§1300 Indian Lands

Summary

Requires the Secretary to study how surface coal mining on Indian lands should be regulated so the law’s goals are met and tribal authority is respected. The Secretary must talk with tribes, prepare draft legislation that would let tribes choose to take full control of mining regulation, and send the study, drafts, and each affected tribe’s views to Congress by January 1, 1978. Up to $700,000 from the funds authorized in section 1302(a) must be set aside so tribes can take part in the study. The Secretary must also analyze the jurisdictional status of Indian lands outside reservation boundaries but must not change that status. Starting 135 days after August 3, 1977, surface coal mining on Indian lands must meet certain interim environmental rules named in the law, and those rules must be written into all coal leases. Starting 30 months after August 3, 1977, mining must meet a fuller list of permanent environmental standards, also put into leases. For leases made after August 3, 1977, the Secretary must include and enforce any extra lease terms tribes request; changes to leases that existed on August 3, 1977, to meet these rules need the Secretary’s approval. The Secretary must give grants to the Navajo, Hopi, Northern Cheyenne, and Crow tribes to set up tribal surface mining offices to write rules, help with inspections and permitting, and run training. A tribe may apply to run its own regulatory program for reservation land using the chapter’s procedures (references to “State” in the chapter are treated as “tribe”). Tribal membership alone is not a conflict of interest, but tribal regulatory employees cannot receive per capita coal proceeds. To get primary regulatory authority, a tribe must waive sovereign immunity for certain purposes. After tribal remedies are exhausted, civil appeals go to the U.S. circuit court where the mine is located (law questions reviewed anew, facts reviewed for clear error); criminal cases go to the U.S. District Court for D.C. or the district where the crime happened. Grants for approved tribal programs follow section 1295 but the federal share for developing and running an approved tribal program is 100 percent. The Secretary must report to Congress, with the tribe, within 18 months after a tribal program is approved and recommend whether to expand tribal authority.