Indigenous Nations Must Resist New Threats from Mining and Extraction
By Leanna Goose, Science and Ecology Organizer at Honor the Earth
I am Anishinaabe, which means I take care of the earth and let the earth take care of me. My philosophy is to try to live a good life, or minobimaadiziwin. I try to show my kids what the good path looks like, bestowing the traditional teachings and deep respect for the earth that my parents instilled in me. I hope they will follow in my footsteps .
My parents taught me to live with the seasons, to take no more than is needed and to always be thankful for the gifts that are given. When my ancestors hunted and gathered, they used to think of the next seven generations, ensuring there were enough resources for them. We need to begin to think more like that. I have personally witnessed the rice beds on Leech Lake shrink every year, to the point that they are only a fraction of the area that they once were. The wild rice or manoomin faces many threats from climate change, invasive species, and now mining. I have heard manoomin called the canary in the coal mine, meaning, if this plant is in trouble, it does not bode well for us. I have done what I can to help this plant flourish by reseeding manoomin in a shallow area down the road from me. I have shown my children and the neighborhood kids what to do if they begin to see the manoomin disappear too. I worry about what the future holds for them, but I will do my best to teach them to remain resilient through climate change.
Leanna harvesting manoomin with her son (Photo by Steve Pavey)
Climate change fueled by our use of fossil fuels is here. Humans are scrambling to fix it. We are dealing with unprecedented wildfires, megadroughts, and intensifying storms. Unless we do something different these problems will only get worse. Yet, it seems we are choosing to try to fix the problems on our planet by exploiting the earth in new ways. Mining the earth for rare earth minerals will disturb precious resources and groundwater. It seems as though we haven’t learned much from the mess we are currently in. We cannot fix the climate crisis through more polluting industries. As we look to the future, we must find truly sustainable ways to live that do not cause further harm to the planet. To fulfill a just transition, we must look back at the sustainable path that my ancestors followed. Allowing the auto industry and mining companies to define the transition away from fossil fuels does not make sense. This will only continue an unsustainable and inequitable dependence on automobiles, which are unaffordable for many, and require massive amounts of energy– regardless of where that energy comes from. Mining is also a nasty business that pollutes the land, air, and water. We are trading one polluting industry for another. This mining threatens the water and our traditional ways. We must ensure that our children get the clean water they deserve.
Our government says minerals are critical to the energy transition, but unlike “critical minerals” for new automobiles and other consumer goods, clean water is actually needed for our survival. We cannot continue to pollute the water. Our children will pay the cost for the choices we make today. When minerals like nickel, cobalt, and lithium are taken from the ground, they create a mess that is nearly impossible to clean up. Superfund sites are already littered across our country. Leech Lake Reservation has been dealing with a superfund site for nearly 40 years with no end of the contamination in site. If Leech Lake’s story is any indication of what happens when a superfund site is next to reservations, we should definitely not put any more on or near our reservations!
97% of nickel, 89% of copper, 79% of lithium, and 68% of cobalt reserves and resources in the US are located on or within 35 miles of Native American reservations. If these minerals are taken from the ground it would poison our resources and in turn our people. It would be cultural genocide. Ishkonigan is the Anishinaabeg word for reservation, I have been told it means leftover parcel of land. We cannot allow them to poison our ishkonigan.
I believe the way we stop these future environmental disasters is by choosing to stand together as Indigenous nations and act collectively for the next generations. This will take swift action from all our tribes across the nation, but time is on our side. Now that we know of these threats to our homelands, we can act to stop them. As sovereign nations, we have the ability to set our own water quality standards under the EPA. I believe our nations need to put in place the strictest standards to protect the water for the next generations. We need to stand together on this one issue of clean water. Writing an Indigenous nation’s clean water act using our nations’ sovereignty to keep our waters pristine is one avenue that needs to be explored. As the first people of this country, we are in the unique position to create policies and laws that could not only protect our people, but all the living beings around us. We need to stand up to the government and corporations by adopting policies that could stop pollution before it starts. We need to act now before it is too late. They have already begun to put their shovels in the ground in some places, but even there, I think there is hope. If we take these actions now we have the tools in place to keep our waters and people safe.
The first nations of this country need to be thought of first. Valuing material things over actual living beings leads to the destruction of life on our planet. Electronic waste recycling can source some of the metals that are needed for the energy transition until we find better solutions. The average American produces 46 lbs of E-waste annually, only 23.7% of which is recycled. When electronic waste is buried in landfills, toxic chemicals can leach into the ground and contaminate the water. Using the metals that have already been taken from the ground is a better way to start addressing climate change. If done correctly, E-Waste recycling is less harmful than mining for new metals. This could be one part of our plan to move away from fossil fuels in more sustainable ways. E-waste recycling cannot bring about all the metals that our government plans for the energy transition, but it is one of many alternatives that needs to be considered.
We cannot allow this energy transition to be built by sacrificing our people and our homelands. Looking back at the history of this country I would say our people have suffered enough. It’s time to look at who pays the cost to get these minerals out of the ground and who reaps the benefits, because It is not our people! Barack Obama said we are the first generation to feel the effects of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it. Let’s begin to think of the next generations in all of our actions. We can start by prioritizing clean water above all else.