Man camp

In the early 20th century, throughout the Permian Basin in west Texas, oil and gas industry companies often built permanent family housing for their employees in camps throughout the region.{{ r | MPR_2018-10-03 }} Workers stayed with the same company, but moved between camps, which racially were generally a monoculture of whites, and were modeled after company mining camps in the West and textile mill camps in the East.{{ r | MPR_2018-10-03 }} This type of company housing began to be replaced with temporary camps for transient workers in the 1950's and 1960's, as the boom-bust cycle of the oil and gas industry made it uneconomical to have a stable, permanent workforce.{{ r | MPR_2018-10-03 }}

Camps are part of an increasingly significant shift of global human population toward temporary or mobile housing in the 21st century. Use of the term 'man camp' became popular during the Bakken oil boom, which began in 2006, peaked in 2012, and draws large numbers of workers—overwhelmingly men—into western North Dakota, creating a housing shortage. The North Dakota Man Camp Project studied over 50 man camps in the Bakken region and classified them according to three types. Type 1 camps are large dormitory-style prefabricated compounds that provide full services to hundreds or thousands of workers. These camps most commonly house workers for multi-national corporations. Type 2 camps resemble RV parks, offer fewer amenities than type 1 camps, but do have some administration and minimal oversight from local government. Type 3 camps are typically small informal congregations of RVs squatting on vacant lots with no administration and possibly in violation of local ordinances. Broadly, the term man camp is ambiguously used to refer to any of these situations.

Some employers contract with companies that provide temporary workforce housing, like Target Hospitality (the biggest provider of man camp housing), to provide free housing to employees, at a cost to employers of $100+ per worker per night.{{ r | NYT | p=1 | q=Target’s camps, which rent directly to the drilling, hydraulic fracturing and trucking companies that employ most workers, have strict prohibitions on alcohol, firearms and unauthorized women. Violators are evicted and, often as a consequence, fired by the companies. With the employers paying $100 and up per worker per night for housing, good behavior is ensured, Mr. Lash said. ... More reminiscent of a college dorm than a bunkhouse, most of the camps serve three meals a day, have their own security, and come with amenities like workout rooms, game rooms and laundry service. }} Most camps have their own security, and Target's camps have rules prohibiting alcohol, firearms, and unauthorized women, which, if violated, generally result in eviction as well as termination of employment.{{ r | NYT | p=1 | q=Target’s camps, which rent directly to the drilling, hydraulic fracturing and trucking companies that employ most workers, have strict prohibitions on alcohol, firearms and unauthorized women. Violators are evicted and, often as a consequence, fired by the companies. With the employers paying $100 and up per worker per night for housing, good behavior is ensured, Mr. Lash said. ... More reminiscent of a college dorm than a bunkhouse, most of the camps serve three meals a day, have their own security, and come with amenities like workout rooms, game rooms and laundry service. }}

Man camps can overwhelm local communities, straining local infrastructure and services. Some local governments imposed moratoriums on man camps in the Bakken region.{{Cite web |date=2012-05-16 |title=In North Dakota oil patch, debate over 'man camp' housing continues |url=https://www.twincities.com/2012/05/16/in-north-dakota-oil-patch-debate-over-man-camp-housing-continues/ |access-date=2022-04-05 |website=Twin Cities |language=en-US}} Some man camps have been associated with violent crime and sex trafficking. A Bureau of Justice Statistics study (2019) confirmed that media reporting of increased violence in the Bakken region was statistically verifiable.{{Cite web |date=2019-03-14 |title=New Report Finds Increase of Violence Coincides with Oil Boom |url=https://www.colorado.edu/program/fpw/2019/03/14/new-report-finds-increase-violence-coincides-oil-boom |access-date=2022-04-05 |website=First Peoples Worldwide |language=en}} When man camps are near Native American reservations or overlap with Indigenous territories, they are strongly correlated with higher rates of violence against Indigenous women and sex trafficking. Several studies have confirmed this pattern of violence.

Indigenous people face particular risks from the influx of well-paid male workers brought by resource extraction projects.{{Cite journal|last=Fredericks |first=Carla |date=2018-10-23 |title=Responsible Resource Development: A Strategic Plan to Consider Social and Cultural Impacts of Tribal Extractive Industry Development |url=https://harvardjlg.com/2018/10/responsible-resource-development-a-strategic-plan-to-consider-social-and-cultural-impacts-of-tribal-extractive-industry-development/ |access-date=2022-04-05 |journal=Harvard Journal of Law & Gender |language=en-US}}{{Cite journal |last1=Finn |first1=Kathleen |last2=Gajda |first2=Erica |last3=Perin |first3=Thomas |last4=Fredericks |first4=Carla |date=2017-01-01 |title=Responsible Resource Development and Prevention of Sex Trafficking: Safeguarding Native Women and Children on the Fort Berthold Reservation |url=https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/articles/629 |journal=Harvard Journal of Law & Gender}} Companies hiring men often have relaxed standards that result with the employment of sex offenders. Complex jurisdictional law may leave tribal governments with little power to prosecute non-Indian offenders for crimes committed against tribal members. Resource extraction also has a long history of contributing to violence against Indigenous women, and some Indigenous scholars view the violence that occurs around man camps in relation to ongoing settler-colonialism and to other incidents of historical violence associated with resource extraction. There is often a perception that violence against Indigenous women will go unpunished. Federal, state, and tribal authorities are also ineffective with responding to sexual violence, often reacting slowly to incidents.{{ r | Condes | p=22 | quote=In addition to jurisdictional issues, tribes must contend with both underfunded law enforcement and prosecutorial indifference towards cases that are difficult to prove.116 Tribal policing is dramatically underfunded, providing tribes with less than 80% of the resources available to comparable non-Indian communities.117 And when American Indian women report their assaults to state or federal police, they are often dismissed and ignored.118 Even when these crimes are investigated, there are frequently lengthy delays that can result in the loss of invaluable evidence.11 }}{{Cite book |last=Deer |first=Sarah |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/907651047 |title=The beginning and end of rape : confronting sexual violence in native America |date=2015 |isbn=978-0-8166-9631-4 |location=Minneapolis |oclc=907651047}}{{Cite web |title=Why Aren't Fossil Fuel Companies Held Accountable for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women? |url=https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2019/10/05/native-fossil-fuel-missing-murdered-indigenous-women-mmiwg |access-date=2022-06-28 |website=YES! Magazine |language=en-US}}

Man camps have also been criticised for increasing threats of COVID-19 to local Indigenous communities.{{Cite news |last1=Goodluck |first1=Kalen |last2=Meyer |first2=Lucy |first3=Anjali |last3=Shrivastava |date=2021-01-08 |title=A crude virus: How 'man camps' can cause a COVID surge |url=https://www.hcn.org/articles/indigenous-affairs-covid19-a-crude-virus-how-man-camps-can-cause-a-covid-surge |access-date=2022-04-05 |website=www.hcn.org |language=en-us}}

Land defenders and water protectors in the US and Canada at multiple conflicts such as Stop Line 3, Thacker Pass lithium mine, Keystone Pipeline, and the Coastal GasLink Pipeline have all cited concerns about man camps endangering Indigenous women.{{Cite web |title=Assaults On The Rise At Line 3 Pipeline Man Camp |url=https://nexusmedianews.com/top_story/assaults-on-the-rise-at-line-3-pipeline-man-camp/ |access-date=2022-04-05 |website=Nexus Media News |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Bosler |first=Cayte |date=2021-11-07 |title=Plans To Dig the Biggest Lithium Mine in the US Face Mounting Opposition |url=https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07112021/lithium-mining-thacker-pass-nevada-electric-vehicles-climate/ |access-date=2022-04-05 |website=Inside Climate News |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Narwhal |first=The |title=B.C. failed to consider links between 'man camps,' violence against Indigenous women, Wet'suwet'en argue |url=https://thenarwhal.ca/b-c-failed-to-consider-links-between-man-camps-violence-against-indigenous-women-wetsuweten-argue/ |access-date=2022-04-05 |website=The Narwhal |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Lakota grandmothers fight man camps amid pandemic | date=April 14, 2020 |url=https://www.esperanzaproject.com/2020/native-american-culture/lakota-grandmothers-fight-man-camps-amid-pandemic/}}

Researchers familiar with the epidemic of violence against Indigenous women have proposed a strategic plan to mitigate harm from man camps that would improve victim services, increase access to culturally appropriate drug treatment, build up the criminal justice system, and promote corporate social responsibility for mitigating violence from man camps.

Ana Condes suggests a legal strategy for tribes to make use of 'Bad men clauses' in 1867–68 treaties that could compel federal law enforcement to protect Indigenous women from the violence of man camps.

• Logging camp
• Crew car, or Railroad car bunkhouse
• Bunkhouse

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Category:Temporary populated places

Category:Resource extraction