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<H1>Blackfeet ask for more openness about oil, gas exploration</H1>
<P class=byline><!-- AP Byline --><SPAN class="author vcard"><SPAN class=fn>By
TRISTAN SCOTT of </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN class="hide source-org vcard"><SPAN
class="org fn">missoulian.com</SPAN></SPAN> | <!-- AP Updated -->Posted: <SPAN
class=updated title=2012-04-29T07:00:00Z>Sunday, April 29, 2012</SPAN><fb:like
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<P>An oil drilling worker walks out of a rig working near Starr School on the
Blackfeet Reservation, where about 80 wells have been permitted in the past two
years. One estimate says the reservation sits on top of about 109 million
barrels of oil and 8.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.</P>
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<P>BROWNING – Speaking to an uncomprehending group of federal and tribal land
managers, Diane Calflooking Burd delivered an impassioned and articulate
entreaty in her native Blackfeet language.</P>
<P>Then, after a long pause, she drove her point home in English.</P>
<P>“That’s how all this technical language from the oil companies sounds to us,”
she said. “We need an interpreter, because they don’t tell us nothing.”</P>
<P>Calflooking Burd was among several dozen tribal members who gathered last
week in a conference room at the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in Browning
to learn more about oil and gas exploration on the Blackfeet Reservation. The
meeting was arranged by the Bureau of Land Management and BIA, with the purpose
of informing tribal members who have leased portions of their allotted land to
energy companies for oil and gas exploration.</P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center">*****</P>
<P><STRONG>Calflooking Burd and other stakeholders</STRONG> called for more
transparency from energy companies and better communication and outreach from
the BIA and the BLM, which oversee mineral leases on the reservation.</P>
<P>“They have an obligation to the people,” said Debbie White Grass Bullshoe,
whose elderly family members have holdings on the reservation. “If I’m going to
help my mom sign, I want to know we’re in for. We need to be better educated
before we decide to sign. These oil companies wouldn’t be here without us.”</P>
<P>Meanwhile, across the street at the Blackfeet Community College, an event
called “Our Land, Our Future” featured musician Jack Gladstone, an enrolled
member of the Blackfeet Tribe and a popular singer and songwriter. He performed
songs like “Fossil Fuel Sinner” and condemned the practice of hydraulic
fracturing oil wells, calling it an “uncontrolled experiment” with potentially
devastating consequences.</P>
<P>The juxtaposition of events highlighted two prevailing views about drilling
on the reservation – while an oil boom would be a financial windfall for an
impoverished tribe desperate for jobs and financial resources, it could also
undermine the land’s natural resources and cultural significance.</P>
<P>“When we accept the wealth, we also are destined to accept the liabilities
and the hazards, and that is the concern,” Gladstone said.</P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center">*****</P>
<P><STRONG>Three oil companies – Anschutz Exploration Corp.,</STRONG> Rosetta
Resources and Newfield Exploration Co. – are currently leading oil and gas
exploration on the reservation, and have meted out nearly $30 million in
one-time bonus payments and annual rental agreements to the tribal government
and individuals holding mineral rights, according to Grinnell Day Chief, the
tribe’s director of oil and gas.</P>
<P>The Blackfeet Reservation is part of the Bakken Shale formation, which is
known for the oil boom sweeping North Dakota and eastern Montana. Known to
geologists as the Montana Thrust Belt, the reservation’s western edge is thought
to hold significant oil and natural gas reserves, and the companies are looking
to replicate their success in North Dakota – a prospect that has garnered mixed
reactions.</P>
<P>“This is my piece of the pie,” said George Calf Tail, a tribal member who
receives dividends on numerous leases, and who stands to earn 23 percent
royalties on producing wells if oil is recovered. “This is good for us, but the
tribe has to regulate and control the development. Just look at North Dakota.
You have the dregs of society transforming communities into evil places. We
don’t want that.”</P>
<P>Calf Tail was referring to the spike in crimes that has coincided with the
booming oil production across Montana’s Northern Plains, where tens of thousands
of workers are converging on the rural region.</P>
<P>Calf Tail, who is running for the Blackfeet Tribal Council, said he believes
responsible development will occur only if tribal members stay informed and
exercise their rights.</P>
<P>“People don’t have a lot of information, so I’m happy for this turnout
today,” he said.</P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center">*****</P>
<P><STRONG>Unemployment among reservation residents hovers around 70
percent,</STRONG> and the revenue from mineral interests has been used to boost
dividend payments to approximately 16,500 enrolled tribal members.</P>
<P>If the oil and gas exploration is successful and wells go into production,
royalties are set at 20 percent and the tribe stands to reap substantial
benefits.</P>
<P>“I know the potential of my land. I could have a good monthly income off one
lease alone,” Calf Tail said.</P>
<P>The four-hour meeting also featured lengthy discussions on how Indian mineral
royalties are managed and distributed, as well as a presentation on “Hydraulic
Fracturing 101.”</P>
<P>Barney Whiteman, a petroleum engineer for the BLM’s Great Falls Oil and Gas
Field Office, explained the science behind hydraulic fracturing – fracking – a
controversial extraction process in which hundreds of thousands of gallons of
water, sand and chemicals are injected into wells to create cracks and fissures
to draw out oil and gas deposits.</P>
<P>Whiteman said the BLM’s role before approving a well site is to ensure that
the wells are properly designed and that the operator will dispose of the
“flowback” fluid in underground injection sites.</P>
<P>Between 420,000 and 630,000 gallons of water are required to frack each site,
he said, and chemicals make up 2 percent of the fracking fluid. The highest
potential for environmental hazards occurs above ground, he said. About 40
percent of the flowback fluid surges back to the surface and must be collected
and transported to an injection site.</P>
<P>Still, the integrity of the well can’t be ensured, and in the event of an
earthquake or fault slip, “all bets are off,” Whiteman said.</P>
<P>“We can’t say that it’s safe. I don’t think anyone can say it’s safe,” he
said.</P>
<P>And that, Gladstone said, is precisely what worries him.</P>
<P>“We’re not approaching this whole thing with caution, we are stepping on the
accelerator into the fog,” he said. “My concern and the concern of other people
is that from time immemorial our land has been nurtured and now that is
seriously imperiled.”</P>
<P>Flathead Valley Bureau reporter Tristan Scott can be reached at (406)
730-1067 or at <A
href="mailto:tscott@missoulian.com">tscott@missoulian.com</A>.</P></DIV>
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