Here is the article titled “The Fight for Wisconsin’s Soul” by Dan Kaufman.
Gogebic Taconite
LCO Treaty Rights Camp Update
Iron County is going to postpone its prosecution of treaty rights campers, article here. An excerpt:
People at the Lac Courte Orielles harvest camp in northern Wisconsin will not face eviction any time soon as Iron County Board members decided Tuesday night to postpone any directives to its district attorney to seek civil and criminal charges.
The board referred the matter to the county forestry committee, the group that originally approved a year-long stay for the camp. It next meets Aug. 13.
The Lac Courte Orielles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa camp of two dozen wigwams sits near the area where Gogebic Taconite is exploring a proposed mine site. Clashes in the past few months with mining officials and those opposed to the practice have elevated the public knowledge of the camp. The band is using the camp to highlight the natural resources it says are at risk due to the proposed mining.
Brian Pierson on Wisconsin Indian Treaty Rights and Proposed Mining Activities
Here.
An excerpt:
The Wisconsin Legislature has approved amendments to Wisconsin law intended to pave the way for Gogebic Taconite to mine iron ore in the Penokee Hills of Ashland County. Wisconsin’s tribes have been outspoken in their opposition. The Bad River Chippewa, whose reservation lies directly in the path of any mine runoff, has been especially vocal.
The six Chippewa tribes have asserted that their treaties with the federal government give them special status and entitle their concerns to greater weight. They are right.
By the 1842 treaty at La Pointe, the Chippewa ceded to the United States approximately 12 million acres, including the Penokee Hills, receiving in return an amount that the Indian Claims Commission later called “unconscionable.” A treaty, the Supreme Court observed in United States vs. Winans, is “not a grant of rights to the Indians, but a grant of right from them – a reservation of those not granted.” In the 1842 treaty, the Chippewa reserved “usufructuary” rights in the territory they ceded, including the right to hunt, fish, trap, harvest wild rice and engage in other activities to make a living from the land.
Turtle Talk 