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Pollution settlement raises questions on equity, justice for American Indians
Dragonflies have many meanings to cultures around the world. For Native people in the Great Plains, they can represent water, transformation and even the Thunder Beings. (Photo credit/ Castle Fox, Canva)
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The Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice recently announced a $241.5 million settlement for polluting the Fort Berthold Reservation. According to the news release, the EPA and DOJ stated the settlement with Marathon Oil was done to resolve Clean Air Act violations at the company’s oil and gas production operations on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota.
I should be happy about the press release, but I’m not. I invite you to gather around the Buffalo’s fire, as I have something to say.
I would ask federal officials to exercise caution so they don’t throw their shoulders out of socket as they pat themselves on the back for a well-done job. The $241.5 million figure is a bit bloated. In reality, the company is only paying the EPA civil penalty of $64.5 million, and the rest is just the Marathon company investing $177 million to bring the company into federal compliance, according to the July 11 EPA news release. How does that even count?
And where is the Bureau of Indian Affairs? Most likely, where it always is. Mum’s the word. Its glaring and unforgiving conflicts of interest between itself, the needs of individual American Indian citizens, the land, and its own federally mandated priorities keep getting in the way of a good answer. Individual American Indian people have been advocating for the removal of the BIA from the Department of Interior for years, all in vain, for it falls on deaf ears.
“We are just as free as any other citizen of the United States when it comes down to it, except when we are dealing with our property held in trust by the feds.”
Todd Hall, citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation
Violations committed against the environment and the people of Fort Berthold Indian Reservation go far beyond the Clean Air Act and this enforcement action. The federal government, through its misdeeds, actions, and non-actions conducted by the Department of the Interior’s BIA, has been and continues to be a large part of the problem. Rather than solve problems, they seemingly put out fires with gasoline.
We, American Indian people, are treated as if we are invisible and trespassers on our lands. The federal government is more concerned about the rights of the giant corporations than the rights of the individual tribal citizens who own trust property on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.
We are just as free as any other citizen of the United States when it comes down to it, except when we are dealing with our property held in trust by the feds. Land that is supposedly held for our “benefit” by the United States government. In truth, as United States citizens, we Native people live under conditions of what can be described as American apartheid within our sacred borders. We are muted and marginalized, if we are even acknowledged at all.
Where is the puppet, Tribal government on these matters? Our elected officials or so-called “tribal leaders” seem more concerned with staying in power, investing in dead-end investments both on and off of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, and spending the wealth they receive, in large part, through legally questionable tax dollars which are generated on Allottee lands and not solely, Tribal lands.
The MHA Nation is probably too tangled up in its own corporate, state, and federal financial puppet strings to say anything of substance on this matter involving the general health and welfare of its tribal citizens. The EPA settlement notes that the health of tribal citizens living on the Fort Berthold Reservation is at stake. Tribal government impotence is another shining example of why the Indian Reorganization Act needs to be fixed and amended at the congressional level.
Where is the State of North Dakota? Seemingly, playing the puppeteer Geppetto behind the scenes, not saying a word.
This “big announcement” appears to be a political dog-and-pony show by the feds. In an election year, they sing their praises to show how the corporate-lobby-purchased politicians are saving the environment and us from the big, bad corporate entities that are out only to make an honest buck while destroying all who stand in their path. The politicians and bureaucrats declare their settlement efforts a major victory.
“The land we live on, the water we drink, and the air we breathe are a matter of survival.“
Todd Hall, citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation
This isn’t a great victory for me, my relatives, friends and neighbors. And it’s not a win for tribal sovereignty. The feds are finally getting off their lazy bureaucratic assets and enforcing legal priorities. I call it “political white-washing.”
This disparity of justice between Natives and federal bureaucrats is nothing new to traditional, down-to-earth Tribal people living and working on Indian reservations throughout the United States. We still fight the same fights as our elders and ancestors, albeit on separate fields. The land we live on, the water we drink, and the air we breathe are a matter of survival.
As Indian people, our legal rights usually depend on the whim of some federal bureaucrat whom we never met. They know nothing about us or the issues we face, only what they learned in school or by watching Dances with Wolves and John Wayne movies on TV. Our rights continue to be threatened and taken away, often unbeknownst to us, because of the federal government’s lack of open records regarding matters related to Indian people.
Institutional racism is so embedded in some of these federal agencies or conglomerate corporations that the officials dealing with Indian people don’t even realize when they are acting out racism. The Bureau of Indian Affairs is the worst of all. The inclination makes me want to laugh because it hurts too much to cry.
This is not a knock on the Democrats who currently hold the presidency of our great nation. When it comes to upholding individual American Indian civil rights on federal Indian reservations – or righting historical wrongs such as the boarding school child abuse and the ongoing MMIW crisis – both major political parties have been nearly equal in being neglectful.
All we get is lip service. We need action, not words. Election season is upon us once again. We need a change. Citizens must get out, get active and vote. If we don’t, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Matse’ Ishiadz Hiduuga Hidish
Hoka – Giddaha
Gowitz
Sourcing & Methodology Statement:
Todd Hall follows tribal politics and environmental issues on the Fort Berthold Reservation. He sits on the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance board of directors. He often requests to write opinion pieces for Buffalo’s Fire about issues he is interested in. Buffalo’s Fire welcomes spots for guest editorials.
References:
History Colorado. Colorad0 Encyclopedia. Indian Reorganization Act. https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/indian-reorganization-act-indian-new-deal
Grace Fiori, Buffalo’s Fire. Regulators order Marathon Oil to pay $64.5M for ‘illegal pollution’ on Fort Berthold Reservation
EPA, Press Release, July 11, 2024. Marathon Oil Company 2024 Clean Air Act Stationary Source Settlement
https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/marathon-oil-company-2024-clean-air-act-stationary-source-settlement