ABSTRACT
The Oglala Council successfully beat back attempts to lease the Pine Ridge Reservation of the century, but the victory was shortlived. Wholesale leasing was ushered in with a vengeance during World War I. Even after World War II the boss farmers exercised control over the expenditure of money that was distributed through federal government channels. The big leasing era of World War I constituted a virtual confiscation of Pine Ridge Reservation allotted lands by the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) for outside cattle interests, revealing the depth of oppression on Pine Ridge Reservation. But the Pine Ridge Reservation was anything but a closed system, as this story about how outside interests, with the willing assistance of the OIA, took controls of the land base during World War I demonstrates. The World War I takeover of Pine Ridge Reservation land by US government supported corporate interests devastated the economy and the environment and alienated the majority of Oglalas from their resources.
