And though the oil lay under their native land, they weren't entitled to any of the profits, because the government retained all "subsurface rights."

But in many cases, federal officials say, nothing can be legally done to halt the energy operations, because the subsurface rights are in private hands.

It reserved subsurface rights for the Inuvialuit, federal jurisdiction for the surface, and that the pingos would be preserved unimpaired.

The Federal Government owns the surface of the Big Cypress preserve, but subsurface rights to minerals remain in private hands.

In modern law, this principle is still accepted in limited form, and the rights are divided into air rights above and subsurface rights below.

The royalties from that field, where the state owned all the subsurface rights, have totaled more than $11 billion over 10 years.

Usually mineral rights and other subsurface rights are-" "Never mind that.

The subsurface rights, also known as mineral rights, are the foundation of recent oil and gas law in the United States.

Mineral exploitation is, of course, old hat in Texas, where land ownership takes two forms: surface rights and subsurface rights, and subsurface rights dominate.

"Finally, about 53,000 acres are most threatened by subsurface mineral development, but Interior would not acquire the the subsurface rights," the study said.