The activists bearing freezing temperatures to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline seem to have won a victory in North Dakota last week after the Obama administration rejected a crucial permit needed to complete the controversial project.
But while members of the Standing Rock Sioux and their supporters have protested the construction of the pipeline slated to run just a half-mile beyond their border, other tribes have peacefully courted deals for pipelines that run through the middle of their reservations. This stark contrast illustrates the importance of tribal jurisdiction and the detrimental effects of federal policies that limit development opportunities on many tribal lands.
In most cases, federal policies discourage developers from doing business on Native American reservations in the first place, in effect denying tribes the opportunity to benefit from energy projects such as the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). In some cases, however, tribes have succeeded in developing their own energy resources for the benefit of tribal members and their communities.
The& Three Affiliated Tribes (the Mandan, the Hidatsa, and the Sahnish) of the Fort Berthold Reservation, for example, which sits just 150 miles north of the Standing Rock Sioux, have more than 4,000 miles of pipelines crossing their reservation, contributing to the hundreds of million dollars the tribes earn from energy-development activities each year. In Colorado, the Southern Ute tribe controls 1,600 oil and natural-gas wells, including several pipelines, in addition to operating their own energy company that develops oil and gas throughout the western U.S. The tribe’s success in the energy sector has allowed it to maintain “a higher long-term credit rating than Wells Fargo & Co.,” according to a Bloomberg Markets story published in October.
Where pipelines cross tribal lands, tribes have some say in weighing the benefits and costs of energy development, and they reap direct benefits if they choose to say yes to the projects. Revenues from oil and gas development and related infrastructure provide much-needed income for tribal members and their communities. Energy-development activities on tribal lands generated more than $850 million for Native Americans last year, according to the Department of the Interior; the funds are often used to develop infrastructure, provide health care and education, and support community programs on tribal lands.