1980s-1990s
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Detailed history of 1980s-1990s
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2024-12-21T12:41:10-08:00
Following the tumultuous politics, but growth of coal leases, during the previous decade, the 1980s and 1990s were marked by disputes between the Tribe, the federal government, and the state of Montana over intertwined financial, legal, and governance issues.
The Crow Tribe's relationship with the United States' court system, during the 1980s and 1990s, was back-and-forth due to the tax severance cases, but also because of other cases—like that of the 107th meridian—that both challenged and affirmed tribal sovereignty. Relative to the coal tax cases, during those two decades, the Tribe was still fighting with the state of Montana. Over the two decades, the case was back and forth in favor of the Tribe. In 1978, the Crow Tribe filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the applicability of Montana’s severance and gross proceeds taxes on Crow coal. It was dismissed in 1979, but two years later, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a retrial. The following year in 1979, Westmoreland and the Tribe agreed to a tax settlement where Westmoreland would pay the Crow tax if the case was decided in favor of the Tribe
In November of 1982, the Crow Tribe filed a new complaint and asked for reimbursement from Montana. In 1983, the District Court approved a motion from the Tribe and Westmoreland to create an escrow account for severance tax payments while the tax authority cases were under litigation.
District Judge Battin again ruled that the Montana could tax Crow coal in 1985 but was overruled two years later by the 9th District Court of Appeals (Crow II). The 9th District stated that the Indian Mineral Leasing Act preempted state taxes and thus Montana’s severance tax interfered with Tribal sovereignty. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the 9th District Court’s decision a year later in 1988 and Battin subsequently released almost $30 million dollars to the Tribe from the escrow account.
Four years later in 1994, Phase II of the case began. Amended complaints were filed by the Tribe and the U.S. government against the State of Montana and Big Horn County, asking to recover taxes from before the 1983 escrow payment. District Judge Shanstrom ruled against the Tribe based on the Cotton Petroleum Corp. v. New Mexico (1989). Shanstrom’s decision was overturned by 9th Circuit in 1996 and the case sent to the United States Supreme Court. In 1998, the Supreme Court issued a decision that Big Horn County and the State of Montana did not have to pay back taxes from before 1983. By the conclusion of the final case in 1998, all entities involved spent almost twenty years in court and spent millions in attorney fees. Although the Tribe lost the 1998 case regarding coal taxes, its sovereignty over Tribal taxation was strengthened in the decades that followed.
The mixed results from the U.S. court system mirrored the larger complex relationship between Indigenous nations and America's federal government. During the 1980s and 1990s, there were some "wins" for Indigenous sovereignty at the federal level, as well as continued challenges. For example, the 1981 Linowes' Commission found that the federal government had mismanaged mineral royalty payments and underbid contracts for Indigenous minerals for years. As a result of the Commission, the federal government created new oversight offices and accounting strategies.
Congress also passed the Indian Mineral Development Act (IMDA) in 1982 provided Tribes the option of either taking the lead in energy projects or using the old leasing system, run by the federal government. The Act strengthened tribal sovereignty and power but also placed much of the technical and procedural burden related to mineral contracts on the tribes. But the IMDA and changes following the Linowe Commission did not fully address accounting and oversight problems. To address the continued issues, a decade later, Congress approved the Indian Energy Resources Act (IERA). However, the Act was never funded. Although the federal government made several attempts to address inequalities in their management of Tribal mineral resources and relationships, at the end of the 1990s, the federal-Tribal management schema was still quite complex and unequal, including on the Crow reservation.
This complexity included renegotiation of leases with Shell during the 1980s. Following the tumultuous relationship with Shell in previous years, the Tribe successfully came to an agreement with Shell in 1980, although it would take the Department of Interior several years to officially approve the new agreement. In 1981, the Tribal government disbursed the Shell signing payment of $5 million to Tribal members. Shell, however, canceled the lease in 1986 due to what the company cited as "uncertainty" with the severance tax issue and a poor coal market.
For the Crow Tribe, the 1980s and 1990s economic issues and disagreements over coal development played a role in the turbulent politics at the Tribal level. This included financial insolvency in 1982 and budgetary issues between the BIA and the tribe in in the latter part of the 1980s.
These budgetary issues helped to fuel disagreements between Tribal leaders, including between Clara Nomee and Richard Real Bird. Real Bird, who was Chairmen from 1986 to 1990, was defeated by Clara Nomee in 1990. During her tenure, which ran from 1990 to 2000, her work included working to correct a surveying error, fighting for a new water compact, and stabilizing the tribe's financial and political landscape.
By 2000, the Crow Tribe had battled the state of Montana in the courts, experienced monumental change in Tribal leadership, tension with the federal government over finances, and changes in federal mineral policies. The next several decades would be no less momentous.