From Survival to Sovereignty: 1970s Energy Development and Indian Self-Determination in Montana's Powder River Basin

Abstract

Abstract

This article explores how increasing demands for domestic energy resources during the 1970s threatened the survival of American Indian tribes, leading to an impassioned indigenous movement to protect reservation resources and change federal law to increase tribal sovereignty. Beginning with a close examination of the specific reasons why the Northern Cheyenne and Crow resisted potentially lucrative energy development, the investigation follows a broadening national movement to equip tribes with the tools necessary to manage their own affairs. In the face of intense pressure to develop energy resources, American Indians reclaimed control over their reservations and forced changes in federal law that provided the fullest expression of tribal sovereignty since the nineteenth century.