May 27, 2026
A North Dakota federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of the Interior and a tribal nation to file a joint report about a DOI solicitor's opinion in a dispute over who owns mineral rights beneath a portion of the Missouri River.
March 16, 2026
Federal attorneys told the D.C. federal court that the U.S. Department of the Interior has reinstated a prior legal opinion concluding that North Dakota, not the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, owns mineral rights beneath a portion of the Missouri River flowing through the Fort Berthold Reservation.
January 07, 2026
The D.C. federal court won't give early victories to three Indigenous tribes or the federal government in a dispute with North Dakota over ownership rights of a Missouri River mineral bed, saying a review of the case underscores the need for it to go to trial.
December 03, 2024
North Dakota has hit back against the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation's attempt to win a federal court declaration that it owns mineral rights beneath a portion of the Missouri River, arguing that the three tribes' claim of riverbed ownership is "irrational."
October 29, 2024
A Native American tribe and the U.S. Department of the Interior are asking a federal court to deny a more than yearlong extension request by North Dakota to respond to a bid for a judgment that declares the state has no mineral rights beneath a portion of the Missouri River.
August 19, 2024
The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation says North Dakota has no claim to mineral rights beneath a portion of the Missouri River within the tribe's reservation, arguing that despite a federal opinion that held the property belongs to the tribe, the state has allegedly issued oil and gas leases for the site.
July 23, 2024
The federal government can add a cross-claim against North Dakota in litigation over who owns mineral rights beneath a portion of the Missouri River, a D.C. federal judge ruled Tuesday, clearing the way for the United States to seek a court order declaring that the riverbed is held in trust for the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation.
June 21, 2022
North Dakota can't intervene in a dispute over mineral rights underneath the Missouri River since the case has been trimmed considerably and the state no longer has skin in the game as a result, the D.C. Circuit said Tuesday.
February 07, 2022
The Department of the Interior solicitor issued an official opinion finding that the minerals beneath the Missouri River riverbed and Lake Sakakawea belong to the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, not the state of North Dakota.
August 03, 2021
A D.C. federal judge trimmed two "moot" claims from a Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation mineral rights suit after the U.S. Department of the Interior axed a Trump-era opinion that instigated the suit over a Missouri River riverbed.