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126takeoversLut Indian School founded by Billy’s sister Maiselle, and supportedWillie and Angeline. Soon, flooding threatened all.High waters were not an overnight problem. The military ownedthe property across the Nisqually River, and it was “adding gravel barand dry land as fast as Frank’s Landing was losing it.” After the Armyland was riprapped with rock and cement in the early 1960s, it alteredthe course of the Nisqually River, causing Frank’s Landing to flood.The floods had persisted for years, yet generated little or no help fromanyone, despite the land’s trust status with the U.S. government. Thesouth corner of Frank’s Landing started to erode in 1965. Floodwaterscrept underneath Willie’s home, which sat on pilings, and dug asix-foot hole. The house began to pull apart, creating inch-wide gapsbetween the floor and walls. “I told them, and they agreed, that theriver would eventually make a new channel through their property,and that the two houses and cabins were not on safe grounds,” aproperty manager reported to the bia. By 1968, the channel next toFrank’s Landing was thirty feet deep.By the mid-1970s, the families were just trying to survive. Floodwatersregularly overtook the property. Sometimes sandbags arrivedbut, more often than not, families jerry-rigged their own blockade,strewing together car parts on cables and buttoning them down oneach end in an attempt to repulse the river.In December 1975 came the declaration of a disaster area. Waterlevels rose four or five feet above the bankline. Three familiesevacuated. Wells and septic tanks were washed out. As described in aletter to the bia, the floodwaters “undermined several trailer homeswhich were moved to higher ground.” In 1976, floods destroyed abuilding and a dock and took more of the shoreline. Billy was frustratedthat the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the bia had donenothing to solve the problem. “I’ve stood on these banks with Corpsofficials and talked about the problem,” Billy complained. “The[y]blame someone else, that someone else blames another. But passingthe blame doesn’t solve the problem.” The Corps responded that its