Yellow Bird: Tribes have much to offer North Dakota

"There has never been a time in my history with the Herald when the rift between reservation communities and the rest of the state felt so apparent. The distance is between ways-of-life, with each group seeming to be too far to one side.

This realization came after I took part in Herald editorial board meetings with members of the Grand Forks and East Grand Forks business community, as well as with Joel Kotkin and Delore Zimmerman, authors and analysts who travel nationwide and specialize in demography and rural development.

The reservations have possibilities and could add to the state's potential. When you talk about energy, you'll find the Three Affiliated Tribes with oil and natural gas, good coal potential and wind energy space available. Water? We're sitting on Lake Sakakawea.

If you follow the Missouri River downstream as it rolls into the Standing Rock Lakota nation, you'll find it surrounded by the spacious land in both North and South Dakota - land with potential underneath (the Williston Basin, which contains oil and natural gas, stretches across the reservation) and on top, in the form of wind energy.

On the eastern side of the state, the Spirit Lake Reservation sits alongside Devils Lake, whose fishing and boating potential is barely being tapped. The reservation also boasts 6,390 acres of woodland, and its high hills have potential as wind energy sources.

Near the Canadian border, the Turtle Mountain Band has great potential as a tourist draw with lakes, trees and the close proximity to Canada. That reservation can harness wind energy, too."

Get the Story:
Dorreen Yellow Bird: 'Can do' spirit could help tribes advance (The Grand Forks Herald 1/11)
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