Ahistorical Indians and reservation resources.: An article from: Environmental Law
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This digital document is an article from Environmental Law, published by Lewis & Clark Northwestern School of Law on March 22, 2010. The length of the article is 67203 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
From the author: This Article is an in-depth exploration of the impacts of an Indian tribe deciding to pursue environmentally destructive forms of economic development. The Article makes two principal contributions. First, it establishes the Navajo Nation's decision-making role. Prior mineral resource forms of development may have been formally approved by the tribe, but the agreements did not truly belong to the Navajo Nation. Extensive research into earlier agreements shows the heavy influence of the federal government and mining interests historically. Existing scholarship on reservation environmental harm tends to deflect tribal responsibility, attributing such decisions to outside forces. Without denying the challenges the Navajo Nation is facing, the Article calls for recognition, despite the romanticism that surrounds Indians and the environment, of tribal agency and responsibility for the proposed environmental destruction. Second, the Article argues that environmental organizations that make use of federal environmental review processes are complicit in the systematic denial of Indian sovereignty that federal primacy entails. Although there is a strong theoretical argument that the only limits appropriate for Indian nations are those of nation-states under international law, the Article concludes that the relationship between environmental organizations and Indian nations ought to be guided by international human rights law.
Citation Details
Title: Ahistorical Indians and reservation resources.
Author: Ezra Rosser
Publication:Environmental Law (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2010
Publisher: Lewis & Clark Northwestern School of Law
Volume: 40 Issue: 2 Page: 437(114)
Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning
From the author: This Article is an in-depth exploration of the impacts of an Indian tribe deciding to pursue environmentally destructive forms of economic development. The Article makes two principal contributions. First, it establishes the Navajo Nation's decision-making role. Prior mineral resource forms of development may have been formally approved by the tribe, but the agreements did not truly belong to the Navajo Nation. Extensive research into earlier agreements shows the heavy influence of the federal government and mining interests historically. Existing scholarship on reservation environmental harm tends to deflect tribal responsibility, attributing such decisions to outside forces. Without denying the challenges the Navajo Nation is facing, the Article calls for recognition, despite the romanticism that surrounds Indians and the environment, of tribal agency and responsibility for the proposed environmental destruction. Second, the Article argues that environmental organizations that make use of federal environmental review processes are complicit in the systematic denial of Indian sovereignty that federal primacy entails. Although there is a strong theoretical argument that the only limits appropriate for Indian nations are those of nation-states under international law, the Article concludes that the relationship between environmental organizations and Indian nations ought to be guided by international human rights law.
Citation Details
Title: Ahistorical Indians and reservation resources.
Author: Ezra Rosser
Publication:Environmental Law (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2010
Publisher: Lewis & Clark Northwestern School of Law
Volume: 40 Issue: 2 Page: 437(114)
Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning
