North Dakota renews claim to oil and gas royalties the federal government says belong to tribe

NEW TOWN, N.D. — North Dakota is notifying oil corporations that it claims possession of the mattress of the Missouri River — and related mineral wealth — because it flows via the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation within the newest salvo in a authorized feud over possession.

At stake are claims to grease and gasoline royalties the state estimated at greater than $116 million as of August 2020.

The state’s newest motion, in letters despatched to grease corporations lively within the Bakken Formation, comes regardless of a dedication by the U.S. Division of Inside that the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation owns the riverbed and due to this fact is entitled to royalties on oil and gasoline produced beneath the historic riverbed, now inside Lake Sakakawea.

The possession dispute is pending earlier than a U.S. District Courtroom choose within the District of Columbia in a lawsuit the tribe filed after the Trump administration reversed a long time of federal coverage holding that the riverbed and mineral wealth belongs to the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, held in belief by the U.S. authorities.

The Biden administration in February overturned the Trump administration’s opinion, restoring federal coverage recognizing the tribe because the proprietor in a line of selections relationship again eight a long time. The tribe additionally asserts possession underneath a sequence of treaties relationship again to 1825.

In a letter dated July 1, the director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs wrote to grease corporations, noting the Division of the Inside and state of North Dakota disputed possession of the minerals and directing all producers to escrow bonuses and royalties owed on manufacturing of riverbed oil and gasoline.

Bureau of Indian Affairs Director Darryl LaCounte additionally famous the Inside’s place that the riverbed minerals belong to the tribe.

“Given these developments, the Division is directing all oil and gasoline producers to offer an accounting of the royalties and bonuses you will have derived from Riverbed minerals, and the situation of the funds,” LaCounte wrote within the letter.

The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, which is suing partially to power an accounting of the disputed royalties, started contacting Bakken oil producers in search of fee of royalties for oil and gasoline pumped from beneath the riverbed.

That, in flip, prompted Matthew Sagsveen, North Dakota’s solicitor normal, to write down to grease and gasoline producers to inform them that the state claimed possession of the riverbed and royalties.

Within the letter, Sagsveen challenged the Division of the Inside’s place that the tribe owns the riverbed and royalties, saying the newest opinion “errs and omits key authorized and factual info in its overview of historic background referring to possession of the affected mineral pursuits.”

North Dakota bases its declare on the Structure’s equal footing doctrine, which holds {that a} state holds possession of navigable waters inside its boundaries until Congress specifies in any other case.

“No court docket to this point has dominated that the MHA Nation owns the riverbed and mineral pursuits at subject,” Sagsveen wrote.

Mark Fox, chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, denounced the state’s declare of possession in letters to grease corporations, which he referred to as “opposite to the authorized and historic file.”

“The State of North Dakota continues to point out their lack of respect for the authorized precedents and individuals who have paid with their lives to protect these fragments of our ancestral lands and waters,” Fox mentioned in a press release. “For hundreds of years, the federal authorities has affirmed our proper to the Missouri Riverbed.”

The state is making an attempt to deprive the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation of cash that may profit greater than the tribe, mentioned Timothy Purdon, a lawyer who represents the tribe.

“This cash might be used to assist the tribe, tribal residents, which strengthens the state of North Dakota, as nicely,” he mentioned.