Merely a few years ago, we witnessed the highly organized opposition of Indian country against an energy company and its pipeline, where hundreds of years of Native American angst and anger came face-to-face with an energy company on the plains of North Dakota near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. While there are strong views on all sides about who was in the right, at its core was a conflict between energy development and cultural and historical values of Indian tribes. The section 1061 process of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) is one tool that attempts to provide for consideration of these concerns; however, in practice, these efforts do not always achieve a mutually satisfactory solution, leading to project delays, litigation, and public relations challenges.
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