US Cancels Oil and Gas Leases on Sacred Land of Blackfeet Tribe

In a win for Native American treaty rights and environmental protection, the U.S. Interior Department cancelled leases for oil and gas extraction on land in northwestern Montana that the Blackfeet Nation considers sacred ancestral territory.

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“This area is sacred to the Blackfeet people, and we appreciate that others are starting to recognize it as well,” Blackfeet Nation Chairman Harry Barnes said in a statement Wednesday.

The announcement comes after the Interior Department reached a settlement with the oil and gas corporation Devon Energy to ax 15 federal leases in the 130,000 acre area known as Badger-Two Medicine in the Lewis and Clark National Forest, near the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and the ecologically-rich Bob Marshall Wilderness and Glacier National Park, known to Native Americans as the “Backbone of the World.”

According to the tribe, the leases were granted three decades ago without consultation or consent of the Blackfeet Nation. The tribe has long been opposed to drilling, saying the land their people have used for more than 10,000 years is too sacred and central to Blackfeet identity. They have also highlighted environmental concerns, noting that drilling and fracking in the area poses serious threats to water quality and native wildlife.

Although the leases were granted in the 1980s, the company never conducted drilling in the area, according to the Interior Department. There are still two leases in the area after the cancellation, which the Blackfeet Nation has vowed to continue to fight.

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“Our pursuit to protect the Badger-Two Medicine has lasted more than three decades, and it will continue until all the illegal oil and gas leases are cancelled and the area is permanently protected,” Chairman Barnes said in a statement.

Devon Energy President and CEO David Hager said the company is “pleased and proud to celebrate the collaboration” behind the cancellation. The settlement will grant Devon Energy a refund of about US$200,000 for rent on the lease.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said that cancellation respects and protects the “rich cultural and natural resources” in Badger-Two Medicine for “future generations.”

Badger-Two Medicine boasts a rugged wilderness terrain of mountains, river valleys and wetlands stretching along Montana’s Rocky Mountain range.

The decision to cancel 15 leases in the area comes as North Dakota continues to see a historic Indigenous uprising against the contentious Dakota Access pipeline. The pending decision from a federal judge on whether the pipeline developer can finish construction likely won’t come until early next year. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe and other Native American groups describing themselves as “water protectors” have pledged to keep fighting the US$3.8 billion project, despite a harsh crackdown on the movement.

The election of Donald Trump has sparked concerns over the future of fossil fuels in the United States in the face of climate change, as the president elect is expected to plow ahead full force with oil and gas development.