In Yellow Earth, the site of Three Nations reservations on the banks of the Missouri River in North Dakota, Sayles introduces us to Harleigh Killdeer, chairman of the Tribal Business Council. "An activist in his way, a product of the Casino Era," Kildeer, who is contracted by oil firm Case and Crosby, spearheads the new Three Nations Petroleum Company. Harleigh claims to be securing oil profits for the reservation, but his alliance with a highly dubious front man suggests otherwise. As a swarm of men, trucks, and heavy equipment assault the earth, threaten the aquifer, pollute the air, and precipitate mayhem, local lives are upended, from the sheriff to intrepid teen girls, a savvy stripper, a bouncer, a casino dealer, a Mexican refugee, and wildlife biologist Leia, who is studying a now imperiled prairie dog colony.