Dan Millis Article Summary Post #2

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/margaret_krome/margaret-krome-mining-bill-an-assault-on-sacred-lands-and/article_a31c93d4-747a-11e2-ba47-001a4bcf887a.html

"Margaret Krome: Mining bill an assault on sacred lands and waters"

Chair of Wisconsin's Bad River Band of Ojibwe, Mike Wiggins, spoke recently of his tribes ancient way of growing and harvesting wild rice at an agricultural conference near Ashland, Wi.  Among the sets of ears in the crowd was Margaret Krome, program director for the Michael Fields Agricultural Institue in East Troy.  Krome had hoped to hear Wiggins speak his thoughts in regards to Wisonsin Assembly Bill 426, a proposed bill that would permit a taconite mining operation to set up and drill in Ojibwe, as well as state land, in Northern Wiscinsin.  Wiggins, however, kept politics out of his presentation and spoke only of the "sacred nature of these rice beds, these fruitful waters and lands,so necessary to the clean waters around them, and so dependent on them."

Krome's column shows a firm understanding of how bill 426 will inevitably destroy the local tribes rice beds stating-"The proposed taconite mine in the Penokee Hills is a monumental assault upon the 125,000 acres or their reservation, the miles of waterways that empty into the Bad River, the prestine waters that would inevitably be polluted, and the rice beds that have been the corner stone of the tribe's identity for centuries."

Bill 426 would effectively remove the Department of Natural Resources, as well as the public's ability to have any review of mining operations, essentially tying our hands and forcing us to go along with whatever the mining company says is safe, or in our best interest.  Secondly, the bill would "set a cap for how much the [mining] company must pay for such review and transfer the rest of the costs to the state."  Lastly, the mining company would be "exempt from natural resource and public health rotections that are needed to protect the health of our state."