ThePick–Sloan Missouri Basin Program, formerly called the Missouri River Basin Project, was initially authorized by theFlood Control Act of 1944, which approved the plan for the conservation, control, and use ofwater resources in theMissouri River Basin.
The intended beneficial uses of these water resources includeflood control, aids to navigation,irrigation, supplementalwater supply,power generation, municipal and industrial water supplies,stream-pollution abatement,sediment control,preservation and enhancement of fish andwildlife, and creation of recreation opportunities.
The construction of dams such as theOahe,Garrison, andFort Randall flooded out significant parts of manyNative American reservations, including those atStanding Rock,Cheyenne River,Fort Berthold,Crow Creek, andLower Brule. HistorianVine Deloria Jr. called the program the single most destructive act ever perpetrated on any tribe by the United States.
It derives its name from the authors of the program–Lewis A. Pick, director of the Missouri River office of theUnited States Army Corps of Engineers, andWilliam Glenn Sloan, director of theBillings, Montana office of theUnited States Bureau of Reclamation.[1]
In May 1943, the House Flood Control Committee chose theUnited States Army Corps of Engineers to create a solution for extreme flooding in the Missouri Basin.Lewis A. Pick developed a proposal for the corps called the Pick plan, which was finished in August of the same year.[2]
The Pick plan introduced three different projects to be carried out by the Army Corps of Engineers. The first undertaking involved the construction of 1,500 miles oflevees fromSioux City to theMississippi River to protect fromMissouri River flooding. The second proposal called for the construction of eighteen dams on Missouri'stributaries. Eleven of those dams had been previously approved by Congress. Five dams were planned to be located on tributaries of theRepublican River in the lower basin. Of the remaining dams, the Pick plan recommended construction of one on theBighorn River in Wyoming and another on Montana'sYellowstone River. The Pick plan's third project was the creation of five multi-purpose dams on the Missouri River. Initially, the plan's total cost was estimated to be $490 million.[2]
The original Pick plan was supported by the National Rivers and Harbors Congress, the Mississippi Valley Association, the Propeller Club of the United States, the American Merchant Marine Conference, the Mississippi Valley Flood Control Association, and other lower-basin residents. SenatorsJoseph O'Mahoney (D-WY) andEugene Millikin (R-CO) offeredamendments to the plan that would also provide for the interests of people in the upper basin. The amendments created an emphasis onirrigation over river navigation and gave precedence to arid states for the use of basin water. O'Mahoney and Millikin's amendments also called for Congress to inform any states associated with proposedwatershed development. The amendments were later added to the Pick plan.[2]
The Sloan plan was developed byWilliam G. Sloan, the assistant director at theBureau of Reclamation's regional office who had previously worked for the Corps of Engineers. The plan was submitted on May 4, 1944, to Congress.
In contrast to the Pick Plan, Sloan's strategy was more intricate. His 211-page program involved plans for ninety irrigation and power development projects. It was proposed with a budget of $1.26 billion.[3] The Sloan plan pushed for reservoir storage in upper tributaries of the Missouri River located in smaller dams, which would provide irrigation for 4.8 million acres in areas where the land suffered from drought.[2] The Sloan plan allotted 1.3 million acres of irrigated land in North Dakota. South Dakota, Montana, and Nebraska were allotted about 1 million acres each.[4]
The plan picked up support from the National Reclamation Association and theNational Grange.[2]
On October 17, 1944, the Omaha Conference was scheduled for the consolidation of the Pick and Sloan plans. In total, the plans had proposed 113 different projects. Once the plans were merged, 107 of those projects remained. The combined Pick-Sloan plan allowed the Corps of Engineers jurisdiction over flood control, navigation projects and five main-stem dams. The Bureau of Reclamation was granted permission to build 27 dams in the Yellowstone Basin. In addition, the Corps of Engineers and the Reclamation Bureau were both given authority to develophydroelectric power on the Missouri River.[2]
The newly merged Pick Sloan plan was accepted by PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt in 1944. It was officially titled as the Missouri River Basin Development Program and was presented in conjunction with theFlood Control Act of 1944. President Roosevelt authorized $200 million for the program. In its entirety, the Pick-Sloan plan arranged for 107 dams, 1,500 miles of protective levees, 4.7 million acres of irrigation systems, and 1.6 million kilowatts of electric power.[3]
Many early critics of the Pick-Sloan plan were in favor of creating a Missouri Valley Authority (MVA). They claimed that the MVA would provide a more unified solution to water development on the Missouri River than the merged ideas of opposing bureaucracies. Ideas for the MVA were influenced by the success of theTennessee Valley Authority. SenatorJames E. Murray of Montana and CongressmanJohn J. Cochran from Missouri developed bills for the Missouri Valley Authority. The MVA bills planned to navigate Missouri into a number of stairstep lakes linked together bylocks. They would also arrange for giant reservoirs to supply irrigation and cheap hydroelectricity power, arguing that this would produce more public power and leave less condemned private land.[5] The bills were presented in the 79th Congress, but they were later brought down.
Several water-control measures were introduced through thePick–Sloan legislation that variously affected theMissouri River Valley and its environs.
The Pick–Sloan program dams built between 1946 and 1966 are:
Based on Pick–Sloan legislation, theReclamation Project Authorization Act of October 20, 1972 authorized the Bureau of Reclamation to build additional dams at theNorth Loup River andMiddle Loup River inNebraska: Six dams were constructed between 1976 and 1994:[6]
Other dams along the Missouri River that were not part of the Sloan–Pick program areToston Dam (1940),Hauser Dam (1907),Holter Dam (1908),Black Eagle Dam (1927),Rainbow Dam (1912),Cochrane Dam (1958),Ryan Dam (1915),Morony Dam (1930) andFort Peck Dam (1940), all located in Montana.
Over 200,000 acres (81,000 ha) on theStanding Rock Indian Reservation and theCheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota were flooded by theOahe Dam, forcing Native Americans to relocate from flooded areas.[7] The Fort Randall Dam flooded 221,497 acres (89,637 ha) of Indigenous land and 220,478 acres (89,224 ha) were inundated by the Big Bend Dam.[8] In South Dakota, politicians and other proponents of the Pick-Sloan Program and dam construction had promised 1 million acres (4.0×10^3 km2) of irrigation as “appropriate compensation” for lost land.[4] As of 2016, poverty remains a problem for the displaced populations in theDakotas, who are still seeking compensation for the loss of the towns submerged underLake Oahe, and the loss of their traditional ways of life.[7]
The construction of main-stream dams also affected other Native American tribes living along the Missouri River on theFort Berthold,Cheyenne River,Standing Rock,Crow Creek, andLower Brule Indian reservations. TheGarrison,Oahe, andFort Randall dams created a reservoir that eliminated 90 percent of timber and 75 percent of wildlife on the reservations.[9]
According to Native American historianVine Deloria Jr., the "Pick–Sloan plan was, without doubt, the single most destructive act ever perpetrated on any tribe by the United States."[10]
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