When Division of Energy and Mineral Development (DEMD) was moved back to the BIA in 2021, the Deputy Bureau Director, Office of Trust Services (OTS) promised tribes that the critical technical assistance they received from DEMD would continue at the same level.
Tribes counted on that assurance.
Yet, less than two years later, the same promise-makers have laid off or lost over 50 of DEMD’s 65 contractors and six of its 13 federal employees. The inevitable reduction in services has happened rapidly, without tribal consultation or explanation from the BIA.
That broken pledge has taken a predictably heavy toll.
It has reduced self-determination and curtailed mining and energy projects whose revenues have historically been second only to gaming in magnitude. The quality of trusteeship has diminished with the elimination of staff with years of experience in resource development. The immediate impact has been a drop in energy and mineral related 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.
For many years, tribes have striven for greater control over the development of their own resources to maximize desperately needed revenue. It has been the clear intent of Congress over the past 20 years to make this happen. By abandoning this proven approach to tribal resource development, BIA will be thwarting congressional intent and returning tribes to the failed policies extant before 2005, when a handful of BIA bureaucrats with no background or interest in energy and minerals called all the shots for tribes.
What the BIA’s broken promise tore down in an instant will take time to rebuild. This program needs professional people who understand 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 those roles. Many such qualified staff were carelessly chased off by the previous administration. The first step should be to reconnect with them. The second step should be to hire qualified professionals in the geosciences who understand tribes. This can be done either through direct hiring or by contract.
I urge all tribal governments to contact their congressmen and senators to express their concern about this loss of critical resources to them. I also urge them to contact the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and express their need to have these services restored.
The history of relations between the federal government and Indian nations is replete with broken promises. This is one, at least, that can be made right.
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