Introduction
This article discusses the story of 15 nuclear missiles located in concrete tunnels underground at the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. It narrates how these weapons of mass destruction came to the reservation through displacement and flooding. The article also explores the troubled relationship between Native Americans and the U.S. government.
How Did the Nuclear Missiles Get to the Reservation?
The concrete tunnels at the reservation were built between 1961 and 1963. At that time, many residents of the Fort Berthold Reservation were children. When I asked my grandmother if she remembered the time the tunnels arrived, she couldn’t recall. I spoke with historians and researchers to shed light on this troubled story.
Cold War Tensions and Nuclear War Preparations
In the early 1950s and early 1960s, there were significant tensions during the Cold War. The Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957, prompting the United States to construct land-based ballistic missiles in 1958. The U.S. Air Force prepared to deploy 1,000 nuclear missiles, each carrying a high-yield nuclear warhead, at six bases across the northern plains, including 150 in Minot, North Dakota, next to our reservation.
Environmental Impact of Dams and Flooding
In 1944, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began building a series of dams on the Missouri River to conserve water resources. One of these dams is the Garrison Dam, which was completed near our reservation in 1953. At that time, the dam flooded a quarter of the reservation, destroying 95% of agricultural land, homes, towns, and cemeteries, displacing our people inside and outside the reservation, and altering the landscape for decades.
Legal and Judicial Challenges
After the missiles were deployed in the 1960s, the northeastern part of the Fort Berthold Reservation was not considered tribal land. However, through a court case in 1972, it was determined that the land had always been part of the reservation. Nevertheless, when our tribe regained the land that was taken from us, we also received the nuclear missiles that we did not consent to having in the first place.
Future Planning and Environmental Impact
In the next episode, we will discuss the U.S. Air Force’s plans to refurbish the tunnels and load them with a new nuclear missile, keeping them operational for the next sixty years. We will specifically look at how these plans were presented and their potential environmental impact on the tribe in the summer of 2022.
Conclusion
The story of the existence of nuclear weapons on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota is a complex narrative that embodies the troubled relationship between Native Americans and the U.S. government. The concrete tunnels were built in the 1960s after a period of Cold War tensions and nuclear war preparations. The reservation was also affected by dams and flooding that submerged a large portion of the land and changed the landscape. Despite the legal and judicial challenges, the tribe has limited options regarding the nuclear missiles on the reservation. In the next episode, we will examine the U.S. Air Force’s plans to refresh the tunnels and load them with a new nuclear missile, maintaining them in service for the next sixty years.
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