Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota), the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, wants to meet with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to discus energy development on Indian lands.

Dorgan said the Bureau of Indian Affairs is hurting tribes by moving too slowly on leases for energy development. He called the agency "an ineffective mess" that needs a major overhaul.

“If that proves impossible then maybe it ought to be replaced with an organization that will take effective action to help improve the lives of American Indians," he wrote in the letter, the Associated Press reported.

The committee held a hearing on backlogs at the Interior Department on May 22.

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Dorgan: BIA ‘incompetent’ in lack of tribal drilling (AP 6/6)
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Fueling the future (The Minot Daily News 6/6)

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North Dakota tribe eyes oil and gas development (5/21)