Smoke Signals

Sweet Medicine’s Prophecy

They will be powerful people, strong, tough. They will fly up in the air, into the sky, they will dig under the earth, they will drain the earth and kill it. All over the earth they will kill the trees and the grass, they will put their own grass and their own hay, but the earth will be dead -- all the old trees and grass and animals. They are coming closer all the time. Back there, New York, those places, the earth is already dead. Here we are lucky. It’s nice here. It’s pretty. We have this good air. This prairie hay still grows. But they are coming all thetime, turn the land over and kill it, more and more babies being born, more and more people coming. That’s what He said.

He said the white men would be so powerful. so strong. They could take thunder, that electricity from the sky, and light their houses. Maybe they would even be able to reach up and take the moon, or stars maybe, one or two. Maybe they still can’t do that . . .

Our old food we used to eat was good. The meat from buffalo and game was good. It made us strong. These cows are good to eat, soft, tender, but they are not like that meat. Our people used to live a long time. Today we eat white man’s food, we cannot live so lonng -- maybe seventy, maybe eighty years, not a hundred. Sweet Medicine told us that. He said the white man was too strong. He said hiis food would be sweet, and after we taste that food we want it. Chokecherries and plums, and wild turnips, and honey from the wild bees, that was our food. This other food is too sweet. We eat it and forget. . . . . .It’s all coming true, what He said.

FRED LAST BULL
KEEPER OF THE SACRED ARROWS
BUSBY, MONTANA
SEPTEMBER 1957

A NORTHERN CHEYENNE VOICE

from Tribal Heritage Program,
Western Heritage Center,
Billings

A Northern Cheyenne Voice
Keith Beartusk, Northern Cheyenne Tribe

What does it mean to you to be a Northern Cheyenne Indian today?
I am very proud to be of American Indian heritage and I feel especially privileged to be a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. The Northern Cheyenne are a proud people, deep in tradition and very protective of their homeland in Eastern Montana. While I have lived and worked off the reservation for most of my career, I have many family members and close friends who do live there and they keep me informed of local issues and events. My position as Regional Director of the Rocky Mountain Region of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Billings, Montana has kept me in Montana and provides frequent opportunity to visit the reservation and work with the Tribe and the local agency. I take advantage of those opportunities to visit friends and family and also get home on my own time to recreate.

I am very pleased that our elected tribal leaders over time have recognized the value in keeping the reservation land base intact which is so very important in maintaining tribal heritage and our Northern Cheyenne language and tradition. Unlike many tribes who have experienced a shrinking trust land base, the Northern Cheyenne reservation remains 98% in trust status which I attribute to strong and committed leadership.

I also acknowledge and applaud the Tribe's strong will and determination to protect the reservation from intrusion from outside sources who would exploit the reservation resources and possibly cause damage to the reservation environment. At considerable sacrifice and with very limited resources, Tribal Leadership has turned away the large corporations who would eagerly develop the vast coal, methane gas and possible oil resources beneath the reservation. The Tribe has instead put in place high standards to protect the air, water and reservation land base. I do have hopes that one day the Tribe will consider developing these resources in a responsible and controlled manner and under the strictest of conservation practices. The potential exists to use these valuable resources to bring jobs, educational opportunities and wellness to the tribal membership.

CBM Water and Soils

According to the Bureau of Land Management, 51,000 new coalbed methane (CBM) wells may be drilled in the Wyoming portion of the Powder River Basin (PRB) over the next 15 years, while 30,000 wells may be actively producing at one time. CBM extraction requires pumping water from the coalbed aquifers to de-pressurize the system and to allow the methane to de-adsorb from the coal surfaces. After the area is de-pressurized, the CBM is collected for processing.
Since a single well initially produces approximately 15,000 gallons of product water per day at a rate of approximately 10 gallons per minute (and this production occurs steadily 365 days per year), each well may be expected to produce 17 acre-feet of water annually. At this rate, approximately 450,000 acre-feet of water will be disposed of annually because of CBM production.
Given Wyoming's semi-arid climate and the current prolonged drought, this influx of water might seem like a blessing, but the quality of CBM product water is highly variable and not all of it will prove suitable for livestock watering and application to the land. However, some CBM water is high quality. The coal- bed aquifers have long been known to hold large reserves of water that have been used extensively for livestock watering and, to a lesser extent, human consumption in the PRB. In general, water quality is best south of Gillette and quality declines across the Powder River Basin heading to the northwest toward Sheridan and up into Montana. In areas with the best water quality, the water is suitable for both human and livestock use and for irrigation; in the areas with poorer quality water, the water is unsuitable for growing plants, and some of it may even be unsuitable for watering beef cattle.
CBM product water issues revolve around quality-specifically the water's salinity, sodicity, and potential toxicity. When the soil water is high in salinity, most plants have a hard time extracting water. It takes far more energy for plants to remove water from salt-affected soils, so these plants wilt earlier in the day, thereby decreasing photosynthesis and plant production. At very high levels, salinity is toxic to plants.
While salinity refers to the mineral content of water, it is much simpler to use the electrical conductivity of the water as a measure of its salt load. The more salt a water sample contains, the more readily it conducts electricity and the higher the electrical conductivity (EC) value. Typically, the conductivity is reported in units of micro-mhos per cm. Sometimes the unit used is the mill-mho/cm (1,000 micro-mhos/cm equals 1 milli-mhos/cm).
There is a good, but not perfect, correspondence between EC and total dissolved solids (TDS) in the water. Sodicity of water is usually specified with a parameter called the sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), which is calculated as the ratio of sodium (Na) to calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg).
Sodicity is a different, and often separate, problem from salinity. High sodium in irrigation water, relative to levels of calcium and magnesium, results in the breakdown of soil aggregates and the loss of water's ability to readily infiltrate into the soil. Infiltration slows markedly through the destruction of aggregation and plugging the pores with dispersed clay. Ultimately, this process reduces the water available for plant growth. Vegetation on sodium-affected soils is typically sparse, and the soil's surface becomes very hard when it dries. Sodium problems are most pronounced on soils with high clay contents-particularly if the clay is the high shrink-swell type common in the semi-arid basins and plains of Wyoming.
If the water's salinity is low, sodicity problems interrelated with salinity can be problematic, even with low SAR levels. For example, water with an EC of 500 micro-mhos/cm may cause dispersion problems and slow infiltration on clayey soils if the SAR is as low as 2. On the other hand, water with a salinity of 2,000 micro-mhos/cm will not exhibit infiltration problems until the SAR reaches levels above 10, which is the upper limit usually recommended for application to crop fields.
Because the CBM water has accumulated over long periods of time under a low-oxygen environment in the coal seams, there is a concern that toxic concentrations of particular elements may exist in some of the water. So far, barium is the only element that has been documented at levels above established standards in CBM product water, but there may be problems with additional elements such as selenium, arsenic, and others.
Natural precipitation in the PRB is concentrated in the spring, and many of the streams are ephemeral, carrying water only for short periods in response to snow melt and thunderstorms. CBM product water is produced evenly throughout the year, and large quantities of water are produced during periods when plants are dormant and when the opportunity to dilute the water with stream flow is limited. Some of the ephemeral streams in the PRB already have been converted to year-round flow, and there have been reports of ice damming that has caused flooding along the stream with undiluted product water.
Crops have different salt tolerances before yield reductions occur. Alfalfa is relatively sensitive to salinity and yield loss begins at an EC of 1,300 micro-mhos/cm; the threshold for corn is 1,200. Wheat is much more salt tolerant, and its yield-loss threshold EC reaches 4,000 micro-mhos/cm. CBM water from Wyoming wells in the PRB has been measured with an EC as low as 500 micro-mhos/cm and as high as 3,000. SARs have been observed to range from less than 2 to 50 or higher.
Research with PRB alfalfa irrigation has shown that, typically, alfalfa can effectively utilize approximately 22 inches of water in addition to natural precipitation. Additional water is required to achieve adequate leaching and prevent salt build-up over time. Other crops and most of the native vegetation in the basin will utilize less water, however, and this limits the effectiveness of using plants to dispose of the product water through consumptive use. Where large quantities of water are applied to the soil with the intent of allowing plant transpiration and evaporation to dispose of the water, the salt will quickly limit plant growth. Water with 1,300 micro-mhos/cm conductance contains approximately 830 parts per million (ppm) TDS. Each acre-foot of this water will add 1.2 tons of salt; 2,000 micro-mhos/cm water contains 1.7 tons of salt. This fact explains why farmers must leach the soil even when irrigating with high-quality water. Except for very limited areas of naturally saline soils that are tied to particular bedrock conditions or landscape position, the soils of the PRB have only received rainfall and snowmelt waters with very low salt contents. The salt load of even the best CBM product water will damage the area's native vegetation and common crops unless good water management-including annual leaching of the salt from the root zone-is achieved. Because many of the soils in the PRB are clayey, and many are shallow or only moderately deep, adding large amounts of product water is not practical.
Some CBM product water may not meet livestock watering requirements. Yield reductions can be expected in beef cattle when sodium levels in water reach a threshold of 2,500 ppm, depending upon the mineral content of the feed. Some water from coal seams in the northern part of the PRB shows high levels of magnesium (in some cases, greater than 250 ppm). Magnesium levels greater than 250 ppm in the water may make sodium toxic to livestock at a lower threshold. High magnesium levels relative to calcium may also cause slow infiltration problems similar to those induced by high sodium levels.
CBM development is spreading to other basins in Wyoming underlain by coal, and test wells are now being drilled. Product water management will be a statewide concern in the years ahead. Some agricultural water users will receive water they can put to good use, but for others, the water will be one more problem as they try to carry on in an already demanding environment.

Larry Munn, Professor
University of Wyoming, Department of Renewable Resources

This article was published in the University of Wyoming College of Agriculture Publication, Reflections, June 2002, and reprinted with permission

COAL BED METHANE AND WATER

Montanans Concerned About CBM Wastewater
While development of coalbed methane is a contentious issue, there's one aspect that's bringing people together rather than driving them apart: namely, protection of irrigation water from coalbed methane wastewater.
Southeastern Montana irrigators - those of us who live at ground zero
for coal bed methane development - have proposed sodium and salinity standards for rivers that will receive coalbed methane wastewater.
As an irrigator and manager of the Tongue and Yellowstone Irrigation
District, I helped develop the irrigators' proposal, along with the Tongue River Water Users' Association, Buffalo Rapids Irrigation Project and Northern Plains Resource Council. We figured that we, better than anyone, know what it will take to protect our irrigation water.
Our common-sense solution has garnered the support of irrigation and farm groups; fishing and hunting organizations; Main Street businesses (including Stockman's Bank, Montana's largest agricultural lender); government agencies (Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks); and the Billings Gazette, to name a few.
In fact, there aren't many folks out there who are against our proposal. That's because we all understand that Montana's future depends on using our natural resources responsibly. If we can figure out a way to do it right, everyone wins.
There is one vocal group of opponents to our proposal: the coalbed
methane industry. Coalbed methane companies, such as MDU Resources and Marathon Oil, say they'd rather things stay the way they are. They say that coal- bed methane wastewater is "quite fresh," and that it meets all federal drinking water standards.
What they don't tell you is that there are no federal drinking water standards for sodium and salinity - the two most worrisome parameters.
They also don't mention that their "quite fresh" methane waste water
contains 40 to 60 times the relative amount of sodium in the Tongue River, a river that supports 30,000 acres of irrigated cropland.

Sodium destroys soils structure - for the long term.
There is no mystery about what the discharge of this waste water would do to our rivers: It would render the Tongue, Powder, Little Powder and
Big Horn rivers, as well as Rosebud Creek, unusable for irrigation. That's according to the state and federal governments, as outlined in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement. These rivers support tens of thousands of acres of irrigated cropland and nearly 10,000 farm-sector jobs.
I had the opportunity to discuss this issue with Montana Gov. Judy Martz while she toured my family farm and the T&Y Irrigation District in late September. I asked her to support the irrigators' proposal. I pointed out that Montana's future depends on using natural resources responsibly, and that agriculture is our No. 1 industry. Gov. Martz agreed that we need to protect irrigators, but said she'd
need time to consider our proposal.
On behalf of the irrigators who developed the irrigators proposal and
the over 50,000 acres of irrigated cropland we cultivate, I respectfully
ask Gov. Martz again for her support. Now, more than ever, we need her
leadership to help protect our irrigation water.

Roger Muggli

Roger Muggli and his family run Muggli Brothers, a family farm and pellet feed plant in Miles City. He is the Manager of the Tongue and Yellowstone Irrigation District and member of the Northern Plains Resource Council's Coalbed Methane Task Force. He sits on the Operating Board for the Tongue River Reservoir.

COAL BED METHANE WATER AND SOILS



According to the Bureau of Land Management, 51,000 new coalbed methane (CBM) wells may be drilled in the Wyoming portion of the Powder River Basin (PRB) over the next 15 years, while 30,000 wells may be actively producing at one time. CBM extraction requires pumping water from the coalbed aquifers to de-pressurize the system and to allow the methane to de-adsorb from the coal surfaces. After the area is de-pressurized, the CBM is collected for processing.
Since a single well initially produces approximately 15,000 gallons of product water per day at a rate of approximately 10 gallons per minute (and this production occurs steadily 365 days per year), each well may be expected to produce 17 acre-feet of water annually. At this rate, approximately 450,000 acre-feet of water will be disposed of annually because of CBM production.
Given Wyoming's semi-arid climate and the current prolonged drought, this influx of water might seem like a blessing, but the quality of CBM product water is highly variable and not all of it will prove suitable for livestock watering and application to the land. However, some CBM water is high quality. The coal- bed aquifers have long been known to hold large reserves of water that have been used extensively for livestock watering and, to a lesser extent, human consumption in the PRB. In general, water quality is best south of Gillette and quality declines across the Powder River Basin heading to the northwest toward Sheridan and up into Montana. In areas with the best water quality, the water is suitable for both human and livestock use and for irrigation; in the areas with poorer quality water, the water is unsuitable for growing plants, and some of it may even be unsuitable for watering beef cattle.
CBM product water issues revolve around quality-specifically the water's salinity, sodicity, and potential toxicity. When the soil water is high in salinity, most plants have a hard time extracting water. It takes far more energy for plants to remove water from salt-affected soils, so these plants wilt earlier in the day, thereby decreasing photosynthesis and plant production. At very high levels, salinity is toxic to plants.
While salinity refers to the mineral content of water, it is much simpler to use the electrical conductivity of the water as a measure of its salt load. The more salt a water sample contains, the more readily it conducts electricity and the higher the electrical conductivity (EC) value. Typically, the conductivity is reported in units of micro-mhos per cm. Sometimes the unit used is the mill-mho/cm (1,000 micro-mhos/cm equals 1 milli-mhos/cm).
There is a good, but not perfect, correspondence between EC and total dissolved solids (TDS) in the water. Sodicity of water is usually specified with a parameter called the sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), which is calculated as the ratio of sodium (Na) to calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg).
Sodicity is a different, and often separate, problem from salinity. High sodium in irrigation water, relative to levels of calcium and magnesium, results in the breakdown of soil aggregates and the loss of water's ability to readily infiltrate into the soil. Infiltration slows markedly through the destruction of aggregation and plugging the pores with dispersed clay. Ultimately, this process reduces the water available for plant growth. Vegetation on sodium-affected soils is typically sparse, and the soil's surface becomes very hard when it dries. Sodium problems are most pronounced on soils with high clay contents-particularly if the clay is the high shrink-swell type common in the semi-arid basins and plains of Wyoming.
If the water's salinity is low, sodicity problems interrelated with salinity can be problematic, even with low SAR levels. For example, water with an EC of 500 micro-mhos/cm may cause dispersion problems and slow infiltration on clayey soils if the SAR is as low as 2. On the other hand, water with a salinity of 2,000 micro-mhos/cm will not exhibit infiltration problems until the SAR reaches levels above 10, which is the upper limit usually recommended for application to crop fields.
Because the CBM water has accumulated over long periods of time under a low-oxygen environment in the coal seams, there is a concern that toxic concentrations of particular elements may exist in some of the water. So far, barium is the only element that has been documented at levels above established standards in CBM product water, but there may be problems with additional elements such as selenium, arsenic, and others.
Natural precipitation in the PRB is concentrated in the spring, and many of the streams are ephemeral, carrying water only for short periods in response to snow melt and thunderstorms. CBM product water is produced evenly throughout the year, and large quantities of water are produced during periods when plants are dormant and when the opportunity to dilute the water with stream flow is limited. Some of the ephemeral streams in the PRB already have been converted to year-round flow, and there have been reports of ice damming that has caused flooding along the stream with undiluted product water.
Crops have different salt tolerances before yield reductions occur. Alfalfa is relatively sensitive to salinity and yield loss begins at an EC of 1,300 micro-mhos/cm; the threshold for corn is 1,200. Wheat is much more salt tolerant, and its yield-loss threshold EC reaches 4,000 micro-mhos/cm. CBM water from Wyoming wells in the PRB has been measured with an EC as low as 500 micro-mhos/cm and as high as 3,000. SARs have been observed to range from less than 2 to 50 or higher.
Research with PRB alfalfa irrigation has shown that, typically, alfalfa can effectively utilize approximately 22 inches of water in addition to natural precipitation. Additional water is required to achieve adequate leaching and prevent salt build-up over time. Other crops and most of the native vegetation in the basin will utilize less water, however, and this limits the effectiveness of using plants to dispose of the product water through consumptive use. Where large quantities of water are applied to the soil with the intent of allowing plant transpiration and evaporation to dispose of the water, the salt will quickly limit plant growth. Water with 1,300 micro-mhos/cm conductance contains approximately 830 parts per million (ppm) TDS. Each acre-foot of this water will add 1.2 tons of salt; 2,000 micro-mhos/cm water contains 1.7 tons of salt. This fact explains why farmers must leach the soil even when irrigating with high-quality water. Except for very limited areas of naturally saline soils that are tied to particular bedrock conditions or landscape position, the soils of the PRB have only received rainfall and snowmelt waters with very low salt contents. The salt load of even the best CBM product water will damage the area's native vegetation and common crops unless good water management-including annual leaching of the salt from the root zone-is achieved. Because many of the soils in the PRB are clayey, and many are shallow or only moderately deep, adding large amounts of product water is not practical.
Some CBM product water may not meet livestock watering requirements. Yield reductions can be expected in beef cattle when sodium levels in water reach a threshold of 2,500 ppm, depending upon the mineral content of the feed. Some water from coal seams in the northern part of the PRB shows high levels of magnesium (in some cases, greater than 250 ppm). Magnesium levels greater than 250 ppm in the water may make sodium toxic to livestock at a lower threshold. High magnesium levels relative to calcium may also cause slow infiltration problems similar to those induced by high sodium levels.
CBM development is spreading to other basins in Wyoming underlain by coal, and test wells are now being drilled. Product water management will be a statewide concern in the years ahead. Some agricultural water users will receive water they can put to good use, but for others, the water will be one more problem as they try to carry on in an already demanding environment.

Larry Munn, Professor
University of Wyoming, Department of Renewable Resources

This article was published in the University of Wyoming College of Agriculture Publication, Reflections, June 2002, and reprinted with permission.

COAL BED METHANE AND AIR QUALITY -- DESTROYS RETIREMENT DREAM




CBM Destroys Retirement Dream
Let me share with you my first impression of Gillette when I got off the airplane in Gillette 14 years ago. I came here for a job interview for a position at the Northern Wyoming Community College, Gillette Campus operated by Sheridan College. It was a beautiful day. I felt so good about being here I was hoping that after the interview they would offer me the college position. Before I boarded the plane the next day to go back to Wisconsin I was offered the job. Needless to say, I was thrilled.
During that short visit back in 1987 I experienced my first contact with methane. Campbell County was evacuating Rawhide Village due to a severe methane problem. At that time a total community was uprooted and forced to move. I knew right then that after I returned to Gillette with my family, I would buy a house and property as far away as possible from Rawhide Village. I ended up buying a house and 20 acres in a rural subdivision 10 miles west of Gillette. We bought the house and property with the idea that this is where we would live after I retired. After working for the college for 12 years I retired and have been so for two years. During the first ten years living in our home we were very happy. Even though we only have 20 acres of sagebrush, we felt very blessed living with nature and the peaceful, quiet surroundings. Then it started. They began drilling for methane east of me. My first thought was what was going to happen to my water well when they removed all the water from underground. I and others met with three producers and each one assured us that nothing would happen to our well water. We in the subdivision have our own individual wells. Right now I still have water; however, although I had good water for over 10 years I started to get methane in my water after they started drilling. Coincidence? I think not. I thought in my mind about the methane that closed down Rawhide Village. The methane got so bad in my well that the hose I used for filling the horse tank with water would blow out of the tank unless I held on to it. And I can tell you one thing: You never wanted to flush the toilet while you were sitting on it! Humor helps but when the State of Wyoming told my wife not to light a match near the source of water, humor quickly left. I talked to the methane producer and was told they would be happy to monitor my well; however I would just have to prove they were the cause of the problems. Let me ask you, how can someone living on Social Security and a small Wyoming retirement benefit afford to challenge the producer? I definitely could not. Although the methane in the water has now subsided considerably (not ended but subsided,) I feel our retirement home has been down graded.
Now comes the second phase. The dreadful noise generated by a nearby large compressor station. Noise that was so loud that our dog was too frightened to go outside to do his business without a lot of coaxing. Noise that sounds like a jet plane circling over your house for 24 hours a day. Noise that is constant. Noise that drives people to the breaking point. My neighbor called the sheriff, state officials and even the governor and was told nothing could be done about the noise. Like I said, the noise drives people to the breaking point, and my neighbor fired 17 rifle shots toward the station. Unfortunately he received a lot of grief for his actions; however he got the company's attention. And after many telephone calls and after numerous letters by various neighbors (and eight months later) the company owning the compressor station finally made some modifications to the compressor station to help alleviate some of the noise. However the noise is still a problem for a number of the neighbors. The company also planted 40 small trees around the station to create a sound barrier. I am already retired and at my old age do you really think 40 trees are going to help me? One methane producer using the compressor station said the noise wasn't so bad. Of course he doesn't live anywhere near it. The going phrase right now is that we all need to be good neighbors. In order to be a good neighbor I am being asked to accept the current noise level for the good of the industry and what the industry is doing for the State of Wyoming. All I can say is that my retirement home has taken one more step down for the worse.
Now I want to share with you one final event that has shattered our dream of living in our retirement home. A dream that began 14 years ago, when my wife and I moved to Gillette. We are finally licked. Last year my wife suffered severe asthma attacks on four different occasions. Even with medication and the use of a Breathalyzer she nearly had to go to the hospital emergency ward to get help to breathe. Why is this happening now and not before CBM development? It's because during the height of CBM development when you looked over the valleys surrounding our home and Gillette, you didn't see the clean air that once existed. I don't have time to go into details about the problem, but I can tell you I was so thankful for the recent moisture and wind to help clean the surrounding air we breathe. I cannot and will not allow my wife to suffer like she did last summer. My retirement home in the rural subdivision is now useless to me.
I can now relate to all those families that had to evacuate their homes in 1987 due to methane. However where they didn't have a solution to their problem, my problem with water, noise and air pollution could have been alleviated with advanced planning by industry in cooperation with the State of Wyoming. Guidelines would have been established to allow them to drill and ship in a responsible manner this valuable resource that exists in the Powder River Basin. I feel it isn't too late to establish these basic guidelines for the well being of ALL the citizens of Wyoming. We as citizens all have the right to enjoy the good life this great state has to offer. Right now that isn't the case for me. Thank you for allowing me to share with you my experience with methane while living in a rural subdivision.

Ron Moss
PRBRC Member
(Ed. note. Due to the conditions caused by CBM, Ron and his wife are leaving Wyoming.)

COAL BED METHANE AND AIR QUALITY

CBM Creates Dust Plague

It's been almost three years since Bev Sanders has been out of her climate-controlled house-other than to move from the house to an air-conditioned car. The attractive, fifty something ex-teacher has a heart condition that forced her to give up her teaching position in 1995. But what keeps her a prisoner of her home is not her heart but asthma, a condition that has been exacerbated by deteriorating air quality in Campbell County. "I used to walk all over the place," she laments, and now if I go anywhere, it's from the car to the mall." Bev's husband, Mel, who is also a teacher in the Campbell County school system, likens Gillette's air quality to "looking at a layer of pantyhose beige on the horizon." Last year, he says, it was that way all summer long. Nonetheless, when asked if she should consider moving, Bev says definitively, "Gillette is my home, and I would not choose to move unless I absolutely had to for my health." Bev has a seven-year-old grandson who also suffers from asthma. His condition has gotten so bad that he is on a nebulizer two to four times a day, and his family has sought relief through Jewish National Hospital. It doesn't help family stress levels, Bev adds, that her other two grandchildren have a rare genetic disorder called Hyper IgD Syndrome (HIDS), which makes their immune systems over react to the tiniest infection. There is no cure for HIDS, and people who have it can spend up to twenty days of each month sick. Bev is just thankful these two don't have asthma on top of the HIDS; although she admits that it may be too soon to tell with the younger one.
Asthma is not the only respiratory health complaint residents of the Powder River Basin have been experiencing the past two or three years. Other respiratory ailments, including "dust pneumonia" have been more prevalent, with some cases reported not only in human beings but in both cattle and horses. This past year brought some of the worst dust problems the Powder River Basin has seen since coalbed methane development became a reality. The prolonged drought the state has been suffering for the past four years has only made the situation worse. The problem has been so serious at times that Campbell County could face non-attainment air quality status--a situation that would jeopardize future power plant developments. Air quality monitoring stations strategically placed in southern Campbell County to check dust from coal mining activities have been picking up considerable amounts of coalbed methane traffic fugitive dust in recent years. In 2001, the monitors measured four instances in which the level of particulate matter smaller than 10 microns (PM10)-the size acknowledged by air quality experts as a health risk-exceeded standards in a 24-hour period.
According to John Spengler and colleagues from the Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, "Air pollution levels have been linked in medical and epidemiological studies to increased hospitalizations and deaths from respiratory and and cardiac failures." They mention two "landmark studies" to support their claim: The first, the "Harvard Six-Cities Study", published in 1993, found the risk of death in extremely polluted areas to be 26% higher than in areas with the lowest pollution levels; the second study, which was released by the American Cancer Society in 1995, found a 17% increase in mortality risk in areas with higher concentrations of fine particles. Dr. Spengler has data indicating that about 4% of the death rate in the U.S., or about 60,000 deaths, can be attributed to air pollution.
In response to the fugitive dust problem, Campbell County increased funding for its Road and Bridge Department for new gravel on high traffic roads, and budgeted $300,000 for magnesium chloride treatments. Some money for the dust settling chemical was contributed by coal and coalbed methane companies, but the bulk of funding for road treatments, and resurfacing, was contingent on a $1.43 million federal grant request by the 5-county Coalbed Methane Coordination Coalition through the Wyoming Department of Transportation-a grant that never came to fruition. The money, requested from the DOT's "Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program" (CMAQ), was turned down because the dust problem in Campbell County has not become severe enough to trigger the "non-attainment" clause in the regulation-meaning CMAQ funds cannot be used preventatively, but only reactively to treat a situation that has become unbearable. B.J. Christiansen of the Coalbed Methane Coordination Committee is confident these funds will still become available. He says his office will resubmit the funding request after the first of the year, using the "simple need" approach rather than the air quality approach they used the first time.

Gillian Malone
PRBRC Staff

September 12 2006


New York Times details coalbed methane extraction in Eastern Montana.

In the West, a Water Fight Over Quality, Not Quantity

By JIM ROBBINS


MILES CITY, Mont. — It is a strange fight, Montana ranchers say. Raising cattle here in the parched American outback of eastern Montana and Wyoming  has always been a battle to find enough water.

Mark Fix, a cattle rancher in eastern Montana, diverts about 2,000 gallons per minute of Tongue River water in the summer to grow hay for his livestock. But increased sodium in the water could endanger his hayfields.

Now there is more than enough water, but the wrong kind, they say, and they are fighting to keep it out of the river.
Mark Fix is a family rancher whose cattle operation depends on water from the Tongue River. Mr. Fix diverts about 2,000 gallons per minute of clear water in the summer to transform a dry river bottom into several emerald green fields of alfalfa, an oasis on dry rangeland. Three crops of hay each year enable him to cut it, bale it and feed it to his cattle during the long winter.
“Water means a guaranteed hay crop,” Mr. Fix said.
But the search for a type of natural gas called coal bed methane has come to this part of the world in a big way. The gas is found in subterranean coal, and companies are pumping water out of the coal and stripping the gas mixed with it. Once the gas is out, the huge volumes of water become waste in a region that gets less than 12 inches of rain a year.
In some cases, the water has benefited ranchers, who use it to water their livestock. But there is far more than cows can drink, and it needs to be dumped.
The companies have been pumping the wastewater into drainages that flow into the Tongue River, as well as two other small rivers that flow north into Montana, the Powder and Little Powder Rivers. Ranchers say the water contains high levels of sodium and if it is spread on a field, it can destroy the ability to grow anything.
“It makes the soil impervious,” said Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who is a soil scientist. “It changes it from a living, breathing thing into concrete.”
Ranchers like Mr. Fix say sodium in the water could render their hayfields unusable and drive them out of business.
The companies say that sodium is not the problem ranchers have made it out to be and that the Montana environmental standards cannot be met without great difficulty. They have filed suit in federal and Montana court to overturn the regulations.
The fight pits Montana against Wyoming. Wyoming has thrown the door open to coal bed methane producers, with 20,000 wells in the basin. Wyoming says its water quality standards, while different from those in Montana, are more reasonable and still protect water quality.
“Montana doesn’t need to be concerned,” said John Wagner, administrator of the Wyoming Water Quality Division. “We have real tough limits put on these discharges.”
The energy companies agree with Wyoming.
“There has been no documented impact to these drainages,” said David Searle, manager of governmental affairs for Marathon Oil, one of the companies that has methane wells in the region and is a party to the lawsuit. Montana’s regulations “are an overreaction and they are unnecessary,” Mr. Searle said. In some cases, he said, the standards are lower than background, or natural levels.
But Jill Morrison, a community organizer for the Powder River Basin Resource Council, a coalition of ranchers and environmentalists that has battled coal bed methane in Wyoming and has entered the lawsuit on Montana’s side, said ranchers should be worried.
“Wyoming wants to think it is doing a good job, but that’s laughable,” Ms. Morrison said. “You can see the changes in the vegetation and the salt deposits in the soil,” when ranchers try to use wastewater.
She also said that the huge volume of water alone could be a problem. Some riparian areas have adapted to natural ephemeral flows. But coal bed methane discharges flood the normally dry streambeds year round, and have eliminated native grasses. Too much water, she said, has killed 100-year-old cottonwood and box elder trees.
The problem has led to tension between two Democratic governors who are usually on friendlier terms. Last spring Gov. Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming asked the federal environmental protection administrator to appoint a mediator to settle the dispute. Governor Schweitzer chastised him, saying “nobody likes a tattletale to the teacher.”
But producers in Wyoming are clearly worried new wells will stymie a growth industry.
“It will have an impact on some projects, there’s no doubt,” Mr. Searle said.
Governor Freudenthal said the impact on development in his state could be serious.
The problem, Governor Schweitzer said, is aggravated by Wyoming’s refusal to release water into Montana to water rights holders that are senior to some in Wyoming, because that state interprets a 1950 water compact differently.
Governor Schweitzer vowed to defend vigorously the state’s right to set environmental standards. Coal bed methane water needs to be treated before it is released, or reinjected into the ground in Wyoming, he said, something producers say is too expensive. He is not persuaded.
“The country needs coal bed methane,” he said. “But they can’t come in and destroy an industry, the cattle industry, that’s been in the family for 100 years. These people aren’t getting rich, they’re just making a living.”
###




NORTHERN PLAINS RESOURCE COUNCIL
220 South 27th Street, Suite A
Billings, Montana 59101
tel: (406) 248-1154
fax: (406) 248-2110
info@northernplains.org
\

NEWS FROM CUSTER BATTLEFIELD


Chief Historian John Doerner has been working hard to add new markers to sites of importance to Cheyennes at Custer Battlefield, or more properly Little Bighorn National Battlefield at Crow Agency, Montana.

Formerly the only markers on the field were those for soldiers of the 7th Cavalry killed in the battle.

John Stands in Timber, Northern Cheyenne Tribal Historian and author with Margot Liberty of "Cheyenne Memories" (Yale University Press, New Edition 1998) worked with former historian Don Rickey some years ago to place a marker for his grandfather Lame White Man, a Southern Cheyenne leader who was one of the seven Cheyennes killed in the fight. For many years this was the only Indian marker on the battlefield.

Lately, however, Doerner has been working with Friends of the Little Bighorn to add markers for other Cheyenne and Sioux warriors. These are made of red stone, in clear contrast to the white marble markers for the soldiers.

An extensive and near-complete list of Sioux and Cheyenne participants in the battle can be seen at the Friends of the Little Bighorn web site at http://www.friendslittlebighorn.com.
Northern Cheyenne tribal member Clifford Long Sioux (Eaglefeathers) is vice president of the Friends of the Little Bighorn organization. The other officers are President, Bob Reece; Secretary, Dr. Chuck Merkel (Temporary Leave of Absense); Treasurer, Chip Watts; Dr. Brian Dippie; Jerry Jasmer; Neil Mangum; Lola Mauer; Winfield Russell; Mike Semenock and Robert Utley.

The Friends is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) association, established in 1998, whose purpose is to raise funds to aid and directly promote management programs and objectives of the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. The Friends of the Little Bighorn Battlefield is the official National Park Service cooperating association affiliated with the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument and Best Website on the Battle of the Little Bighorn

New Warrior Markers

Three new warrior markers for the Suicide Boys who fell near the end of the battle will be placed near Deep Ravine Trail. These Cheyenne warriors were Limber Bones, Cut Belly, and Closed Hand. Another marker for Little Whirl Wind will be placed at Reno-Benteen. Little Whirl Wind was killed fighting the Arikira scouts during the Valley Fight.

These markers have been a long-time project of Friends V.P. Clifford Long Sioux and now he will finally see them come to be. These markers are important because of visibility. Out of the five warrior markers placed, only one is easily seen beside a trail – Long Road’s marker at Reno-Benteen. These new markers will be seen from the visitor center and up close along the trail.


Historian and Curation

Park Historian John Doerner and volunteers from the Crazy Horse family and other tribal delegates participated in a walk over, last fall, of the battlefield to find potential sites for future placement of Red Granite Markers for fallen warriors. Any and all potential sites will be cross referenced with warrior accounts and other materials for justification of placement of warrior markers. This is an ongoing project of inclusion, based upon the adopted theme, “Peace through Unity”, which began with the name change of the battlefield in the early 1990’s.

Sharon Small returned to the Curation position this summer. She will continue the ongoing work of preservation of artifacts, and research and care of museum displays. Sharon is presently pursuing her Doctorate Degree at the University of Montana, in Missoula.


Indian Memorial

Consultations continue with the tribes who are historically connected to the battle. The goal is to finalize the text for the inside wall of the Indian Memorial. The most recent meeting with Cheyenne, Lakota and Arapahoe occurred this past February. The text is becoming more focused and nearing completion.
Northern Cheyenne Tribal Chairman Eugene Littlecoyote indicated recently that he would like to see some attention given to the story of Yellownose, a Cheyenne warrior who counted coup on a Custer soldier with a captured company flag.

Search for Northern Cheyenne at Indian Country Today newspaper
yielded many results as recent as Sept. 22 2006

http://www.indiancountry.com/search.cfm?category=8&category2=2&author=0
&phrase=Northern%20Cheyenne&startdate=&enddate=&CFID=12179029&CFTOKEN

such as

Dull Knife run honors ancestors and youth
Posted: January 13, 2006
CUSTER, S.D. - The road from Fort Robinson in Nebraska to the Northern Cheyenne reservation in Montana is 400 miles, yet runners as young as 7 made the run to honor ancestors who lost their lives at the fort while attempting to return home. The annual Fort Robinson Outbreak Spiritual Run is primarily a ceremonial run to honor the ancestors. It also brings youth and adults together, teaches history and culture and creates a bond between family, youth and elders.
more >>


Premiere: 'Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action'
Posted: February 02, 2005
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The feature-length documentary ''Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action'', telling the story of Navajo, Northern Cheyenne, Gwich'in and Penobscot environmental and human rights violations, will premiere Feb. 3 at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
more >>


Northern Cheyenne drop lawsuit
Posted: September 04, 2002
LAME DEER, Mont. ﾖ About 45 members of the Northern Cheyenne tribe rallied here on Aug. 19 to protest a decision to drop a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Church. Protesters also called for the removal of Tribal Chairman Geri Small and tribal attorneys Steve Chestnut and Steve Kelly, and protested a settlement with the state of Montana over coal development on lands adjacent to the reservation. The Northern Cheyenne Tribe had sued the church in July for its share of "hundreds of millions of dollars" raised since 1884 by the St. Labre Mission School, which operates campuses on the Northern Cheyenne and Crow
reservations.
more >>
Sand Creek returned to rightful owners




Owner stalls Sand Creek historic site
Posted: March 19, 2002
CHIVINGTON, Colo. ﾖ A rancher whose land holds numerous cultural and historic sites related to the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 has put the site up for public sale. More than 1,400 acres of William Dawson's land is key to the proposed Sand Creek National Historic Site, yet it could come under private ownership and be used for whatever the new owner decides, Dawson said.
more >>


Northern Cheyenne Tribe, Montana
Posted: May 09, 2001
The Tongue River Water Users Association filed a lawsuit late last month alleging the Department of Environmental Quality issued a water discharge permit to a coalbed methane company that violates several state laws. The irrigators said the permit allows Redstone Gas Partners, now known as Fidelity Exploration Production Co., to discharge millions of gallons of untreated waste water into the river in violation of the Montana Water Quality, Montana Environmental Policy and Water Use acts. "Fidelity's discharge ... impairs our ability to honor our commitments to irrigators along the Tongue River, and to the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, and is illegal under Montana Law," said Art Hayes, a rancher near Birney and association president. He said a main concern is that the discharge water is high in sodium and has high SAR (sodium absorption ratio) values. The SAR is a measure of the degree to which sodium will accumulate in soil irrigated with the water. Water with high SARs can kill plants. Representatives of the Northern Plains Resources Council and the Montana Environmental Center said they also plan to file a similar suit against the DEQ challenging the permit. Click to Enlarge

Two-state leaders council reorganizes
Posted: March 07, 2001
BILLINGS, Mont. - Reorganization of the Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council will allow subcommittees to keep the organization connected to the grass-roots needs of the tribes and give them more control.
more >>


Northern Cheyenne Tribe, Montana
Posted: May 17, 2000
The reservation community received an $817,000 award from the state Department of Health and Human Resources to fund a comprehensive, community-based prevention effort to reduce alcohol, tobacco and other drugs by reservation youths. Lead agency for the incentive program is the Boys and Girls Club of the Northern Cheyenne Nation in a partnership including Dull Knife Memorial College, the Northern Cheyenne Youth Task Force, St. Labre Indian School, Lame Deer and Ashland public schools, and the Northern Cheyenne tribal schools. The grant will "serve to dramatically strengthen and solidify the efforts of a dedicated core of entities in the greater reservation community committed to the effort," said project director Brooke Gondara. Efforts will be directed at attaining a healthier community. The funds are a part of a three-year award to the state. Click to Enlarge

This link connects to a PBS program account of CBM damage to water and agriculture in Wyoming.

FEATURE ARTICLE - January 20, 2003
A breath of fresh air
by Bob Struckman and Ray Ring
EMAIL ARTICLE
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WRITE THE EDITOR


CHEYENNE VIGILANCE: Gail Small leads Native Action, a Northern Cheyenne activist group that helps protect the reservation from impacts of the 2,000-megawatt Colstrip power plant and five huge coal strip mines, which nearly surround the reservation. Ken Kania
Related Articles
Tribes gain power through federal environmental laws Today, 15 tribes manage their own air-quality programs under the federal Clean Air Act.
A mine falls, and a tribe may get the shaft Part of the price of stopping the planned New World Mine near Yellowstone may turn out to be the development of coal reserves along Otter Creek, next to the Northern Cheyenne Reservation.

Surrounded by a massive industrial buildup, the Northern Cheyenne tribe defends its homeland
BADGER PEAK, Mont. — Stand on a rocky outcrop on this modest, pine-clad mountain, the highest point on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, and gaze northward, and you can see the four smokestacks of Montana’s largest power plant, Colstrip, clustered on the horizon, 16 miles away. The stacks puff like giant cigarettes. And today, from near the stacks, a separate black plume of smoke rises.
The plume drifts southwest on the prevailing winds, toward Badger Peak and tribal air space.
Jay Littlewolf, an air-quality technician for the Northern Cheyenne, says the smoke comes from the huge strip mine that feeds coal to the furnaces of the power plant. “Must be blasting to loosen the coal beds,” he says.
Other than the smokestacks and the black plume, there is no trace of industry in sight. Red rocky ridges roll out to brown-grass plains under high wispy clouds and blue sky.
Littlewolf steps into the tribe’s air-quality monitoring station on the peak. It’s little more than a stuffy shack, with a dozen mousetraps on the floor. But the sensitive equipment housed here measures traces of air pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide, and weather conditions, such as wind speed and direction. A new digital camera takes twice-a-day photos of the skies over the Colstrip stacks and mine.
“A few years ago, we would have heard rumors about a plume like that,” Littlewolf says. “But with (the camera), we’ll have visuals to go along with the rest of our data.”
This is one of three mountaintop air-monitoring stations the tribe has deployed along the reservation border closest to Colstrip, making sure the drifting smoke doesn’t violate the tribe’s air-quality standards, which are some of the toughest in the U.S. It’s a line of defense held by one of the most determined environmental programs anywhere.

GENTLE COUNTRY: The Tongue River, used by the Northern Cheyenne for irrigation and sacred ceremonies, flows along the reservation’s eastern border; the river, creeks and springs on the reservation are threatened by runoff from coalbed-methane development. Larry Mayer
In southeast Montana, the Northern Cheyenne Reservation is an island. The tribe has been nearly surrounded by no less than five huge strip mines, as well as the Colstrip power plant, haulage railroads and transmission lines. Montana’s only active coalbed methane field sucks gas and groundwater from several hundred wells near the reservation’s southern border, and there are proposals for thousands more methane wells. And a few miles east of the reservation, in the only direction still undeveloped, the Montana state government has allied with industry seeking to create a new strip mine, and possibly build another power plant and railroad.
Yet for 30 years, the Northern Cheyenne — a relatively small and isolated tribe — have fought powerful corporations that want to develop the coalbeds that underlie almost every inch of the reservation. They have done what many other tribes have been unable to do: protected their land and culture, and repeatedly reached beyond their borders to battle development off the reservation.
But economic paralysis is testing the tribe’s resolve. Some Northern Cheyenne are starting to see coal and gas royalties as a solution to the reservation’s crushing poverty, crime, alcoholism and drug abuse.
“People are hungry here, they’re dying, they suffer day by day. They fight over a $15 food voucher,” says Danny Sioux, who just finished a term on the tribal council. “I went to 47 funerals (last) year, mostly young people. We have tremendous social problems.”
He is among those who want to take up mining and drilling to generate jobs and an economy. “That’s the only option we have. We have spent the last 30 years in litigation (against coal companies), we’ve blackmailed the socks off these corporations, and how has it helped our situation?”
Will the Northern Cheyenne hold out, or give in to industrial development? Is there a third way — to avoid invasion by corporations, but still gain from small-scale development? These questions hold implications for Indians and non-Indians alike, as a new wave of energy development sweeps into the West.

A hard-won homeland
The Northern Cheyenne environmental stand continues a long tribal tradition. The tribe’s resistance to white settlers, prospectors and the U.S. Cavalry is legendary: They helped the Sioux tribe wipe out Gen. George Armstrong Custer’s men in the Battle of the Little Bighorn (just west of the reservation’s present boundary) in 1876.

STRONG TRADITIONS: When the federal government relocated the Northern Cheyenne tribe to Oklahoma in the 1870s, chiefs Little Wolf and Dull Knife (seated) led several hundred men, women and children in an attempt to walk back to Montana in 1878. L.A. Huffman
The Northern Cheyenne endured broken treaties and massacres, but even when the tribe was eventually relocated to Oklahoma with the Southern Cheyenne (who lived on the Central Plains), the resistance continued. In 1878, led by chiefs Dull Knife and Little Wolf, some 300 Northern Cheyenne men, women and children tried to walk from Oklahoma back to Montana, trudging through snowstorms and dodging an estimated 13,000 soldiers and vigilantes.
More than 60 Northern Cheyenne were killed on that walk, memorialized in the semi-accurate Hollywood movie, Cheyenne Autumn. But some made it to Montana, and the tribe was granted a reservation here in the Tongue River country in 1884.
The Northern Cheyenne Indian reservation is not large. Over the years, its boundaries have been adjusted, and now it encompasses about 707 square miles of rugged, semi-arid country, rising up to Badger Peak’s 4,422-foot elevation. Ponderosa pines dot the long red ridges, and sagebrush, skunkweed and prairie grasses fill the narrow valleys. The Tongue River meanders along the eastern border.
“We had to fight for it, with our spirit (and) our determination to continue and survive as a people on our land,” says Joe Little Coyote, the tribe’s economic development planner.
During community meetings, old men still rise to expound on the lessons learned at Little Bighorn and lesser-known confrontations, such as the Battle of the Rosebud on June 17, 1876, in which a woman warrior, whose name has been translated as Buffalo Calf Road Woman, fought bravely and saved her brother’s life.
The struggles didn’t end once the Northern Cheyenne won their reservation. Generations since have faced tough times, trying to survive on small-scale ranching, logging and federal assistance, far from any city, airport or interstate highway.
Yet under the reservation’s surface lie arguably the biggest coal reserves held by any tribe — an estimated 20 to 50 billion tons, part of a coal belt that stretches from southeast Montana into Wyoming. The coal tends to be low-sulfur, relatively clean-burning and desirable as a fuel for power plants. Large-scale strip mining began on land near the reservation in 1968, and when the Arab oil embargo sparked an energy crisis in the early 1970s, the coal companies ramped up production.
At first, the tribe saw this as an opportunity. From 1966 to 1971, the tribal council signed coal leases with a half-dozen corporations and speculators, including Peabody Coal, Consolidated Coal, and Amax Coal.
The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs acted as trustee for the tribe, theoretically watching out for the tribe’s interests. But the BIA didn’t even complete an environmental impact statement, and the leases covered more than half the reservation. The agency sold the exploration rights for about $9 per acre, and the tribe would have received royalties of no more than 17.5 cents a ton for any coal mined.
“The BIA had sold our coal for less than gravel,” says Gail Small, the outspoken leader of Native Action, a Northern Cheyenne activist group.
“The federal and tribal representatives were clearly overmatched” in those lease negotiations, says Jason Whiteman Jr., a Northern Cheyenne who has worked in the tribe’s environmental program since the 1970s. “We had no idea what the impacts would be,” he says, and the terms of the deal were “unconscionable.”
The Northern Cheyenne began to understand the implications as the corporations drilled thousands of exploration holes and announced plans to build power plants on the reservation. Such development would threaten more than the tribe’s cattle ranches and crops. It would strike at the underlying tribal culture. “I remember seeing blueprints for boomtowns of 30,000 people on the reservation — we would’ve been a minority here,” says Whiteman.

DIGGING THE LAND: The Big Sky Mine, run by the world’s largest coal company, Peabody Energy, stripped about 2.5 million tons of coal in 2001 a few miles north of the reservation, and shipped it by rail to the Minnesota Power company. Larry Mayer
So the tribe set out to regain control of the reservation. Charismatic tribal chairman Allen Rowland — a former truck driver and janitor who carried Japanese shrapnel in his flesh, a souvenir of his service in World War II — led the fight in the 1970s. The tribe hired a series of lawyers, including an Osage Indian named George Crossland, and a white lawyer from Seattle, Steve Chestnut. Some of the pioneering white environmentalists in Montana also came to the reservation to help organize.
“The first leaflet had (a headline summing up the threat of development): ‘The termination of the Northern Cheyenne,’ ” recalls Bill Bryan, who ran the Northern Rockies Action Group back then.
Claiming the BIA had violated laws and neglected its role as trustee, the Northern Cheyenne presented a 600-page petition to then-Secretary of Interior Rogers C.B. Morton. It was a bold move. Working the highest levels of federal government, within a few years the tribe got all those coal leases canceled, forced the corporations to pay about $10 million in damages, and gained control of another 7,000 acres one corporation had bought for mining.

Victory upon victory
Throughout the 1970s, Tribal Chairman Rowland helped foster a younger generation of budding activists and leaders, who were so inspired and empowered by early victories that they have retained a sense of mission and optimism ever since. This core has made all the difference.
Among the innovative steps taken by Rowland in those days was a youth program in which local kids traveled by bus to visit coal mines in Wyoming and on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. Gail Small recalls sitting for a photograph with about 20 fellow students in a huge mechanical shovel near Gillette, Wyo., and feeling awed by the immense power of the mining operation.
“We were sent out as scouts, and on the way home we talked about it. We got fired up. We knew that, given the chance, we would be exploited,” says Small, who earned a law degree at the University of Oregon and worked with California tribes, then came home to work with her people.
Rowland also began the Northern Cheyenne Research Project, which tapped federal money to attract scientists from across the nation to the reservation to brainstorm ways to tackle environmental issues. Tribal members like Jason Whiteman apprenticed in the Research Project and began running the tribe’s environmental program.
With that momentum, the Northern Cheyenne took the offensive. When a consortium of utilities sought to expand the Colstrip power plant, the tribe found leverage through the federal Clean Air Act. It became the first government of any kind to voluntarily raise its air-quality standard to the highest level, a Class I Airshed — the same as national parks and wilderness areas.
“We got our Class I designation on August 5, 1977,” says Jay Littlewolf, who knows the date by heart, “two days before the first parks and wilderness areas got it.”

Danny Sioux, who has served on the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council, thinks the tribe should try coal mining to help develop the tribal capital, Lame Deer (in the background), and alleviate poverty on the reservation. Jay Littlewolf
The Northern Cheyenne forced the utilities to spend $500 million to equip the Colstrip stacks with the best air-pollution scrubbers, Littlewolf says. Those corporations also agreed to fund the tribe’s air-monitoring program, as well as provide college scholarships and job preferences for tribal members.
As industry pressures increased, the Northern Cheyenne continued to stand tough in courts and gain concessions from corporations in savvy negotiations. The tribe voided industry-friendly coal leases made on three sides of the reservation by the Reagan administration’s secretary of Interior, James Watt, in 1982, and canceled the permit for the Montco mine just east of the reservation in 1997. The Northern Cheyenne also cancelled the allotment of much of the reservation’s subsurface mineral rights to individual tribal members and heirs — something coal speculators had hoped to take advantage of. Now the tribe effectively retains ownership of all the subsurface rights on the reservation.
Northern Cheyenne leaders have also worked with Native Action and the Northern Plains Resource Council, a Billings-based environmental group whose members include white ranchers, to block the development of a new railroad along the Tongue River, which has been pushed by coal speculators for several decades.
Now the tribe is working on a tough water-quality program, building its enforcement power on the federal Clean Water Act. “We’re developing our own water-quality standards,” says Joe Walksalong Jr., a tribal water-quality technician, “equal to or better than the federal and state standards.”

Reservation economy languishes
The Northern Cheyenne have done a remarkable job of looking out for their land and air, but they have had a more difficult time caring for their people.
These days, 4,200 Northern Cheyenne live on the reservation, and at least 65 percent are unemployed, with fully 87 percent living in poverty, according to the tribe’s own economic analysis in 2001. Average annual income that year was $4,479.
In many places on the reservation, basic services like drinking water are not reliable. Housing is shoddy and hard to find. Up to eight families crowd into a single dwelling, while 700 families sit on a waiting list for housing. Infant mortality ranks among the worst in the U.S., and average life expectancy is only 60 years, compared to 77 for the nation as a whole. There are high rates of substance abuse, diabetes, violence and crime.
A few families run B&Bs and other small businesses that cater to the scarce tourists who come here. But the tribal sawmill has shut down. Most grazing land is in the hands of a few extended families. Eighty-five percent of the cultivatable farmland is not being farmed, and most of that is infested with weeds.
The reservation’s land, fought for by some, is neglected by others. Roads are lined with dirty diapers, aluminum cans and other litter, and right on the main highway, there’s an open dump.
Things are so difficult, about 3,200 Northern Cheyenne live off the reservation. “Almost 50 percent of the population has moved away, because there is no opportunity here,” says Danny Sioux, who served on the tribal council from 1986 to 1988 and from 1998 through last November, when he lost a bid for re-election.

Map. Diane Sylvain
If the tribe developed its own coal, he says, it would go a long way toward solving economic problems. Even at the low royalties of the leases that were canceled in the 1970s, the tribe’s coal is worth at least $3 billion.
In fact, despite the tribe’s reputation for environmental protection at all costs, many Northern Cheyenne have pushed for some kind of natural-resource development.
A proposal for conventional oil and gas drilling on the reservation was put to a vote in 1980, and won overwhelming approval. The tribe struck a $6 million deal with ARCO for exploration rights, but ARCO drilled a few holes and decided the project wasn’t feasible. Tribal chairman Edwin Dahle, who generally took an environmental stance while in office, supported a proposal to open a mine just east of the reservation in 1990. But that proposal stalled out.
Steve Chestnut, the Seattle lawyer who has represented the Northern Cheyenne in many environmental battles, says he’s advised the tribe to do limited commercial coal mining on the reservation. “The Cheyenne have a fabulous coal reserve, and they can’t bring themselves to develop even a small piece of it,” Chestnut says, adding that while he respects that position, “they are paying a price for preservation.”
Danny Sioux has worked in the mines and trained other miners; he has also worked for the power plant, at times in the control room, running a turbine. He’s had tribal jobs as well, and now ekes out a living by repairing fences, leasing out his small piece of grazing land and doing odd jobs. He points out that industrial jobs pay far better than other local jobs, and that some Northern Cheyenne have had careers in the industry. “It would be a blessing for this tribe,” he says, if the latest possibility of starting a mine just east of the reservation pans out.
The tribe should become “a shareholder” in that project, he says, and also develop the reservation’s coal. He also believes that the tribe should try limited methane development, with small, 20-megawatt modular power plants linked to a few wells.
“The tribe could be in control of development. We could try to do it right,” Sioux says. “Economically, that would generate a tremendous income to the tribe. We could set up a training program” and a facility where tribal members could be employed in a range of enterprises.
But when he lost the election last fall, Danny Sioux was cast as “Coalbed-methane Danny” by some opponents. Collective opinion is hard to measure now, but most Northern Cheyenne still apparently don’t like the idea of strip mining and coalbed-methane development on the reservation.

Development comes with a price
That kind of development, on the reservation or nearby, would add to the environmental impacts already being felt from the current mining, power-plant furnaces and methane drilling.
The mammoth Colstrip plant, with 2,000-megawatt capacity, burns about 10 million tons of coal each year. Even with the scrubbers on the smokestacks, the plant emitted about 19,000 tons of sulfur dioxide in 2001, and 35,000 tons of nitrogen oxide, 3,700 tons of particulates, 2,400 tons of carbon monoxide, and 343 tons of volatile organic compounds. The five strip mines altogether throw about 4,000 tons of pollution into the air each year, mostly dust from blasting and trucks on haul roads.
As the air pollution spreads over the vast open spaces, it has caused no noteworthy air-quality violations on the reservation in recent years. The power-plant operators, originally Montana Power Co. and now PPL Montana, report good relations with the tribe. But the emissions likely contribute to an occasional haze on the horizon, a haze also fed by more distant power plants, cars in Billings, Mont., and other sources of smoke.
The mines take bites out of the landscape, digging as much as 200 feet deep and a mile long. Jim Mockler, director of the Montana Coal Council, cites the success of some mine reclamation in the area. “We have shown we can mine the coal and do it right, return the (surface of the) land to good condition.” But even good reclamation doesn’t entirely restore native vegetation. The mines also consume sandstone cliffs that hold petroglyphs and pictographs, and affect groundwater, seeps and springs.
Coalbed-methane development, which requires moving huge volumes of often salty groundwater, takes over entire landscapes and impacts water below and on the surface (HCN, 9/2/02: Backlash). The Tongue River is already receiving salty runoff from methane wells upriver, Joe Walksalong says, and the runoff in the river and in Rosebud Creek will likely increase with expanded methane development. There are plans for up to 16,000 new methane wells near the reservation.
The threats to water are particularly troubling to the Northern Cheyenne. Surface water is used for irrigating crops and pasture, but the meaning of water reaches deeper than its uses. Many springs and the river figure in Cheyenne sacred ceremonies that date back generations. “Cheyenne live all along the river,” says Gail Small. “They bathe in the river, a ceremonial for healing, when the roots of a certain plant in the headwaters are at highest strength.”
As much as he wants economic development, Joe Little Coyote agrees: “We don’t want to do anything that might impact our water, no matter how good it looks.” So he doesn’t want mining on the reservation, and has instead put together 111 pages of analysis, calling for the tribe to establish a commerce department, seed local businesses, and develop energy projects tapping renewable resources such as wind and solar. Gail Small’s group, Native Action, is pressuring a regional bank to open a branch in Lame Deer, so that loans will be easier to acquire. And other efforts to jump-start an economy are afoot.
Tribal President Geri Small — Gail Small’s sister, who was elected in 2000 — says, “I’ve been told that if we mined our coal, we’d be millionaires.” But she is against mining and methane: “We want to keep our homeland, keep it intact.”

Resurgence of the culture
In many tales of Indian sovereignty, tribes have given up control of their land and resources. Just to the west, on the neighboring Crow Reservation, for example, that tribe leased some of its coal for a mine that has been digging for 30 years. And the Crow recently struck a deal with a Denver corporation to develop coalbed methane on their reservation.
But there are no good examples of tribes developing their natural resources so far, says A. David Lester, director of the Council of Energy Resource Tribes, based in Denver. Tribes that have tried coal mining, like the Crow and Navajo, don’t have appreciably better living conditions and economies on their reservations, he says, because they let outsiders — corporations and the federal government — set low royalties and dictate the other terms.
“It’s hard to say that natural-resource economic development, with the model that’s been used, produces any real benefits for any tribe, or any sustainable economic activity,” Lester says. A tribe is wiser not to make any deals until it can retain control of how development is done, so “it fits in your values and culture.”
That’s what the Northern Cheyenne are doing: Preserving the tribe’s land and culture from an onslaught of outsiders, as well as defending the reservation against environmental threats.
The dismal statistics on economic and social problems don’t show the strengths of the Northern Cheyenne culture. “It’s a communal way of life,” says Gail Small. “A lot of people who have never been part of a tribe have a hard time understanding it.”
She and other Northern Cheyenne leaders cite a resurgence in the Northern Cheyenne language, and the revival of the sweat lodge and other sacred ceremonies, especially the Sun Dance — three days of fasting and dancing that purify individuals and the tribe.
“More young people are getting into the role of spiritual leader,” says Zane Spang, who works at the tribe’s Dull Knife College, where about 100 students pursue two-year degrees in fields such as business and computers. “I think it’s a sense of pride. It identifies the individual as a member of the culture.”
“Families pool their resources and give away (piles of) gifts at powwows and funerals,” reports Duane Champagne of the University of California-Los Angeles, a sociologist who has studied the tribe. “Cheyenne values emphasize cooperation, sharing, generosity, religious spirituality and tribal welfare, all of which conflict with Western notions of competition, materialism, self-interest and individual achievement.”
“The cultural infrastructure here has no room for individualists,” agrees Joe Little Coyote. So far, that makes capitalism the odd man out. But if the tribal culture is going to endure, the Northern Cheyenne must address their economic and social problems somehow. If they continue to stand firm on protecting the environment, they will have to find new ways to meet those challenges.
Jay Littlewolf drives his pickup truck from Badger Peak on teeth-clacking dirt roads, past holy springs marked by cloth tied to bushes and trees. At the tribe’s Natural Resources office, the rear half of a Quonset hut at the edge of Lame Deer, he meets Jason Whiteman and several more coworkers, who wear gloves and carry shovels and rakes. Everyone’s talking about a cleanup that’s under way today, of an unofficial dump near Lame Deer Creek.
Shortly, Whiteman and a technician head off toward the reservation’s southern boundary, scouting for a site where one of six water-monitoring wells will be established to check for impacts from current and future coal and methane development.
“The companies will never leave us alone,” says Whiteman. “They will always be knocking at the door.”

Bob Struckman lived in Montana for more than 20 years, and now writes from Boulder, Colorado. Ray Ring is HCN’s editor in the field, based in Bozeman, Montana.

Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action is a film which can be seen by making arrangements with the Cultural Center at Chief Dull Knife College. It includes 

Gail Small: The Coal Wars
Northern Cheyenne Reservation, Lame Deer, Montana 
 Evon Peter: The People and the Caribou Are One
Arctic Village, Alaska 
 Rita & Mitchel Capitan: Yellowcake, New Mexico
Navajo Reservation, New Mexico 
 Barry Dana: A People and Their River
Penobscot River, Maine

Small is an attorney and long-time activist leading the fight to protect the Cheyenne homeland from the ruin caused by 75,000 proposed coal bed methane gas wells - wells that threaten to salinate the Tongue River and make much of the reservation unsuitable for farming or ranching.

Current Developments
• Northern Cheyenne Tribe had a partial victory on February 25, 2005 when a federal judge in Billings, Montana ruled that a statewide environmental study by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of coalbed methane development in Montana was inadequate. This ruling comes from lawsuits filed in 2003 against BLM and the Department of Interior Secretary Gale Norton by the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and the Northern Plains Resource Council.
• In 2002, the state of Montana sold leases to Fidelity Exploration & Production Co. for natural gas development. These leases are along the Tongue River, which borders the Northern Cheyenne reservation. Fidelity lawyers noted that the 1900 federal order giving the tribe at least half the width of the riverbed. To solve this issue, Fidelity filed a lawsuit in July 2004 asking who owns the riverbed. The state argued they owned the riverbed because Montana has a "prior and superior ownership claim" as a state government since 1889. However, on February 7, 2005, the state decided not to intervene in the case, instead preferring to resolve related issues, such as the establishment of "environmentally sound" water quality regulations for the river.
• In 2002, Northern Cheyenne petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect the water of the Tongue River. Nearly a year later, the agency office in Denver gave a preliminary okay. The petition stated that salt content in the water from coalbed methane projects must be cut by a third. However, at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., the Cheyenne petition stalled. Protests by the states of Montana and Wyoming, as well as pressure from methane producers are part of the reason for the delay. When pressed for the reason behind the delay, the EPA declared that the tribe's legal argument was "novel" and "insufficient"-never mind that it was the EPA's Denver office that had suggested using the Clean Water Act and the state compact as justification for regulating the river.

 

FOR full text of 2005 ARTICLE Gail Small: The Coal Wars
Northern Cheyenne Reservation,
Lame Deer, Montana

PLEASE ACCESS THE LINK POSTED VOICES FROM THE EARTH



The Cheyenne themselves are about eight thousand tribal members and we live on about 500,000 acres of land here in Southeastern Montana. The land is tied to the culture, to the language, to the view point. There's a tremendous spiritual connection to our homeland that is the core of the fight here.
All my life my people have been fighting to keep strip mining off our reservation. Right now, our tribal lands are surrounded by Montana's largest power plant, five massive strip mines and the largest coal-fired generating complex in the country.


Gail Small: The Coal Wars
Northern Cheyenne Reservation,
Lame Deer, Montana
I've always known that this is the place I was meant to be. This is my source of strength here.
This land that I live on today with my four kids, it's my mother's family's land. And her family, they're buried right behind us here in the hills.
The Cheyenne themselves are about eight thousand tribal members and we live on about 500,000 acres of land here in Southeastern Montana. The land is tied to the culture, to the language, to the view point. There's a tremendous spiritual connection to our homeland that is the core of the fight here.
All my life my people have been fighting to keep strip mining off our reservation. Right now, our tribal lands are surrounded by Montana's largest power plant, five massive strip mines and the largest coal-fired generating complex in the country.


When the Bush administration came into office in 2000, Vice President Dick Cheney held a series of closed-door meetings to shape this nation's energy policy. This country will never know exactly what went on in those meetings with energy lobbyists. But what happened to us was this: the Tongue River Valley, where we live, was opened up to massive development.
They're basically coming in and sizing up what's left in the United States, and it's like whatever they can take, they're trying to take. They're streamlining, gutting, whatever laws are out there. It's kind of like the Gold Rush days. There's a rush to get Indian energy resources. What they want right now is not so much coal, as natural gas.

I think the water's alive, it's moving. With water here, we can live forever. And as long as the river flows, the grass grows, you always have a homeland. But once it's destroyed, I don't know what's going to become of us.
COWBOY FISHER, NORTHERN CHEYENNE


This is our land, we were born and raised here. And we are part of this land, part of this earth. We would go with my grandmother to pick cherries and buffalo berries. And when we approach the trees, my grandmother, she would stand there and talk -- actually talk to the trees and say we're going to pick you, we're not here to abuse you. We are very closely connected with this earth and we have to respect it and treat it like it's our very own mother.
FREDA STANDING ELK, NORTHERN CHEYENNE


This isn't the first time we've been up against the energy giants. The Cheyenne reservation, carved from land once considered too barren for farming or ranching, ironically turns out to sit atop one of the largest deposits of clean-burning coal in the world. Deposits estimated to be worth over $200 billion.
I

the BIA came in with specialists and told the tribe this is a real good deal.

It was economic blackmail. Our tribe was so poor we didn't even have running water in our houses. Even today the average income here is only around $10,000.


So the companies were going to come in, and we had a stand off with them where we wouldn't allow them to cross into our homeland.
At 21, I was the youngest member of the tribal negotiating committee working to get the coal leases cancelled. I was also the only one with a college degree. It was a long hard road. It took 15 years, but we finally won. In the 1980s, the courts ruled in our favor and all the leases on our lands were cancelled.


The people here could all be millionaires if they would sign on the dotted-line and go into a major energy contract. But they vote and they've chosen to say no. For thirty some years, they voted and said no. Now that to me is almost like a miracle. I mean, you look at any other people in the world who have been given this abundance of wealth, and for over thirty some years have said no. It's really a story that I find no analogy to.


Our values come from our ancestors. They give us the strength to fight for this last, small island of land that we live on today.

In the summer of 1876, the Cheyenne joined with the Sioux and the Arapaho for one last stab at freedom in what would become known at the Battle of Little Big Horn.

After the Custer battle, we were marched to Oklahoma as prisoners of war. Hundreds of our people died of disease and starvation. The Cheyenne decided they would rather die fighting. They told the military that they were returning to their beloved North Country. They asked that they get a little ways north before they made the ground bloody. They were relentlessly pursued as they made the brutal trek to the Powder River Basin, hundreds of miles on foot. Only 300 Cheyenne people survived. But finally, we were granted a small reservation here along the Tongue River.

It almost makes you cry what our people went through, endured for me to be living here today. For me to be raising my kids here. It's a very heroic tale of the strength and the courage of the Cheyenne people.

It's very powerful to have that kind of history. And it's not something you just sign away on a piece of paper and say, make me a millionaire tomorrow and I'll give up all this land and this history. It's not the Cheyenne way to do that.

American Heritage Book of Indians 1961



p. 337 “Above all, the new world of the horse brought time and temptation to dream. The plains are afloat in mysterious space, and the winds come straight from heaven. Anyone alone in the plains turns into a mystic. The plains had always been a place for dreams, but with horses they were more so. Something happens to a man when he gets on a horse, in a country where he can ride at a run forever; it is quite easy to ascend to an impression of living in a myth. He either feels like a god or feels closer to God, There seems never to have been a race of plains horsemen that was not either fanatically proud or fanatically religious. The Plains Indians were both. “
A man dreamed of the horse he would capture, and of what sort of feathers to wear in his hair, and the paint to put on his face, and the foe he would kill, and the girls he would marry, and the pattern to put on his shield, and the way he would die.
With horse prosperity entire tribes could gather every year or two or three for observances of the greatest solemnity, when the tribe was reunited and renewed. Such observations took a variety of forms with different peoples, but the principal appeal to dreams and visions, the Sun Dance, was common to nearly all the peoples of the Plains. For days and nights (usually four)the dedicated participants went without food or water and stared fixedly at the top of a central pole, where a red painted buffalo skull or some other symbolic object represented the sun . . .



p.344

“The wars of the Plains are America’s Iliad. It is sung in the jagged rhythm of a wild Sioux charge. It is all poetry, for poetry is really made of blood and not of daffodils. It will outlive sober history and never quite die, as poetry never quite does. Red Cloud and Roman Nose will, very likely, still touch a light to the spirit as long as America is remembered. “

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