Officials Say Oil Ill Effects Reach Montana Reservation

Tribal officials say eastern Montana's Fort Peck Indian Reservation is feeling the adverse effects of the drilling boom on the nearby Bakken oil fields.

Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux tribes chairman Rusty Stafne says crime has increased but the reservation isn't seeing the economic gains of neighbors in North Dakota and far eastern Montana. He spoke at a listening session hosted by U.S. Sen. Jon Tester.

Several members of North Dakota's Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation attended the meeting. Their Fort Berthold Indian Reservation produces 300,000 barrels of oil a day. The oil has brought money to the reservation, but Jodi Lee Spotted Bear says it has also come with violence and drugs.

She says the impact on Fort Peck is now just "a drop in the bucket" of what it could be.