MANDAN, HIDATSA AND ARIKARA NATION v. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR et al

  1. December 03, 2024

    ND Calls Tribes' Bid For Riverbed Mineral Rights 'Irrational'

    North Dakota has hit back against the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation's attempt to win a federal court declaration that it owns mineral rights beneath a portion of the Missouri River, arguing that the three tribes' claim of riverbed ownership is "irrational."

  2. October 29, 2024

    ND Riverbed Fight Has Been Festering For 50 Years, Court Told

    A Native American tribe and the U.S. Department of the Interior are asking a federal court to deny a more than yearlong extension request by North Dakota to respond to a bid for a judgment that declares the state has no mineral rights beneath a portion of the Missouri River.

  3. August 19, 2024

    ND Tribe Says State Has No Right To Riverbed Mineral Rights

    The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation says North Dakota has no claim to mineral rights beneath a portion of the Missouri River within the tribe's reservation, arguing that despite a federal opinion that held the property belongs to the tribe, the state has allegedly issued oil and gas leases for the site.

  4. July 23, 2024

    Feds Get OK To Seek Title To ND Riverbed For Mineral Rights

    The federal government can add a cross-claim against North Dakota in litigation over who owns mineral rights beneath a portion of the Missouri River, a D.C. federal judge ruled Tuesday, clearing the way for the United States to seek a court order declaring that the riverbed is held in trust for the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation.

  5. June 21, 2022

    ND Can't Intervene In Remaining Riverbed Ownership Claims

    North Dakota can't intervene in a dispute over mineral rights underneath the Missouri River since the case has been trimmed considerably and the state no longer has skin in the game as a result, the D.C. Circuit said Tuesday.

  6. February 07, 2022

    Biden's DOI Returns Riverbed Ownership To ND Tribes

    The Department of the Interior solicitor issued an official opinion finding that the minerals beneath the Missouri River riverbed and Lake Sakakawea belong to the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, not the state of North Dakota.

  7. August 03, 2021

    Judge Drops Moot Claims In ND Tribes' Mineral Rights Suit

    A D.C. federal judge trimmed two "moot" claims from a Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation mineral rights suit after the U.S. Department of the Interior axed a Trump-era opinion that instigated the suit over a Missouri River riverbed.

  8. April 05, 2021

    Tribes Say ND Riverbed Ownership Suit Can Be Trimmed

    North Dakota Native American tribes want to keep a suit against the U.S. government over mineral rights alive, but say a portion of the suit challenging a now-revoked Trump-era opinion denying them those rights can be dismissed as moot.

  9. March 22, 2021

    DOI Solicitor Ends Ruling That ND, Not Tribe, Owns Riverbed

    The U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of the Solicitor has killed a Trump-era opinion that a stretch of Missouri River riverbed belonged to North Dakota rather than the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, returning mineral ownership rights to the tribal nation.

  10. October 09, 2020

    Tribe Says DOI Has No Right To Hand Riverbed To ND

    The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation has slammed a U.S. Department of the Interior solicitor's opinion handing rights over a stretch of Missouri River riverbed to North Dakota, telling a D.C. federal court that he can't overrule a 1979 Interior Board of Land Appeals decision.