The Badger-Two Medicine
Cultural District
The Blackfeet people have utilized the Badger-Two Medicine for over 10,000 years – 165,588 acres that provide strength, subsistence, and cultural identity to more than 17,000 tribal members. Now, the area’s integrity has been compromised due to illegally granted oil and gas leases that now threaten the Blackfeet peoples’ history and their sacred cultural values.
The Badger-Two Medicine is an enclave of mountains, ridges, river valleys, and wetlands nestled within Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front. It is virtually roadless, intersecting the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Glacier National Park, and the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. The “Badgers’” creeks and rivers form a genesis watershed to the Missouri Mississippi River complex. From time immemorial, the Badger-Two Medicine has been Holy Land for our Blackfeet Indian people.
WE OPPOSE DRILLING ON OUR SACRED LANDS FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS:
- The leases for exploration were granted illegally in 1982, without tribal consultation.
- Energy development would negatively impact the Blackfeet people’s lands and its use for cultural and spiritual purposes.
- Drilling would compromise both water quality and critical habitat for rare and sensitive wildlife species.
- Reserved hunting, fishing, and timbering rights would be degraded.
- Fracking the “Backbone of the World” would desecrate both the landscape and the cultural identity of present and future generations of Blackfeet people.
- Roads, bridges, and well pads would disturb sacred lands in the heart of the Badger-Two Medicine.
The Blackfeet Nation works hard to retain its culture. The cancellation of the remaining leases is essential to conserve the acknowledged natural, recreational, cultural, and spiritual resources of the Badger-Two Medicine. The cancellation of these leases is necessary to sustain the cultural and ecological integrity of the Badger- Two Medicine.
This article has been edited and adapted from the Badger-Two Medicine website: www.badger-twomedicine.org
