Many North Dakotans are receiving smaller checks from oil companies pumping on their land

More than 300,000 North Dakotans own land and minerals used for oil production. That means they receive royalties from the oil that companies pump from their land.

Many families have been receiving those royalties for generations since the oil boom started in the region in the early 1950s. But new reporting finds that those royalties have shifted drastically over the last decade. While oil companies are pumping just as much oil as ever, landowners are seeing smaller and smaller paychecks.

ProPublica and North Dakota Monitor journalist Jacob Orledge investigated why and recently published a series of articles on his findings. He joined Minnesota Now to share more.