Sociologist
John S. Gilmore presents the idea of a boom town 'problem triangle'. The notion is as follows: Local services do not keep up with population growth, degrading the quality of life in the community. Lower quality of life makes it more difficult to attract the additional population needed to support growth of services. Private investors also are often hesitant to invest in services, as chaos and crime are often perpetuated in these areas. The oil industry relies on employees, but these employees in turn rely on other workers (dining, retail, etc.) and services (law enforcement, school systems, health care, etc.). When the additional population needed for other businesses and services are not present, the oil employees cannot live healthy, secure lives.
Oil Rights and Indigenous Communities In the Bakken Formation, oil rights are often disputed as they can contradict past treaties between Indigenous nations and the United States that have been established for centuries. This is at-odds with some Indigenous belief systems, as scholar Paul Guernsey as pointed out: Some Indigenous peoples disagree with the concept of private property and view land as something that can’t be commodified. One example of such issues, according to historian Nick Estes, is the Dakota Access Pipeline, which runs from the Bakken Oil Fields to Illinois, traverses through sacred Indigenous burial sites, permanent reservation boundaries of the Great Sioux Nation, tributaries of the Missouri River, and violates the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. For example, Estes explains that the Dakota people who inhabit the Bakken region believe water shaped the earth and created sacred stones we now walk upon today, and are now concerned that the same water is being used to destroy their history. In response, property ownership cancome with conflict, stemming from matters of class, race and colonialism. According to scholar Vanessa Watts, Native people view land as an individual living being with agency.
Effects on Indigenous Communities Crime affected the relationship between boom newcomers and Indigenous peoples residing in those areas. Indigenous peoples saw newcomers as threats to their access to resources and services. However, the longest residing people, such as the
Standing Rock Sioux and
Lakota tribes, were completely disregarded in decision making in land usage and development for oil fields. One instance particularly caught the eye of the public, when the
Dakota Access Pipeline risked the people's access to land, water, and sacred sites. The issue ultimately made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The pipeline disrupts water flow from the
Mississippi to the tribal land in order to deliver oil from the Bakken to
Illinois. The pipeline also directly violates the
Fort Laramie Treaty (Article II), which guarantees [20] the 'undisturbed use and occupation of the sovereign nation's reservation lands.
Man Camps and MMIW The addition of thousands of oil workers led to a housing shortage, requiring the construction of man camps. These portable housing units were popularized due to North Dakota proliferating usage specifically. Law enforcement agencies reported sharp increases in violent crime, drug trafficking, and gun crimes in these areas, while nearby Indigenous communities reported increased rates of sexual assault, human trafficking, sex trafficking, and missing and murdered Indigenous women. There is a prevalent notion among oilfield workers in the Bakken that there will be no consequences for assaults against Indigenous women. This exacerbates the ongoing
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Crisis. Native American women experienced 2.5 times higher victimization of crime than other races- and women experienced 54% increase in unlawful sexual contact, most often statutory rape. The
National Institute of Justice reported that instances of sexual violence against Indigenous women and children increased 75% in
Fort Berthold Indian Reservation a reservation in the Bakken region, post-boom. Further studies have shown that this increase was dramatic and did not correspond with rates of violent crime in areas outside of the Bakken region, which actually decreased during this time. According to a text by Indigenous scholars Sarah Deer and Elizabeth Kronk Warner, the vast majority of sexual assaults reported in this area have been perpetrated by workers living in the man camps who cross into the nearby Indigenous communities. These crimes often went unpunished, as Indigenous nations have been stripped of their ability to have criminal governance over non-Indigenous peoples who commit crimes on Indigenous lands. This stems from the 1978 case
Oliphant vs. Suquamish Indian Tribe, in which the Supreme Court declared that because Indigenous nations were somewhat dependent on the United States federal government, their sovereignty was limited, as too was their ability to prosecute non- Indigenous peoples accused of committing violent crimes on their land. Thus, that ability was designated to the federal government only. It is also not possible for tribal law enforcement to prosecute non-Indigenous peoples for violent crime against Indigenous women and children that occur outside of their lands, specifically inside man camps. This ability also falls to federal and state governments, which some Native advocacy groups have deemed unwilling to prioritize violent crime against Indigenous peoples. According to historian Rayna Green, these problems manifest, in part, because Native Women have been sexualized and objectified in American culture as a byproduct of television, movies, marketing, and advertising. Oftentimes, Native American Women are portrayed as princesses holding traits such as beauty and virtue. This false perception that is embedded in American culture tends to commodify Indigenous women’s sexuality and prevents them from gaining respect from non-native audiences. Making Native Women more susceptible to mistreatment and sexual violence by American Men. ==Environmental effects==