Agreement reached to relinquish drilling lease on land in Montana that’s sacred to Native Americans

By MATTHEW BROWN
Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A Louisiana company will relinquish the last remaining oil and gas lease on land near Montana’s Glacier National Park that’s sacred to Native Americans. A legal agreement announced Friday would resolve a decades-long dispute over the lease. The 10-square-mile drilling lease in the mountainous Badger-Two Medicine area of northwestern Montana was issued in 1982 but has not been developed. It’s on the site of the creation story for the Blackfoot tribes of southern Canada and Montana’s Blackfeet Nation. Tribal members opposed drilling. Lease owner Solenex LLC will be compensated an undisclosed amount under the agreement.