The Midwest Mining Rush and Conflicts over Tribal Sovereignty: the Mole Lake and Bad River Ojibwe of Lake Superior

1. The Midwest Mining Rush and Conflicts over Tribal
Sovereignty: the Mole Lake and Bad River Ojibwe of Lake
Superior
• Al Gedicks
• Dept. of Sociology
• University of
Wisconsin-La Crosse

2. There are over a dozen new mining projects underway
in the Lake Superior region affecting the Ojibwe people.

3. Many of these projects are within the ceded territory of the Lake Superior Ojibwe in
Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota where the Ojibwe have reserved rights for
hunting, fishing and gathering under the treaties of 1837,1842 and 1854.

4. On September 14, 2011, Judge Paula Manderfield refused a request by the
Keweenaw Bay Indian Community to delay underground work at Kennecott’s
nickel sulfide underground mine at Eagle Rock in Michigan’s Upper
Peninsula
• Eagle Rock, the portal to
Kennecott’s sulfide mine, is
sacred to the Anishinaabe people,
who call it Migi zii wa sin.
• It is linked to ancient ceremonial
sites in Wisconsin and Montana
according to oral history.
• The state of Michigan says that
Eagle Rock is not a sacred site
because there is no building and
no mention of it in the written
record.

5. In late September 2011, Kennecott Eagle Minerals, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto of
London, began blasting at this sacred site where Fran Van Zile, an elder and keeper of
the water from the Mole Lake Ojibwe of Wisconsin conducted a water ceremony in
August 2009.

6. In Wisconsin, the Gogebic Taconite company has leases for 22,000 acres of
the Penokee-Gogebic Range, covering 22 miles in Ashland and Iron Counties,
one of the largest undeveloped low-grade iron (taconite) resources in the U.S.

7. The proposed open pit mine would initially be 4 miles long, 1/3 mile wide and 900 feet deep. The
overburden (waste rock) would be dumped in massive tailings piles at the headwaters of the Bad
River watershed. It would be the largest mine ever seen in Wisconsin. It would generate
approximately 560 million tons of tailings and 350 million tons of waste rock during Phase I.

8. Wetlands in areas of special natural resource interest (ASNRI wetlands) are defined as
either within the boundary of or having a direct connection to areas and waterways
with a special designation, including trout streams and Lake Superior.

9. Under current law, wetlands in areas of special natural resource interest (ASNR)
cannot be mitigated to offset damage done by development. The mining bill, written by
Gtac, would allow them to be filled or removed for iron mining.

10. The water that flows off the Penokee Hills currently feeds the Penokee aquifer and the Bad River
watershed. When sulfide minerals in the tailings are exposed to air and water, acid mine drainage
can release toxic metals into the watershed through the Kakagon Sloughs, a 16,000-acre complex
of wetlands, woodlands and sand dune ecosystems

11. Bad River Ojibwe tribal chair Mike Wiggins is concerned that this
mine could discharge polluted water to the Bad River watershed and
the tribe’s wild rice beds in the Kakagon Sloughs.
• The Kakagon Sloughs is one of
the largest undeveloped
freshwater estuaries in the world,
biologically important to
waterfowl, shorebirds, songbirds,
and several species of fish.
• Wild rice from the sloughs is
important forage for wildlife and
highly valued as a food source
and sacred plant by the Ojibwe
people.
• Wild rice is very sensitive to
water contaminants and
fluctuations in water level.

12. Mining pollution from Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range has
resulted in fish consumption advisories and a 100-mile-long
wild rice “dead zone” in the St. Louis River.
• Minnesota DNR studies show a
spike in sulfates in the St. Louis
River below the iron mines.
• Iron mining involves the removal
of overlying rocks which contain
heavy metals and sulfides.
• Len Anderson, a retired science
teacher and expert on wild rice,
says sulfates interfere with root
development.
• Minnesota is considering a
loosening of a 40 year old
standard for protecting wild rice
beds as new metallic sulfide
mines are proposed.

13. Taconite ore processing uses large amounts of energy and water, and liberate mercury.
Air emissions from taconite plants are the largest source of mercury in the Lake
Superior basin. Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission, “Iron Mining in the
Lake Superior Basin” October 2011
• “Air deposition of PCBs, mercury
and other toxics on water and
land is perhaps the most important
single source of risks.”
• “Fish and game have
bioaccumulated these toxic
chemicals..to levels posing
substantial health, ecological, and
cultural risks to a Native
American population that relies
heavily on local fish and game for
subsistence.”

14. “Hydrological fluctuations in a very sensitive area – the Sloughs at Bad River and the Bay will
have huge and catastrophic repercussions for my tribe, for my people. Don’t tell me my people
aren’t going to die from this.” Mike Wiggins Jr., Tribal Chair, Bad River Ojibwe
• In his “State of the Tribes” address
to the Wisconsin Assembly (April,
2011), Mike Wiggins said the Bad
River Ojibwe would not tolerate an
open pit mine in their watershed
district.
• In September 2010, the Bad River
Ojibwe, along with representatives
of Wisconsin’s other 10 tribes, met
with Governor Walker to discuss
their opposition to the mine and to
complain that the tribe has been left
out of all discussions about the
mine.

15. “We must demonstrate that we’ll be able to comply with these very strict standards, or
we will not receive our permits and there will be no project.” Matthew Fifield,
managing director for Gogebic Taconite. January 19, 2011 at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor
Center in Ashland, WI.
• Four months later, Gogebic
Taconite and the Wisconsin
Mining Association release a 186
page bill, called the “Jobs for
Generations Act” that would gut
Wisconsin environmental
regulations and create separate set
of regulations for this mine.
• The Iron Mining Bill would
prevent the public and the state’s
Indian Nations from challenging
industry’s “junk science” by
excluding them from participation
in the mine permitting process.

16. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is looking into whether Wisconsin
violated treaty rights by not consulting with tribal governments that could be
affected by a state mining bill. Wisconsin Public Radio, February 2, 2012.
• “The Mining bill does not contain
any provisions requiring DNR to
consult with Indian tribes when
considering an iron or taconite
mining application. Indeed,
Indian tribes appear to be the only
impacted stakeholder excluded
under the sections of public
information and notice and the
distribution of permit
applications.”
• Bad River Band of Lake Superior Tribe of
Chippewa Indians – Position Statement on
LRB-3520/1. December 13, 2011.

17. In October 2011, Bad River received “Treatment as a State” status from the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency so they can set their own water quality standards to protect water entering the
Kakagon Sloughs. Efforts to protect the water have brought together Indians, environmental and
sportfishing groups in interethnic alliances for environmental protection.
• “From just north of the Penokee
Mountain area to Lake Superior, our
tribe is ready to stand up and protect
Nibi (water) for all peoples and future
generations.”
• “As a sovereign nation, the Bad River
Tribal Government is committed to
preserving and enhancing its natural
resources for future generations and
believes clean water should not be
sacrificed for short-term speculative
economics.”
• Tribal chairman Mike Wiggins, Jr.
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, October 6, 2011

18. Gogebic Taconite’s proposed mine is the latest in an ongoing struggle to protect tribal resource
rights. The most violent opposition to Ojibwe treaty rights conflict occurred in the aftermath of the
Voigt Decision (1983) upholding the reserved rights of the Lake Superior Ojibwe.

19. While the Ojibwe defended their right to hunt, fish and gather in the ceded territory, Exxon
Minerals was proposing a zinc-copper sulfide mine one mile upstream of the wild rice beds of the
Mole Lake Ojibwe, five miles downwind of the Forest County Potawatomi and 40 miles upstream
of the Menominee Nation.

20. Opposition to Exxon’s proposed Crandon mine brought together an unlikely
coalition of Indians, environmental and sportfishing groups to protect the local
environment and economy for Indians and non-Indians alike .

21. The Crandon mine conflict extended over 28 years (1976-2003). A turning
point in the conflict occurred in 1995 when the Mole Lake Ojibwe received
Treatment as State (TAS) status to regulate water quality on their reservation.

22. In 1998 this interethnic alliance successfully lobbied for the passage of the Mining Moratorium
bill which prohibited the state from issuing a mine permit until the mining company could provide
an example of where a metallic sulfide mine in the U.S. or Canada has not polluted surface and
groundwaters during or after mining.This is also known as Wisconsin’s “Prove It First” law.

23. On October 28, 2003 the 28 year fight to stop the Crandon mine came to an
end. Not only had opponents defeated the controversial project, but the Mole
Lake Ojibwe and Forest County Potawatomi ended up owning and controlling
the mine site itself.

24. While the Mole Lake Ojibwe were fighting the Crandon project, on the Bad River reservation,
members of Anishinaabe Ogitchida (Protectors of the People) began a protest that halted train
shipments of sulfuric acid bound for Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The Copper Range Co. wanted
to use the acid to extract ore from the White Pine copper mine. July 1996.
• The project would have poured
550 million gallons of acid into
underground tunnels only five
miles from Lake Superior.
• The only railroad tracks leading
to the mine cut through the Bad
River reservation, passing over
crumbling trestles over wetlands.
• Walt Bresette, an Ogitchida, said
“Sovereignty is not something
you ask for. Sovereignty is the
act.”
• The project was halted by the
EPA.

25. On January 26, 2011, Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly locked the public out and passed a
version of a mining bill that did not consider the treaty rights of the Bad River Band of Lake
Superior Chippewa to co-manage the natural resources within the ceded territories – the northern
third portion of the state – that affect their communities.
• “We are undergoing a paradigm
shift from values based on money
and political power to the new
times where wealth is measured in
clean water, fresh air and pristine
wilderness. Anishinaabe have
been given the responsibility to
share the knowledge of how to
live in harmony with creation.”
• Joe Rose Sr. – Bad River tribal elder and
director of Native American Studies,
Northland College, Ashland, WI. Opening
statement to People’s Hearing on the Iron
Mining Bill, State Capitol, January 26,
2011.

26. On March 6, 2012 the Wisconsin Senate voted 17-16 with Republican Senator Dale Schultz,
joining all 16 Democrats in rejecting the Assembly mining bill.
Within hours after the vote, Gogebic Taconite announced it was pulling out of Wisconsin.

27. Grassroots environmental groups are supporting the Bad River tribe
and are counting on Ojibwe treaty rights as a way to protect the region
from ecologically destructive mining projects.
• Mining industry executives have
ranked Wisconsin at the bottom
of the list of favorable places for
mining investment.
• For more information:
• www.savethewatersedge.com
• www.wrpc.net
• www.conservationvoters.org
• www.cleanwisconsin.org
• www.wisconsin.sierraclub.org