1800s-1920s
51
Detailed history from the 1800s to the 1920s
plain
1409904
2024-12-20T09:30:35-08:00
During the 19th century, Indigenous Nations fought for their rights and land, including in the American court system. These fights, and the resulting Supreme Court decisions, had long-lasting consequences for Indigenous Nations and the United States. 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. By 1868, the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie treaties 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 Apsáalooke Tribe experienced several large land reductions throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, including major cessations in 1882 and 1904. During this time, the major economic forces on the reservation were agricultural, largely grazing leases and ranching. Situated in rural southeastern Montana, far away from centers of industrial production, little coal extraction was occurring on the reservation, at least on a large commercial scale and most coal extraction was by area residents looking to avoid using wood or purchasing coal. Although a few small tunnels into coal seams were dug in the mountains, neither Crow Tribal members nor 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.
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 into 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. Or at least that was how the system was supposed to work. In reality, however, energy companies and the federal government took the lead on suggesting which lands to open up to mining, and the Tribal councils often went along in hopes of securing revenue. 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 throughout the 1920s, primarily due to economic factors like declining energy demand and rising costs.
The coal market itself collapsed in the decade, partly because of the rise of petroleum as the preferred fuel for cars, yet Indigenous leaders continued to revisit the issue in Tribal council meetings. Despite the dismal coal market and in response to a growing interest in Tribal minerals writ large, the federal government expanded its oversight of Tribal mineral leases and management over the 1910s and 1920s. 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 that federal oversight were wide-reaching and a direct assault on Indigenous reservation sovereignty, including on the Crow reservation. The 1930s, however, would see large shifts in both larger political movements and small increases in coal development on the reservation.