Up to the 1880s, the Indians of the northern plains utilized bullboats to traverse the region’s rivers and streams. Tribes, such as the Omaha, Ponca, Teton Lakota, and Arikara, built bullboats by first cutting down the thin willow saplings that grew in abundance along the banks of the Missouri and its tributaries. Employing axes and stout knives, craftsmen cut away all the branches and leaves from the trunk of each sapling. They then weaved the long, pliable willow poles together to form a bowl-shaped frame. Bison sinew, tied between the saplings, reinforced the crude frame. The top, open end of the boat, was then laid face down on the ground, with the curving bottom of the frame facing up. Wet bison robes, shorn of all hair, were placed over the bottom and sides of the frame and fastened to the saplings. The bullboat was then allowed to dry in the sun. In a day or two, the robes shrank and hardened around the frame of willows. In the final stage of construction, the Indians oiled the bison robes, making the small vessel waterproof. Continue Reading »
Tagged Arikara, Bison, Bullboat, Missouri River, Omaha, Phan Thiet, Ponca, Saigon, South China Sea, Teton Lakota, Thuyen Thung
This fall, the Corps of Engineers is holding a series of meetings along the Missouri Valley to promote its interpretation of the flood of 2011 and to take questions from the public regarding the Army’s management of its Missouri River hydraulic system.
Since late May, Brigadier General John McMahon, Colonel Robert Ruch, and Jody Farhat have advanced a very specific interpretation of the flood, which contends: the flood was too voluminous to contain; the huge discharges from Gavin’s Point Dam resulted from freak rain events in Montana in May; the Army made no mistakes in its management of the Missouri River hydraulic system in the months preceding the deluge; and since 2010, the operation of the reservoirs for flood control trumped the seven other authorized purposes of the hydraulic system (including the storage of water for the navigation channel and hydroelectric generation). McMahon, Ruch, and Farhat have not strayed from the above storyline. Nor have any of them admitted that the Army holds any responsibility at all for the flood. Continue Reading »
Placing responsibility for the Great Missouri River Flood of 2011 on God ignores all of the ways humans have contributed to the disaster. It also absolves those partially responsible for the flood. Even worse, it hinders us from learning from the flood so that we can prevent a similar scenario in the future. Off the top of my head, I can think of five ways humans brought on this flood.
First, the Missouri basin states have lost millions of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres in the past five years. CRP lands had either slowed or halted runoff into streams and rivers. Encouraged by high commodity prices, plains and prairie farmers engaged in a Great Plow-up that converted sod to corn. Montana lost nearly 400,000 acres of CRP land between 2006 and 2010. That equals 625 square miles. The two Dakotas and Montana lost 960,000 CRP acres in 2007 and another 335,000 CRP acres in 2008. That land area is equivalent to 2,023 square miles. Even more conservation land went into corn in 2009, 2010, and during this year’s planting season. As a result of the Great Plow-up, drenching rains now hit cultivated cropland and quickly drain into the Missouri or one of its feeder streams. Farmers, and their desire to maximize production and profit, contributed mightily to this flood. Continue Reading »
Tagged Army Corps of Engineers, Bismarck, Conservation Reserve Program, Dakota Dunes, Gavin's Point Dam, Iowa, Missouri River Flood, Missouri River Flood 2011, Missouri River Flooding, Missouri River Navigation Channel, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oahe, Ponca, Sioux City
Ponca, Nebraska. In the 1840s, European-American settlers traveling westward to the Willamette Valley in the Oregon Country or to the Mormon Zion in Utah had to cross the Missouri before setting out over the plains. Upon arriving on the river’s banks, they noted its size. Many referred to the river as the “Wide Missouri” because of its great girth. Throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, the Missouri’s width averaged between 5,000 and 10,000 feet through the reach in western Iowa. But during the annual April and June rises, the river spread out even further. It wasn’t uncommon for the stream to grow to five miles or more in width. Beginning in the 1930s, the Army narrowed the river from Kansas City to Sioux City. Continue Reading »
On June 2, 3, 4, 2011, the Omaha District of the Army Corps of Engineers posted on its website satellite images of the Missouri Valley from Fort Peck Dam to Rulo, Nebraska. The Army’s satellite maps display the projected inundation areas along the valley with a river discharge rate of 150,000 cubic feet per second (cfs). The maps are misleading – at least in the area south of the James River/Missouri River confluence. The reason is that the Army has publicly stated that it plans on increasing the discharge rate at the lowest of the Missouri River dams at Gavin’s Point to 140,000 cfs by June 8th and to 150,000 cfs by June 14th. However, inflows from the Missouri’s tributaries, (especially the James and Big Sioux rivers), which come into the big river between Gavin’s Point Dam and Sioux City will jump the Missouri up to roughly 160,000 cfs by the time the river reaches Sioux City on June 8th and to approximately 170,000 cfs at Sioux City on June 14th. Why has the Army published inundation maps at Sioux City and points south with a projected level of 150,000 cfs when its hydrologists know with certainty that the river discharge rate in that area will be higher? Continue Reading »
