FORT PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — The new U.S. Army Corps of Engineers district commander whose responsibilities include overseeing operations on the Missouri River sat down with a table of tribal officials and elders from South Dakota on Tuesday for an impromptu talk about how they want the river managed and promised that he would meet with them again.
Brigadier General William C Hannan, Jr., assumed duties in June as head of the Corps’ 14-state Northwestern Division. The Missouri River is part of the division’s Omaha District. Hannan and other Corps officials were in Fort Pierre as part of their series of fall meetings at key points along the river.
Faith Spotted Eagle, a member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, suggested that Hannan should get together afterward with a variety of officials from various tribal governments who had come to the meeting.
Hannan had already heard during the meeting from Crow Creek Tribal President Peter Lengkeek, who wanted to know what the Corps is doing about zebra mussels that have invaded the river, as well as Standing Rock Sioux Tribe water administrator Doug CrowGhost, who said the river’s fluctuating water levels cause erosion that exposes graves of long-ago ancestors.
Peter Caposella, an attorney who’s represented various tribes in the region, also called during the meeting for the Corps to consult with tribal people beforehand in developing features in the river’s annual operating plan, such as the navigation season, rather than talking with them afterward.
Hannan previously was commander of the Corps’ Transatlantic Division. The schedule called for him to be in Sioux City, Iowa, for the next Missouri River meeting at 4 p.m. CT, but he stayed an extra half hour in Fort Pierre, so that he could learn more about tribal concerns regarding the river. The group gathered around one of meeting room’s tables, with Hannan taking notes and listening.
CrowGhost suggested that the tribal officials group develop a list and get it to Hannan for when they meet again. “So when you come here we can have some answers and dialogue. You’re not just saying ‘OK, here are your questions, I’ll take them back,’” CrowGhost said.
Hannan welcomed the opportunity. “That would be awesome,” he said. “I would much rather come prepared to talk through some of that stuff, so it’s not like, ‘Oh, let me listen again.’ As you said, everyone’s been listening to you for a long time.
“And then we can come up with some actionable things,” Hannan continued. “That would be great. If there are things that you have, position papers, priorities, issues, I’ll have my whole team dig into all that before this meeting, and then we can talk more substantially about things.”
During the main meeting, Corps officials said that 77% of the Missouri River basin currently is at some stage of drought and that water levels in Lake Oahe and Fort Peck Reservoir would receive priority during fish spawning next spring. Four of the river’s six Corps-operated mainstem dams are in South Dakota.
