
	By employing the most modern mining techniques and methods, the economic viability and feasibility of American mining could be protected and protracted for the foreseeable future.  Alyson Warhurst and Ligia Noronha (2000) explain that using “state-of-the-art-processing technologies [and] new production methods with pollution prevention techniques and environmental management systems [will] achieve lower cost and environmentally proficient production” and make companies both more competitive and economically viable (p. 19). Thus, this recommendation would improve environmental quality along with protecting American jobs and businesses as much as possible by employing fiscally-sound policy.   
	Many updates to the 1872 law have been proposed an assessed, but most are generally ignored by those in charge of policy making.  Making a change to current policy would force responsibility of the change upon policymakers.  Any change which lead to the closure of a mine and loss of jobs would reflect upon the policymaker.  Policymakers are beholden to the electorate, who could seek retribution for losing their jobs in an election.  Policymakers are also beholden to mining corporations as an interest group, and risk alienating these groups if they push forth a policy which harms mining interests. The conclusions suggested above and others have a very low probability of being implemented in the current climate of policymaking.  
	As long as it remains easier for lawmakers and government officials to leave current policy unchanged and blame its failings on previous generations of policymakers, current mining policy will remain unchanged.    Recent attempts to amend mining laws in the latter days of the Clinton Administration are a case-in-point for the difficulty of finding a way to change the laws without severe criticism.  McClure and Schneider (2001) explain that both mining corporations and environmental groups found President Clinton’s attempts to reform mining policy unsatisfactory and former Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton essentially mitigated any changes attempted by Clinton (p. 9).  
	Even if changes are attempted it will remain a challenge for the changes to be accepted by either side of the debate.  Policy will remain little changed until the problem becomes such that it must be dealt with.  In conclusion, until the problems with current mining policy hemorrhage they will remain unchanged.  It is unfortunate that many problems are approached by such an attitude of ambivalence.  Mining policy is but one policy which will remain little changed in the foreseeable future.  

	During the second half of the 19th Century, the Sioux tribe would become a major influence upon the United States.  From the beginning of the Bozeman Trail into Sioux territory in the mid 1850s to the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890, the Sioux have affected the United States and its military profoundly. Sioux such as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse have become known to Americans in their own lifetimes as power Sioux leaders and warriors and are still recognized over a century after their death. 