2003: U.S. asked for hospital promised to Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara

Tex Hall, chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation and president of the National Congress of American Indians, asks the Senate Indian Affairs Committee to replace his reservation's Elbowoods Hospital in New Town, North Dakota. In 1948, the construction of the Garrison Dam caused the Three Affiliated Tribes’ Elbowoods Hospital to be submerged. The U.S. made a commitment in 1949 to the Three Affiliated Tribes to replace all infrastructures lost as a result of flooding associated with the construction of the Garrison Dam and Reservoir.

Tex Hall argues that the lack of the hospital on the remote reservation hurts the tribe’s health and contributes to many deaths. U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colorado), chairman of the committee, co-sponsors a bill to fund construction of a $20-million clinic on the reservation. U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota) states, “It is something that is owed to the tribe.”

Theme

Federal-Tribal Relations

Region

Great Plains