Crow Revenue Act

The Crow Revenue Act would facilitate a complex exchange of mineral and land interests in Montana involving three parties: the federal government, the Crow Tribe of Montana, and the Joe and Barbara Hope Mineral Trust. Under the bill, the Department of the Interior would accept the relinquishment of a federal coal lease at the Bull Mountains Mine near Roundup, Montana. Simultaneously, the Hope Family Trust would convey approximately 4,660 acres of subsurface mineral interests located within the Crow Indian Reservation to the tribe, while the Interior Department would convey approximately 4,530 acres of subsurface mineral interests and 940 acres of surface interests in Musselshell County to the Hope Family Trust.

Before these exchanges occur, the Crow Tribe would need to notify the Interior Department that it and the Hope Family Trust have agreed on how to share revenues from developing the mineral and surface interests in Musselshell County. Any mineral interests transferred to the tribe would be held in trust by the federal government and would be exempt from state and local taxation. The practical effect would be to consolidate certain mineral rights under tribal control while allowing the private trust to gain access to other mineral interests, contingent on the tribe and trust reaching a revenue-sharing agreement.