Tallgrass Institute on FPIC in “New Era” of Mineral Extraction

In Most critical minerals are on Indigenous lands. Will miners respect tribal sovereignty?, Grist speaks to five experts , including Tallgrass Institute Executive Director Kate R. Finn, to understand what free, prior and informed consent should look like in the new era of “critical minerals” extraction. Finn’s interview excerpted below.

Kate Finn, Osage, founder and executive director of the Tallgrass Institute

Originally an attorney, Finn now works with tribal communities and those in the mining industry to better implement FPIC. The Tallgrass Institute provides training and resources about the importance of tribal sovereignty.

Through one of our close partnerships, the SIRGE Coalition, we published an FPIC guide for Indigenous leaders. The goal of this resource is to provide information for Indigenous leaders who want to start putting together their own protocols for FPIC. I get to see a lot of innovation in this way from my desk and in my role as leading a global nongovernmental organization. But I know Indigenous leaders are always looking for what others are doing and what is working and what isn’t, so our best hope is that this guide helps provide information to build knowledge.

With investors, we provide resources and tools that not only help them to understand the breadth and depth of Indigenous peoples’ expertise and knowledge, but also to implement rights-based engagements. This is exactly what we want with our Free, Prior and Informed Consent Due Diligence questionnaire. This tool helps investors parse all the ways and steps that lead to a better engagement with Indigenous peoples. 

There is a lot of opportunity in this area. Shareholder engagement provides a pathway for Indigenous peoples to join collaboratively with allied investors to shift corporate behavior in a way that is aligned with Indigenous peoples’ priorities and self-determined goals. This can be a critical and necessary strategy when countries’ substandard policies allow corporations to operate with impacts to Indigenous peoples, whether operating in their own jurisdictions or internationally.  

One powerful memory is a shareholder training we did with Indigenous youth at the U.N. Permanent Forum of Indigenous Peoples in 2024. We asked a room full of young people — all new to the idea of speaking to a shareholder or to the heads of a corporation — to craft a three-minute presentation that conveyed the priorities and concerns of their communities. The enthusiasm, readiness, eloquence, and precision that these young leaders brought to the exercise was breathtaking. It gave me delight and inspiration to witness future leadership in this field, and it opened my eyes to the potential for a generational approach to shareholder advocacy.

Read the full at: https://grist.org/indigenous/most-critical-minerals-are-on-indigenous-lands-will-miners-respect-tribal-sovereignty/