Oil boom brings jobs, money, hope to long-impoverished ND American Indian reservation
By James Macpherson, APWednesday, February 24, 2010
American Indian reservation reaping oil benefits
NEW TOWN, N.D. — An oil boom on American Indian land in North Dakota has brought jobs, millions of dollars and hope to long-impoverished tribal members.
Oil companies have put dozens of money-producing rigs on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in little more than a year.
Industry officials say other tribes around the country have oil interests but none has likely experienced a recent windfall of this scale.
The reservation is occupied by the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes, known as the Three Affiliated Tribes. They were placed in west-central North Dakota by the federal government in the 1800s — long before anyone knew of the oil.
The federal government flooded more than a tenth of the reservation in the 1950s to create a 180-mile-long reservoir.
