Judge restores drilling leases on sacred Blackfeet Nation land

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

A federal judge has reinstated two drilling leases on land held sacred by the Blackfeet Nation.

During the Obama administration, the Department of the Interior canceled all energy development leases in the Badger-Two Medicine Area, citing the sensitive nature of the land in Montana. But Judge Richard Leon, ruling in two different cases, said the decision was "arbitrary and capricious."

"Horsefeathers!" was how Leon described the way the federal government handled the issue in one of the decisions.

Blackfeet Nation Chairman Harry Barnes, left, joins Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke in signing a water rights compact at the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C., on June 12, 2018. Photo: U.S. DOI

The Trump administration has advocated for continued protections for the land, which lies adjacent to the reservation. Secretary Ryan Zinke has urged monument status in order to limit development.

"This area of the Rocky Mountain Front was designated a Traditional Cultural District in May 2014, and is considered sacred by the Blackfeet Nation," Zinke wrote in a 2017 report for President Donald Trump. "I recommend this area be considered for designation as a national monument and as a candidate for co-management with the Blackfeet tribe."

The tribe has always maintained ownership of Badger Two-Medicine even though it's considered federal land. The tribe cites an 1885 treaty and an 1895 agreement as protecting its rights to use the land for ceremonies, hunting, fishing and other activities.

Badger Creek in the Badger-Two Medicine Area in Montana. Photo by Blackfeet Nation

Oil and gas drilling was approved there in the early 1980s, during the Reagan administration. But after the tribe complained that it wasn't consulted, the government took another look at the issue in a process that took decades to complete.

"Even putting aside the 30 year's defendants supposedly spent trying to discover the lawfulness or unlawfulness of their own actions, this 'wait and see' approach — though convenient from a policy perspective — wreaks havoc on the interests of the individual leaseholders," Leon wrote in one of his decisions.

During the Obama era, one energy company voluntarily gave up 15 leases is held within Badger Two-Medicine. But Solenex LLC disputed the cancellation of its lease and so did another company. The judge ruled in both of their cases on Monday. [Solenex LLC | W.A. Moncrief, Jr.]

The Trump administration could take the case to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.