MEIC is fortunate to partner with the Apsáalooké Allottees Alliance (AAA), an Indigenous, nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to helping and educating individual Apsáalooké trust allotment landowners about land and water rights issues. In recent months, AAA has been raising awareness and pushing back against proposed federal legislation that would pass coal mine pollution to the local land and water while passing the mining profits along to a multinational corporation and a private family trust.
The history of Montana is rife with examples of powerful political or corporate interests coming in, making agreements to work with Indigenous communities respectfully, and then breaking those promises with devastating consequences for Native people and the land, water, and wildlife they steward. For that reason, it is perhaps unsurprising — though still infuriating — to see this storyline of injustice unfolding again in the form of a land and mineral swap that Sen. Steve Daines is attempting to push through Congress. We share the following opinion editorial from Mike Hill and Alee Bird Hat of the AAA with immense appreciation and gratitude for their leadership, partnership, and their wise stewardship of this beautiful and vibrant place. – Anne Hedges, MEIC
The Apsáalooké Allottees Alliance is an Indigenous organization whose members reside on the Crow Reservation. We are no strangers to those who seek to take advantage of our lands and waters, offering much and delivering nothing. We fear that the “Crow Revenue Act” (S.4444 from Senator Steve Daines) is more of the same.
Some politicians are calling S.4444 a “commonsense solution” and claim it will bring new revenue to our people. This is not the case. Reading the bill reveals that the federal government will give the Hope Family 4,530 acres of mineral interests and 940 acres in surface interests next to an operating and profitable coal mine in the Bull Mountains. In exchange, the Hope Family will convey to the Tribe its 4,660 acres of mineral interests under productive ag land on the Crow Reservation with little likelihood of future mines nearby. If the Crow Nation were to pursue development of the Bighorn County tracts, we would have to enter a revenue agreement “if those mineral interests are developed at a later date.”
Senator Daines’ Fact Sheet on S.4444 misstates the provisions of the bill. It says the bill “requires the Hope Family and the Crow Tribe to enter into a revenue sharing agreement[s] for the development of any mineral interests in the Bull Mountain Tracts.” Instead, the bill gives the public minerals and surface rights, referred to as the Bull Mountains Tracts to the Hope Family. The bill gives the Crow the minerals on the Hope Family Tracts which are not likely to be mined for coal.
Furthermore, rather than requiring the Hope Family to share revenue with the Crow Tribe from the Bull Mountain Tracts, it requires the Tribe to share revenue from the Hope Family Tracts (in the unlikely event they are ever mined) with the Hope Family Trust, despite the fact that 100% of the mineral rights beneath the Hope Family Tracts are to be held in trust by the United States for the Crow Tribe. Thus, the Hope Family Trust would receive 100% of the royalties from the Bull Mountain Tracts, as well as an unspecified share of royalties from the 100% tribally owned Hope Family Tracts.
The bill’s, “Revenue Sharing Agreement,” also creates a burden on the mineral rights the Tribe would receive in favor of the Hope Family Trust. The Tribe would be required to negotiate with the Hope Family Trust to gratuitously give it a share of the coal royalties from those lands. There is no justification for this, and it can only be characterized as outrageous.
The Bull Mountain Tracts are currently leased by the United States for coal mining, with royalties payable to the United States. This legislation would give valuable mineral and surface rights and coal royalties otherwise payable to the United States to the Hope Family Trust. There is no justification for gratuitously enriching the Hope Family Trust at the expense of the United States, in return for the Tribe receiving mineral rights of little value.
Our people have been promised more than is delivered time and time again. The Crow do not need another beautifully wrapped birthday present, only to open it and find it is empty inside. The Crow People have great need for revenue, infrastructure, and investments on Tribal and Allotted land. This bill provides none of these things. According to our Crow Constitution, our chairman cannot act on his own. He must take this major decision to the Crow General Council where it would normally be subject to a referendum vote.
We have worked hard to protect our culture, our land, our water, and our people. S.4444 is an injustice reminiscent of so many in our history and Native history in this country. It would be yet another grave injustice to allow this bill to pass. Please vote no on this bill.
Mike Hill and Alee Bird Hat are the President and Vice-President of the Apsáalooké Allottees Alliance (AAA). AAA is an Indigenous, non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to helping and educating individual Apsáalooké trust allotment landowners, including all aspects of allotted land and water rights issues.
This article was published in the October 2024 issue of Down To Earth.
