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of the Departments and testimony of witnesses for and against various bills. If this is done, more adequate arguments can be made for the Indian side of the questions involved in the legislation. We hope the Convention will make available to the attorney the funds needed for this expense.

One other general question in connection with legislation should be considered by the Convention. The Indian Office makes reports on all Indian Bills to the various committees of Congress, copies of which should be made available to the tribes. But the new Commissioner has refused to make such reports available to Indians. The NCAI should use its influence so that the Indians will know the nature of all the Indian Office recommendations concerning legislation affecting them.

The delegates should know that the House Subcommittee on Indian Affairs has been extremely cooperative. But the same cannot be said for the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. Some good bills have gotten past this Committee. But most of the trouble that we have had occurs there, and not in the House Subcommittee. This is a great disappointment to us because Senator O'Mahoney is very close to Secretary Chapman and both of them have high reputations as friends of the Indians. 

Missouri Valley and Other Developments

The government is constructing a series of dams in the Missouri basin. The engineers seem to have engaged in a sort of conspiracy, to take for these projects, wherever possible, the small remnants of land remaining to Indians in the area involved.

The first victims were the Fort Berthold Indians. As a result of their own skillful handling of the situation, with the help of the NCAI they were able to prevent the taking of their land except upon their consent Their consent was given only after the government agreed to pay, not only the fair market value of their land, but also substantial additional amounts for the damage done to the community life of the people. This controversy has come to an end except for certain changes which, before the Act was accepted, Senator O Mahoney agreed to take up for consideration by the Congress. The changes are incorporated in S. 3303. It restores to the Indians the use of the shoreline and other advantages that the Act, as originally adopted, took from them.

The next victims are the Indians of Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Reservations. A bill was introduced, and adopted by the House, to authorize negotiations with them. But the bill was changed in the Senate committee so that the agreement as finally made will be much less generous than the one that was made with Fort Berthold. The Standing Rock Indians took a firm stand against the adoption of the amended bill and up to this time, with the help of the NCAI, it has been blocked several times by Senators Douglas and Humphrey.

This is going to be a hard battle. The proposal to take Indian lands for these projects is the greatest single threat to Indian property with the exception of the proposed Alaska land steal. We must make special

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