Coyote Warrior

by Paul Van Develder

  74 When the ice broke on the Upper Missouri: Meyer, The Village Indians of the Upper Missouri, pp. 103- 108.

  74 Ten years after Horse Creek: Ibid., p. 107.

  74 their isolation forced them to live like prisoners: Ibid., pp. 107- 109.

  75 Washington’s lax attention to their: Ibid., pp. 107- 108, and Prucha, American Indian Treaties, pp. 237- 238.

  75 the baby girl was called Many Dances: From interviews with Marilyn Hudson and Phyllis and Crusoe Cross.

  76 At the age of twenty-one, the grandson of Cherry Necklace: Curtis, The North American Indian.

  76 “What shall be done about the Indian as an obstacle”: Drinnon, Keeper of Concentration Camps.

  77 Frederick Jackson Turner: For a critical discussion of Turner’s hypothesis, see Limerick, The Legacy of Conquest.

  77 In 1885, the new agent at Fort Berthold: Curtis, “The Last Lodges of the Mandans.”

  77 lived alone in his earth lodge in the company: Ibid.

  CHAPTER IV: GREAT WHITE FATHERS

  Interviews: Bucky Cross, Crusoe Cross, Phyllis Old Dog Cross, Luther Grinnell, Louise Holding Eagle, Marilyn Hudson, Roger Johnson, Emerson Murry, Ken Rogers, Alyce Spotted Bear, W. Raymond Wood.

  79 What followed, rather hastily: Lewis and Clark, Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, pp. 200- 203, and Lewis and Clark, The Journals of the Expedition Under the Command of Capts. Lewis and Clark, pp. 70- 71. Also Lewis and Clark, The Journals of Lewis and Clark, Gary Moulton, ed.

  80 “Everybody else wanted to secure a trading monopoly”: Wood and Thiessen, Early Fur Trade on the Northern Plains. Also see Botkin, Our Natural History, and Rhonda, Lewis and Clark Among the Indians, pp. 67- 80.

  81 It seldom slept in the same bed and was forever jumping its banks: Hart, The Dark Missouri, p. 120.

  82 when the first of three large floods inundated Omaha: Ibid., pp. 122- 128.

  82 But in the spring of 1943, the nation’s attention was focused: “British Pursue Rommel North from Sfax: Allies Push Through Mountains on Flank,” New York Times.

  82 While researching her now classic study: Hunt with Huser, Down by the River.

  83 The river’s unpredictable upstream behavior: Reisner, Cadillac Desert, pp. 182- 183. Also, for a comprehensive hydrological report on the river before the building of the Pick-Sloan dams, see Missouri River: A Letter from the Secretary of War.

  83 When Congress created the Army Corps of Engineers: Morgan, Dams and Other Disasters.

  84 Unable to compete with the railroads: For the story on the demise of the Missouri River steamboat, see Lass, A History of Steamboating on the Upper Missouri River.

  84 At the same time the Army Corps of Engineers: Reisner, Cadillac Desert, pp. 183- 184.

  84 The river, it seemed, was a living thing: Ibid., pp. 181- 182.

  84 Against its better judgment, the agency yielded: Ibid., p. 183. For a comprehensive report on the Corps’ history on the Missouri, see Hart, The Dark Missouri, pp. 120- 128.

  85 By 1930, farmers: These figures came from a report compiled on the entire Missouri River Basin region by the Department of the Interior; see Missouri River: A Letter from the Secretary of War. This is a comprehensive profile of the river and the terrain it drains, from the headwaters in the Rocky Mountains to its confluence with the Mississippi above St. Louis, Missouri. For extensive data on the dust bowl exodus, see Hill, “Rural Migration and Farm Abandonment.”

  85 After mapping the West’s great river systems: For the comprehensive story on John Wesley Powell, see Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian.

  86 In the Atlantic Monthly: Smalley, “The Isolation of Life on Prairie Farms.” Also see Thornthwaite, “Climate and Settlement in the Great Plains.”

  87 For its part, the Army Corps of Engineers: Missouri River: A Letter from the Secretary of War.

  88 This site, in view of field engineers, was “entirely impracticable”: Ibid.

  91 Many of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara: Meyer, “Fort Berthold and the Garrison Dam,” pp. 241- 245.

  91 In addition to bountiful crops and material well-being: Ibid., pp. 223- 228.

  92 Instead, the Merriam Report found: Tyler, A History of Indian Policy, pp. 162- 163, and Meyer, The Village Indians of the Upper Missouri, pp. 150- 155.

  93 Materially and economically: Fort Berthold Agency Report of 1943. It is quite extraordinary that the BIA happened to choose the year 1943 to compile data for this profile of the Three Affiliated Tribes. Particularly striking is the medical portion, which found that most of the Indians still lived on a traditional diet, few had any serious medical problems, and the budget for medical care for all two thousand members of the tribe was $29,000. For that amount, they got a well-equipped hospital, a doctor and two nurses, a cook, a laundress, and a part-time ambulance driver. There were 45 births and 6 deaths, 25 minor surgical cases, 59 typhoid inoculations, and 427 smallpox vaccinations given over the course of the year. The most common complaint was generally related to eyesight and eye infections, a vulnerability that was noted by Lewis and Clark a century and a half earlier.

  Dr. Herbert Wilson moved to Elbowoods in 1951 and took over the medical practice at the hospital. Wilson retired to Bismarck some fifty years later. He remembers that the 1943 BIA report reflected the overall state of health of members of the three tribes in 1951. “They were remarkably healthy, robust people, and of course, they were still self-sufficient for the most part. They grew their own food, gathered wild fruits and berries, and ate wild game. Diabetes was unknown, kidney problems were unknown, and heart disease was very rare, as was cancer.” After the valley was flooded by Garrison Dam, and the tribal members were forced to eat government commodities and processed foods, the medical profile of the tribes changed dramatically in two generations. When Wilson left his practice in New Town in 1998, diabetes among the three tribes was twelve times the national average. The chance that a tribal member would die of heart disease, diabetes, kidney failure, or cancer had climbed from less than 3 percent in 1951 to higher than 80 percent in 1995. In 2002, life expectancy for an Indian male on the Fort Berthold Reservation was forty-eight, and dropping.

  95 Beneath a headline: Meyer, “Fort Berthold and the Garrison Dam,” p. 240.

  96 Madison and his chief ally in Philadelphia: Ketcham, James Madison, pp. 196- 207, 228- 229. Ketcham re-creates the alliance between Madison, Franklin, and James Wilson and the conditions under which the supremacy clause became a crucial element of the Constitution. (See n. for p. 61.)

  The clause empowering Congress to “negate” state laws, long thought by Madison to be the only effective way to prevent state encroachment on national authority, had been dropped in favor of the less explicit supreme-law clause. Persuaded by [James] Wilson’s brilliant arguments, Madison came gradually to see the virtue of this change (Ibid., p. 228).

  96 For more than a generation: Williams, The American Indian in Western Legal Thought, pp. 256- 309.

  96 With the full support of President Washington: Ibid., pp. 229- 230, 251- 263.

  98 When the floods of 1943: All three of the following books present different aspects of the 1943 flood story: Reisner, Cadillac Desert, p. 183; Morgan, Dams and Other Disasters; and Lawson, Dammed Indians.

  99 “I want to control the Missouri!”: Reisner, Cadillac Desert, pp. 183- 188. Reisner states that Pick actually spied on all his top officers during this period. Those who were not devoting themselves to this project “around the clock” were dismissed from duty.

  99 General Wheeler rushed his subordinate’s master plan: Ibid., pp. 182- 186.

  100 The President had serious problems with the plan: Ibid., and Roosevelt, Letter to Congress on desirability of Missouri Valley Authority. Also Reisner, Cadillac Desert, p. 146.

  100 Harold Ickes, was fearless in his official rebuke: U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Missouri River Basin.

  In years to come, Ickes accused the Corps of being a “willful . . . self-serving cl
ique in contempt of the public welfare.” To a degree that was unimaginable, said Ickes, the Corps’ wanton waste of money surpassed any agency in the history of the country. “No more lawless or irresponsible group than the Army Corps of Engineers has ever attempted to operate in the United States either outside of, or within, the law. . . . It is truly beyond imagination.” Reisner, Cadillac Desert, p. 181.

  100 “windshield reconnaissance”: Ibid., p. 185.

  101 Sloan, in turn, told Congress: U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Missouri River Basin. This report was the most openly critical of the Corps’ plan for the large dams on the Missouri. Ickes echoed Glenn Sloan’s argument that the largest of the Corps’ proposed dams were unnecessary for effective flood control. The “loveless, shotgun marriage” between the two made the point moot.

  102 everybody engaged in the Pick-Sloan debate: Reisner, Cadillac Desert, pp. 182- 188. See also “Golden River: What’s to Be Done About the Missouri?”

  102 The editor of the Sanish Sentinel: Meyer, “Fort Berthold and the Garrison Dam,” p. 249.

  103 “A dam below the Fort Berthold Reservation”: Ibid., p. 250- 251. This initial protest was widely supported in white communities and by many white civic organizations and churches.

  103 the O’Mahoney-Millikin Amendment: Ridgeway, The Missouri Basin’s Pick-Sloan Plan. Also see Meyer, The Village Indians of the Upper Missouri.

  104 Farmers Union president James Patton: Ibid., p. 240.

  105 In a follow-up letter, Governor Aandahl: Aandahl, Letter to Martin Cross.

  105 “We Indians on the Fort Berthold Reservation”: Meyer, “Fort Berthold and the Garrison Dam,” p. 232.

  CHAPTER V: HELL AND HIGH WATER

  Interviews: Everett Albers, Dorothy Atkinson, Fred Baker, Jim Bear, Bucky Cross, Crusoe Cross, Mike Cross, Phyllis Old Dog Cross, Luther Grinnell, Marilyn Hudson, Roger Johnson.

  110 all but 6: During World War II, Indians had the highest percentage of enlistees of any ethnic group. For the vast majority of these, the war was the first time most of them had spent more than a few days off the reservation. Meyer, The Village Indians of the Upper Missouri.

  110 In Old Dog’s view: In Old Dog’s lifetime, a series of executive orders and Homestead Acts had reduced the three tribes’ landholdings from 12 million acres to just over half a million acres. The last came in the great Homestead Act of 1910, as a final installment of the Allotment Era resulting from the Dawes Act of 1887.

  110 Religious Crimes Code: It was under the pretext of this law that Indian agents on the Great Plains called for federal troop reinforcements when the Paiute holy man Wovoka brought the Ghost Dance to the reservation Indians in the late 1880s. For all practical purposes, the massacre at Wounded Knee was the end of the American Indian Wars that had paralleled the westward migration of Europeans in the second half of the century. General Allotment Act [also known as the Dawes Act], U.S. Statutes at Large.

  110 as an adjunct to the Dawes Act during President Harrison’s: The Allotment Era became an indirect way for the federal government to emancipate itself from its responsibilities as the trustee of Indian lands by privatizing the tribal commons.

  111 The first missionary to live among the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara: Hall, The Fort Berthold Mission.

  111 “The people of these tribes turned the tables on me”: Ibid.

  111 By 1945, Hall’s half century of activism was bearing latent fruit: Fort Berthold Agency Report of 1943.

  112 Yet the tribe had very little money: Ibid.

  114 The historic meeting between Martin Cross and members: U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Protesting the Construction of Garrison Dam.

  114 “Garrison Dam, the construction of which is embodied”: “The Indians and the Pick-Sloan Plan,”Missouri River Basin Investigations 67.

  114 Congress’ joint resolution: Portions of SJ Res. 79 that apply to this hearing are reprinted in the official transcript from Senator O’Mahoney’s committee.

  114 “To investigate the administration of Indian affairs”: Ibid.

  115 Chairman Cross immediately sent a telegram to Commissioner Brophy: Meyer, “Fort Berthold and the Garrison Dam,” p. 243.

  115 Department of the Interior warned Brophy: Ibid.

  116 “Mr. Chairman, senators”: U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Protesting the Construction of Garrison Dam. The transcript of this hearing clearly reflects the confusion on the part of the committee members regarding application of treaty rights and federal Indian law to a “checkerboarded” reservation.

  116 “Mr. Cross,” said Senator O’Mahoney: Ibid.

  118 “Of course, nothing can be done to dispossess”: Ibid.

  118 “contain some records relative to the treaties of 1851”: Ibid.

  119 “These Indians were at their present location one hundred forty years ago”: Ibid. Felix Cohen’s memorandum to the committee on the legal questions regarding bifurcated Indian lands is attached as an appendix to the official transcript of the hearing.

  120 The Dawes Act effectively divided: General Allotment Act [also known as the Dawes Act], U.S. Statutes at Large.

  120 Congress, explained Cohen: Ibid.

  120 “Did Congress recognize specific boundaries”: U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Protesting the Construction of Garrison Dam.

  121 “has always been sacred and can never be disturbed”: Ibid. In his memorandum to the Select Committee on Indian Affairs, Cohen reintroduces Attorney General William Wirt’s famous declaration on the sanctity of treaties entered into between the federal government and the tribes.

  122 attach a rider to a deficiency appropriations bill: Meyer, “Fort Berthold and the Garrison Dam,” p. 246.

  123 Pick rallied his allies: Meyer, Ibid., p. 245.

  123 War Department Civil Appropriations Act for 1947: Lieu Lands Act for Fort Berthold [also Civil Functions of the War Department],U.S. Public Law 374.

  123 Oscar Chapman, sent a letter to Case: Fogarty, “New Indian ‘War’ May Slow Development of MVA.” Fogarty reported that

  Congress authorized construction of the Garrison Dam . . . for harnessing river basin sources in ten states. . . . The Project will make possible irrigation of a large semi-arid region. But the dam designed to improve the lot of millions will dispossess the Three Affiliated Tribes now living in the area. The Fort Berthold Reservation has been their home since they signed a treaty of friendship in 1851. Their spokesmen insist it is a “perpetual treaty.”

  124 Locally, the Sanish Sentinel explained: Meyer, “Fort Berthold and the Garrison Dam,” p. 247.

  124 “Several conferences have been held with you”: Pick, Transcript of meeting at Elbowoods High School on Garrison Dam.

  125 “I hear that you have come here to ask us”: Ibid.

  127 the Hazen Star newspaper: Meyer, “Fort Berthold and the Garrison Dam,” p. 248. The editor, F. J. Froeschle, quoted a local supporter of the dam as saying that the government was not about to walk away from that much money after it had already been spent.

  127 The fact that no money had been allocated: Ibid., pp. 254- 255.

  128 a “willful and expensive Corps” that made up its own rules: Morgan, Dams and Other Disasters.

  128 “The quickest and most merciful way”: Ibid.

  129 “acquisition of the lands and rights therein”: Ibid.

  130 Phyllis Old Dog Cross turned: Biographical material in this section was compiled from interviews with the Cross children, their friends, and their acquaintances.

  132 “I will not accept any money from the sale of the tribal land”: Meyer, “Fort Berthold and the Garrison Dam,” p. 277.

  132 “As everyone knows”: Ibid., p. 259.

  134 “We are again violating a treaty solemnly entered into”: U.S. House, Congressman William Lemke speaking on the injustice of the Fort Berthold takings act.

  134 guarantee of irrigation: Ibid.

  135 For years, Watkins and Mormon politicians had tr
ied: Drinnon, Keeper of Concentration Camps. Drinnon’s work is a devastating indictment of the Truman administration’s laissez-faire approach to federal Indian policy. Also, for more on the history of the Ute and white men in Utah, see Wilkinson, Fire on the Plateau.

  137 “The only thing we’ve ever been able to figure”: Details of this and other sporting events were reconstructed from newspaper accounts and interviews with Arnie Charging and Bucky Cross.

  138 was named White Duck: Old Dog, Letter to Phyllis Old Dog Cross.

  CHAPTER VI: LEAVING ELBOWOODS

  Interviews: Fred Baker, Arnie Charging, Bucky Cross, Crusoe Cross, Michael Cross, Phyllis Old Dog Cross, Raymond Cross, Calvin Grinnell, Luther Grinnell, Louise Holding Eagle, Emerson Murry, Byron Sneva, Chief Justice Gerald VandeWalle, Marie Wells.

  141 Pick’s widely published accusations: Meyer, Fort Berthold and the Garrison Dam. And for details on the floods, see U.S. Weather Bureau, Kansas-Missouri Floods of June- July 1951. Also “Truman Says G.O.P. in Kansas Blocked Key Flood Control,” New York Times.

  141 “stampede tactics”: Lawson, Dammed Indians, p. 114.

  141 “senseless competition”: Miller, “The Battle That Squanders Billions.”

  141 Both were guilty: Ibid. Former president Herbert Hoover, himself an engineer, had been asked by the Truman administration to make a study of the government’s public works. Hoover asked former Wyoming governor Leslie Miller, a man well versed in western resource issues, to head up the Natural Resources Committee.

  Miller and his seven colleagues were “dismayed to learn how bad the situation really is, how billions of dollars are being squandered on duplicating badly engineered projects. Both agencies are guilty of brazen and pernicious lobbying,” charged Miller.

  Members of the commission recommended that a review board be established at the executive level so future “boondoggles, frills, and duplicating activities are chopped off before they sprout.”

  Word of these charges leaked out before Hoover had the opportunity to present the report to President Truman. Lawmakers were deluged by tens of thousands of identically worded telegrams from farmers all over the Midwest. The Corps had not lost a minute in mobilizing its civilian troops. Though Hoover and Miller ignored the criticism, the press gleefully milked the venom of disgruntled lawmakers. Ibid.