Shortly afterwards on February 8, telegrams were sent to Congressmen Berry, Senator Case, and Senator Karl Mundt by the executive committee of the tribal council of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. The messages urged the congressmen to do their best to get Section 5 restored so it would be possible for the tribe to negotiate with the federal government for exchange of the land in the Sheep Mountain area for other lands.[204] The House, however, did not heed this resolution but voted instead to concur with the Senate’s amended version. The bill became Public Law 328 after being signed by President Harry S Truman on May 7, 1952.[205] Under this law, the Secretary of the Interior was authorized to adjust and redefine at his discretion the exterior boundary of the national monument by appropriate reductions or additions. The law specified, among other things, that the adjusted area could not exceed the existing 154,119 acres.[206] (An official figure of 150,103.41 acres was used as the total acreage of the area at the time it was proclaimed as a national monument in 1939. A revised figure, listing 154,119.46 acres for the same area, was used as the total acreage from about 1943 until October 1952.[207]) Immediately after the bill became law, proposed boundary changes received considerable attention. Some believed that the area of the national monument should be reduced. A strong supporter of this view was the South Dakota Stock Growers Association. It was the organization’s belief that the size could be reduced by about one-half without destroying any of its scenic value. They estimated that 3,000 head of cattle would be without grass if the NPS carried through its plan to fence the area and eliminate grazing from the national monument. One of the biggest problems was the large acreage of private lands located within its boundary. Many ranchers believed that these lands ought to be eliminated “from the Badlands National Monument wherever a reasonable boundary adjustment can be made.”[208] Others contended “that all of the grassland west of Pinnacles [Sage Creek Basin] could be removed from the Park and that such removal would in no way destroy the attraction to the tourist.”[209] A 1953 memorandum from the Regional Director to NPS Director Conrad L. Wirth explained how Sage Creek Basin had become largely government-owned: