![Interior Sec. Doug Burgum [right] and Southern Ute Indian Chairman Melvin Baker ink the first-ever Tribal Energy Resource Agreement on May 11, 2026.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/3d76ea3/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5120x3413+0+0/resize/840x560!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff2%2Fc6%2Fa2c5a96f4513a12c674f76c63de9%2Fdoug-burgum-southern-ute-indian-tribe-tera-signing-20260511.jpg)
Earlier this month, a tribe from the Four Corners region has inked a historic deal with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum advancing the Trump administration’s “Unleashing American Energy” agenda.
The Southern Ute Indian Tribe in southwest Colorado sitting above the border of New Mexico has entered the first-ever TERA — or Tribal Energy Resource Agreement — more than two decades after Congress enacted the law.
This allows the nearly 1,500-member tribe to handle its own business — without obtaining expressed permission from the feds to lease energy projects and issue right-of-ways on the 700,000-acre reservation near Durango.
Doing so is supposed to streamline the process by reducing delays.
Burgum shared the Southern Ute Indian Tribe is “setting a strong example for Indian Country and the future of American energy development,” while Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs William Kirkland III, who is Navajo, stated this agreement is “great news” and a step toward fulfilling President Donald Trump’s “vision for national energy security and economic leadership.”
Prior to the May signing, Southern Ute Councilman Andrew Gallegos testified before Congress during an April oversight hearing convened by the Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs. Lawmakers focused on having witnesses, like Gallegos, highlight the successes and barriers of developing tribal natural resources.
“Having the tribe regulate and be the one that oversees all of our compliances,” said Gallegos, “it makes us more sovereign as a tribe, and the economic value that it brings is the health and welfare of our membership.”
“A lot of people are worried about the animals and the environment, you know,” he added, “that’s our worry too, but who better to manage and can keep control is that individual tribe?”
The Red Willow Production Company, which is operated by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe in the San Juan Basin, generates the equivalent of more than 70 billion cubic feet of gas annually. It also owns more 1,800 wells nationwide, including ones in Wyoming, Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.
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