State Journal Writer Highlights Mining Bill's Ignorance Of Ojibwe Treaty Rights

Finally: a mainstream media focus on Obijwe treaty rights blown off by Assembly and Senate leaders who put together mining bills with far greater attention paid to the demands of an out-of-state mining company.

I'd been hammering away at this matter for weeks ("Fitzgerald's Fiasco"), so to Ron Seely at the State Journal, thank you for this, and the rest of your piece:

Armed with its status as a sovereign nation and powerful treaties with the federal government, the Bad River Chippewa tribe has the legal muscle to do what Democratic opponents of an iron mine proposed for northern Wisconsin have so far been unable to do: halt or delay the project.

Those powers, say experts on Native American law, appear to have been both underestimated and misunderstood by proponents of the mine, including Republican legislators who have been criticized for failing to consult with tribal members as they work on a bill to streamline permitting for the mine.

"All of us are going to get an education in federal Indian law," said Larry Nesper, a UW-Madison scholar in Great Lakes Indian law and politics.