Bad River Tribe Will Battle Proposed Iron-Ore Mine
Posted 14 June 2011, by Jena Pike, Northlands NewsCenter, northlandsnewscenter.com
BAD RIVER, WI (Northland’s NewsCenter) – Bad River Reservation Tribal members say it was fitting that the Mother Earth Water Walk ended on their land because the tribe is fighting its own battle to protect its water.
(Watch the video on the original site for a more in-depth story)
The proposed Gogebic Taconite mine on the Penokee Range would be located just off of the Reservation at the headwaters of the Bad River.
The tribe worries mining pollutants could enter the Bad River which flows into the tribe’s reservation and on to the fragile, sacred crop of wild rice, before it enters Lake Superior.
Tribal members say the mine could pollute their way of life.
“It would interfere with our spawning grounds on this reservation, our wild rice, the plant world and it’s going to influence everything here. Our whole way of life is going to be, is under threat,” said Lawrence “Butch” Stone, Bad River Tribal Member.
