The Northern Cheyenne Test

Two Cheyennes, Two Stories

A point of geographic clarity first, because the names confuse readers who are not from the region.

Cheyenne, Wyoming is the state capital of Wyoming. It is a city. Its surrounding county hosts Meta's Project Cosmo data center, currently under construction. In January 2026 Meta and TerraPower — the Bill Gates-chaired advanced reactor company — announced an agreement for up to eight Natrium reactors across the United States. Cheyenne is the leading candidate for a dual-unit Natrium plant under that agreement, with the first two reactors targeted as early as 2032 and six more by 2035. The TerraPower–Meta deal totals up to 2.8 gigawatts of carbon-free baseload power with 4 gigawatts of dispatchable output once storage is included. On March 8, 2026 the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission awarded TerraPower a construction permit for the first Natrium reactor at Kemmerer, Wyoming.

Northern Cheyenne Reservation is a sovereign Indigenous nation in southeastern Montana, about 600 miles north and east of Wyoming's Cheyenne. The Northern Cheyenne Tribe has approximately 11,000 enrolled members and the reservation covers approximately 444,000 acres. It is adjacent to the Crow Reservation and roughly 100 miles from the Colstrip coal-fired power plant. NorthWestern Energy is the monopoly utility serving Montana. The Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) is a federal program operated out of Idaho National Laboratory.

The two Cheyennes are not the same place. The TerraPower–Meta–Natrium project is at Wyoming's Cheyenne. The Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana faces a different but structurally identical proposal: a coal refinery a few miles outside the reservation being refurbished into a Small Modular Reactor to power a data center whose tenant has not been named. Both are happening. Both are part of the same architecture. Part III is about Northern Cheyenne.

What Honor the Earth Has Documented

Krystal Two Bulls — executive director of Honor the Earth, Oglala Lakota and Northern Cheyenne — published the operational framing in Magpie Messenger Issue 3, the organization's own newsletter. The language is direct:

“In May, Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) and Northwest Energy announced their plans to refurbish a coal refinery just a few miles outside of the Reservation with a Small Modular Nuclear Reactor (SMR). SMRs are a new technology that has never been built or tested on Turtle Island. These corporations are selling a technology that does not exist yet in order to scam a coal-dependent community into subsidizing the project with public funds. More than a dozen community members — most of them Northern Cheyenne — attended the May meeting and voiced their concerns and opposition to the project. But Northwest Energy was very clear: no matter the opposition, they are moving forward with this project.” Honor the Earth, Magpie Messenger Issue 3

Honor the Earth's stated organizing framework names six fronts simultaneously: coal-impact rural communities, the SMR on or near Indigenous lands, uranium enrichment, nuclear waste storage, data centers / AI / cryptocurrency, and the militarism that — in Two Bulls's framing — cannot be separated from nuclear infrastructure's purpose in war. Techno-Colonial agenda is the phrase the organization uses. It is precise. It names the actor architecture, not a slogan.

The Northern Cheyenne organizing operation has, as of late 2025, hosted at least a dozen in-person organizer trainings on the reservation, established a No Green Colonialism School with a November 2025 iteration, and built partnerships with local landowners, ranchers, and farmers in surrounding communities. This is not a one-meeting opposition. It is a sustained organizing campaign that pre-dates national attention.

The Montana Legislative Architecture

The state of Montana enacted two laws in 2025 that created the legal scaffolding for the project:

Both bills were introduced together. Both were drafted to prepare Montana for nuclear energy in the words of their sponsor. Both passed.

The Tribal-Approval Amendment

The legislative record on the tribal-approval amendment is exact, and it deserves to be in print:

Reps. Shelly Fyant (D-Arlee) and Jade Sooktis (D-Lame Deer) — Sooktis represents the district that includes the Northern Cheyenne Reservation — proposed amendments to both HB 623 and HB 696 requiring two things: a county vote to approve any nuclear facility in the relevant area, and a vote of all tribal electors of any tribe within 50 miles of the project. Fyant's stated rationale on the House floor was the historical disparate impact of nuclear waste storage and uranium mining on tribal lands. She specifically named the uranium mining on the Navajo Nation in the 1900s.

The amendment to HB 623 passed the House on March 5, 2025, by a vote of 52 to 47. The amendment to HB 696 failed by 48 to 50.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee then stripped the amendment from HB 623 at Rep. Parry's urging. The Senate Energy, Technology and Federal Relations Committee voted 10-3 to concur in the amended (i.e., stripped) version. Senators Susan Webber (D-Browning), Shane Morigeau (D-Missoula), and Janet Ellis (D-Helena) tried to restore the amendments on the Senate floor. They lost 21-29. HB 623 passed the Senate 40-9 on April 7, 2025, in its stripped form. The House concurred in the Senate-amended version on April 16-17. Both bills were signed by Governor Greg Gianforte.

The legal architecture for siting nuclear waste, uranium enrichment, and the reactor class that would power Northern Cheyenne's hyperscale data center exists. The legal requirement that the affected tribes vote on it does not.

That is the political record. It is exact. The chain of votes is in the Montana legislative roster and the Legiscan tracker. None of it requires speculation.

NorthWestern Energy: The Host Utility

NorthWestern Energy is a publicly traded, investor-owned utility (NYSE: NWE) with a Montana monopoly. As of early 2026, NorthWestern has acquired additional ownership of the Colstrip Generating Station — 222 megawatts from Avista at no purchase price, effective January 1, 2026 — bringing its total Colstrip share to approximately 592 megawatts. Colstrip has a maximum generating capacity of 1,480 megawatts. NorthWestern's total Montana retail load is approximately 750 megawatts.

The data centers NorthWestern is preparing to serve will require, at full build, almost twice as much power as every other electric customer in Montana combined.

The Montana Public Service Commission sent NorthWestern an inquiry in February 2025 asking the utility to prove the new loads would not adversely affect existing customers or grid stability. NorthWestern's CFO Crystal Lail responded on March 4, 2025, that Montana law does not require new large-load customers to obtain PSC approval. That is correct: a 2007 Montana law eliminated customer choice for electric supply, making NorthWestern a regulated monopoly with substantial discretion over which large industrial customers it serves.

On March 31, 2026, NorthWestern filed an application with the Montana PSC for a Large New Load Tariff — a proposed framework establishing contract terms for any new customer seeking 5 megawatts or more of electric service. That filing is the regulatory hook the Commission may eventually use to gain visibility into the unnamed customers. It is pending as of mid-May 2026.

The Quote That Should End the Argument

This is the single most important sentence in the public record on the Northern Cheyenne / Montana data center question. It came from NorthWestern Energy's own representative Cashell, speaking publicly, paraphrasing remarks by NorthWestern CEO Brian Bird in Helena:

“And Brian Bird, our CEO, talked about this in Helena and he said, 'If it's an unnamed facility, you can probably guess that it has some kind of contract with the government.' We don't know for sure, but they have not allowed us to utilize their name yet.” NorthWestern Energy — reported Feb 2025

That is the host utility's CEO publicly speculating that his own customer is a federal contractor. The customer has used its commercial leverage with the utility to require nondisclosure. The utility is honoring it. The CEO is signaling, in a public forum in the state capital, that the most likely explanation is a federal contract.

The reporting that followed asked the obvious question — what would the power actually be used for? AI processing? Cryptocurrency? Cloud storage? Something for the government? Neither NorthWestern nor the unnamed customer has answered. The question remains open.

What is documented, and not speculation: the host utility itself does not know the end-use. The Montana Public Service Commission does not know the end-use. The Montana legislature passed the enabling laws for nuclear waste storage and uranium enrichment without knowing the end-use. The Northern Cheyenne Reservation, sitting roughly 100 miles from the Colstrip plant that will supply the initial power, has not been told the end-use, and was specifically denied the legal right to vote on the nuclear-waste statute that enables the longer-term reactor side of the equation.

This is the architecture Part I named. It is operating in Montana right now. And the most likely customer identity — the host utility's own best guess — is the federal government.

The Coal–Reactor Transition

The structural reason Northern Cheyenne is in this fight is geographic and energetic. The Colstrip Generating Station is one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the American West. Colstrip Units 3 and 4 have, according to the Montana Environmental Information Center, the third-highest and overall highest rates of toxic air pollutant emissions in the United States. Colstrip is scheduled for retirement in 2043 under NorthWestern's own 2026 Integrated Resource Plan.

Between now and 2043, the Colstrip plant will burn enormous additional quantities of coal to supply data center loads that did not exist before 2024. After 2043, NorthWestern's plan is to replace Colstrip's capacity with Small Modular Reactors — the same SMR class GAIN is proposing at the Northern Cheyenne–adjacent coal refinery.

That is the transition Honor the Earth is describing. The same community that has spent four generations breathing Colstrip's emissions is now being told that the replacement technology is a reactor class that has never been operated commercially on Turtle Island, that will produce nuclear waste with no permanent repository, that will be sited a few miles from the reservation, and that the customer who is driving the demand for it cannot be named.

The fuel side closes the loop. HB 696 authorized uranium conversion and enrichment in Montana. General Matter is producing HALEU at Paducah under a $900 million DOE contract. The reactor at Northern Cheyenne would consume HALEU. The data center would consume the reactor's output. The customer would consume the data center's compute. And the customer is, in the host utility CEO's words, probably some kind of government contract.

The chain is closed. The community is not allowed to know what is on the receiving end.

The Other Indigenous-Adjacent Sites

Northern Cheyenne is the documented case, but it is not the only one. From Honor the Earth's tracking and from public utility filings:

Wyoming Cheyenne (TerraPower / Meta / eight Natrium reactors) sits adjacent to historic Cheyenne, Arapaho, Lakota, Crow, Shoshone, and Ute territories. The first commercial Natrium reactor at Kemmerer, Wyoming received its NRC construction permit on March 8, 2026.

Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Oklahoma — multiple proposed hyperscale projects on or adjacent to the reservation, with the Muscogee Nation Council having unanimously passed its own moratorium.

Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma — adjacent siting concerns, water-impact focus.

Navajo Nation, Arizona/New Mexico/Utah — the Navajo Nation's own data center projects exist alongside external corporate siting interest. The history of uranium mining on Navajo land (30 million tons extracted 1944–1986) is the precedent that informs every current negotiation.

Tulsa City Council, the Seminole Nation, and the Muscogee Nation have all passed moratoriums on hyperscale data center development. Maine became the first state to pass a statewide moratorium (pending Governor's signature as of April 22, 2026).

The pattern is consistent: Indigenous nations and tribal-adjacent communities that have organized political infrastructure are passing moratoriums and refusing the architecture. The communities that are not yet organized — or where state legislatures have stripped tribal approval requirements — are absorbing the projects.

This is what Honor the Earth means when it calls the buildout Techno-Colonial. The targeting is not random.

What This Article Cannot Resolve

Part II ended by acknowledging that the DOE land program's awardees would resolve in 2026 through regulatory disclosure. Part III ends with a sharper version of the same problem.

The identity of the unnamed Montana data center customer is not currently in any public record I can access from open sources. NorthWestern Energy's CEO has said publicly that the customer is “probably” a federal contractor. That is the host utility's CEO speculating about his own customer. It is not a confirmed disclosure.

The Montana Public Service Commission's pending Large New Load Tariff filing — submitted March 31, 2026 — may eventually force a disclosure of customer identity, customer end-use, or both. The PSC has investigatory authority over NorthWestern's reasonableness and prudency. It does not currently have, on the record, a mandatory ultimate-customer disclosure requirement for large-load contracts.

A FOIA request to NorthWestern is not available; NorthWestern is a private investor-owned utility, not a public body. A FOIA request to the Montana PSC can potentially surface filings made under seal in the Large New Load Tariff docket once any party invokes commercial-confidentiality protections.

What Part III can establish is the structural record. What it cannot do is name the customer. Whether the customer is OpenAI via Stargate, Meta direct, Microsoft, a defense contractor, an intelligence-community contractor, or the DOE itself acting as anchor tenant is an open question — and the host utility's own CEO has named the government as the most likely answer. That sentence is the record.

What This Walk Establishes

A federal nuclear-innovation program (GAIN) and the state monopoly utility (NorthWestern Energy) announced a Small Modular Reactor project a few miles from the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in May 2025, with explicit data center customer demand as the driver.

The Montana legislature passed two enabling statutes (HB 623, HB 696) in the same session. A tribal-approval amendment to HB 623 passed the House and was stripped in the Senate at the bill sponsor's urging. The same amendment to HB 696 failed in the House. Both bills are now law.

NorthWestern Energy has signed Letters of Intent for up to 1,400 megawatts of data center load — nearly twice the entire current Montana electricity demand. At least one customer's identity is concealed at the customer's insistence. The host utility's own CEO has stated publicly that the unnamed customer is most likely a federal contractor.

The community most directly affected — the Northern Cheyenne Reservation — has been excluded from the legal process that authorized the nuclear infrastructure and has not been told the identity of the customer the infrastructure will serve.

The fuel cycle closes here. Paducah produces HALEU. General Matter is funded by the DOE. SMRs would consume the HALEU. Data centers would consume the SMR output. And the data center customer — at least in Montana, as a matter of public record — is most plausibly a federal contractor.

This is what Techno-Colonial means in operational terms. The mechanism is the same federal-state-corporate stack walked in the previous two parts. The receiving end is a sovereign Indigenous nation that has been administratively cut out of the decision chain at every stage.

One Additional Policy Ask

Six policy asks from Part I still stand. The seventh from Part II still stands. One more, specific to Part III:

Eight. Mandatory disclosure of ultimate customer identity for any large-load (5+ megawatt) electric service contract a regulated monopoly utility signs with a non-residential customer. No commercial-confidentiality exception above a defined load threshold. A utility's CEO speculating that his own customer is a federal contractor is not an acceptable level of public disclosure when state legislatures are simultaneously authorizing nuclear waste storage and uranium enrichment to serve the same load.

What Comes Next

That closes the three-part architectural walk. Friday's piece on Sam Altman was the prelude. Part I mapped the architecture in outline. Part II walked the federal sites. Part III brought us here, to a sovereign Indigenous nation being asked to host the next reactor for a customer it isn't allowed to know.

The reporting continues. Wednesday I drop the next piece — Watch the Water — on what is already happening in real communities. Two AI data center developments caught taking public water without authorization in the same week of May 2026. One in Georgia. One in Arizona. Twenty-nine million gallons in one case. A state that bans new housing developments from drawing groundwater while exempting data centers in the other. After that there's the foreign-capital question on MGX and CFIUS, the money map of who is paying for what, and the resistance — Red Lake Nation, Apache Stronghold, the Muscogee, the Northern Cheyenne building their own solar and bringing back their buffalo while the federal government tries to build a reactor a few miles up the road.

The architecture is older than the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project is the name we give to one cycle of it. We are watching another cycle now, and the receiving end has not been told.