Swinomish Tribe Reach Settlement with BNSF

On November 4, 2025, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and BNSF Railway Company announced a landmark settlement, bringing an end to over a decade of high-stakes federal litigation. This resolution addressed a long-running trespass dispute centered on BNSF’s unauthorized operation of crude oil trains across the Swinomish Reservation in Washington. The settlement followed a significant 2024 federal court ruling which ordered BNSF to disgorge nearly $395 million in profits and interest earned from violating the easement agreement between 2012 and 2021.

The conflict originated from a 1991 easement agreement that allowed BNSF to run one train of no more than 25 cars in each direction daily across the easement. However, beginning in 2012, the Tribe discovered that BNSF had increased traffic to accommodate the boom in Bakken crude oil. The railroad began running unit trains of 100 railcars or more without the Tribe's written consent, often crossing sensitive marine ecosystems and vital treaty fishing grounds.

The tribe filed suit in 2015, and by 2023, the courts had determined that BNSF’s actions constituted a "willful, conscious, and knowing trespass." The ensuing 2024 judgment for nearly $400 million was meant to disgorge the profits BNSF earned from its illegal use of tribal land. Following that ruling, BNSF appealed, but the parties entered Ninth Circuit-supervised mediation, which led to the November 2025 resolution.

Under the settlement, BNSF is now permitted to operate one unit train per day across the easement. While the settlement allows for larger trains than the original 1991 agreement, the settlement restricts the overall frequency of traffic. Furthermore, the tribe noted that allowing these shipments to move by rail actually provides a net benefit to the Salish Sea by decreasing the volume of marine tanker vessels delivering crude oil to the March Point refineries. For the Swinomish people, fewer tankers mean less interference with fishing activities, reduced risk of catastrophic oil spills in the water, and better protection for marine habitats central to their identity.

L.E. Peabody & Associates, Inc. is proud to have assisted the Tribe in the proceeding, applying our expertise in railroad operations and economics.

Click here to read more in the Tribe's statement.