Alaska Native Groups Demand a Halt to Oil Exploration in the Arctic

As the oil leak at the floor of the Gulf of Mexico continues to gush, at the rate of about 210,000 gallons a day, Alaska Native groups are demanding the halt of oil drilling in the Chukchi Sea and Camden Bay in the Beaufort Sea, which is supposed to begin this summer, until the federal government knows what caused the spill in the Gulf and can guarantee that kind of accident does not occur in the waters off Alaska.

In a call to action sent out this week, the Native Village of Point Hope, located on the coast of the Chukchi Sea, has created a sample letter asking Ken Salazar, Secretary of Interior, to stop Shell Oil’s exploratory drilling in the Arctic.

The letter states: “The impacts of a major spill in the Arctic would be widespread, long-lasting and disastrous. At risk are endangered whales, polar bears, seals, walruses, birds, fish and the Inupiat people’s subsistence culture.”

To view the letter, go to www.aitc.org/node/355.

Oil Brings Prosperity to North Dakota Reservation

While many tribes have oil on their lands, no reservation is booming more than the million-acre Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota, and this boom has meant a lot of money and jobs for a community that has struggled with poverty for more than 100 years.

An AP article published today takes a look at the transformation that has taken place on Fort Berthold, which sits on billions of barrels of oil. It tells how lease payments of more than $179 million have been paid to the tribe and its members, with millions more in royalties and tax revenue coming in too. There are plenty of job opportunities on the oil rigs (dozens of wells have already been drilled and another 500 or so will be operation over the next five years. Even its Four Bears Casino is now booming; casino revenues increased from $4.5 million in 2008 to $7.2 million in 2009.

Cash flows to Osage Nation from oil lease auction

Higher gas prices raised the stakes at the Osage Nation’s auction of oil and gas leases Wednesday, according to the Tulsa World. Thirty-six leases, totaling more than 5,000 acres, brought in $643,900 -- roughly three times the amount the Nation made at a similar auction in March. The Osage Nation began live auctions again this year after a hiatus of several years in which leases were negotiated, reverting to a system that brought millions into the tribe during Oklahoma's oil boom in the 1920s.