Interior Solicitor Robert Anderson ruled in favor of tribes against the State of North Dakota, finding that the minerals beneath the riverbed of the Missouri River where it flows through the Fort Berthold Reservation belong to the Three Affiliated Tribes (the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation). The opinion reversed a May 2020 decision by the Trump administration ruling that the state is the legal owner of the submerged lands. The Tribes are thus entitled to an estimated $100 million in unpaid royalties and future payments from oil drilling beneath the river. Read the Solicitor’s full memorandum here.
The State of North Dakota rejected this argument. North Dakota argued that it gained title to the riverbed when it became a state in 1889; the Three Affiliated Tribes asserted that previous federal opinions and the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie confirm their ownership of the riverbed.