Interviews and documents obtained by The New York Times show how the state of Minnesota and the federal government ignored warnings about potential dangers posed to the tribe as they kept allowing the amount of waste stored on the reservation to expand and did little to address annual flooding that harms the tribe’s economy.
“I mean, this is a classic environmental justice fact pattern,” said Heather Sibbison, chair of Dentons Native American law and policy practice at Dentons Law Firm. “We have a minority community, a disadvantaged community, bearing the brunt of two huge infrastructure projects that serve other people.”
The tribal community is home to descendants of the Mdewakanton Band of Eastern Dakota, who lived in the southern half of Minnesota. Unkept promises by white settlers led to the Dakota War of 1862. That year, the U.S. government hanged 38 Dakota men in Mankato, Minn., invalidated a land treaty and banished the Dakota from the region.
In 1934, the federal government recognized Prairie Island Indian Community as a reservation after members of the Mdewakanton Band spent decades returning to the region and buying parcels of land.
Today, much of the land that the government gave the tribe is underwater. But the tribe’s greatest fear is a nuclear plant disaster or toxic train derailment that would require evacuation, said Jon Priem, who oversees the small law enforcement and emergency service agencies on the island where the reservation sits. There is only one road in and out.
“We would be no match for anything of that magnitude,” Mr. Priem said. “Trying to get aid in here would be nearly impossible.”
As part of a temporary agreement that has become more permanent, waste from the power plant is stored within the borders of the Prairie Island Indian Community.