BLACKFEET NATI ON

The Blackfeet people have utilized the Badger-Two Medicine region for more than

10,000 years—165,588 acres that provide strength, subsistence and cultural identity to

more than 17,000 tribal members. This is why the Blackfeet Nation will always oppose

any oil and gas drilling in the Badger-Two Medicine.

The Blackfeet Nation has consistently opposed drilling on sacred lands. In addition,

the Badger-Two Medicine has been designated a Traditional Cultural District (TCD)

and is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

STOPPING THE DESTRUCTION OF THE PLACE WE CALL HOME

BLACKFEET NATION

BLOOD TRIBE

CHIPPEWA CREE TRIBE

CONFEDERATED SALISH

& KOOTENAI TRIBES

CROW NATION

EASTERN SHOSHONE TRIBE

FORT BELKNAP INDIAN

COMMUNITY

FORT PECK TRIBES

LITTLE SHELL TRIBE

NORTHERN ARAPAHO TRIBE

NORTHERN CHEYENNE

NATION

PIIKANI NATION

SIKSIKA NATION

13 tribes from

Montana, Wyoming

and Canada oppose

drilling in the

Badger-Two Medicine

In 1855, the Blackfeet Nation signed a treaty with the U.S.

government that gave the Tribe the reserved rights to hunt, fish

and timber in the Badger-Two Medicine region.

The leases were granted illegally in 1982 without

tribal consultation.

Energy development would negatively impact and

interfere with the Blackfeet people’s lands, and the use

of it for cultural, historical and religious purposes.

Drilling would compromise the water quality and

disrupt extraordinary habitat for rare and sensitive

wildlife species.

Reserved hunting, fishing and timbering rights would

be compromised.

Fracking the “Backbone of the World” would desecrate

both the landscape and the cultural identity of present

and future generations of Blackfeet people.

Roads, trucking bridges and well pads would disturb

sacred lands in the heart of the Badger-Two Medicine.

We oppose drilling on our sacred lands

for the following reasons:

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6

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4

2

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In 1982, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued 47

oil and gas leases in the Badger-Two Medicine region without

required consultation with the Blackfeet Nation. The BLM and

U.S. Forest Service would later approve drilling permits in 1985.

After former Montana Senators John Melcher (R-MT) and Max

Baucus (D-MT) introduced bills that included further wilderness

reviews and a joint management plan with the Tribe, the Secretary

of the Interior Bruce Babbitt suspended all leases in 1993.

In 1997, the U.S. Forest Service issued a moratorium on any new

oil and gas leasing along the Rocky Mountain Front, including

the Badger-Two Medicine region. In 2006, Congress passed

legislation to make the moratorium permanent.

In the past decade, the Blackfeet Nation has written letters to

the leaseholders asking them to voluntarily terminate their

leases. As of today, the majority of leaseholders have voluntarily

relinquished their leases, leaving only 18 of the original 47

remaining.

In 2013, leaseholder Sidney Longwell of Solenex, LLC, filed a

lawsuit in district court (WA, DC) to begin drilling. In 2014, tribal

leaders from the Blackfoot Confederacy—consisting of three First

Nations and the Blackfeet Nation—issued a joint proclamation

calling on the U.S. Department of the Interior to cancel all

remaining leases in the Badger-Two Medicine.

The Badger-Two Medicine region is an almost entirely unroaded expanse of mountains,

ridges, river valleys and wetlands along Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front. It is located at

the intersection of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Glacier National Park and the Bob

Marshall Wilderness Complex, and is part of the headwaters of the Missouri River.

The Badger-Two Medicine is sacred to the Blackfeet people.

Now, the region has been compromised due to illegally granted oil and gas leases that

threaten the Blackfeet peoples’ history and their sacred and cultural values.

As important today as it has been for thousands of years

THE BADGER-TWO MEDICINE

THE HISTORY OF OIL AND GAS LEASES: NO CONSULTATION WITH BLACKFEET NATION

BADGER-TWO MEDICINE

Solenex Well Site

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:Tyson Running Wolf – tysonrw@blackfeetnation.com

John Murray – jmflysdown@gmail.com

SAVE THE BADGER-TWO MEDICINE:

The Blackfeet Nation works hard to retain its culture. The cancellation of the

remaining leases is essential to conserve the acknowledged natural, recreational,

cultural and spiritual resources of the Badger-Two Medicine. We must act now.

Call for the cancellation of oil and gas leases in the

Badger-Two Medicine by contacting the following officials:

Images provided by: Tony Bynum Photography

SENATOR JON TESTER

SENATOR STEVE DAINES

CONGRESSMAN RYAN ZINKE

SALLY JEWELL,

SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR

Phone: (406) 728-3003 (Missoula office)

Online email form at: www.tester.senate.gov

Phone: (406) 443-3189 (Helena office)

Online email form at: www.daines.senate.gov

Phone: (406) 969-1736 (Billings office)

Online email form at: www.zinke.house.gov

Phone: (202) 208-7351

Email: feedback@ios.doi.gov