"As the Wisconsin legislature rushes to complete mining legislation, a tribal leader remains opposed to any iron ore mine in the tribe’s ceded territory in northern Wisconsin. Gogebic Taconite wants to apply for permits to operate an open-pit mine in the Penokee Range, just six miles south of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Reservation. The area is laced by rivers and streams which flow into the environmentally sensitive Bad River Watershed.

“Lake Superior Chippewa are radical environmentalists,” says Bad River Tribal Chairman Michael Wiggins, Jr. ”I get asked about our opposition to the mine, and I want to say I’m opposed to it on the fact that it’s scarification of mother Earth.” The proposed iron ore mine is the subject of intense maneuvering in the legislature, with limited time remaining to pass a bill in the current session. An Assembly bill, largely written at the behest of Gogebic, passed on a partisan vote in January. That measure has run into opposition in the state Senate, where Republicans hold a narrow one vote majority."

Get the Story:
Bad River opposes Gogebic mine (Wisconsin Radio Network 2/27)

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