Special Release: Tribes, Trails, & Tailings

Lydia at one of her fields site in Arizona. Credit: Lydia Jennings

Mining is more than just harvesting natural resources – it’s about who owns those right and what the land that those mines are on mean to the people who live there.

Lydia Jennings of the Pascua Yaqui and Huichol Nations grew up seeing friends and family fighting to advocate and protect their communities from being mined. Later in life she became an avid trail runner who loves to do anything outdoors, a path that led her to study environmental science. These days, she works to identify soil health biogeochemical indicators of soil reclamation, in order to make modern mining reclamation more effective and cost efficient, while also learning how policy has placed many mines on/or bordering tribal nations and extraction on public lands.

Note: Since recording this interview, the number of federally-recognized tribal nations has increased from 572 to 576. 

This episode was produced by Shane M Hanlon and mixed by Kayla Surrey.