Exploiting is a weasel word. They're making the useful minerals useable, which benefits the public more than leaving them in the ground. The reservations get what they're entitled to, which is nothing.
Another weasel word is “benefits the public”, which completely ignores the very few non-public entities that benefit _much more_ than the public when these resources are mined.
No. They can pay and they should pay. Don’t worry: they’ll be fine.
The minerals are now useful but the cost is fucking up the land around a uranium mine, which is pretty horrible. For that, they get nothing and should be happy? Get real. That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard today.
> Exploiting is a weasel word. They're making the useful minerals useable, which benefits the public more than leaving them in the ground.
Well put. However, with the additional stipulation that it is sometimes useful to leave minerals in the ground if the company that extracts them does not make an unpaid/ unremediated toxic enviromental mess when extracting them.
> The reservations get what they're entitled to, which is nothing.
Depends on who "owns" the land. If the land is owned by the federal government then the reseservations aren't technically owed anything. However, was the land taken from the reservations by force in the past ? If so, then 0% share is highly objectionable. Would you like it I came to you, forcibly took away your assets, made profit from them and then claimed that I didn't owe you anything because it wasn't yours anymore ?
Now, it is fully possible that these federal lands were virgin in the past so then the the federal government does not owe anything extra to any special group of citizens.
TL;DR We must go into the history of the land. Depending on the history of the land, local communities/reservations _may_ deserve a small formal share in the profits of the mining company.
In any case, the government must work for the betterment of all its residents and citizens whether in cities, farms or mining areas. Mining areas deserve special care because they house some of the historically most poor and opressed citizens.
No. They can pay and they should pay. Don’t worry: they’ll be fine.