{"id":32035,"date":"2023-09-14T09:24:26","date_gmt":"2023-09-14T13:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=32035"},"modified":"2023-09-14T09:30:45","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T13:30:45","slug":"montana-free-press-blackfeet-nation-protects-sacred-area-from-drilling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2023\/09\/14\/montana-free-press-blackfeet-nation-protects-sacred-area-from-drilling\/","title":{"rendered":"Montana Free Press: Blackfeet Nation protects sacred area from drilling"},"content":{"rendered":"
\r\n
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t\t – YouTube\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t\t

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

\n\t\t\"youtu.be\"\t\tyoutu.be\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
Indianz.Com Video: Chief Earl Old \r\nPerson of the Blackfeet Nation presents the Badger-Two Medicine Song<\/A> <\/figcaption>\r\n
Solenex will retire last oil and gas lease in Badger-Two Medicine<\/div>\r\n
A settlement agreement between Solenex, the federal government, and tribal and environmental groups marks the end of a 40-year energy development fight.<\/div>\r\n
Thursday, September 14, 2023<\/div>\r\n
By Amanda Eggert<\/div>\r\n
Montana Free Press<\/DIV>\r\n
montanafreepress.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nLouisiana-based company Solenex has agreed to retire the last remaining oil and gas lease<\/a> in the Badger Two-Medicine, a region of northwest Montana that\u2019s often described as the spiritual homeland of the Blackfeet Tribe.

<\/P>\r\n\r\nThe agreement, reported Friday (September 1) by organizations involved in a lawsuit over the lease, closes the book on a decades-old dispute over energy development in a remote and largely undeveloped piece of the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest.

<\/P>\r\n\r\nSolenex first acquired the 6,247-acre lease for oil and gas development in the Badger Two-Medicine in 1982, when the Interior Department issued a total of 47 leases in the area<\/a>. The Clinton administration suspended it in 1993, a move that subsequent administrations repeated under pressure from conservationists and tribal representatives seeking to stop energy development in the area.

<\/P>\r\n

\r\n
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t\t – YouTube\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t\t

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

\n\t\t\"youtu.be\"\t\tyoutu.be\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\nGlacier-Two Medicine Alliance: Victory for the Badger-Two Medicine: Last Oil and Gas Lease Retired!<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n\r\n

<\/p>\r\nCongress passed a bill in 2006 that prohibited future oil and gas leasing on the Badger-Two Medicine<\/a> and used tax incentivizes to encourage remaining lease-holders to relinquish their lease. Solenex was one of a handful of companies that decided to retain its lease ownership at that point. Some of the remaining lease holders sold rights to third parties who then relinquished them to the federal government<\/a>, and others were canceled by the Interior Department, which refunded the leaseholders\u2019 purchase price and expenses associated with the lease.

<\/P>\r\n\r\nWhen the Bureau of Land Management canceled its lease in 2016, Solenex sued in response. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon of Washington, D.C., sided with the company last year<\/a>, chastising the Interior Department for subjecting the company to a \u201cnever-ending series of administrative reviews [that] have precluded any activity for nearly forty years.\u201d

<\/P>\r\n\r\nLeon\u2019s decision was appealed to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals by the federal government and the Pikuni Traditionalists Association, a group representing the cultural and religious interest of the Blackfeet Tribe. A joint motion<\/a> filed in the appeal case Friday indicates the parties have reached a settlement agreement that will resolve the case without further court action.

<\/P>\r\n\"Badger-Two<\/a>

Badger Creek in the Badger-Two Medicine Area in Montana. Photo courtesy Blackfeet Nation<\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nOpposition to energy development in the region by tribal leaders dates back to at least 1974, when the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council recognized the area as sacred. In addition to featuring in Blackfeet creation stories and supplying tribal members with traditional sources of medicine and food, the Badger Two-Medicine is valued for the wildlife habitat it provides to animals moving between Glacier National Park, the Bob-Marshall Wilderness and the Blackfeet Reservation.

<\/P>\r\n\r\n \r\n

<\/P>\r\nTim Presso, an Earthjustice attorney representing the Pikuni Traditionalists Association and a coalition of conservation organizations in the lawsuit, said in an interview that all parties appear to be pleased with the conclusion of a long legal proceeding. 

<\/P>\r\n\r\nUnder a drilling permit issued in 1993, Solenex could have built 6 miles of road into the Badger-Two Medicine, constructed a well pad and moved forward with exploratory drilling, Presso said. 

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\u201cIf that had been successful, there would have been more wells proposed, and we\u2019ve seen what that looks like in other places around the West,\u201d Presso said. \u201cInstead of that, today you can go there and see elk and grizzly bear tracks and a big, undeveloped space that everyone can enjoy.\u201d

<\/P>

<\/ins>