A proud, independent, North Dakota widow enters a Faustian deal with a fracking company to avoid bank foreclosure of her ranch but joins Native American neighbors, whose land and water is despoiled by drilling operation on her land, to battle the fracking company over environmental and social consequences of their operation while DAPL resistance builds nearby. 

SYNOPSIS:

Wilma Johannsson cannot believe her banker, who she has known her entire life, will really foreclose on the Bar J. But their relationship and Wilma’s grit are no match for the Ranch’s economic downturn. Meanwhile, far away, in response to rising crude futures, a Texas oil company is looking for their next field. The Bar J sits atop the most potentially productive shale oil deposit of the Bakken geological formation. Researching ownership, they learn of Wilma’s financial distress. Oil emissary Red Dawson appears at Wilma’s door one day. His siren song seems like salvation, so Wilma, wary but desperate, signs leases. She has no real inkling of the Pandora's box she’s opening for her family, community and Native American neighbors she has not cared to meet. The tenuous profitability of the Bakken’s fracked oil is tightly linked to cheap transport to market by overland pipeline constructed along the most direct route, no matter that it transgresses sacred Native American territory. The oil and pipeline industries ruthlessly leave no political, legal or physical impediment in their path unturned. Unintimidated by their might, Native American tribes rise up to accept the challenge, David facing Goliath. Back on the Bar J, rigs are pumping, slurry pits fill with toxic waste that overflows into the water supply for the Cooks With Stone’s livestock next door that poisons the animals. The fracking process contaminates groundwater that supplies their drinking water. It flames at the kitchen sink. When they supplicate, Wilma discounts their complaints as imaginary but she begins to doubt the wisdom of her decision to lease her land when the gas flares from the rigs continuously light the night and the noise of production never ceases. The man camps, with their “Hell on Wheels'' vice following, flourish. Soon, Native American girls and women begin to go missing as the sex trafficking trade grows. Wilma is disinterested, until Lily and Mabel join the ranks. Wilma learns the frustration of Native Americans first hand as local authorities turn blind eyes. Then her livestock suffers the same fate as those of the Cooks With Stone. Analiese’s mare, Luna, grotesquely miscarries and no one will investigate. Wilma joins with Alma to conduct their own investigations to find their daughters. Tragically, Tom Cooks With Stone, contracts cancer from their contaminated well water and dies. In a bittersweet epiphany, Wilma finds understanding of Inga’s world view and begrudgingly seeks her assistance, leading to their reconciliation. When crude prices fall at market whim, the fracking company abandons the Bar J, leaving behind the scars of their presence on the land and the community. Wilma wonders if her land will ever recover in her lifetime. She worries for her daughters’ futures. Alma must adjust to life without Tom. But the two women are now bonded and there is nothing they can’t overcome.

BAKKEN