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Interview with Stephen Manydeeds about Development of Energy and Minerals on Indian Lands

Jack Stevens

Updated: 6 days ago

Why does your firm, Indigene Economics Group LLC, promote energy and mineral development on Native trust land?

 

Energy and mineral development are second only to gaming as an economic stimulus in Indian Country. Among natural resources, they generated over 85% of income and over 62% of jobs in Indian Country in 2021. Renewable energy and construction aggregate mining have shown the most growth for the last several years. American Indian and Alaska Native communities are endowed with a rich variety of energy and mineral resources that provide the potential for significant economic development opportunities. Tribes may either lease these resources, develop them themselves, or do so as part of a joint venture.

 

What are the obstacles to developing energy and minerals for Native nations?

 

In many cases, tribes do not have in-depth, accurate, and comprehensive information about the physical characteristics of their energy and mineral resources, the appropriate scale of development, patterns of land ownership, infrastructure needs, and the potential impacts of different development scenarios on other valued tribal resources.

 

Some private interests that wish to develop energy and mineral resources wrongly treat these resources as being on public lands, ignoring the tribes that occupy and govern these lands. This leads to a major disconnect between the tribes and developers. 


But the biggest obstacle is nearly always financing.


 How can these problems be overcome?

 

Successful developers recognize that the key to developing these resources is by collaborating with tribes to use these resources to improve the quality of life on the reservation. This approach leads to a win-win for both sides. 


Financing is a knottier problem, particularly where lenders consider a project to be too risky. Heretofore, the Indian Loan Guarantee Program was a reliable standby in such instances. However, several recent years of mismanagement and turnover of qualified staff within that program have thrown its utility into doubt. The fix, of course, would be for the BIA to restore the program to its earlier effectiveness.

 

You are critical of the BIA. Why?

 

The BIA’s legal responsibility as trustee – indeed, the very reason that the BIA exists – is to help tribes to sustainably develop their trust resources to their highest and best use. This means achieving for tribes the most revenue while avoiding waste and depletion – in the process attaining a great return on investment for federal taxpayers.

               

For many years, Tribes have striven for increased sovereignty, more autonomy, and greater control over the development of their own resources to maximize desperately needed revenue. And it has been the clear intent of Congress over the past 20 years to make this happen. As the chart below illustrates, this has happened – until recently.

 

However, since 2023, the BIA leadership has laid off or lost over 50 of the Division of Energy and Mineral Development’s (DEMD’s) 65 contractors and eight of its 13 Federal employees. It is rumored that a budget cut of over $25 million is coming next for DEMD.

 

All of this has occurred rapidly, without tribal consultation or explanation from the BIA leadership.

 

This enormous reduction in staff and funding has had dire consequences for tribes looking to develop their energy and mineral resources, reducing self-determination, curtailing mining and energy projects, and depriving tribes of needed revenue.

 

The quality of trusteeship has diminished with the elimination of staff with years of experience in resource development. This impact can be viewed on the chart with the drop in revenue from over $1.6 billion in 2022 to $1.1 billion in 2024, a loss of over $500 million in less than two years.

 

 

So, what can be done now?

 

It is easy to tear something down, but it is much harder to build a successful program to assist tribes. This program needs professional people who understand the technical, as well as the business, side of energy and mineral development. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of Native American geoscientists and engineers who can fill that role. Many of these individuals have been chased off by the previous administration. The first step should be reconnecting with these individuals to see what it would take to bring them back. The second step should be to hire qualified professionals in the geosciences field who understand tribes. This can be done either through direct hiring or by contract.

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