During the 19th century, Indigenous Nations fought for their rights and land, including in the American court system. Legal decisions during that century outline precedence for government-government relationships between Indigenous Nations and federal and state governments in the coming centuries.
In reference to mineral rights, including coal, during the 19th century, the important events were largely related to treaty-making and land cessation events. In the 19th century, several treaties pertaining to mineral rights on the Crow reservation included the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie treaties. By 1868, these treaties reduced Apsáalooke control over land to 8 million acres in present-day Montana.Following those treaties, the United States Congress passed several Acts, like the Dawes Act designed to reduce Indigenous land holdings through assimilation. Although not directly related to the Dawes Act, the Crow tribe experienced several large land reductions throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, including major cessations in 1882 and 1904. These land cessations were also tied to mineral rights, including an 1891 Dawes Act Amendment.
During this time, the major economic forces on the reservation were agricultural, largely grazing leases and ranching. Little coal extraction was occurring on the reservation, at least on a large commercial scale and most coal extraction was by folks looking to avoid using wood or purchasing coal. Although a few small tunnels were dug in the mountains, neither Crow tribal members or white settlers paid much attention to large-scale coal on the reservation before the 1910s. There were a few speculations, for example, in 1914 by Major F.D. Pease, George Pease, Guy Logan, and Percy Farrar, but nothing substantial came from that speculation.
Meanwhile, Congress amended the Dawes Act again in 1917, to allow for "surplus lands" to be sold for coal mining. Other amendments in 1924 and 1927 further opened up reservations, including to taxation of coal revenue by the states. By 1928, the Department of Interior Secretary could indefinitely extend leases if they were productive and sell surplus land and states could tax mineral royalties. The effects of those amendments were wide-reaching and a direct assault on Indigenous reservation sovereignty, including on the Crow reservation.
In 1918 the Federal government mapped coal deposits on the Crow reservation and in the following year, the tribe voted to open the reservation to coal mining, in response to leaders like Plenty Coups urging the tribe to take advantage of reservation minerals. The tribe also fought against challenges to their sovereignty and land in those years from white settlers and the American government, which culminated in the 1920 Crow Act.
The Act divided up reservation land among Crow tribal members in 900 acre lots. For coal, the Act reserved the rights to the tribe, established that the tribal council could request leases, which were ultimately approved by the Secretary of the interior, and set the leases at a maximum of 10 years. Finally, the Act also stated that after 50 years, the mineral rights of an allotment become the property rights of an individual allottee or their heirs. Despite the 1920 Act and the Dawes Amendments, coal development on the reservation remained largely dormant during the 1920s.
The mild growth in attention to mineral rights during the late 1910s and 1920s was due to two factors. First, due to WWI, coal consumption and production peaked in the late 1910s. Thus, Indian agents and local settlers saw an opportunity to participate in a very lucrative market. Second, open-pit mining in Montana was growing due to incorporation of large shovels and subsequent reduction in labor force. The labor issue was a particularly concerning one in Montana, as the state had been rocked by the lethal 1917 copper mine strikes in Butte, as well as miner strikes in Red Lodge in 1919 and 1922.
The coal market, however, crashed in the 1920s, due in part to the growth of petroleum as the fuel of choice for cars. As a result, coal development on the reservation remained largely dormant during the 1920s, even as Indigenous leaders continued to revisit it in tribal council meetings.
The 1930s, however, would see large shifts in both larger political movements and small increases in coal development on the reservation.