Oil extraction in Colorado.
Native American tribes in Utah have recently criticized the Biden administration’s economic policies as an attack on their tribal economy, sovereignty and right to self-determination. Upon taking office, Biden signed an executive order revoking permits for oil, gas and coal extraction on federal lands, including the tribe’s lands.
The Uintah and Ute Indian tribes on the Ouray Reservation in Utah have operated oil and gas operations on their 4.5 million-acre reservation for more than 70 years. They asked the Interior Department Thursday (Jan. 21) to waive an order on tribal lands that suspended agencies from issuing mineral production permits and land leases for 60 days.
The Ute Indian Tribe is seeking a waiver from the requirements of Order 3395, which took effect Jan. 21.
Luke Duncan, chairman of the Ute Indian Tribe Business Council, wrote in a letter, “The Ute Indian Tribe and other energy producing tribes rely on energy development to fund our government and provide services to our members.”
Duncan called the order “a direct attack on our economy, sovereignty and right to self-determination,” adding, “Indian Indian lands are not federal public lands. The government can only take any action on our lands and interests after amicable consultation with the tribe.”
According to the tribe’s website, oil and gas extraction is “big business on the (Indian) reservation.”
The website reads, “The Utes have 2,970 tribal members, and more than half of them live on the reservation. They run their own tribal government and oversee about 1.3 million acres of reservation (trust land).”
While the Ute Indian Tribe can take the Biden Administration to court, as many expect, the order will directly result in the firing of more than 1,000 of the tribe’s active workers, primarily union workers.
In his letter Thursday, Duncan said the order “must be withdrawn or modified to comply with federal law and policy.
Meanwhile, Biden revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline on the first day of his administration, said Joel Pollak of Breitbart News.
Biden’s nominee for the Interior Department, New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland, said she “wholeheartedly opposes fracking and drilling for petrochemicals on public lands.
So far, Biden has killed about 11,000 direct jobs created by the construction of the U.S.-Canada pipeline and is expected to cut 60,000 indirect jobs in related industries in the second tier.
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