands within the residual Fort Berthold Reservation as it may be extended, including any such lands acquired in the future. Any irrigation works and related facilities which, on the basis of such investigations, the Secretary of the Interior determines to be feasible are hereby authorized to be constructed, maintained, and operated under his direction. Page 73, lines 22 to 23, strike out the date "July 31, 1947" and insert in lieu thereof "May 20, 1948". Page 74, lines 7 to 12, strike out the colon and remainder of the section and insert a period after the word "Tribes". Page 74, line 15, after the word "when" insert the words "accepted by the Tribal Business Council of the Three Affiliated Tribes and". Page 74, line 20, change the period to a colon and insert the following: Provided, That no funds authorized in this Act shall be made available to the Three Affiliated Tribes or their members until the Secretary of the Interior has received an appropriate resolution adopted by the Tribal Council and approved by a majority of the adult members of said tribes as accepting payment authorized by this Act as "full, complete and final settlement of all rights, interest, and claims whatsoever of the Three Affiliated Tribes and the members thereof against the United States by reason of the construction of Garrison Dam and Reservoir Project, North Dakota." Page 75, add the following new section: SEC. 12. Lands or interests in lands acquired pursuant to article VII or article VIII of the contract set forth in section 1 of this joint resolution may be sold to or exchanged with the Three Affiliated Tribes or members thereof, or may be exchanged with other persons, in the manner now or hereafter authorized by law for the sale or exchange of lands owned by such Tribes or members thereof. EXPLANATION OF THE BILL The purpose of this proposed legislation is to reimburse the Indians of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota for lands taken by the United States for the Garrison Dam and Reservoir project. House Joint Resolution 33 is endorsed by the Department of the Interior, the majority of the members of the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, and the Members of Congress from North Dakota. Garrison Dam is a multiple-purpose dam in connection with the Missouri River Valley project. It is an important link in the development of the Missouri River Basin and will be of primary benefit to flood control and navigation. Its site was chosen because of the great stretch of bottom land beginning 20 miles downstream from the Fort Berthold Reservation line and extending upstream to Williston, N. Dak. Into this basin will flow all the water of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers. Although navigation and flood control are the primary purposes of Garrison Dam, hydroelectric power and irrigation will, in the long run, pay for the dam and all damages occasioned to individuals. The Garrison project is deemed necessary by the Government, but its construction will result in the flooding of a quarter million acres of rich bottom land. The Fort Berthold Indians will be forced to vacate 155,000 acres of their land-land located in the heart of the reservation, and land on which the Indians have lived for 100 years. The so-called Three Affiliated Tribes-the Arikara, Gros Ventre, and Mandan Indians of the Fort Berthold Reservation have built for themselves a strong and growing cattle industry and steadily expanding agricultural program. At this time, they are in sight of complete economic independence. Now, through no action of the Indians, they must give up their homeland. Their homes will be lost, their cattle industry will be ruined, their churches and their schools, and their social life will be completely disrupted. The residue of their lands will be reduced to a small fraction of the present value. The only hope that these Indians, 2,215 in number, can possibly have is that the Federal Government will compensate them in money and in addition furnish such services as are necessary to obtain a sufficient degree of reconstruction. Thus they will be enabled to make a new start in life and once again begin the hard climb to reach the point of development which they, themselves, at this time have achieved. The enactment of House Joint Resolution 33 will help accomplish that purpose. House Joint Resolution 33 calls for an appropriation of $14,605,625. That includes the original appropriation of $5,105,625 granted in the War Department Civil Functions Appropriation Act of July 31, 1947. Another $3,000,000 is allowed as a land-readjustment fund and the sum of $6,500,000 is granted as additional indemnifying compensation. The Committee on Public Lands feels that $14,605,625 is small compensation for the disruption forced upon the 2,215 Indians. A conservative estimate of the basic value of the lands and their annual unless an appropriate contract relinquishing to the United States the Indian lands within the reservoir area was executed by them and ratified by the Congress, and also provided that suit might be brought in the Court of Claims for additional items of damage asserted by the Indians. In the contract negotiations, representatives of the Indians strongly expressed the view that the amount stated in the act would not be full compensation for their losses. At the same time, they were reluctant to have consideration of their claims for additional compensation deferred until a suit could be brought in the Court of Claims. However, they did on May 20, 1948, execute the contract on the limited basis of $5,105,625, because they felt that they were helpless to do otherwise. At the insistence of the Indians, article I of the contract contains a clause by which the Three Affiliated Tribes reserve the right to pursue further their claims against the United States, by petitioning the Congress, as well as by litigation. When in the Eightieth Congress the negotiated contract was introduced for ratification, additional appropriation authorization sections, similar to those now appearing in House Joint Resolution 33, were contained in the ratifying measure. A hearing on this earlier measure (S. J. Res. 224, 80th Cong.) was held on June 5, 1948, by the Subcommittee on Indian Affairs of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. Members of the Subcommittee on Indian Affairs of the Public Lands Committee of the House of Representatives also participated in this hearing. The proceedings indicated a substantial unanimity of opinion to the effect that the Congress should provide for a definitive settlement with the Three Affiliated Tribes, which, in addition to the ratification of the contract of May 20, 1948, would grant them adequate compensation for all of the property and other rights being taken by the United States for the Garrison project. The present joint resolution is designed to provide such a settlement in lieu of the more protracted and less certain remedy of a suit in the Court of Claims. Section 9 reads as follows: The foregoing conditions and requirements, and the funds made available and those authorized to be appropriated in this joint resolution, when appropriated, shall be in complete and final settlement of all the rights, interests, and claims whatsoever of the Three Affiliated Tribes and the members thereof against the United States by reason of the construction of the Garrison Dam and Reservoir project, North Dakota. Viewing House Joint Resolution 33 as a whole, it contains three principal appropriation authorizations, as follows: 1. The contract appropriation (secs. 1 and 7)---- Total... $5, 105, 625 3, 000, 000 6, 500, 000 14, 605, 625 In addition, section 5 would reserve some 20,000 kilowatts of electric power from the Garrison project for the use of the Three Affiliated Tribes, and would provide for the construction by the United States of an electric transmission and distribution system on the Fort Berthold Reservation for their benefit. This undertaking would involve a future expenditure which, in terms of the present value of the commitment, would amount to approximately two and one-half million dollars. Thus, the benefits to the Indians, under the settlement now proposed, would total about $17,000,000. |