Northern Cheyenne Land Consolidation Act
Key claim: If enacted, the bill would trade private coal minerals under the Northern Cheyenne Reservation to the Tribe for federal coal outside the reservation going to Great Northern Properties, cancel an existing Bull Mountains coal lease, ban strip mining there, and require the Tribe to drop related claims against the United States.
Abstract
(S2110 · 112th Congress) Northern Cheyenne Land Consolidation Act - Directs the Secretary of the Interior, if Great Northern Properties conveys to the Northern Cheyenne Indian Tribe all its mineral interests underlying specified tracts of land in Montana within the Tribe’s reservation (the Cheyenne tracts), to convey to Great Northern Properties all interest of the United States to the coal underlying specified federal tracts in Montana outside the Tribe’s reservation. Requires the Secretary to terminate any existing federal lease to Signal Peak Energy for the coal underlying the Bull Mountains portion of those federal tracts. Conditions these conveyances on: (1) Great Northern Properties and the Tribe agreeing on a revenue sharing formula for all coal produced from the federal tracts, and (2) Great Northern Properties and Signal Peak Energy agreeing on a lease for the coal underlying the Bull Mountains portion of the federal tracts. Requires the Northern Cheyenne Tribe to waive each legal claim relating to the failure of the United States to acquire in trust for the Tribe the private mineral interests underlying the Cheyenne tracts as part of the Tribe’s reservation. Prohibits the strip mining of the coal under the Bull Mountains portion of the federal tracts on the completion of this Act’s mineral conveyances. Require Signal Peak Energy, as a condition of the conveyances, to report on the effects of subsidence in the Bull Mountains portion of the federal tracts. Latest action (2012-02-15): Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Why this matters
The bill is a narrow, tribe-specific coal minerals swap, but it illustrates a recurring federal tool — trading federal coal for private mineral interests underlying reservations — that reshapes who controls extraction on and near tribal lands. It would also cancel an active Bull Mountains coal lease and impose a strip-mining ban on the exchanged tracts, tying tribal land consolidation directly to federal coal-leasing and surface-mining regulatory outcomes.