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What the US Could Learn About Mining on Indigenous Peoples’ Ancestral Lands
Tribes navigating the U.S. lithium boom have little power to influence decisions on homelands seized from them. Governments in other countries have begun to build systems that offer stronger legal protections.
By Johanna Hansel, Carla Samon Ros, Wyatt Myskow
In the U.S., many Native American tribes maintain deep cultural and historical ties to ancestral lands outside of reservation boundaries. A 19th-century mining law still governs much of today’s lithium boom—and it doesn’t require the federal government to consult tribes before mining projects advance on these ancestral lands.