Identifying the purpose of the Conference on Real Choices in Indian Resource Development: Alternatives to Leasing (Billings, Montana, January 1975) as exploring options available to American Indian tribes in the Great Plains re: the development of their own natural resources, this paper presents excerpts from participant speeches and comments regarding the following: (1) the problem and the challenge of conserving and developing Indian resources; (2) the foreign analogy wherein use of Indian resources is compared with the developing countries and their attempts to control and manage resources; (3) comparative mining agreements ("The Indian mineral leases I have seen are among the worst mineral agreements in the world."); (4) water rights (discussion of a new bill proposed by the Justice Department to allow the Secretary of the Interior over a five year period to administer the quantification of water in the U.S. without a mechanism for appeal); (5) a colonial experience (a professor from Ceylon asserts, "The necessity to assert cultural autonomy is critical at the initial stages...because it is going to take us forward into a new sense of human community."); (6) Environmental Protection Agency (it was the consensus that EPA and Indian people have common interests and should develop better communications). (JC)