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OCTOBER 19, 2000

The Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to fund a study on the protection of a Yankton Sioux burial site on the Missouri River.

In 1952, the Army Corps promised the tribe that they would remove all burials from the White Swan Sacred Burial Site and place them at a separate site. The Army Corps was constructing the Fort Randall Dam as part of a massive project on the Missouri River.

But last year, remains resurfaced all along the site when water levels were low. The tribe has brought several lawsuits against the Corps and a federal court recently ruled the Corps could not raise water levels at a lake behind the dam.

Members of the tribe have reburied some of the remains at another location. The Corps has agreed to leave the rest at the site will fund a study to determine how to protect it.

Get the Story:
Corps agrees to leave buried bones (The Sioux Falls Argus Leader 10/19)

Related Stories:
Govt says Corps violated Yankton site (Indian U. 08/07)