Tribes seek U.S. help to curb Canadian mining threats to Northwestern states

Native American leaders asking for the countries to refer matter to the International Joint Commission, a U.S.-Canada partnership created to oversee water issues

Indigenous leaders from the Northwest renewed their call this week for the federal government to pressure Canada to stop additional mining activity in British Columbia, which they say contaminates waters and threatens Native American ways of life in Alaska, Montana and Idaho. As British Columbia plans to expand its profitable coal, copper and gold mining industry, Indigenous representatives met in Washington, D.C., with members of Congress and the U.S. departments of State and Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Canadian consulate, they said.