Aug 09, 2007 - 19:04:00 CDT
FORT YATES — In a halting, measured Lakota prayer, tribal elder Vernon Iron Cloud proclaimed Thursday a “Red Day” down here on the reservation.That’s a very good thing.
Good to the tune of $2.5 million.
The quiet old man’s prayer was followed by a boisterous round of hugs and handshakes among a satisfied crowd that overflowed the large meeting room at Standing Rock’s tribal headquarters. Many of those in attendance received checks on Thursday that they said were a long time coming.
The money — provided by the tribe, not the government — went to enrolled members whose land was flooded by the creation of the Oahe Reservoir. It comes from revenue generated at Prairie Knights Casino.
“This is the first time we’re ever getting justification for the land we lost,” Doug White Bull, 63, said. “This is still just a pittance, but at least it’s something.”
More than 100 tribal members picked up their checks — written for up to $40,000 — on Thursday morning. White Bull, who was paid $5,000, said the money can’t possibly make up for the loss of land.
“That was home. I grew up on river-bottom land, in a forest of giant cottonwood trees,” White Bull said. “I vividly remember it. Everything was there in the land for us.”
It’s been nearly 50 years since many American Indians on this reservation were displaced from their homes along the Missouri River, during the construction of Oahe Dam. In the mid-1980s, a joint federal-tribal advisory committee determined the Indians had been woefully underpaid for their land.
In 1992, Congress set up federal trusts for Standing Rock and the Fort Berthold Reservation — near Garrison Dam — to compensate the tribes.
The perpetual trusts, which came to be known by the committee’s acronym of JTAC, get used for education, economic development, social welfare and other tribal needs.
However, tribal officials say, none of that JTAC money is earmarked for individuals. So the tribal payments that were announced Thursday accomplish what the government intended but never got around to doing: Paying back the specific people whose land was gobbled up by the Pick-Sloan Act.
“Before this, the people that actually lost the land were never compensated,” Avis Little Eagle, tribal vice chairwoman, said. “That’s what this is all about. A lot of our elders are dying, and that’s deeply saddening. This needed to happen now, so they could see something for what they lost.”
The one-time payments go to enrolled members who owned 40 acres or more of land that was flooded by the reservoir. Pending certification by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, those “first-generation” owners can get $40,000 from the tribe.
If the original owners have died, their children are eligible for payment. If the children are 60 or older, they can get up to $20,000. If there is more than one child over 60, the families evenly split the $20,000.
Though it has been in the works for years, the tribal council only ratified the Elderly Payment Plan at last month’s meeting. The goal had been to allocate some of the JTAC funds, but the BIA determined that it would be unlawful to do so. Instead, the tribe came up with the money to help its own.
“This never would have happened if our chairman (Ron His Horse is Thunder) wasn’t so supportive,” Little Eagle said.
The strong backs behind the plan were Mary Louise Defender Wilson and Patti Kelly, who helped shape the resolution and pushed it at council meetings.
“This is a long-time coming,” Wilson said. “We can’t ever properly repay everyone who lost land and lost money, but this is a step in the right direction.”
So far, Wilson and Kelly have found 125 individuals who will be paid. There are 11 first-generation owners still living on Standing Rock.
One of them, Beverly Howard, remembers when her home was inundated with water.
“I couldn’t bear to watch it,” Howard said Thursday. “That was a terrible time.”
Howard said promises of payments have been made many times, but none bore fruit until this week.
“For a long time the money was always coming ‘tomorrow,’” she said. “We were ‘Monday Elders’ or “First of the Month Elders.’ Now it’s finally done.”
Tribal members have until Jan. 1 to apply for payment.
(Reach reporter Tony Spilde at 250-8260 or tony.spilde@bismarcktribune.com.)
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