D.A. Barber finds that the booming wealth of the Bakken oil fields isn't trickling down to Native American North Dakotans. He also notes that South Dakota is part of a seemingly inverse relationship between good economic stats for us white folks and poverty for our Indian neighbors:
While the national average poverty rate for Indians is 27 percent, South Dakota had the highest poverty rate at 48.3 percent, followed by North Dakota at 41.6 percent. Other states with exceedingly high Indian poverty rates include Minnesota (38.4 percent), Nebraska (38.1 percent), Montana (36.3 percent), Arizona (35.1 percent), and Utah (31.7 percent).
What's interesting is that some of those states with the highest Indian poverty rates also had an equally wide schism in terms of the lowest recent unemployment numbers. While the current national unemployment rate is 7.6 percent, the lowest unemployment rates by state include mostly energy boom states. North Dakota ranked lowest at 3.3 percent, followed by No. 2 Nebraska at 3.8 percent, No. 4 South Dakota (4.3 percent); and No. 5 Utah and Wyoming (4.9 percent). In fact, within the Bakken boom counties, unemployment drops to 1.7 percent.
...The Bureau of Indian Affairs Labor Force Report estimates the real unemployment rate on North Dakota's reservations can be as high as 55 percent, while reaching 83 percent on South Dakota's reservations [D.A. Barber, "The Energy Boom: American Indians Need Not Apply?" Huffington Post, 2013.04.30].
So why doesn't the rising employment tide raise Indian boats in South Dakota? Even if Big Oil can't find lots of engineers on the Dakota reservations (I apologize, Lakota neighbors, if I underestimate the number of underutilized engineering degrees you have), aren't Bakken and Keystone XL supposed to generate all sorts of economic activity across sectors that benefit every available worker?
CH,
I notice that the HP article does not report any historical data on the Bakken effect on Native unemployment. Have you seen other sources that do? The discrepancy in rates is certainly troubling, but is there at least some movement?
"every available worker".....that is willing to work. They wouldn't pay us on Monday's for a reason......we needed people to be there the rest of the week.
digging holes for white people in the occupied territories: yippee.
Brother B asks a very good question. This map of ND county unemployment from the BLS shows the Standing Rock, Fort Berthold, and Turtle Mountain reservation areas remaining in the same range since 2008... but that data isn't very detailed. That's also the official data that folks says underestimates real Indian unemployment. Senator Heitkamp said last week that unemployment on the Standing Rock is 80% and income is around $8,000.
Ah! But this High County News article offers more insight:
--It says Fort Berthold unemployment has dropped from 40% to 10%.
--BIA rules and enviro-review increase the cost of drilling on Indian land.
--Reservation landholders get less for mineral rights that off-rez landholders due to the complications of figuring land ownership on Indian lands.
--One of the biggest employment areas, driving truck, is hard for Indian applicants to access due to their higher rates of DUI convictions.
--More families are without homes.
--Domestic violence has doubled.
--The tribe lacks the resources and regulatory power to deal with crumbling roads and illegal dumping.