MLL Consulting LLC

07/20/2025

Our principals now have a cover design for the monograph they hope will be published later this year. The work is based on research that began in 1996.

06/20/2025

MLL Consulting will soon be reorganized and rebranded as Lawson Sanders, LLC pending final approval of the partnership of Michael Lawson and Alex Sanders.

04/15/2023

Our new litigation project with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of South Dakota brings Dr. Lawson’s career full circle. This was the first Native American Tribe he ever researched. Fifty years ago, he wrote his master’s degree thesis on some of the Tribe’s historical issues. That work was also one of his first publications. Marcia Lawson, now a Vice President in the firm, helped him conduct interviews on the Tribe’s Reservation with Tribal leaders, now long departed, who are key players in the issue now being litigated. Dr. Lawson has subsequently provided expert reports and testimony on behalf of the Tribe over the years, both for Congressional committees and the U.S. District Court.

02/15/2023

The South Dakota State Historical Society’s virtual “History Talks” speaker in February will be MLL Consulting's president Michael Lawson speaking about his book, “Dammed Indians Revisited: The Continuing History of the Pick-Sloan Plan and the Missouri River Sioux.” This free virtual event will be held Thursday, Feb. 16, at 7 p.m. CST on Zoom. To register, go to sdhsf.org/events. “History Talks” is a monthly program of the South Dakota Historical Society Press and the South Dakota Historical Society Foundation. The 1944 Pick-Sloan Plan created a wealth of economic opportunities for the states lying along the Missouri River. But the plan also flooded more than 200,000 acres of bottomlands that helped to sustain the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota tribes and forced the relocation of entire communities. “Dammed Indians Revisited” examines how the work of the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation affected the communities along the river, demonstrating the unequal relationship between the tribes and the federal government. Lawson’s History Talks presentation will focus on his research for this award-winning book, which was the 2012 One Book South Dakota Selection.

https://artssouthdakota.org/event/dammed-indians-revisited-the-continuing-history-of-the-pick-sloan-plan-and-the-missouri-river-sioux/

Michael Lawson’s book, Dammed Indians Revisited: The Continuing History of the Pick-Sloan Plan and the Missouri River Sioux, examines the human cost of dams built along the Missouri following the passage of Pick-Sloan in 1944. More than 200,000 acres of bottomlands were flooded, forcing the reloca...

09/09/2022

Our newest client is an environmental group in South Dakota concerned with sedimentation and bank erosion problems on the Missouri River and at Lake Lewis and Clark resulting from the development of the Gavins Point Dam project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s.

02/09/2022

We are pleased to announce that U.S. Department of the Interior Solicitor Robert Anderson issued a new M-Opinion on February 4, 2022, upholding the Department’s previous rulings that the MHA Nation owns the bed of the Missouri River, and thus lucrative mineral rights, within the boundaries of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. The Opinion fairly extensively cited the 500-page historical report that MLL Consulting, LLC prepared for the Nation in support of that position.

News Release Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation (MHA Nation) said it is pleased to see the Department of the Interior’s

05/15/2021

Pick-Sloan Impacts on the Missouri River Sioux, a webinar presented by Michael Lawson

Author and Historian Michael Lawson provided the keynote address for the Missouri Sedimentation Action Coalition's 20th Annual Meeting. Lawson's topic was th...

05/12/2021

SPRINGFIELD — The Missouri River dams have forever changed lives for generations, particularly tribes whose land was flooded during the dams’ construction, an author and historian said Tuesday.

10/01/2020

Our most recent new client: The Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians of Washington.

07/15/2020

The appeal process begins.

On Wednesday, July 1, 2020, the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation (MHA Nation) took initial legal steps to fight back against illegal acts by the Department of Interior (DOI) and to restore the MHA Nation’s property rights in the Missouri Riverbed on the Fort Berthold Reservation.

07/07/2020

A positive step for our clients.

The ruling, a victory for the Native American and environmentalist groups who oppose the pipeline, said that it must be emptied of oil by Aug. 5.

06/27/2020

MEDIA MENTIONS: Recent Broadcast and Print References:

Native Business Magazine, “Move to Strip MHA Nation of Missouri Mineral Rights Is a ‘Land Grab’ and ‘Attack on Our Trust Resources.’” June 16, 2020:
https://www.nativebusinessmag.com/move-to-strip-mha-nation-of-missouri-river-mineral-rights-is-a-land-grab-and-attack-on-our-trust-resources/

South Dakota Public Broadcasting, “The Dawes Act of 1887 Diminished Tribal Ownership,” June 23, 2020:
https://www.sdpb.org/blogs/news-and-information/the-dawes-act-of-1887-dimished-tribal-ownership/?fbclid=IwAR1FlgcIKHJuWMihDGKpumgprNkDVlOlgXpAdLcIojtDLBfPu3NLivPqS7Y

Minot Daily News, “Tribe responds to Interior Department’s river mineral rights opinion,” June 4, 2020:
https://www.minotdailynews.com/news/local-news/2020/06/tribe-responds-to-interior-departments-river-mineral-rights-opinion/

South Dakota Public Broadcasting, “Cheyenne River Tribe Says Oahe Dam Has Caused Problems for Decades,” October 17, 2019:
https://listen.sdpb.org/post/cheyenne-river-tribe-says-oahe-dam-has-caused-problems-decades

American Historical Association, Perspectives on History, “For the Future: Doing Indigenous History After Standing Rock,” March 2018:
https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/march-2018/for-the-future-doing-indigenous-history-after-standing-rock

The Nation, “This Government Agency Has the Power to Stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, Will It?,” November 14, 2016:
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/this-agency-has-the-power-to-stop-the-dakota-access-pipeline/

www.indianz.com, “Michael Lawson: Roots of the movement go back decades,” November 8, 2016:
https://www.indianz.com/News/2016/11/09/michael-lawson-roots-of-nodapl-movement.asp

The Dallas Morning News, “Oil safety or environmental racism? SMU forum shows Dakota Access Pipeline divide, October 25, 2016:
https://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/2016/10/25/oil-safety-or-environmental-racism-smu-forum-shows-dakota-access-pipeline-divide/

New York Times, ‘I Want to Win Someday:’ Tribes Make Stand Against Pipeline,” September 8, 2016:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/us/dakota-access-pipeline-protests.html

Amazon.com, “About Michael L. Lawson:”
https://www.amazon.com/Michael-L.-Lawson/e/B001JSA5U2%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

On May 26, Interior issued an opinion that overturned three prior Interior decisions recognizing the MHA Nation’s title to Missouri River mineral rights.