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Description
This undated speech draft, by United States House Representative Usher Burdick, addresses issues surrounding the building of Garrison Dam and the proposed higher pool level. Burdick contends that the higher pool level is not legal, and he notes that the flood control will be of no benefit to the Upper Missouri River Valley, where the damage from the Garrison Dam will affect North Dakota people and cities. Burdick then speaks to the problems the dam will cause for the tribal members of the Fort Berthold Reservation. Burdick asserts that the higher pool level will result in about forty percent of the land on the reservation being lost or rendered unusable. He contextualizes this against the fact that the tribal members of this reservation also lost over twelve million acres of their ancestral lands through the treaty that created the reservation. Burdick spends the remainder of the speech contesting the supposed benefits of the higher pool level and objecting to additional expenditures by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
Keywords
United States Army Corps of Engineers, Garrison Dam, Garrison Diversion, Garrison Reservoir, pool height, pool level, legality, Mandan Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, The Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, Mandan, Nueta, Hidatsa, Arikara, Sahnish, flooding, flood protection, flood control, water height, water level, flood height, flood level, United States Army Engineers, Garrison water pollution, Fort Peck Dam, Missouri River Valley, irrigation, navigation, reclamation, land taking, land seizure, land purchase, taking, lieu land, appropriations
Organizations Referenced
United States Government, United States Army Corps of Engineers, United States Army Engineers, Mandan Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, The Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, Mandan, Nueta, Hidatsa, Arikara, Sahnish, United States Bureau of Reclamation,
Recommended Citation
Burdick, Usher, "Speech Draft by Representative Burdick Regarding Garrison Dam and Fort Berthold" (2022). Usher Burdick Papers. 405.
https://commons.und.edu/burdick-papers/405