Tribal leader forced to sell off his tribes land, 1948

“In 1947, the 80th Congress approved PL 296 which appropriated funds for “Flood Control, General.” A contract was drawn up in 1948 for approval by the Three Affiliated Tribes. Indians feared that if they failed to consent to outlined terms, they would receive less adequate compensation in the future. In tears. Council Chairman George Gillette “consented” to the coercive piece of legislation. “The truth is, as everyone knows,” he said, “our Treaty of Fort Laramie…and our constitution are being torn to shreds by this contract”. By 1949, provisions for compensation were passed by the Senate and the House and signed into law by the president. In 1950, the tribes voted 525 out of 991 adults to accept the provisions of the act. By 1951, construction was underway and relocation procedures undertaken. The 1951 population included 356 families on 583,000 acres of reservation. Three hundred families were forced to relocate from more than 153,000 acres of flooded lands. The US government believed that many families would choose to permanently move to urban areas under federal job training programs; however, cultural forces inhibited migration to the extent that many Indians viewed even the new reservation lands as “foreign” and inhospitable. Those who did migrate returned in much greater numbers-than anticipated.”