Grinding Stone v. Photograph: Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribal Law and the Malakoff Diggins Case
A special presentation by photo historian Jordan Reznick, with support from CHIRP. During the 1880s the hydraulic mining operation at Malakoff Diggins was the subject of a pivotal early environmental law case which also pioneered the use of photographic evidence in U.S. courtrooms. The photographs that illustrated the ecological catastrophe precipitated by hydraulic mining however failed to portray the full picture of the land. A Nisenan grinding stone recently re-discovered in the diggings confirmed what the Nevada City Rancheria […]