Chairman Carl Venne of the Crow Nation of Montana, testifying before a May 2008 meeting of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, had a clear vision for his nation’s 12,000 citizens, many of whom reside on the tribe’s remote, 9 million-acre reservation. The future, he said, lies with the more than 10 billion tons of high-grade coal on Crow lands, about 3 percent of the world’s coal resources.
“Given our vast mineral resources, the Crow Nation can, and should, be self-sufficient,” says Venne. “My administration desires to develop our mineral resources in an economically sound, environmentally responsible manner consistent with Crow culture and beliefs. Crow people are tired of saying we are resource rich and cash poor.
“My larger vision,” Venne said, “is to become America’s energy partner and help reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil.”
Some 500 miles away in Belcourt, North Dakota, Jessie Cree, an elder with the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, spoke of his tribe’s plans to harness energy generated by winds that blow over the vast prairie.
“It has spirituality,” Cree told the Boston Globe newspaper. “You can’t see the wind blow, but you can see whatever it hits… the old people that were spiritual, they were able to see the wind. They would be able to see the spirit of the wind.”
“Wind blowing through Indian reservations in just four northern Great Plains states could support almost 200,000 megawatts… enough wind power to eradicate all fossil fuel-burning power plants in the U.S.,” said environmental activist Winona LaDuke, a Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) from Minnesota.
Whether it is the winds that blow in the North, oil and gas in the Great Plains or coal, uranium and solar power in the West and Southwest, American Indians are close to reaping huge economic gains from the voluminous energy resources on largely remote tribal reservations.
U.S. Department of Energy experts believe 10 percent to 14 percent of the nation’s traditional fossil fuels, gas and renewable energy resources can be found on the 59 million acres that make up the country’s Indian reservations, land held in federal trust and deeded to tribal governments and individual tribal citizens.
The first Americans intend to utilize those resources in an environmentally friendly manner that respects cultural and spiritual beliefs and respect for the land.
Perhaps most important, tribes view ownership and management of energy resources as a means of strengthening sovereignty and self-governance and building the foundation for a sustainable future for future generations.
With President Barack Obama’s pledge to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil, the nation’s indigenous peoples are poised to reap billions of dollars in energy production in the coming decades. Some predict revenues will exceed the nearly $27 billion tribes generated in 2007 from government casinos.
“Maybe not in the next 10 years, but in the next 20 years, yes, I believe it will,” says A. David Lester, executive director of the Council of Energy Resource Tribes of Denver, Colorado, and a citizen of the Muscogee Cree Nation.
There is justice in the energy opportunities in Native America as most tribes with conventional and renewable energy resources are located on remote reservations and have not benefited greatly from casinos. Seventy percent of revenue from tribal gaming is generated by 15 percent of the Indian casinos owned by small tribes in urban areas.
DOE geological surveys estimate there are 5 billion barrels of oil, 37 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 58 billion tons of coal on Indian reservations. About 25 percent of the known onshore oil and gas resources are on tribal lands. Yet only about 4 percent of the tribal energy resources are in production.
In terms of renewable resources, geological experts say of the 360 reservations in the lower 48 states, 118 have biomass potential and 77 have wind resources.
The full potential of energy resources is difficult to gauge. Of the 15 million acres of potential tribal energy and mineral resources, only 2.1 million acres are being explored and developed.
“There are reserves in Indian Country we don’t know about,” says former U.S. Senator Benjamin Nighthorse Campbell, a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Nation. “Only 30 percent of Indian Country has been adequately explored.”
New Tribal Paradigm
The opportunities in energy production on tribal lands extend far beyond economics, as great as they may be.
“Tribal leaders have a different vision of the future,” Lester says. “They view energy as a means of achieving more and stronger self-governance and a pathway to greater tribal prosperity. Energy is the means to achieve the goal, not the goal itself.”
A key component of President George W. Bush’s 2005 Energy Policy Act is the creation of Tribal Energy Resource Agreements, or TERAs, which enable tribes with adequate governmental structures greater authority in negotiating agreements with private utility companies and assuming ownership and management of energy production. The Southern Ute Tribe of Colorado, which owns a multibillion-dollar methane gas industry, is a prime example of what a tribe can accomplish when it controls its energy destiny.
“We believe TERAs will be a significant tool for tribes that would like to have more control over energy development decisions on tribal trust land,” says Robert W. Middleton, director of the Office of Indian Energy Economic Development. “There are several tribes that are already major players in domestic energy markets and we assume would take advantage of the additional flexibility of a TERA.”
Though well intended, Congress has not funded components of the Energy Policy Act to provide the education and training tribes need to build their capacity to own, manage and regulate energy development.
“There is no commitment from the federal government to build ownership and governmental capacity in Indian tribes,” Lester says.
It took 20 years for Indian tribes utilizing educational and training programs provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish and regulate environmental standards on tribal reservations. The U.S. Department of Energy must provide similar educational and training for energy resource tribes, Lester says.
As gaming tribes have been allowed to exercise their sovereign right to own, operate and regulate government casinos, energy resource tribes are seeking the opportunity to own, manage and regulate energy production.
“We need to open the door that allows Indian tribes to make significant contribution to the achievement of America’s national energy policy goals,” Lester points out.
Venne’s Vision
Although Venne died last month of heart failure, his vision remains. The Crow are partner with Australian-American energy in development of a $7 billion coal-to-liquids mine and plant project that would produce 50,000 barrels a day of clean diesel, jet fuel and naphtha. The project would create 4,000 construction jobs and 900 permanent jobs.
The Navajo Nation is close to beginning construction of a $3 billion, 1,500-megawatt coal burning power plant south of Farmington, New Mexico. The Desert Rock Energy Facility is expected to generate $52 million a year and create up to 400 jobs. Half the Navajo workforce is unemployed.
“Energy reserves on tribal lands represent the single largest source of untapped energy resources in the United States,” Navajo President Joseph Shirley says. “Tribal energy development is the future of U.S. domestic energy production as well as the future of tribal economic development. For Native nations the most pressing concern is the crushing poverty that renders impossible our dream of regaining our independence and preserving our language and culture. I believe the federal government and Native nations can come together as sovereigns and solve these problems in a mutually beneficial way.”
The Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara) of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota have taken steps to establish a TERA to expedite oil and gas leases on the nearly 1 million- acre reservation. There are 3.6 billion barrels of oil, 148 billion barrels of natural gas liquids and 1.85 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in what is known as the Bakken Oil Formation.
“We are poised at the brink of what could be the largest period of economic development in the history of the tribe,” says Chairman Marcus D. Wells Jr.
Renewable Strategies
About 100 tribes are exploring wind and solar energy, says Bob Gough, a founder of the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy, or COUP. Solar and wind energy resources in the Southwest and Great Plains are among the most abundant in the United States.
NativeEnergy partnered with the Rosebud Sioux of South Dakota in 2003 in building the first large-scale Native-owned wind turbine. The Rosebud Sioux and Citizens Energy Corporation of Boston, Massachusetts. have entered into a joint venture to develop a 100-megawatt wind turbine power project.
The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Washington state is partners with Clipper Windpower of Carpinteria, California, on a plan to build a wind farm with up to 500 turbines. The tribe would eventually own and operate the wind energy company. The tribe also is planning to build a biomass energy facility at its Colville Indian Plywood and Veneer plant.
“Our goal is to bring benefit to the Colville Tribes while protecting and preserving our lands,” tribal energy coordinator Ernie Clark says. “The tribe is very excited about possible renewable energy developments, including wind.”
The Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate is developing a wind farm on tribal trust lands in northeast South Dakota.
The Blackfeet Tribe of Montana is working with Anschutz Exploration Corp. of Denver to find oil along the Canadian border. And Native American Resources Partner of Salt Lake City, Utah, is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in energy projects on two other Montana Indian reservations.
“We don’t invest in companies doing business in Indian Country,” NARP Vice President Lynn Becker told the Great Falls Tribune. “We partner with tribes on energy ventures in which we both earn an interest.”
The Chippewa Cree Tribe is working with NARP to develop natural gas or wind power on the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation. And the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation are working with NARP to develop resources of some 60 billion barrels of oil.
“Right now, we’re working on a partnership to start our own oil and gas company that will allow us to do our own oil and gas drilling,” Fort Peck Tribal Councilman Rick Kirn says.
