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ByJoshWood The Associated Press TIOGA, N.D. Drilling crews are eager to plunge their equipment into the ground. Road builders are ready to start highway proj- ects, and construction workers need to dig. But across the hyperactive oil fields of North Dakota, these and other groups often must wait for another team known for slow, meticulous study — archaeolo- gists, whose job is to survey the land before a single spade of dirt can be turned. The routine surveys have pro- ducedararejobsbonanzainAmer- ican archaeology, a field in which many highly educated profession- als hop from project to project around the world and still struggle to make a living. The positions also come with a constant tension: The archaeologists are trained to find evidence of the past, but the com- panies that pay them would prefer not to turn up anything that gets in the way of profits. Without the oil boom, a lot of young archaeologists might "never get the experience," said Tim Dod- son, who endured a long job search before finding work overseas and later coming to North Dakota. Archaeological surveys are in- tended to protect any histori- cal treasures that might lie bur- ied atop the region's oil and nat- ural gas deposits. Although not required on all oil projects, they are a mandate for most federal drilling permits. The work involves inspecting a site for any artifacts or evidence of past human habitation and cat- aloging the effort. If significant discoveries emerge, most oil com- panies will change their plans to avoid the hassle of drilling in a sensitive area. Long before the oil boom, pre- vious archaeological digs un- covered a nearly complete duck- billed dinosaur fossil with skin, bones and tendons preserved in sandstone. Other excavations have focused on old trading posts, military forts and battlefields, ac- cording to the State Historical Society of North Dakota. With more archaeologists work- ing in the oil fields, the number of historic sites in North Dakota jumped from 846 in 2009 to nearly 2,260 in 2013, including forgot- ten settler cemeteries with graves markedinforeignlanguages,aban- doned homesteader farms and stone circles put in place by Amer- ican Indians thousands of years ago, according to the state's His- toric Preservation Office. "A lot of that wouldn't be hap- pening without the boom," said Richard Rothaus, an archaeolo- gist who heads Trefoil Cultural and Environmental Heritage, a Minnesota-based firm that offers "cultural resource management," an umbrella term for this kind of archaeological work. While the oil boom is the en- gine behind the speedy growth, the archaeological work is not focused entirely on drilling sites. Much of it targets building proj- ects designed to support the oil business, such as road, bridge and airport improvements. Over the lpst decade, the num- ber of firms authorized to do sur- veys in North Dakota rose from around 30 to 50, said Paul Picha, chief archaeologist at the histor- ical society. No one in the field keeps track of exact archaeology employment numbers, but the oil boom has almost certainly expanded the ranks of North Dakota archaeol- ogists from as few as a few dozen to several hundred, if not more. For instance, the Bismarck of- fice of Metcalf Archaeological Consultants has roughly dou- bled in size every year for the past three years, according to Damita Engel, regional director of oper- ations at the firm, which is based in Golden, Colorado. Three years ago, they had 10 to 12 employees. Now they have 53. "And we're still hiring," Engel said. The added jobs have helped scores of archaeologists such as Dodson, 30, who received a mas- ter's degree in maritime archae- ology in 2009 from England's Southampton University. Af- ter graduating, he moved back in with his parents in St. Louis and worked as a bartender and bouncer while searching for a po- sition in his specialty. "I couldn't find a job to save my life," he said. After seven months, he finally landed one in the United Arab Emirates, which led to jobs in Virginia and Colorado. That's a common path for ar- chaeologists. Most jobs are short lived and are often limited by ei- ther budget or scope. The profes- sion is nomadic for many start- ing out, requiring frequent moves over long distances. The pay is low, the benefits few. OIL DRILLING Boom produces jobs for struggling archaeologists CHARLESREXARBOGAST—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Several signs remind drivers of large trucks used by the oil industry to avoid the road to farmlands and the historical Killdeer Mountain battlefield Wednesday, near Killdeer, N.D. The Kildeer site was surveyed by a team of archeologists when a power company wanted to run new power lines through the area. Indian tribes feared the project could disturb the remains of native people who were killed there but archeologists hired by the utility found "nothing of consequence" along a 150-foot right of way. News feed WASHINGTON Four former Blackwater Worldwide se- curity guards went on trial Wednesday in the killings of 14 Iraqis and the wound- ing of at least 18 others. Over the next few days, a jury of 12 residents from the District of Columbia will be chosen from a pool of 111 people to decide the guards' fate. The trial is expected to last months. The judge overseeing the trial, Royce Lamberth, has been a U.S. district judge for over 25 years and he has a military background. He served as a captain in the Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps from 1968 to 1974, including three years at the Pentagon. In a brief proceeding, the judge instructed the pro- spective jurors not to read or watch anything about the case and he specifically mentioned social media. No text messaging about the case. No Twitter. "Just don't do it," he said. "Just stick to the evidence" in the courtroom. Lamberth gave no indica- tion to the prospective jurors that the guard who faces the most serious charge is ask- ing that he be tried sepa- rately from the other three. COURT Blackwaterguardsface trial in Iraq shootings WASHINGTON Defense Sec- retary Chuck Hagel told lawmakers Wednesday that last month's prisoner swap with the Taliban might have been the "last, best" chance to secure the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only U.S. soldier held cap- tive in Afghanistan. He said mediators indicated time was slipping away to get Bergdahl out safely. Hagel, the first Obama ad- ministration official to testify publicly about the contro- versial deal, told the House Armed Services Committee that Qatari officials warned in the days before the ex- change that "time was not on our side" and a leak would sabotage the deal. The trans- fer of five detainees at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Qatar was legal and advanced national inter- ests, he added. Republicans and some Democrats have sharply crit- icized the administration for not informing Congress in advance, with some accus- ing the president of break- ing a law requiring 30-day notification of any Guanta- namo prisoner release. Ad- ministration officials have told Congress that four of the five Taliban officials will likely rejoin the fight. PRISONER SWAP Hagel:Timewasrunning out to save Bergdahl WAUKESHA, WIS. A 12-year- old girl accused of stabbing a friend in a quest to please a spooky fictional character will have a mental evalua- tion, while an attorney for a second girl also charged in the crime said Wednesday that he could raise the issue of competency later. The girls appeared in court for a minutes-long hearing that would typi- cally attract little attention but in this case drew doz- ens of journalists and oth- ers to Waukesha, a commu- nity west of Milwaukee. The girls' families sat silently as a court commissioner agreed to appoint a doctor for one and scheduled their next court dates for July 2. One girl's father cried. According to court docu- ments, the girls plotted for months to kill their friend to curry favor with Slen- der Man, a character in hor- ror stories they read online. They told investigators they believed Slender Man had a mansion in a forest and they planned to go live with him after the slaying. One of the girls hosted the other two at a May 30 slum- ber party to celebrate her birthday. The next morning, the two girls attacked the victim in a wooded park. MENTAL HEALTH Doctor to evaluate girl, 12, charged in stabbing WASHINGTON The House began to consider legisla- tion Wednesday that would allow some schools to opt out of healthier meal stan- dards — a proposal that has drawn a veto threat from the White House. The GOP spending bill on the House floor would allow schools to waive the school lunch and breakfast stan- dards championed by first lady Michelle Obama for the next school year if they lost money on meal programs over a six-month period. The chamber is expected to have a final vote on the bill next week. In a statement threaten- ing a veto, the White House said the bill would be "a major step backwards for the health of American chil- dren by undermining the effort to provide kids with more nutritious food." The school meal rules set by Congress and the Obama administration over the past several years require more fruits, vegetables and whole grains in the lunch line. Also, there are limits on sodium, sugar and fat. Some school nutrition di- rectors have lobbied for a break, saying the rules have proved to be costly and re- strictive. CONGRESS House considers bill to waive school meal rules SEATTLE A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday challenges Seattle's adoption of what would be the nation's high- est minimum wage as un- fair to small franchises. The Seattle City Coun- cil voted this month to grad- ually raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. The plan gives businesses with more than 500 employ- ees nationally at least three years to phase in the in- crease — four if they provide health insurance. Smaller employers get seven years. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, the International Franchise Association, a business group, said the ordinance "unfairly and irrationally discriminates against inter- state commerce generally, and small businesses that operate under the franchise business model specifically." For example, an inde- pendently owned Holiday Inn Express in Seattle with 28 workers is considered a "large" business under the law, because Holiday Inn franchises nationally have more than 500 workers, the lawsuit argues. Meanwhile, other Seattle companies with up to 500 workers are consid- ered "small" and given extra time to adopt the wage. EMPLOYMENT Lawsuit challenges Seattle's $15 wage By Hope Yen The Associated Press NEW CASTLE, COLO. Four in 10 new oil and gas wells near national forests and fragile watersheds or otherwise iden- tified as higher pollution risks escape federal inspection, un- checked by an agency strug- gling to keep pace with Amer- ica's drilling boom, according to an Associated Press review that shows wide state-by-state disparities in safety checks. Roughly half or more of wells on federal and Indian lands weren't checked in Colo- rado, Utah and Wyoming, de- spite potential harm that has led to efforts in some commu- nities to ban new drilling. In New Castle, a tiny Col- orado River valley commu- nity, homeowners expressed chagrin at the large number of uninspected wells, many on federal land, that dot the steep hillsides and rocky landscape. Like elsewhere in the West, water is a precious commodity in this Colorado town, and some residents worry about the potential health hazards of any leaks from wells and drilling. "Nobody wants to live by an oil rig. We surely didn't want to," said Joann Jaramillo, 54. About 250 yards up the hill from Jaramillo's home, on land that was a dormant gravel pit when she bought the house eight years ago, is an ac- tive drilling operation that op- erates every day from 7 a.m. until sometimes 10:30 p.m. Ja- ramillo said the drilling began about three years ago. Even if the wells were in- spected, she questioned whether that would ensure their safety. She said many view the oil and gas industry as self-policing and nontrans- parent. "Who are they going to re- port to?" she asked. Government data points to the Bureau of Land Man- agement as so overwhelmed by a boom in a new drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, that it has been unable to keep up with inspections of some of the highest priority wells. That's an agency designation based on a greater need to protect against possible wa- ter contamination and other environmental and safety is- sues. ENVIRONMENT 4 in 10 high-risk wells not inspected NEWS » redbluffdailynews.com Thursday, June 12, 2014 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B4