81ST CONGRESS

Calendar No. 1744

SENATE REPORT
2d Session No. 1737

AUTHORIZING THE NEGOTIATION FOR CONTRACTS

WITH INDIANS IN CONNECTION WITH THE CONSTRUC-
TION OF OAHE DAM, S. DAK.

MAY 23 (legislative day, MARCiH 29), 1950.-Ordered to be printed

Mr. McFARLAND, from the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs,

submitted the following
REPORT
[To accompany H. R. 53721

The Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, to whom was

referred the bill (H. R. 5372) to authorize the negotiation for approval
and ratification of separate settlement contracts with the Sioux
Indians of the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota of the
Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota and of the Standing
Rock Reservation in North and South Dakota in connection with
the construction ot the Oahec Dami and Reservoir, S. Dak., having
considered the same, report thereon with the recommendation that it
do pass with the following amendment:
Strike out all after the enacting clause and in lieu thereof insert
the following:
That the Chief of Engineers, I)epartment of the Army, jointly with the Secretary
of the Interior, representing the United States of America, are hereby authorized
and directed to negotiate contracts containing the provisions outlined herein sepa-
rately with the Sioux Indians of the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota
and with the Sioux Indians of the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota
and North D)akota, through representatives of the two tribes appointed for this
purpose by their tribal councils.
SEc. 2. The contracts made pursuant to section 1 of this Act shall-
(a) convey to the United States the title to all tribal, allotted, assigned, and
inherited lands or interests therein belonging to the Indians of each tribe required
by the United States for the reservoir to be created by the construction of the dam
across the Missouri River in South Dakota, to be known as Oahe Dam, including
such lands along the margin of said reservoir as may be required by the Chief of
Engineers, United States Army, for the protection, development, and use of said
reservoir: Provided, That the date on which the contract is signed by Chief of
Engineers, United States Army, and thle Secretary of the Interior shall be the date
of taking by the United States for purposes of determining the ownership of the
Indian tribal, allotted, and assigned lands conveyed thereby to the United States,
2 NEGOTIATION FOR CONTRACTS WITH INDIANS

subject to the determinations and the payments to be made as hereinafter provided

for:
(b) provide for the payment of-
(1) just compensation for lands and improvements and interests therein,
conveyed pursuant to subsection (a);
(2) costs of moving the members of each tribe who reside upon such lands
out of the proposed flooded area and
(3) costs of relocating and reestablishing Indian cemeteries, tribal monu-
ments, and shrines located upon such lands;
(c) provide that just compensation for the lands of individual members of such
tribes, who reject the appraisal covering their individual property, shall be
judicially determined in proceedings instituted for such purpose by the Department
of the Army in the United States district court for the district in which the lands
are situated.
(d) provide a schedule of dates for the orderly removal of the Indians and
their personal property situated within the taking area of the Oahe Reservoir
within the respective reservations: Provided, That the Chief of Engineers shall
have primary and final responsibility in negotiating concerning the matters set
out in the foregoing paragraphs (a) and (b) hereof;
(e) provide for the final and complete settlement of all claims by the Indians
and tribes described in section 1 of this Act against the United States arising
because of construction of the Oahe project.
SEC. 3. To assist the negotiators in arriving at the amount of just compensation
as provided herein in section 2 (b) (1), the Secretary of the Interior or his duly
authorized representative and the Chief of Engineers, )epartment of the Army,
or his duly authorized representative shall cause to be prepared an appraisal
schedule on an individual tract basis of the tribal, allotted, and assigned lands,
including heirship interests therein, located within the taking areas of the respec-
tive reservations. In the preI)aration thereof, they shall determine the fair
market value of the lands, giving full and proper weight to the following elements
of appraisal: Improvements, severance damage, standing timber, mineral rights,
and the uses to which the lands are reasonably adapted. They shall transmit the
schedules to the representatives of the tribes appointed to negotiate a contract,
which schedules shall be used as a basis for determining the amount of just com-
pensation to be included in the contracts for the elements of damages set out in
section 2 hereof.
SE:C. 4. The specification in sections 2 and 3 hereof of certain provisions to be
included in each contract shall not operate to preclude the inclusion in such
contracts of other provisions beneficial to the Indians who are parties to such
contracts.
SEc. 5. (a) The contracts negotiated and approval pursuant to this Act shall
be submitted to the Congress within eighteen months from and after the date of
enactment of this Act.
(b) No such contract shall take effect until it shall have been ratified by Act of
Congress.
SEC. 6. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to restrict the orderly prosecution
of the construction or delay the completion of the Oahe Dam to provide protection
from floods on the Missouri River.
SEC. 7. When electric power is available from Oahe D)am project. the said
Tribes and the members thereof shall have equal rights and privileges on an equal
basis which are accorded the persons, cooperative associations and others by the
Rural Electrification Act of 1936 and all Acts amendatory thereof or supplemental
thereto as fully as if said tribes and members thereof were named in said Rural
Electrification'Act of 1936.
Tlis bill has been considered( by the Committee on Public Lands of
i House; on July 13, 1949, that committee submitted its report
the
(H. Rept. No. 1047) recommending its passage and on August 1, 1949,
it passe(l tihe House.
Tlhe purpose of this bill, as amended, is to authorize the Chief of
Engineers, Department of the Army, jointly with the Secretary of the
I interior, to negotiate sel)arate contracts with the Sioux Indians of the
Cheyen1ne River Reservation in South Dakota and the Sioux Indians
of thie Standing Rock Reservation in the States of South and North
Dakota, which will provide for conveyance to the United States of tho
 NEGOTIATION FOR CONTRACTS WITH INDIANS a
title to all tribal, allotted and inherited lands or interests therein
belonging to the Indians of the tribe, which are required by the United
States for the Oahe Dam and Reservoir project; to make provision for
payment by the United States of just compensation for all the land and
improvements, including the cost of moving the Indians out of the
proposed flooded area as well as relocating and establishing Indian
cemeteries, tribal monuments and shrines located upon said lands; to
provide for final and complete settlement of all claims by the Indians
and tribes against the United States arising by reason of the construc-
tion of the said Oahe Dam and Reservoir project; to provide for the
approval and ratification of such contracts by the Congress and that
such contracts shall not take effect until ratified by an act of Congress,
and provide for equal rights and equal privileges as to the use of elec-
tric power when available from the said Oahc Dam.
H. R. 5372 was substituted for H. R. 3582 by the House Committee
on Public Lands, which bill (II. R. 5372) embodies the text of a bill
recommended by the Secretary of the Interior as a substitute for
H. R. 3582.
S. 1488 was, on April 2, 1949, introduced in the Senate by Senator
Gurney and referred to your committee for consideration, the text
of which is identical with that of H. R. 3582.
A copy of the report of the Secretary of the Interior on S. 1488,
dated June 28, 1949, is appended hereto and made a part of this
report. A copy of a letter dated April 24, 1950, concerning H. R.
3582, from the Bureau of the Budget to the Secretary of the Interior
and a copy of a letter concerning S. 1488, dated January 30, 1950,.
from the Department of the Army to the chairman of your committee,.
Mr. O'Mahoney, are also attached hereto and made a part of this
report.
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
June 1949.
28,
'Hon. JOSEPH C. O'MAHONEY,
Chairman, Comamittee on Interior and Insular Affairs,
United States Senate.
MY DEAR SENATOR O'MAHONEY: Further reference is made to your request
of April 4 for a report on S. 1488, authorizing the negotiation, approval and
ratification of separate contracts with the Sioux Indians of the Cheyenne River
Reservation in South Dakota and of the Standing Rock Reservation in South
Dakota and North Dakota for the acquisition of Indian lands and rights required
by the United States for the Oahe Dam and Reservoir, which is part of the
Missouri River development.
I recommend that all of the text of the bill after the enacting clause be stricken
out and that the attached text be enacted in lieu thereof.
S. 1488 is similar in content and purpose to H. R. 3582. A study of both
measures and of the background problem with which they deal leads me to
recommend the enactment of a bill which will contain features of both the House
and Senate bills, together with a few additional provisions.
The construction of the Oahe I)am and Reservoir will cause serious losses and
injury to the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Indians. The Department
urges that the Congress should follow with respect to these Indians the precedent
being set in the taking of the lands and rights of the Fort Berthold Indians for the
Garrison Dam and Reservoir. The effects of the Oahe project on the Cheyenne
River and Standing Rock Reservations may be summarized as follows:
The Missouri River forms the east boundary of the Cheyenne River and
Standing Rock Reservations. Much of the best land on these reservations is
located along the river bottoms and back for some distance from the mouths of
tributary streams. Practically all of this river bottom land will be inundated,
amounting to about 95,500 acres on the Cheyenne River Reservation and
Table: [No Caption]

4 NEGOTIATION FOR CONTRACTS WITH INDIANS

54,800 acres on the Standing Rock Reservation. Preliminary estimates (based on

the nearest subdivision of lands above elevation 1620) indicate that the ownership
of the land in the taking area within the two reservations is as follows:

Cheyenne Standing
River Rock

Acres Acres
Trust allotments .. .......................................................... 24, 865. 87 46, 116. 73
Tribal lands................................................................. 70. 650. 09 8,782.69
Non-Indian lands ........................................................... 1 H. 30 12, 317. 62
Total................................. 113, 710.26 67, 247. 04

On the Cheyenne River Reservation, about one-quarter of the tribally owned

land in the taking area is covered by "exchange assignments," that is, lands sur-
rendered to the tribe by individual lihecirs and allottees in exchange for the right
to use consolidated tracts of land, the title of which is vested in the tribe. These
assignments include some of the best land on tile Cheyenne River 1Reservation and
are so located with reference to water, feed, and shelter as to have strategic im-
portance for stock raising. Also located oin the same reservation are valuable
bottom lands along the Missouri, the Cheyenne, and the Moreau Rivers, and along
several smaller side drainages.
On the Standing Rock Reservation, part of the trust allotment acreage consists
of 3,903 timber allotments, ranging in size from less than 1 acre to about 10 acres.
Tlie takings of land on this reservation will reach the choice tracts, much of which
is fertile bottom land, timbered, and strategically located in relation to the con-
duct of the reservation cattle industry.
It is estimated that at least 113 families on the Cheyenne River Reservation
and at least 184 families on the Standing Rock Reservation will have to be re-
move(l from t he Oahe Reservoir area. Ol thle former reservation, some 80 families
live ill lionmes on their own land" along the Missouri River bottonls and 33 families
live below the agency oin Government reserve lands. On tlhe latter reservation,'
tlhe family and community groups affected by thle project are scattered through-
out the taking area to l)e flooded. On both reservations the choicest home sites
lie within the Oahe taking area.
The effect of Ilhe takings on the cattle industry of both reservations will be
serious. Because natural conditions along the river bottoms favor the wintering
of livestock, these locations form tile milch l)rized ranch and range land on the
reservations. Beef-cat tie produtielion has steadily advanced onl both reservations,
bulit more progress has been realized onl'the (Cheyenne River than on tile Standing
Rock. It is (lillicillt to exaggerate the imnortanice of their present cattle industry
to tlhe Ilnd(ians and of tile relation of thle Missouri River bottoms to tihe continued
operation of this ildlustry.
On the (l'heenne River Reservation, over 45,000 acres of choice range land
and ranch land will l)e lost because of the takings. At least 75 cattle enterprises
will have to be liquidated, or moved to other locations. 'IThese are some of the
larger cattle outfits. Under average conditions, about 5,000 head of Indian-
owned cattle winter on the I)ottom lands which will be inundated. Under emner-
gency conditions, such as heavy winter storms or drought, as many as 7,500 head
use the bottom lands which will be inundated. Replacement of this ranch and
of similar character will be impossible, since comparatively
grazing land witl land exists
little land of this type in this region, or can be acquired.
On the Stallding Rock Reservation, tile choice'range and ranch bottom lands
which will b)c inundated arc located along thle Missouri, Grand, and Cannonball
iRivers. Some 30,000 acres of this land will l)e lost, resulting in the liquidation or
removal to other lands of about 60 I)ercent of the larger Indian cattle ol)erators
and in tilhe removal of about 3,500 head of Indian-owned cattle. Some 50 Indian
cattle operators will also have to make additions to their base properties to provide
additional shelter- and feed for the winter months.
Of thle 113 families on the Cheyenne River Reservation who will have to move,
80 families will lose cultivated tracts. About 75 percent of this reservation's
area planted to corn andl 10 percent planted to small grain will be lost. On the
Standing Rock Reservation about 500 acres of land presently being farmed will
be lost along with about 180 home gardens and the agency school farm. About
4,360 acres of potentially irrigable land along the Missouri River will be flooded.
On both reservations, most farm land which will be lost can be replaced through
purchase of fee l)atcnted lands and Indian estates within the residual reservations.
 NEGOTIATION FOR CONTRACTS WITH INDIANS 5
One of the most serious losses will be that of the woodland areas. This loss
will amount to between 12,000 and 15,000 acres on the Cheyenne River Reserva-
tion and between 10,000 and 11,000 acres on the Standing Rock Reservation,
or about 90 percent of the gross area of timbered lands on each reservation. On
the Cheyenne River Reservation about one-fourth of the families on the reserva-
tion get all of their fuel from the taking area, and on the Standing Rock Reserva,
tion about one-half do likewise; on the former reservation, about one-third of all
building and fencing material is derived from the taking area, and on the latter
reservation, about 80 percent. Since the timbered areas on the Cheyenne River
Reservation cannot be replaced, it will be necessary for the Indians to purchase
fuel, or develop lignite supplies on the residual reservation at considerable cost.
On the Standing Rock Reservation no convenient source of lignite is locally
known. Generally on both reservations the Indians will have to purchase building.
and fencing materials which they now can obtain without cash outlay.
Gathering and preserving wild fruit is common on both reservations, providing.
variety, bulk, and nutritious elements to the Indians' diet. The fruit supply of
150 families on the Cheyenne River and of 540 families on the Standing Rock
will be lost.
The Indians of both reservations will lose valuable wildlife resources and
recreational areas. On the Cheyenne River Reservation, over 400 deer are
estimated to live year long in the timbered area which will be inundated. In
the bottoms area, pheasants, rabbits, and racoons are numerous. Several hundred
bank-denning beaverfeedare annually taken from the same area. Wildlife which
provides important for over 100 families will be lost. On the Standing Rock
Reservation, it is estimated that approximately 600 white-tailed deer and 100
mule deer use the bottom land year long. Practically all pheasants, numbering
thousands, which occupy a strip of land 10 miles wide out from the Missouri
River, spend the winter months on the bottom land area. The cottontail rabbit
population of this area is also large. Thus on both reservations, valuable recrea-
tional areas used for trapping and hunting will be lost. Fishing is not important
on either reservation at the present time.
On the Cheyenne River Reservation, the Cheyenne River Agency will be com-
pletely flooded. Buildings and improvements at the agency are valued consider-
ably in excess of $1,000,000. One of the best-equipped high schools in South
Dakota and a 40-bed hospital are counted among the losses. In addition, dormi-
tories for housing 250 students, dwellings, offices, and work shops for 125 employees
will be lost. About 600 people live at the agency site which is a modern town.
A school farm, consisting of 105 acres of irrigated land, with additional acreage
for pasture, will be flooded. The Moreau River and Four Bear Day Schools will
be flooded. The road maintenance camp near the Moreau River School will have
to be relocated.
On the Standing Rock Reservation, it is estimated that most of the buildings of
the agency at Fort Yates, N. Dak., will lie above the maximum pool level of the
Oahe Reservoir at elevation 1,620. However, the town below the agency.will be
flooded and most Indian families living near the agency will have to be moved.
The school farm, which furnishes partial subsistence to 80 students at the boarding
school, will be lost and must be replaced. The agency will be located on an island
in the reservoir pool, separated from the mainland by a mile or more of water at
maximum pool level. If the agency is to be left in place, the water and sewage
disposal systems will have to be altered and a causeway constructed to join it with
the mainland.
About 80 miles of graded and graveled Indian Bureau roads on the Cheyenne
River Reservation, and about 45 miles on the Standing Rock Reservation will be
rendered useless through flooding, or flooding of their termini. New networks of
highways will have to be constructed to service the relocated Indian populations
on both reservations.
A preliminary survey indicates that six cemeteries on the Cheyenne River
Reservation, and either four or five cemeteries on the Standing Rock Reservation
will have to be relocated. An undertermined number of private burials will also
have to be relocated.
In view of the effect of the Oahe project on the Cheyenne River and Standing
Rock Reservations, it is clear that a fair and proper settlement with the Indians
should encompass the following objectives:
1. To compensate the Indians, tribally and individually, for the tangible losses
which they will sustain.
2. To pay the necessary expenses of the Indians in removing from their present
homes to their new ones.
S. Repts., 81-2, vol. 3-13
6 NEGOTIATION FOR CONTRACTS WITH INDIANS
.
3. To assist the Indians in readjusting their social, economic, and religious life
in relation to the residual lands of the two reservations.
4. To assist the Indians in developing alternative supplies of fuel and in de-
veloping new sources of domestic and livestock water supplies on the residual lands
of their reservations.
5. To defray the costs of disinterring, removing, and reinterring Indian ceme-
teries and private burials.
6. To adjust the Indians' fishing, hunting, and trapping rights, established by
treaty, to the new conditions which will be created after the flooding of Oahe
Reservoir.
7. To compensate the Indians for intangible losses which they will sustain.
8. To effect a general rehabilitation and readjustment of the Indians in terms
of the changed conditions with which they will be confronted.
9. To reestablish and reorganize the Government's facilities for services (health,
education, welfare and other services) which will be destroyed in the inundated
area on the Cheyenne River Reservation and seriously disrupted on the Standing
Rock Reservation.
There follows a section-by-section analysis of the attached draft of bill with
explanations of the differences between the draft and S. 1488 and H. R. 3582.
Section 1 of both S. 1488 and H. R. 3582 provide that the Chief of Engineers,
Department of the Army, shall negotiate contracts with the Sioux Indians of the
Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Reservations. The attached draft adds the
qualification that the tribal councils of both reservations shall designate the negoti-
ators on behalf of the Indians, and also adds more detailed specifications as to the
procedure under which the Indians of the two reservations are to signify their
approval. Both House and Senate bills provide that assent must be given in
writing by three-fourths of the adult members of the respective tribes and by
their respective tribal councils. It is believed that this procedure for obtaining
the Indians' approval of the contracts should be clarified in two respects:
(a) All enrolled Indians, whether they live in the reservoir taking area or nob,
have an interest in the tribal lands, but not all Indians have an interest in the
allotted lands or exchange assignments. It does not seem proper that Indians
who have no interest in the allotted lands should participate in voting on the
contracts insofar as these lands are concerned. It is therefore proposed in the
attached draft of bill that the-contracts shall be submitted for the approval of
the owners of at least 60 percent of the allotted and assigned lands. In this
connection, the attached draft contains the provision that holders of exchange
assignments shall be grouped with allottees and holders of heirship interests.
This provision is aimed at the situation which prevails on the Cheyenne River
Reservation where a considerable acreage of allotted lands has been transferred
by their owners to tribal ownership in return for receiving single tracts of land
under use assignments.
* (b) The power of the Indians to approve alienation of tribal lands is distinctly
different on the two reservations. On the Cheyenne River Reservation where
the tribe is organized under the Indian Reorganization Act, the Tribal Council is
authorized by the tribe's constitution to ac6 on behalf of the tribe. On the
Standing Rock Reservation the tribal constitution, which was adopted in 1914,
confers no such power on the tribal governing body. The attached draft of bill
provides therefore that the contracts negotiated with the United States for
alienation of tribal lands, shall, in the case of the Cheyenne River Reservation,
receive the approval of the duly elected tribal council and, in the case of the
Standing Rock Reservation, be submitted to a majority of the adult members
of the tribe for their approval.
Section 2 of the attached draft sets forth the scope of the two contracts which
are to be negotiated with the United States. Both H. R. 3582 and S. 1488 pro-
vide that the Chief of Engineers shall negotiate separate contracts with the
Indians of each reservation; but, while the House bill provides that the contracts
shall contain compensation for intangible, as well as tangible losses, the Senate
bill restricts the contracts to the compensation of the Indians for their tangible
losses, along with removal costs. The Senate bill providesof(sec. 5) that the whole
subject of additional compensationis shall be the subject an investigation by
the Secretary of the Interior who to present the result of his investigation to
the Congress. It is believed that the procedure proposed in the Senate bill in
this respect is preferable and will lead to a more precise and equitable evaluation
of the necessary additional compensation and consideration to which the Indians
are entitled.
 NKEGOTIATION FOR CONTRACTS WITH INDIANS 7
The attached draft of bill is similar to both House and Senate bills in that it
requires the negotiated contracts to contain provisions (a) for conveying title to
the Indian tribal and allotted lands to the United States, (b) for defraying reloca.
tion and reestablishment costs of Indians displaced from the Oahe taking area,
(c) for.protecting the constitutional rights of those Indians who may choose not
to. approve of the contracts, (d) for protecting Indian treaty rights in relation to
hunting, trapping, and fishing, and (e) for giving the Indians access below the
actual taking line of Oahe Reservoir.
The attached draft of bill contains a specific reference to including the cost
of removing Indian cemeteries, contained in the Senate bill but not contained
in the House bill except by implication. The attached draft also contains a
provision found in the Senate bill, but not in the House bill, namely, the provision
that the Bureau of Indian Affairs shall be reimbursed for reasonable costs incurred
in. relocating and reestablishing Government-owned buildings, facilities, road;-,
and bridges.
The attached draft of bill contains a feature not contained in either the House
or Senate bills. Section 2 (a) contains the proviso, namely, that the date of the
contract's approval by the Secretary of the Interior shall constitute the "date
of taking" for purposes of determining the ownership of the Indian tribal, allotted,
and assigned lands. This proviso arises out of the experience 6f interpreting the
contract which the Fort Berthold Indians negotiated with the United States on
May 20, 1948. This proviso would fix unchangeably the Indian lands covered by
the contract so that such lands would not be affected by subsequent changes of
ownership.
Section 3 of the attached draft of bill undertakes to specify the procedure to be
followed in appraising the Inidan lands. It appears to this Department that the
contracts ought to include the specific amounts to be paid for the Indian property,
not leaving the amounts to be determined by subsequent appraisal. Section 3
provides that the Secretary of the Interior, or his duly authorized representative
shall prepare appraisal schedules and present them to the Indian negotiators and
the Corps of Engineers, to be used by them in negotiating exact valuations to be
written directly into the contracts.
Section 4 of the attached bill provides that the contracts shall not be limited to
the provisions enumerated in section 2 but may include "other provisions bene-
ficial to the Indian parties." This provision is similar to one included in the
House bill and is identical in language with section 3 of the Senate bill.
Section 5 of the attached bill contains a provision not found in either the House
or Senate bills requiring that the contracts shall be submitted to the Congress
within 18 months of the enactment of the legislation.
Section 6 of the attached draft of bill, the text of which, except for one provision
relative to a reserve of power for the benefit of the Indians, is taken from section 5
of the Senate bill directs that the Secretary of the Interior shall cause an investiga-
tion to be made under the direction of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and a
report thereon shall be submitted to the Congress within 18 months of the enact-
ment of the legislation concerning what additional provisions should be made
(that is, in addition to provisions contained in the contracts) to rehabilitate the
Indians, or to compensate them for additional losses resulting from the construc-
tion and operation of the Oahe project, or to fulfill any treaty or other obligation
of the Government, together with estimates of the cost thereof, to be financed
from appropriations to be made to the Department of the Interior.
Section 6 (g) of the attached draft of bill contains a provision of the House
bill, not contained in the Senate bill, namely, the provision for the reservation
of a block of power to be set aside from the Oahe project for the two tribes and
for the delivery of the block of power for the Indians' use, sale, and disposition.
This provision is similar to that contained in pending legislation dealing with
the taking of lands on the Fort Berthold Reservation (N. Dak.) for the Garrison
project (S. J. Res. 11 and H. J. Res. 33). The fact that the 100,000 acres of
land being taken from the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Indians forms an
integral part of the reservoir required in the development of the electric energy
at Oahe Dam, and the further fact that the Indians are being required to make
extensive sacrifices in the interest of the general public gives justification for the
inclusion of a power reservation for them in the contracts to be negotiated.
Section 7 provides that nothing in the act shall be construed to restrict the
orderly construction, or delay the completion, of the (Ohe project. The language
is taken directly from the Senate bill.
In conclusion I urge consideration of this highly important matter by the
present session of the Congress. Oahe Dam is under construction, and time is
rapidly shortening within which to work out the settlement for final approval.
 8 NEGOTIATION FOR CONTRACTS WITH INDIANS
Due to the imminence of hearings, this report has not been submitted to the
Bureau of Budget for approval. Therefore, no commitment can be made as to
the views expressed therein to the program of the President.
Sincerely yours,
OSCAR L. CHAPMAN,
Acting Secretary of the Interior.
BUREAU OF THE BUDGET,
The honorable the SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. April 24, 1960.
MY DEAR MR. SECRETARY: Reference is made to your letter of June 28, 1949,
transmitting copies of your report to the chairman of the House Committee on
Public Lands on H. R. 3582, authorizing the negotiation, approval, and ratification
of separate contracts with Cheyenne River and Standing Rook Sioux Indians for
the acquisition of lands and other Indian interests in connection with the Oahe
Dam and Reservoir, Missouri River development.
This Bureau has obtained the views of other interested agencies, and has con-
sidered the whole matter in the light of those views, your report, and the precedent
legislation embodied in Public Law 437, Eighty-first Congress. This act covered
a similar situation affecting the Fort Berthold Indians in North Dakota. As a
result of this consideration it has been concluded that H. R. 3582 contains objec-
tionable features which would, if enacted, not be in accord with the program of the
President.
We have also had before us S. 1488, a bill of similar purpose hut without the
objectionable features of H. R. 3582, The enactment of this bill substantially in
its original form would not be in conflict with the President's program.
Your report proposes a substitute for H. R. 3582 which embraces some of the
features of both bills and brings in some additional features. This substitute has
had careful review and if amended to conform to the following suggestions it would
be without objection.
Ratification of the contracts by Congress is not required. In view of the
sizable Indian interest involved, and the joint responsibility of the legislative and
executive branches of the Government for the welfare of our Indian citizens it
would seem appropriate for the contracts to be reviewed and confirmed or amended
by the Congress. This vas required in the Fort Berthold case.
Section 3 makes no provision for Army representation on the appraisal board.
It would seem appropriate for the appraisals to be a joint effort, rather than the
sin le job of the Department,
In section 6 (h) provision is made for considering compensation for all breaches
of treaty rights and for other purposes. This is objectionable because of the
existence of section 24 of the act of August 13, 1946, establishing the Indian Claims
Commission. It would be appropriate, in our opinion, to have this question
considered through proper channels, rather than to. thrust that responsibility
upon an investigatory group.
Since your report has already been transmitted to the committee, it is requested
that you forward a copy of this letter to the committee for its information.
Sincerely yours,
ROGER W. JONES,
Assistant Director, Legislative Referewce,.

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY,

Hon. JOSEPH C. O'NMAHONEY,
Washington, D. C., January 30, 1960.
Chairman, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs,
United States Senate.
DEAR SENATOR O'WMAHONEY: Reference is made to your recent-request to this
Department for an expression of views with respect to S. 1488, Eighty-first
Congress, a bill to authorize the negotiation, approval, and ratification of separate
settlement contracts with the Sioux Indians of Cheyenne River Reservation in
South Dakota and of Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota and North
Dakota for Indian lands and rights required by the United States for the Oahe
Dam and Reservoir, Missouri River development.
The Department of the Army has no objection to the above-meutioned legisla-
tion.
 NEGOTIATION FOR CONTRACTS WITH INDIANS 9
The purpose of the bill is to authorize the Chief of Engineers, United States
Army, to negotiate separate contracts with' the Sioux Indians of the Cheyenne
River Reservation in South Dakota and the Sioux Indians of the Standing Rock
Reservation in the States of South and North Dakota which will provide for
conveyance to the United States of the title to all tribal, allotted, and inherited
lands or interests therein belonging to the Indians of the tribe, which are required
by the United States for the Oahe Dam and Reservoir project, and make pro-
vision for payment by the United States of just compensation for all the land and
improvements, including the cost of relocating the Indians as well as relocating
and establishing Indian cemeteries, tribal monuments, and shrines located upon
said lands. The Secretary of the Interior would be authorized to report to
Congress what, if any, additional provision should be made to care for the Indians.
Although the proposed bill provides that payment be made to the Indians for
relocation costs in addition to the payment of the fair market value of the land and
improvements within the project area, payment of such relocation costs as part
of the cost of the project is not opposed by this Department because of the special
trustee relationship between the Government and the Indians.
The amount to be expended by the United States, as a result of the enactment
of S. 1.188, is not known at the present time.
This report has been coordinated among the departments and boards in the
Department of Defense in accordance with procedures prescribed by the Secretary
of Defense.
Inasmuch as your committee has requested that this report be expedited, it is
submitted without advice from the Bureau of the Budget as to whether S. 1488
conforms to the program of the President. However, as soon as such advice is
received, it will be forwarded to your committee.
Silncerely yours,
GORDON GRAT,
Secretary of the Army.
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