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252 The Invasion o f Indian Country in the Twentieth Century The younger tribal leaders of the Western reservations are making tremendous strides in improving the tribes' status. Beginning at the level of Third World nations, Indian groups are progressing rapidly toward parity with white American society. With competent leadership and additional aid from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, energy tribes have been able to develop successful industries. Federal funds have been appropriated to finance such tribal ventures as Yatay Industries ,Sandia Indian Industries,Apache Indian Industries,and Ute Fabricating, Ltd.47 Other tribal industries include Northern Pueblo Enterprises, Navajo Indian Wood Products, Zuni Enterprises, and White Eagle Industries. These business ventures are the result of careful planning, and they exemplify the entrepreneurial quality of modern Indian achievement. Partly because such new tribal programs are highly visible, a resurgence of Indian nationalism is developing among Western tribal nations. Damson Oil president Barrie M. Damson has contended that this Native nationalism will grow and that energy companies need to recognize this.48 As Indian Americans entered the 1980s,some problems remained unresolved. A 72-page report from the Minerals Management Service of the Department of the Interior stated that $119.2 million in royalties had reportedly been paid to Indians in 1980. The next year, some $161.4 million in royalties went to Indians.49 Unfortunately, in one known case, the royalty checks never reached the people. In Wyoming , seventy allottees from the Wind River Reservation have filed a lawsuit against Amoco Production Company for not paying royalties on 1.3 million barrels of crude oil taken from the Lander Oil Field between 1971 and 1982. The allottees, who have coalesced into the Wind River Allottees Association, petitioned their case to a federal court because they felt that the government would not act soonenough on their behalf. The group seeks either a return of the oil or payment at the current value, an estimated $41 million, plus compensation for punitive damages.50 An area of new importance opened after a court decision of 1982 in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Jicarilla Apaches could charge energy companies a severance tax for mining on their land. Two other tribes, the Shoshone and the Arapaho of Wyoming, are attempting to impose a four percent severance tax on oil and gas, pending approval by the secretary of the interior. With state governments also taxing the mining companies, the energy firms now face double taxation. Although the state taxes are generally higher, the energy companies are challenging the right of the tribes to tax them.51The 1982 ruling has opened up a new source for tribal The Demandfor Natural Resources on Reservations 153 income, but it is one that reservation leaders will have to fight to keep. Many tribal leaders and reservation peoples, however, face serious problems. Some Americans assume that Indians are getting rich from royalty payments, though actually only fifteen percent of the Indian population has natural resources on tribal lands. In 1982, the BIA reported that royalties on reservations totaled more than $396 million,but if the royalties were distributed to the entire Indian population of 1.3 million (according to the 1980 census), the per capita payment would be only $290for each person. For their oil, tribes received on the average $2 a barrel in royalties at a time when OPEC nations were demanding and receiving $40 a barrel. Four of the largest energy resource deposits are on the Blackfeet, Crow, Fort Peck, and Wind River Reservations in Montana and Wyoming. In 1980, more than 1,200 wells on the four Plains reservations produced 6.1 million barrels of oil. As for coal,in early 1981, when American coal was being sold to foreign buyers for $70 a ton, the Navajo were receiving only $.I5 a ton from Utah International Mining Company and less than $.38 a ton from Pittsburgh and Midway Coal Company. These two companies negotiated leases with the Navajos in 1953,1964, and 1966.52 In negotiations with the energy companies, tribal leaders were historically at a disadvantage, but conditionshave changed in the1990s. Their governments once could not pay for equipment to evaluate their natural resources, but with the assistance of CERT and their own resources, tribes now have a very good idea of the natural resources on their lands. During the late 1970s,the requisite trained personnel and exploratory data were in short supply, forcing tribes to give up a major share of their...

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