Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribal members reap more than $179 million in oil benefits

My home reservation, Fort Berthold in North Dakota, made the news today because of the insane amount of oil activity going on. Imagine all the big rigs and trucks needed to develop the oil locked with the Bakken Formation, the largest ever mapped by the U.S Geological Survey. It’s crazy. You can be sure, money is making a few people crazy for one reason or the other. Money. Most of the craziness is about all the money that is floating around. More than $179 million has been paid in lease payments. Wait until the oil royalties start being paid. That said, of course, there are a lot of Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara people who are unhappy about how the whole situation is being played out. Go to the Elbowoods Web site to get a sense about how some people feel about the oil activity. As a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation of Fort Berthold, I wish someone would start asking questions about how 500 oil wells will effect the environment. Actually, tribal member Kandi Mosset, also an employee of the Indigenous Environmental Network is speaking up. Some decision makers at Fort Berthold are supporting an oil refinery that would process tar sands from Canada. If you don’t know about the tar sands, go to H2Oil to learn more.

Meanwhile, here’s part of the AP story that ran in the Washington Post today:
Tribal officials say the oil has helped right a wrong done to the tribes in the 1950s, when more than a tenth of the reservation was flooded by the federal government to create Lake Sakakawea, a 180-mile-long reservoir.

Oil companies are now drilling beneath the big lake, using an advanced horizontal drill technique. Recently completed regulatory paperwork removed the last obstacle.

Since the boom began, lease payments of more than $179 million have been paid to the tribe and its members on about half of the reservation land, tribal record show. Millions of dollars more in royalties and tax revenue are also rolling in. Levings said the tribe will use its money to pay off debt, and bankroll such things as roads, health care and law enforcement.

The reservation contains portions of six counties, covering more than 1,500 square miles. It lies atop a portion the oil-rich Bakken shale formation, which the U.S. Geological Survey estimates holds 4.3 billion barrels of oil that can be recovered using current technology. The agency said the Bakken was the largest oil deposit it has ever assessed.

Sen. Byron Dorgan is pushing to streamline the oil permitting process, according to a story today from KFYR TV.

Jodi Rave
Enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation