Coal mines a concern for Kootenai Tribe, Montana, Idaho
Members of the Kootenai Tribe have spent decades and more than $500 million since the 1980s to restore fish populations in North Idaho, and despite pleas to lawmakers and mining companies, they say nothing is being done to stop the further pollution of the Elk River, where increasing mineral levels threaten fish and human populations.
The Elk River is connected to five mountaintop removal coal mines near Fernie, British Columbia, about two and a half hours from Bonners Ferry, Idaho, in the north panhandle of the state. It feeds into the Kootenai River, which flows through Montana and Idaho. The Elk Valley has one of the highest quality deposits of metallurgical coal in the world, which is the type of coal used in steelmaking.
Long before the U.S. government recognized the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, Ktunaxa people lived on 27,000 square miles of land across the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains of the U.S. and Canada. But the establishment of the U.S. and Canadian border split the Ktunaxa people into seven communities: five tribes in British Columbia, and two in the U.S. — the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation in Montana.
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