Company retires lease in Badger-Two Medicine area

Havre Daily News Staff

The Blackfeet Nation of Montana’s Blackfeet Indian Reservation said in a press release Tuesday that some lands sacred to the Blackfeet are one step closer to full and permanent protection.

The release said that Montcrief Oil retired a lease covering more than 7,000 acres in the Badger-Two Medicine area of the Rocky Mountain Front.

The Badger-Two Medicine is located at the intersection of the Blackfeet Reservation, Glacier National Park, and the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

Blackfeet Tribal Business Council Chair Tim Davis said Hansjorg Wyss and the Wyss Foundation facilitated the deal.

“Ever since the Badger-Two Medicine was leased for oil and gas exploration in the 1980s, we have been fighting this threat to our sacred lands,” Davis said in the release. “We thank Hansjorg Wyss and the Wyss Foundation for their help in reaching a fair resolution with the lease holder that also protects the Badger-Two Medicine. Protecting this beautiful area is a victory for the Blackfeet and for all of America.”

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., praised the permanent retirement of the lease.

“Today’s agreement is a recognition that there are just some places too sacred to dig or drill,” he said in a press release. “This is a huge victory for the Blackfeet Nation and everyone who loves our public lands, and we’re going to keep the pressure on until the Badger-Two Medicine is protected from development for generations to come.”

Tester has long supported protecting the Badger-Two Medicine, and has repeatedly called on the Department of the Interior to cancel the remaining leases in the area, citing the area’s importance to the Blackfeet Tribe and Montana’s sportsmen and women, the release said.

Montana Wilderness Society also praised the announcement.

“The retirement of the Moncrief lease comes as a great relief and as a victory to our members across the U.S., who hold great respect for the Badger-Two Medicine’s sacredness to the Blackfeet people and who revere this area for the abundance of grizzly bears, elk, westslope cutthroat trout and other fish and wildlife that thrive here because it’s so wild, ” Montana Wilderness Association Central Montana Field Director Joe Offer asid.  “We can’t thank the Wyss Foundation enough for making this lease retirement possible. ”

“We stand by our tribal partners when they say that they will see the last of the Badger-Two Medicine leases retired,” he added. “We too are more determined than ever to establish permanent protection, to ensure that no industrial development ever comes to this one-of-a-kind place.”

The Blackfeet release said the area, managed by the U.S. Forest Service, is culturally, historically and religiously significant for the tribe and that ceremony and other cultural activities have been grounded there for millennia and the tribe continues to hold ceremonies and activities there today.

With the Moncrief retirement, only one company continues to push for use of its lease, with all other lease holders retiring their leases over the years.

Solonex LLC continues to pursue legal action to use oil leases issued without consultation or the consent of the Blackfeet Nation, the release said.

“We will see the last of the Badger-Two Medicine leases retired, and we will permanently protect our traditional lands,” Blackfeet Tribal Historic Preservation Officer John Murray said. “There are some places that are just too special, too important to drill, and the Badger-Two Medicine is clearly one of them.”

Davis said the Blackfeet are not against oil and gas development, and have offered the companies leases elsewhere on the reservation, adding, “We are simply against the industrialization of our most sacred places.”