The New Resource Wars: Native and Environmental Struggles Against Multinational Corporations [Hardcover]

Al Gedicks (Author), Winona LaDuke (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0896084639 | ISBN-13: 978-0896084636

In the northwoods of Wisconsin, Kennecott Copper Corporation is pressuring Native Americans for the right to construct an environmentally destructive open-pit copper mine on treaty lands of the Lake Superior Chippewa Indians. Opposing the mine's construction is a coalition of Chippewa traditionalists and Wisconsin environmentalists. This native and environmentalist struggle against corporate greed and environmental racism is mirrored in hundreds of similar struggles all over the world, from James Bay, Quebec and Malaysia to the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest. Gedicks documents these struggles and explores the underlying motivations and social forces that propel them.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

LaDuke is a well-know Native American organizer, environmentalist, and author. She teaches Native Environmentalism at the University of Minnesota.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 270 pages
• Publisher: South End Press (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0896084639
• ISBN-13: 978-0896084636
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,979,056 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Keeping the Bulldozers at Bay, July 28, 2002

By 

Philip Carl "EcoAngler" (Half Moon Bay, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The New Resource Wars: Native and Environmental Struggles Against Multinational Corporations (Paperback)

Al Gedicks' The New Resource Wars is an insightful read on the new threats facing Native lands. Gedick delivers extensive research as well as first-hand accounts from the battles with multinational corporations to prevent them from plundering the homes and land where indigenous peoples have settled. The only criticism I would level on the book is the way it's organized.

What I valued the most from reading this book, is when these resource wars were analyzed in a broader light (putting on the old wide angle lens). The wide-angle views really struck a cord and provided the motive and reason why more and more of these resource wars are breaking out all over the world. In a nutshell, the lands indigenous people have settled or in the case of North America been given by treaty hold some of the largest remaining mineral deposits.

Using case studies such as the Chippewa's battle with Exxon, the book makes a strong argue that environmentalists and indigenous people want the same outcome. This outcome simply being the preservation of natural resources. An alliance, however, doesn't come without some baggage. With Gedick's personal involvement in alliances between environmental and indigenous groups, he spells out the ups and downs of the relationship.

At the end of the day, its clear that combining the legal, political, and research activities of both groups is essential to gaining the high-ground over giant energy corporations that are fixed on exploiting our natural world in exchange for a one time monetary profit.