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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2001

The paper companies fighting to see internal documents of Maine tribes may have won court battles but they are seeing losses in other areas.

Since buying Champion International, one of the companies involved in the suit, International Paper has closed four mills and is getting rid of 4,000 jobs, or about 10 percent of its entire work force. International Paper is the nation's largest paper company.

The second-largest, Georgia-Pacific Corp., is also involved in the document fight. The company has closed one mill and wants to sell others.

The Penobscot Nation and the Passamaquoddy Tribe want to control water quality of rivers in Indian Country, saying the paper companies have polluted their supplies. The Environmental Protection Agency is set to make a decision on whether the tribes should have control, a power tribes in most other states have.

On the document issue, courts have sided with the paper companies, who want to see some of the tribe's communications with the federal government.

Get the Story:
Hurting paper industry watches mills close, jobs disappear (AP 7/31)

Relevant Links:
The Penobscot Nation - http://www.penobscotnation.org
Passamaquoddy Tribe, Pleasant Point Reservation - http://www.wabanaki.com
Passamaquoddy Tribe, Indian Township - http://www.peopleofthedawn.com
Great Northern Paper - http://www.gnpaper.com/index.htm
Georgia Pacific Corp. - http://www.gp.com
Champion International Corp - http://www.championpaper.com
American Indian Environmental Office, EPA - http://www.epa.gov/indian

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