More Indian Tribes Are Tapping Land’s Potential for Profit

The wind can howl for days without taking a breath, blowing with a force known to tip over railroad cars.

Leaders of the Blackfeet Indian reservation, where unemployment hovers near 70%, hope the wind has enough strength to carry off some of the poverty too.

The Blackfeet, who live in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains in northwest Montana, are developing what is being called the first commercial wind farm on an American Indian reservation. Indian leaders hope to harness what often has been seen as little more than a nuisance and turn it into a moneymaker for their communities.

The wind farm, scheduled for construction near the eastern boundary of Glacier National Park as early as next year, could produce enough electricity to power 20,000 homes. Besides money and jobs--including an estimated 30 construction jobs and up to six permanent positions--Indian leaders see a field of dozens of tall wind turbines as a possible tourist draw that could help other sectors of the local economy.

“It’s one avenue by which we can reach our economic independence,” said Marilyn Parsons, the tribe’s planning director.

The effort is an example of a push by some tribes to develop the natural resources of their lands--but on their own terms.

“The tribes have learned a lot in the 20th century and they are looking for new opportunities in the 21st century and to be leaders in their regions for clean economic opportunities,” said Bob Gough, secretary of the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy.

In addition to the wind farm, the Blackfeet are looking at opening up land within the reservation to oil and gas drilling. To the east, the Crow and Northern Cheyenne are considering allowing drilling for natural gas found in coal beds. And nearly a dozen Plains Indian tribes are interested in forming a coalition to sell the wind that blows across their lands.

“We can’t continue to be poverty stricken,” said Roxanne Gourneau, a council member for the Fort Peck Tribes, who also are considering potential wind and oil development on their northeast Montana reservation. “We have to be in the driver’s seat.”

“We want to be partners in harvesting natural resources on our lands,” Gourneau added. “We don’t want to be passive participants anymore.”

Tribes have allowed outside energy developers to explore the reservations before, only to feel as though they got little more than deserted oil fields and environmental hazards to clean up.

Indian leaders say they are being more careful now to ensure that the land is protected and that tribes get a fair financial share.

“I think maybe a lot of people worry about something happening like it did in the ‘70s, when there’s a gas and oil boom and they get nothing out of it,” said Leo Kennerly, a Blackfeet tribal council member. “I’m hoping if we do develop oil and gas here, a lot will go into economic development and creating jobs.”

Energy development, whether it is “green” power such as wind or traditional fossil fuels, is a “front-burner issue” tribes need to consider, said Gordon Belcourt, executive director of the Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council.

But energy development is not without headaches for reservations, often located in some of the most remote areas of the country. On the Blackfeet Reservation, concern lingers whether there will be enough transmission capability to get the electricity to potential markets.

And tribes are seemingly at a disadvantage when it comes to securing some incentives to develop wind energy. Because they don’t pay most federal taxes, tribes cannot get a production tax credit that makes wind more competitive with other power, Gough said.

The Blackfeet are working with developer SeaWest WindPower Inc. to develop the wind farm. The Bonneville Power Administration, which acquires and distributes power to utilities in the Northwest, also is involved and considering purchasing power from the project.

Separately, the tribe offered Anschutz Exploration Corp., which wanted to drill an exploratory oil well at a site off the reservation considered sacred by several tribes, the chance to drill on reservation land instead.

Kennerly said the offer to drill stands for other companies as well.

“We offered Anschutz what we offered everyone else: Come, see what we have and we’ll negotiate an agreement with them,” he said. But, he added, “We’re not going to sell ourselves short.”

The Blackfeet, whose reservation borders Glacier National Park and the Canadian province of Alberta, also have timber and water resources that could play a role in a long-range economic plan, Parsons said.

In North Dakota, the Three Affiliated Tribes also are looking at wind generation as a source of electricity for reservation businesses and residents, Chairman Tex Hall said.

The Three Affiliated Tribes also see wind energy as a possible job creator.

“Wind energy can help reduce [electricity] costs of each household but still provide a profit for economic development to generate new jobs,” Hall said.

Successful projects between Indians and outside partners could serve as a model for other tribes, and allow for an exchange of ideas among cultures, said Larry Flowers, with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Prospects for wind energy development have some residents on the Blackfeet reservation excited.

“It would provide jobs, you could train people. I don’t see any bad in it,” Yvonne Night Gun said.

“It’s a natural resource that should be tapped into,” William Wade Running Crane said. “The wind keeps on coming.”

Parsons said change needs to come slowly, though, to prepare people for work and to ensure that as many as possible can be a part of any financial gain.

Hall can’t ignore the irony of the situation as he looks out on the open, rugged landscape from tribal headquarters in New Town, N.D.

“They wanted to put us in badlands and give us no natural resources,” he said. “Well, look at us now.”