![handle is hein.journals/lrel32 and id is 1 raw text is: ENERGY DEVELOPMENT IN INDIAN COUNTRY:
WORKING WITHIN THE REALM OF INDIAN LAW AND MOVING
TOWARDS COLLABORATION'
Heather J. Tanana & John C. Ruple*
I. INTRODUCTION
American Indian tribes are uniquely poised to influence the energy landscape
in the twenty-first century. Indian reservations and trust lands outside of Alaska
contain a wealth of energy resources, including an estimated four percent of known
U.S. oil and gas reserves, forty percent of uranium deposits, and thirty percent of
western coal reserves.2 As of 2001, annual production from Indian lands totaled
13.1 billion barrels of oil, 280 billion cubic feet of natural gas, and 29.4 million
3
tons of coal. Tribal lands also contain unconventional hydrocarbon resources,
such as oil shale and tar sands. In Utah, roughly twenty percent of the state's total
oil shale resource is located on tribal lands.4 Likewise, approximately seventy-one
1 This Article is based upon work supported by the United States Department of
Energy under contract number DE-FEOOO 1243. This report was prepared as an account of
work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States
Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty,
express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy,
completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or
represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any
specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer,
or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or
favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions
of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States
Government or any agency thereof.
*© 2012 Heather J. Tanana & John C. Ruple. Heather J. Tanana is a Fellow with the
University of Utah's Institute for Clean and Secure Energy. John Ruple is a Fellow with the
University of Utah's Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources & the Environment, S.J.
Quinney College of Law and Research Associate with the University of Utah's Institute for
Clean and Secure Energy. The authors wish to acknowledge support provided by
Alexander Tallchief Skibine, Professor of Law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law.
2 COHEN'S HANDBOOK OF FEDERAL INDIAN LAW § 15.01 (Nell Jessup Newton et al.
eds., 2005 ed. & Supp. 2009) [hereinafter COHEN] (citing JOE MITCHELL, FOREST SERVICE
NATIONAL RESOURCE GUIDE TO AMERICAN INDIANS AND ALASKA NATIVE RELATIONS,
App. D, D.-1 (1997), available at http://www.fs.fed.us/people/tribal/ tribexd.pdf).
3 NEIL G. WESTESEN, ROCKY MOUNTAIN MINERAL LAW FOUND., FROM MONTANA TO
PLAINS COMMERCE BANK AND BEYOND: THE SUPREME COURT'S VIEW OF TRIBAL
JURISDICTION OVER NON-MEMBERS, NATURAL RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT ON INDIAN
LANDS, PAPER No. 9, at 2 (2011).
4 MICHAEL D. VANDEN BERG, UTAH DEP'T OF NATURAL RES., SPECIAL STUDY 128,
BASIN-WIDE EVALUATION OF THE UPPERMOST GREEN RIVER FORIATION'S OIL-SHALE](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/lrel32&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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