thumb|upright=2|Missouri river with dams and reservoirs built in the Pick–Sloan Program since the 1940s, and Indian reservations affected by reservoir flooding.
thumb|[[Canyon Ferry Lake near Helena, Montana ]]
thumb|Van Hook Arm of [[Lake Sakakawea, upriver of the Garrison-Dam in North Dakota]]
thumb|Big Bend Dam and Lake Sharpe at [[Fort Thompson, South Dakota|Fort Thompson, South Dakota]]
thumb|[[Lake Oahe and Dam near Pierre, South Dakota]]
thumb|[[Fort Randall Dam and Lake Francis Case]]
thumb|[[Gavins Point Dam and Lewis and Clark Lake near Yankton, South Dakota ]]
The Pick–Sloan Missouri Basin Program, formerly called the Missouri River Basin Project, was initially authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1944, which approved the plan for the conservation, control, and use of water resources in the Missouri River Basin.
The intended beneficial uses of these water resources include flood control, aids to navigation, irrigation, supplemental water supply, power generation, municipal and industrial water supplies, stream-pollution abatement, sediment control, preservation and enhancement of fish and wildlife, and creation of recreation opportunities.
The construction of dams such as the Oahe, Garrison, and Fort Randall flooded out significant parts of many Native American reservations, including those at Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Fort Berthold, Crow Creek, and Lower Brule. Historian Vine 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 the United States Army Corps of Engineers, and William Glenn Sloan, director of the Billings, Montana office of the United States Bureau of Reclamation.
History
The Pick plan
In May 1943, the House Flood Control Committee chose the United 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.
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 of levees from Sioux City to the Mississippi River to protect from Missouri River flooding. The second proposal called for the construction of eighteen dams on Missouri's tributaries. Eleven of those dams had been previously approved by Congress. Five dams were planned to be located on tributaries of the Republican River in the lower basin. Of the remaining dams, the Pick plan recommended construction of one on the Bighorn River in Wyoming and another on Montana's Yellowstone 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.
The plan picked up support from the National Reclamation Association and the National Grange.
Early critics
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 the Tennessee Valley Authority. Senator James E. Murray of Montana and Congressman John 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 by locks. 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. The bills were presented in the 79th Congress, but they were later brought down.
Interventions
Several water-control measures were introduced through the Pick–Sloan legislation that variously affected the Missouri River Valley and its environs.
The Pick–Sloan program dams built between 1946 and 1966 are:
- Canyon Ferry Dam and Lake in Montana
- Garrison Dam and Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota
- Oahe Dam and Lake Oahe in South Dakota
- Big Bend Dam and Lake Sharpe in South Dakota
- Fort Randall Dam and Lake Francis Case in South Dakota
- Gavins Point Dam and Lewis and Clark Lake in South Dakota and Nebraska
Based on Pick–Sloan legislation, the Reclamation Project Authorization Act of October 20, 1972 authorized the Bureau of Reclamation to build additional dams at the North Loup River and Middle Loup River in Nebraska: Six dams were constructed between 1976 and 1994:
- Davis Creek Dam
- Virginia Smith Dam and Calamus Lake (formlery Calamus Dam and Reservoir) at the Calamus River
- Kent Diversion Dam
- Sherman Dam and Reservoir
- Milburn Diversion Dam
- Arcadia Diversion Dam
Other dams along the Missouri River that were not part of the Sloan–Pick program are Toston Dam (1940), Hauser Dam (1907), Holter Dam (1908), Black Eagle Dam (1927), Rainbow Dam (1912), Cochrane Dam (1958), Ryan Dam (1915), Morony Dam (1930) and Fort Peck Dam (1940), all located in Montana.
Native American relocation
Over on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota were flooded by the Oahe Dam, forcing Native Americans to relocate from flooded areas. In South Dakota, politicians and other proponents of the Pick-Sloan Program and dam construction had promised of irrigation as “appropriate compensation” for lost land.
The construction of main-stream dams also affected other Native American tribes living along the Missouri River on the Fort Berthold, Cheyenne River, Standing Rock, Crow Creek, and Lower Brule Indian reservations. The Garrison, Oahe, and Fort Randall dams created a reservoir that eliminated 90 percent of timber and 75 percent of wildlife on the reservations.
According to Native American historian Vine Deloria Jr., the "Pick–Sloan plan was, without doubt, the single most destructive act ever perpetrated on any tribe by the United States."