WASHINGTON – The interior solicitor in the Biden administration said in an opinion that the mineral rights under the original Missouri River riverbed belong to North Dakota tribal nation.
The 68-page memorandum posted Friday by the U.S. Department of Interior contradicts a May 2020 Trump administration opinion concluding that the state is the legal owner of submerged lands beneath the river where it flows through the Fort Berthold Reservation.
That memo rolled back an Obama administration opinion favoring the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes. At stake is an estimated $100 million in unpaid royalties and future payments sure to come from oil drilling beneath the river.
