Tribes say North Dakota is tampering with mineral royalties – By Dave Kolpack (Associated Press) / Sept 14, 2022
The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation is accusing North Dakota officials of tampering with the tribes’ efforts to collect royalties from oil and gas production underneath a riverbed on the Fort Berthold Reservation
FARGO, N.D. — The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation is accusing North Dakota officials of tampering with the tribes’ efforts to collect royalties from oil and gas production underneath a riverbed on the Fort Berthold Reservation. The state says the tribes have no legal claim.
The latest grievance is part of an ongoing dispute that has seen the rights for minerals exchange hands four times in the last five years, the last time in February when the Biden administration ruled that the royalties belonged to the Three Affiliated Tribes. The money has been held in a trust fund.
The U.S. Department of Interior, which is overseeing the trust, gave the energy companies until the middle of August to provide a detailed account of royalties and bonuses from mineral production. The state responded with a letter to oil companies dismissing the ruling and title.
“Please be advised, however, that North Dakota owns and asserts its title to the historical bed of the river, and to the revenues from mineral production therefrom, and no authority to date defeats that title,” North Dakota Solicitor General Matthew Sagsveen wrote to an oil company in an Aug. 24 letter obtained by The Associated Press.
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