BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Leaders of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation in North Dakota have sued the federal government due to an opinion that sides with the state over valuable mineral rights beneath a portion of a man-made lake on the Fort Berthold Indian reservation.
The Three Affiliated Tribes’ lawsuit says the Interior Department is attempting to illegally take property ceded to the tribe before statehood.
At stake is an estimated $100 million in unpaid royalties and future payments certain to come from oil drilling beneath the Missouri River.
The river was dammed by the federal government in the 1950s, flooding more than a tenth of the reservation.