Cite as: 508 U. S. 679 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
reservation land held in trust by the United States for the Tribe and its members. Today trust lands comprise less than 50% of the reservation. App. 64.
After severe floods devastated the lower Missouri River basin in 1943 and 1944, Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1944, ch. 665, 58 Stat. 887. This Act authorized the establishment of a comprehensive flood control plan along the Missouri River, which serves as the eastern border of the Cheyenne River Reservation. The Act also directed the Army Chief of Engineers to "construct, maintain, and operate public park and recreational facilities in reservoir areas," and provided that the "reservoirs shall be open to public use generally," subject to "such rules and regulations as the Secretary of War may deem necessary." § 4, 58 Stat. 889-890. Seven subsequent Acts of Congress authorized limited takings of Indian lands for hydroelectric and flood control dams on the Missouri River in both North and South Dakota. See Lower Brule Sioux Tribe v. South Dakota, 711 F. 2d 809, 813, n. 1 (CA8 1983), cert. denied, 464 U. S. 1042 (1984). One of the largest of these takings involved the Oahe Dam and Reservoir Project, for which Congress required the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe to relinquish 104,420 acres of its trust lands, including roughly 2,000 acres of land underlying the Missouri River.1 The Tribe's agreement to "convey to the United States all tribal, allotted, assigned, and inherited lands or interests" needed for the project is memorialized in the Cheyenne River Act of Sept. 3, 1954, 68 Stat. 1191.2
1 Congress authorized the Departments of the Army and the Interior to negotiate contracts with the Cheyenne River Tribe and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe for land needed for the Oahe Dam and Reservoir. See ch. 1120, 64 Stat. 1093.
2 The Tribe received a total of $10,644,014 in exchange for the 104,420 acres of land and interests therein taken by the United States. This amount included compensation for the loss of wildlife, the loss of revenue from grazing permits, the costs of negotiating the agreement, and the costs of "complete rehabilitation" of all resident members and the restoration of tribal life. See §§ 2, 5, and 13, 68 Stat. 1191-1194.
683
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007