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Weatherman Draw: Where Drilling Companies and Indian Tribes Agree

This week the Denver-based oil company Anschutz Exploration dropped its plans to drill in Montana canyon -- a site sacred to American Indians and adorned with ancient rock paintings -- after a year long protest of Indian tribes and environmental groups. As part of the agreement reached with the executive board, the company also donated its two leases for oil and gas exploration to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a Washington-based non-profit organization.

The site, known as the Valley of the Chiefs, comprises a 2-mile-long niche in south-central Montana called Weatherman Draw. The valley contains several multicolored depictions and carvings of humans, shields and animals dating back some 1,100 years. The figures are considered by experts to be among the most important examples of American Indian rock art in the High Plains.

Many Indian tribes - Crow, Blackfeet, Comanche, Apache, Navajo, Sioux - congregate there as part of their religious ceremonies, some comparing it to their own native Sistine Chapel.

According to Anschutz officials, the parcel of land known as Weatherman Draw has the potential of producing 10 million barrels of oil. However, it was also acknowledged that there was only a one-in-seven chance of drilling a productive well. William Miller, vice president of Anschutz, described the decision as “simply risk management.”

Despite the happy ending, the drilling plan had already been a year-long battleground for the parties involved. In February 2001, 10 Indian tribes, the Sierra Club and the trust filed an appeal with the Department of the Interior. They claimed the Bureau of Land Management -- which oversees the valley - had not conducted a proper environmental review or considered the area’s cultural value before approving the drilling permits. However, a pledge was then made by company owner and billionaire Philip F. Anschutz to donate the drilling rights, with the protesters agreeing a halt to any legal action and assuring that they would simply let the leases expire. In addition, “there are no plans to permit any further leases of the 4,268 acre site,” said the Bureau of Land Management.

Warning that other battles over Western land remain, Nick J. Rahall II, one of the congressional opponents to the drilling plan, declared that “there are other Valleys of the Chiefs out there, crying out for a comprehensive approach to this issue, rather than causing us to fight on a case-by-case basis.”