NEW TOWN – A group of 26 individual Indian owners of allotted trust land on the Fort Berthold Reservation has filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit between Marathon subsidiary

Tesoro High Plains Pipeline, LLC and the United States in the U.S. District Court in North Dakota.

The lawsuit revolves around whether Tesoro has trespassed on private, individually-owned allotted lands within the Fort Berthold Reservation. Tesoro has operated a crude oil pipeline across 34 tracts of allotted land on the reservation with no valid rights-of-way for at least two decades, the landowners allege.

None of the individual Indian landowners are party to the litigation. Instead, the Fort Berthold Indian allottee landowners have had to rely upon the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of Justice, which they say have inadequately and half-heartedly represented their interests, if at all. They allege the Department of the Interior has a substantial conflict of interest that renders it incapable of representing the beneficial or title ownership interests of the landowners.

The landowners further allege that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has failed to follow applicable regulations, policies, and procedures to ensure that any consideration given for a pipeline renewal was fair and reasonable.