Rivers Reborn · Episode 5 of 12 · 49 min
Harvesting the Reservoir: How Dams Won Elections
A ribbon-cutting on a new dam won votes, while the salmon it killed had no vote and, for much of this era, neither did the tribes. The episode examines who profited politically: the New Deal coalition, the public-power constituency the Bonneville Power Administration created, and the postwar 'dam-a-year' boom of projects handed out as patronage.
Who's who
- Franklin D. Roosevelt+28 more episodesPresident who made federal dams and rural electrification New Deal signatures
- George W. NorrisRepublican senator and father of the public-power 'yardstick'
- Sam Rayburn+2 more episodesTexas lawmaker who made rural electrification a personal cause
- Rufus WoodsNewspaper publisher who campaigned for a Columbia dam
Where it happens
- Grand Coulee, WashingtonWhere boosters lined Roosevelt's 1934 route with banners
Timeline
- 1902Reclamation Act begins federal Western water development.
- August 1934Roosevelt visits the Grand Coulee site and endorses the high dam.
- 1935Rural Electrification Administration created.
- 1937Bonneville Project Act creates the BPA with a preference for public bodies and cooperatives.
- 1948Arizona and New Mexico lift their bars on Native voting.
- 1965Voting Rights Act gives federal force against barriers to Native voting.
Still debated
It is hard to quantify how much Native disenfranchisement changed dam decisions, since tribes were a small share of Western voters. Whether the pork-barrel critique is fair or hindsight, and whether public power was a democratic good or just another interest group, are also debated.
← PreviousFollow the Money: Who Profited From Cheap PowerNext →The Ledger: What the Dams Gave and What They Cost
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