Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa vs. the Northern States Power Company

Abstract

In 1921, the Federal Power Commission granted the Wisconsin-Minnesota Power Company the rights to construct Project 108 on the Chippewa River. The purpose of this project was to create a water reservoir that could be controlled via dam in order to control water levels for power production downstream. Although the project seemed straightforward, it attracted controversy due to the fact that the land to be flooded included a portion of the Chippewa River that was the ancestral home of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, which had been guaranteed to the tribe in an 1854 treaty with the United States government. The increasing water level had many detrimental effects on the land. The purpose of this study was to focus on the environmental effects of Project 108, specifically the effects on wild rice.