The Rev. Robert Two Bulls remembers the lush gardens, abundant potato fields and bumper crops of alfalfa that used to grow along the banks of the Cheyenne River before a dam nine miles south of Hot Springs created the Angostura Reservoir in 1949.

Two Bulls and Oglala Sioux Tribe President John Yellow Bird Steele told the Water and Power Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives on Sept. 25 that HR883, introduced by Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., would redress some of the negative environmental impacts the dam has wrought on reservation lands in the past 60 years.

"I have lived in Red Shirt Table for most of my 74 years," Two Bulls told the subcommittee. "I know how badly we need HR883 to rebuild our community and to begin to overcome the problems we suffer on account of Angostura."

The legislation would authorize $4.8 million for efficiency improvements to the irrigation facilities at the Angostura Unit, which provides irrigation for 12,218 acres of farmland.

Those improvements could save thousands of acre feet of water by updating the water distribution system from open irrigation ditches to pipelines and by converting on-farm delivery systems from flood irrigation to pivot irrigation. The bill directs that those water savings be sent downstream from Angostura, into the Cheyenne River and onto the reservation as "in-stream flows for the environmental restoration" of tribal lands.

Secondly, the bill would establish an Economic Development Trust Fund of $92.5 million for the Oglala Sioux Tribe as compensation for its share of the economic benefits that Angostura Reservoir brought to other stakeholders but that were never shared in by the tribe.

"The Angostura Unit provides substantial economic benefits to ranchers and agricultural producers in the area, and it supports an important recreational boating and fishing industry," Herseth Sandlin said. "Yet, it has failed to provide economic benefits to the members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe who live on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and rely on the resources provided by the Cheyenne River."

In 2002, the Bureau of Reclamation completed the Final Environmental Impact Statement for Contract Negotiation and Water Management of the Angostura Unit. In January of 2003, the bureau signed a new Record of Decision on that impact statement that created a committee of stakeholders along the river - irrigators, landowners, recreation interests, government agencies and Native American tribes - to advise the bureau on the most beneficial use of water in any given year, according to Jeff Nettleton, manager of the Rapid City field office of the Bureau of Reclamation.

At that time, the Oglala Sioux Tribe said joining the committee would be a violation of its sovereignty and it would not participate.

For its part, the bureau said it cannot support HR883 because it excludes other stakeholders along the Cheyenne. Some of its conditions - such as dedicating all future water savings to tribal use - violate the record of decision, Nettleton said.

"We can't support it fully because it is contrary to what we've already agreed to," he said of the proposed legislation. An identical bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Tim Johnson and John Thune in the Senate.

Yellow Bird Steele believes that increased stream flows in the Cheyenne River would help re-establish the natural vegetation along its banks that some tribal members remember.

He told Congress that "fruits and berries such as chokecherries, wild plums and blackberries have disappeared. Medicinal plants are no longer available. Community gardens have dried up."

Nettleton said he respects those tribal histories but that scientific data gathered during the environmental impact statement doesn't support them.

"The tribe feels that, post-dam, there's less riparian vegetation along the Cheyenne River, but scientific analysis and aerial photography, pre- and post-dam, indicate that there's actually more now than there used to be," he said. "There's disagreement between the tribes and our scientific analysis on this."

Nettleton said the bureau prefers that the Oglala Lakota tribe join a collaborative process that would allow all stakeholders to proceed with the environmental statement and the irrigation improvements.

"We understand that they have that right, as a sovereign nation, not to be there. And we respect that. But everyone, including the tribe, needs to be at the table."

Yellow Bird Steele said the bureau's opposition to the bill is cause to eliminate the $4.8 million in irrigation improvements and move forward with the $92.5 million development trust fund alone. "If they object at this point, I recommend deleting that section of the bill altogether," he told Congress. "Their flip-flopping does not justify holding up this important legislation."

The infrastructure and economic development needs throughout the reservation are pervasive and urgent, especially in the area affected by Angostura, he said. "They justify the establishment of a Development Trust Fund for the Oglala Sioux Tribe."

Contact Mary Garrigan at 394-8424 or mary.garrigan@rapidcityjournal.co