The Obama administration has canceled a disputed oil and gas lease a Baton Rouge firm has for land considered sacred to the Blackfoot tribes of the U.S. and Canada.
The Associated Press reports today’s move by the U.S. government comes one day after U.S. District Judge Richard Leon criticized the government over its decades-long delay in resolving the matter with Solenex, a local firm that wants to drill for oil and gas on the 6,200-acre site outside of Glacier National Park.
Blackfoot leaders say the oil and gas leases were illegally issued in 1982.
Solenex sued the government in 2013 to force a decision after the dispute dragged on for decades. Attorneys for the firm said they would challenge any cancellation in court. They point out that the lease went through multiple environmental reviews over the years and was never said to be invalid until recently.
“I can’t even imagine how many thousands of man-hours went into all these studies, and now the government is saying every one of these people was wrong,” says William Perry Pendley with the Mountain States Legal Foundation, the law firm for Solenex. “It doesn’t even pass the red-face test. It’s ridiculous.”
Dozens more oil and gas leases were originally sold in the area. Over the years, most were retired or surrendered by their owners.
Left unresolved is the fate of 17 remaining leases in northwest Montana’s Badger-Two Medicine area, site of the Blackfoot creation story.
Most of the 17 remaining leases in the area are held by Devon Energy of Oklahoma, federal officials say.
“We’re pushing to have all the leases terminated,” says Blackfeet Tribal Chairman Harry Barnes. “It’s considered a very spiritual place, a base for spirituality from whence a lot of power comes for the Blackfeet people.”
