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| The mining frontier offers a unique opportunity for using the
concept of sustainable development as a framework to analyze
the effects of a historical government policy in terms of equity,
the environment, economic development and political power. One of the concepts implicit in sustainable development is
intergenerational responsibility. Sustainability implies a balance
between the basic needs of the inhabitants of the earth and the This is not a new concept. For example, Native American tradition included intergenerational concern in the Great Law of the Haudenosaunee, People of the Longhouse--The Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy (Oneida, Cayuga, Tuscarora, Mohawk, Onondaga and Seneca). "In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations." One caveat: In analyzing historical decision making, it is easy to slip into judging previous generations outside the context of the knowledge base and experiential concerns of the time. The discussion questions for analyzing the historical documents take this tendency into consideration. The mining boom, in what was to become the Western U.S.A.,
began in 1849 with the California gold rush. By 1890 it had
ended having provided over $2 billion in wealth, much of which The mining industry left behind some major scars. Many mines were constructed poorly, causing the deaths of workers. Mining left (and still leaves) gullies and polluted rivers and streams as well as soil erosion. Native Americans were driven from their lands by avid gold miners. Between 1852 and 1867, three to four thousand Native American children were taken by slave traders for work as servants and workhands. These and other violations led to renewed fighting and killing between Native Americans and Western settlers. The General Mining Act of 1872, which essentially allows those who find rock minerals in public territory to buy the land for $5.00 an acre, was passed by Congress for several reasons: The government wanted to encourage western mining as a way to settle the West. At the same time there was a need to bring some "law and order" to the region. The larger mining companies favored passage of the Act as a way to stop claim-jumping and to set standards for filing and holding claims. The law is still in effect and applies to 270 million acres of federal lands--almost one-fourth of all the land in the United States. Back to Lesson |
