Dams, Displaced Tribes, Salvage Archaeology, and Cultural Resource Management in the Missouri River Basin in North and South Dakota.

The large mainstem dams constructed along the Missouri River from 1946 to 1966 caused the traumatic displacement of prominent Native populations in North and South Dakota. The lack of regard for human remains and sacred artifacts flooded during this time is an appalling episode in American history. Perceived failures with salvage archaeology methods to recover artifacts and data threatened by the construction of dams motivated Cultural Resource Management practices in the United States. Laws such as the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 now provide a level of protection for Native American archaeological sites, Traditional Cultural Properties, burials, cultural resources, and other sacred items not available during the primary dam-building era following the Flood Control Act of 1944. The tragic outcomes for numerous Missouri River tribal communities helped propel CRM laws that are in effect today. But unfortunately for these tribes, there is little solace in knowing that their suffering helped motivate positive change. Had these CRM laws been in effect sooner, the losses they endured surely would have been averted.