Tribes: End oil leases in last ‘religious bastion’

[rug]

The Blackfeet Tribe has sent a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell requesting a meeting on oil leases in the Badger-Two Medicine area.

Karl Puckett, [e-mail] 5:52 p.m. MDT October 24, 2014

Tribal chiefs and leaders representing the Blackfoot tribes in Montana and Canada met Friday in Browning and called on the federal government to end energy development in the Badger-Two Medicine area, which they consider sacred.

The Blackfoot Confederacy is made up of the Blackfeet in Montana and three bands in Canada, said John Murray, a tribal historian with the Blackfeet in Montana.

Representatives of those four tribes met and passed a joint proclamation insisting that the U.S. Department of Interior cancel what they allege are illegal oil and gas leases in the Badger-Two Medicine area, he said.

“We think it might be groundbreaking to work together,” Murray said. “Coming back together as a nation was really moving and powerful.”

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/local/2014/10/24/tribes-ask-government-halt-oil-leases/17863807/

http://www.blackfoot.org/greaterblackfootnation.php

[NYC_SKP]

1. Indeed, tribal lands and treaties need to be carefully revisited.

This includes, of course, mineral rights and water rights, etc., even if they on what are presently BLM and national forest and other federal lands.

It's long overdue.

[2naSalit]

2. Good.

I hope their demands are met to their satisfaction.

[cbayer]

3. I don't understand this.

They talk about "the last religious bastion", but don't really explain what that means.

Do you know?

[rug]

4. I think they finally get to it in the last two paragraphs.

It is place of power and is known as Miistakis, the “Backbone of the World,” where the Blackfeet were created, and home to the Blackfeet origin story, according to the Blackfeet.

If it can’t be protected from drilling, then everyone’s sacred space, from Mount Sinai to Bethlehem, is at risk of being violated, Murray said.

The phrase is in quotes so it may come from the resolution. If I find the text of it I'll add it.

[cbayer]

5. Ok, I can see that.

I'm not sure why they even need to invoke "sacred space" into this. It's their land, right?

[rug]

6. I don't think so. The lease is between the government and the oil companies.

The treaty, signed at gunpoint, likely cedes title to the government but reserves to the tribe certain uses of the land.

[okasha]

7. I'm not sure about title to this particular area,

but the feds "reserve" some law enforcement and "management" functions to themselves even on reservations.

And everybody gets a cut of the profits except....guess who?

[rug]

8. I'll see if I can find out its status.

I suppose reserving mineral rights at gun point is marginally better than seizing the land at gun point.

There is a persistent theme in governmental policy going back centuries.

Edit: it looks like the reservation is adjacent to the federal land. In any event, the entire area is ancestral land of the Blackfeet but I surmise that part of it not on the reservation is owned by the federal government.

http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/diversity/native-american-heritage-in-preservation/saved-places/badger-two-medicine-area.html