George Gillette, Council chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes -- Hidatsa (called Gros Ventre by whites), Arikara, Mandan -- of Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota, weeps as the US Secretary of the Interior signs the 1948 papers confirming the forced sale of 155,000 acres of the North Dakota reservation to flood them by the Garrison Dam and Reservoir.   Gillette said, "The members of the tribal council sign this contract with heavy hearts. Right now, the future does not look so good to us. Our Treaty of Fort Laramie made in 1851, our tribal constitution, are being torn to shreds." And the land -- all the good, liveable, farmable land of the reservation -- was to be drowned.

Following the construction of the Garrison Dam which created Lake Thompson, Andrew Voigt's ranch is now under water--along with tribal battlegrounds, hunting areas, trading posts and river forts.

Elbowoods gradually floods

Elbowoods, North Dakota is evacuated, abandoned and waiting for the rising water that will soon cover it. 
The Voigts have torn down many of their buildings and relocated them to higher ground.
Documentary Photo of Elbowoods after evacuation N.D. Heritage Center

Elbowoods with floodwaters lapping on the outskirts.
Photo courtesy of the
State Historical Society of North Dakota

Aerial view of Garrison Dam 
and surrounding flooded land.

Garrison Dam building

Andrew Voigt's home (Elbowoods) and
Ft. Berthold Reservation 1960