Indianz.Com > News > Montana Free Press: Blackfeet Nation continues fight to protect sacred lands
Groups appeal Badger-Two Medicine oil and gas lease decision
The appeal seeks to prevent Solonex from drilling in an area that’s culturally and spiritually important to the Blackfeet Nation.
Monday, December 12, 2022
Montana Free Press
The Pikuni Traditionalists Association, a group representing the cultural and religious interests of the Blackfeet Tribe, has appealed a ruling reinstating a federal oil and gas lease in the Badger-Two Medicine.
Today’s appeal represents the latest development in a 40-year saga over federal energy permitting in a 165,000-acre region of the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest that’s often described as the spiritual homeland of the Blackfeet Tribe.
The Badger-Two Medicine features in Blackfeet creation stories, supplies tribal members with traditional foods and medicines, and serves as a corridor for wildlife traveling between Glacier National Park, the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. It’s designated a traditional Cultural District and closed to motorized recreation.
Louisiana-based Solonex seeks to build a well pad and temporary bridges in the Badger Two-Medicine for oil and gas drilling with a lease that has featured in administrative, judicial and legislative fights for decades.
“We’re ready to do whatever we need to do to finally get this lease productive,” McDonald said. In 2020, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester introduced the Badger-Two Medicine Protection Act, which sought, among other things, to make the existing road-building ban permanent and prevent the construction of any additional buildings, pipelines or water facilities in the area. It stalled in committee.
Amanda Eggert studied print journalism at the University of Montana. Prior to becoming a full-time journalist, Amanda spent four years working with the Forest Service as a wildland firefighter. After leaving the Forest Service in 2014, Amanda worked for Outside magazine as an editorial fellow before joining Outlaw Partners’ staff to lead coverage for Explore Big Sky newspaper and contribute writing and editing to Explore Yellowstone and Mountain Outlaw magazines.
Note: This story originally appeared on Montana Free Press. It is published under a Creative Commons license.
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