A Snapshot of Iron Range Economics
THE RESOURCE CURSE
ART + INFORMATION | Water & Treaty Rights in the Great Lakes of the United States
Dedicated to all of the kind, generous and passionate people we've met and the vital waters they work to protect.
THE ISSUES
Permitting procedures for mining operations, which differ from state to state, and nation to nation, don't account for the cumulative effect that multiple projects will have on a region.
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Indigenous Rights
Cumulative Effects
Sulfide Ore Bodies
Regulatory Enforcement
Economic Arguments
Recommended Reading | “Iron Mining in the Lake Superior Basin”, Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission
“Sulfide Mining”, Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission
“United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”, The United Nations, March, 2008.
What does
Trust Responsibility mean?
WATCH | Sacred Places: Eagle Rock
Jessica Koski tells the story of Eagle Rock, an Anishinaabe sacred place in Michigan's Upper Peninsula that's now surrounded by a copper mine.
"My tribe shouldn't be inherently doomed to suffer environmental impacts because our homeland happens to be near a collection of metal in the ground." --Mike Wiggins, Jr., Former Chairman, Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
The Treaties
The United States Federal government signed and affirmed 600+ treaties with the Indigenous nations of the country. You can read the text of two of the treaties from the Great Lakes region at right. | These documents were prepared by the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission.