Campers return to the Yellow Dog Plains

RE: Yellow Dog Plains Encampment

For more information, read    http://stoptoxinsandotherpollutants.wordpress.com/

Wish List:

Firewood (most important item)
5 gal or larger water containers

Tools to split wood- awl, wedges, axe, sledge hammer, big bow saw

Rope 1/2 ” or 1/4″
Wood stove, walkie talkies, canvas walled tent for cold weather living quarters
Meat, ice, milk, eggs, butter, good peanut butter

August 5, 2010

Charlotte Loonsfoot,  906-236-9107

From Charlotte:

“On Sunday, after the walk to Eagle Rock we set up camp on the Yellow Dog Plains. It is a new camp to bring awareness to the world of how Sulfide Mining in the Great Lakes is going to pollute our fish, wildlife, and people. We are going to fish, hunt, and gather on our Ceded Territories of the Anishinaabeg people. We will be learning how to live off the land like our ancestors did before we were moved to reservations. By having this camp we are continuing our presence in opposition of the Kennecott Mine. We will not give up fighting to protect our water. Come join us to help preserve the health and safety of our future.”

All are welcome to camp or visit at the new location: AAA Road 1/2 mile east of  the mine entrance on the south side of AAA, there is blue flagging tape on the tree. This is private land owned by the Rydholm family, much of it older growth with ample shade and protection. The camp maintains a spirit of nonviolence and sobriety. Donations of food and supplies are welcome.

From Rorie, a resident of Minnesota and fellow camper at the site:

”The purpose of this statement from S.T.O.P.’s  (Stop Toxins and Other Pollutants)  spiritual encampment is to be open and forthright about our presence 1/2 mile from the Kennecott Eagle Mine site.

On August 1, 2010, we erected an encampment nearby the entrance to Kennecott’s  Eagle Mine site on private property with full permission from the landowners. The intention of this encampment is to maintain a continued presence nearby the site of desecration. The camp is being maintained according to Anishinaabeg beliefs and we have a sacred fire burning continuously. We are hoping and praying that the people making the decision to mine this sacred land turn their actions around. In the meantime we will be monitoring activity at the mine site.

Everyone in our camp is committed to non violence and sobriety. We welcome respectful dialogue around these (mining) issues. Our hope is for people from across all walks of life to come together to protect the land and water that sustains us all.”

For more information about the encampment, contact our office at 228-4444.

Artist Reception: Paintings and Photography from the Yellow Dog

Painting by Kathleen Mooney

YELLOW DOG – Wilderness at Risk!

Public Reception – THURSDAY, August 5th from 6:00 – 8:00 pm

Artist Presentation at 6:30

Michigan artist, Kathleen Mooney is featured at the PeterWhite Public Library’s Arts and Culture Center from August 4th – 28th, 2010. Kathleen’s series of paintings and photography was created in response to the impending destruction of wilderness areas in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula near Marquette – including the Yellow Dog River.

The Yellow Dog series raises awareness and supports the work of those working to reverse the Michigan DEQ decision to grant a permit to mine in the area northwest of Marquette. The series also reminds us of the value of our wilderness areas to our health, spirits and our threatened ecosystems.

Sponsored by the Lake Superior Art Association and Fire and Water ART!

For more information, visit     arts@mqtcty.org or call 228-0472

Kathleen Mooney

PO Box 56 – 219 West Main

Lowell, MI 49331

616-890-1879

www.kathleenmooney.com

DNRE reassurances fail to convince environmentalists, skeptics

Will Michigan be able to afford the possible mess?

http://michiganmessenger.com/40044/dnre-reassurances-fail-to-convince-environmentalists-skeptics

By Eartha Jane Melzer 7/26/10 8:13 AM

This first mine to be permitted under Michigan’s non-ferrous metallic mining law — the Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company nickel sulfide mine west of Marquette — continues to draw concerns and criticism.

Michigan has dwindling resources for environmental regulation and its environmental and natural resources divisions are undergoing transformation and downsizing.

In an interview with Michigan Messenger this month state Department of Natural Resources and Environment spokesman Bob McCann — formerly spokesman for the Department of Environmental Quality — offered a dismal picture of how the state would regulate the mine. He said that the controversial nickel sulfide mine, like other businesses in Michigan, might be inspected once a year or less due to dwindling state resources. He also stated that Michigan has no system to pay for regulation though assessing fees, and that the $17 million financial assurance bond put up by Kennecott was expected to be enough to close up the mine if the company disappeared, but that any environmental damages that the mine might produce would have to be pursued in court.

McCann has now left DNRE and current spokeswoman Mary Dettloff says that McCann was mistaken about how the state will treat regulation at the mine.

Dettloff said that Michigan mining law requires that the mine be inspected at least quarterly. She said that these inspections will be carried out by the Office of Geological Survey specialist in the Gwinn office — Joe Maki.

Michigan does assess a “surveillance fee” based on the amount of material mined in order to fund oversight of the mine, she said.

According to the law that fee is equal to, “not more that 5 cents per ton of material mined from the mining area as reported under section 63213(1)(d), but not less than $5,000.00, for each calendar year the mine is in operation and during the postclosure monitoring period.”

Dettloff also said that the $17 million actually is supposed to cover the costs of any environmental remediation work needed after the mine is closed, and her assessment appears to be backed up by the statute.

The new information from DNRE does not reassure critics of the state’s approach to the mine.

It’s not clear what the mining inspections will entail. Those familiar with inspections at other UP mines are not reassured by the state approach, and some don’t trust the state to follow the statute because they feel the state has already violated the statute in issuing permits for the mine.

Michelle Begnoche is spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Menominee), who represents the Upper Peninsula.

“Regardless of whether that is supposed to cover just the costs of closing the mine, or the remediation, Representative Stupak is concerned that it is not enough,” she said.

Addressing water pollution can be very expensive, as evidenced by other contaminated sites in northern Michigan. In Petoskey, where the Bay Harbor resort development was built atop land contaminated with cement kiln dust, she said, the party responsible for clean up — CMS Energy — has estimated that cleanup costs will require $93 million.

Stupak has also warned that Michigan does not have adequate resources to monitor the mine and that state regulators did not require the company to conduct baseline environmental assessments of the area around the mine. This, he said, will make proving environmental damage very difficult.

Independent mining consultant Jack Parker, has raised numerous concerns about the planned mine.

“I recognize that inspections are meant to be quarterly,” he said, “but given the environmental records of both Rio Tinto and Kennecott Eagle Mineral Company, I would require constant monitoring, daily, with support from other experts on such matters as disposal of waste water at the mine, the mill and the transport system.”

Parker noted that some mines have been known to sprinkle toxic waste along gravel roads as a cheap and effective way to reduce dust.

An appropriate inspection regime for a mine run by Kennecott, he said, should involve at least one technically-oriented inspector who would be stationed at the mine full time.

This is a level of oversight far beyond what is planned by the state.

“I believe that overall our law is pretty good,“ said National Wildlife Fund attorney Michelle Halley. “But a law is only as good as it is enforced. Right now the way the state is applying its part 632 enforcement does not even exist.”

Halley, along with attorneys for the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve and the Huron Mountain Club, has filed suit against the DNRE in Washtenaw County, arguing that the permits issued to Kennecott are flawed and should be overturned.

Under Michigan mining regulations, “a permit can be granted only if the applicant demonstrates that the mining operation will not pollute, impair, or destroy the air, water, or other natural resources or the public trust in those resources in accordance with the Michigan Environmental Protection Act.”

Those suing the state argue that during the permitting process the state failed to require Kennecott to conduct an environmental inventory around the mine or address the mine’s cumulative impact.

“[Kennecott’s] permit includes no contingency plans for the most predicted and potentially fatal failures, omitting perhaps the most important mechanism for protecting humans and the environment,” the group writes.

They warn that the permit does not include “discussion of subsidence or crown pillar failure; discussion of catastrophic events or wastewater treatment plant closure for a substantial period of time; contingency for significantly increased inflow to the mine; contingency should the MVAR air filtering system not work; or contingency addressing contaminated water leaking into aquifers from the underground mine.”

This lack of contingency planning, they say, is particularly disturbing and dangerous in view of the fact that an expert retained by the state to examine the mine plan, David Sainsbury of HCItasca Consulting, warned that “analysis techniques used to assess the crown pillar stability of Eagle Mine do not reflect industry best-practice.”

The mine opponents also say that the state improperly allowed DEQ policy advisor Frank Ruswick to issue a final approval of the permits as the state Departments of Environmental Quality and Natural Resources were in the process of merging earlier this year.

Kennecott Eagle Minerals General Manager Jon Cherry did not return a call seeking comment for this story, nor did DNRE mine specialist Joe Maki.

Mary Dettloff of DNRE said that because of the ongoing litigation against the state, it would not be prudent to discuss concerns about how the permits were issued.

3rd Annual Protect the Earth Great Lakes Community Gathering

Dear Guests, Sponsors & Friends,

Please see the attached flyer announcement for the upcoming 3rd Annual Protect the Earth Great Lakes Community Gathering.  A pdf version, preferred for printing, is also available for download at https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B7kb7ecjb20LYmExMmUyNGYtYzViNC00NTEyLTg0YmItYzEwZjA1Zjc2ZTkw&hl=en.

Flyer and artwork is courtesy of Cory Fountaine, KBOCC Alumni & New Warriors for the Earth Co-Founder.  The background drawing represents the Yellow Dog Plains, Eagle Rock & the Salmon Trout River flowing into Lake Superior.

Agenda & directions will be available at~ http://standfortheland.com/third-annual-protect-the-earth-2010-baraga-mi/

Contact new.earth.warriors@gmail.com if you have any questions or if you are interested in volunteering or sponsoring.  We are seeking additional students interested in presenting their research and organizations interested in having informational booths.

Lodging is available at the Ojibwa Casino Hotel & the 4 Seasons Inn at (906) 353-7611 & the Best Western Baraga Lakeside Inn at (906) 353-7123
(Ask for the $49/night discounted rate at the 4 Seasons Inn available to Protect the Earth attendees!)

Camping is available at the Ojibwa Recreation Area Campgrounds: (906) 353-6955
*No reservations needed, check-in near the marina upon arrival.

Miigwech, thank you, & we hope to see you at Protect the Earth 2010!

New Warriors for the Earth

Al Gedicks: Chevron should pay for its disaster, too

by Al Gedicks

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/opinion/column/guest/article_49fb9946-7fed-11df-b8c6-001cc4c002e0.html

While most Americans are familiar with the Exxon Valdez spill, few have heard of Chevron/Texaco’s far more serious oil disaster in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest. Chevron, which bought Texaco in 2001, dumped 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater (known as “produced water”) into the Amazon from 1964 to 1992. According to the Amazon Defense Coalition, that amounted to “about 4 million gallons on a daily basis, or a total of 30 times more crude than was spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster.”

The area affected by Chevron/Texaco’s contamination is roughly the size of Rhode Island. The toxic wastewater discharged into local streams and waterways contained a variety of toxic metals and cancer-causing petroleum hydrocarbons, including benzene, toluene, arsenic, lead, mercury and cadmium. By dumping the wastewater – instead of the common practice in the U.S. of reinjecting it into the ground – the company saved an estimated $3 per barrel, or about $4.5 billion.

In addition, Chevron abandoned roughly 1,000 open-air unlined waste pits filled with dangerous toxins. Activists describe the devastation as an “Amazon Chernobyl.”

Many Americans breathed a sigh of relief when President Barack Obama pressured BP to set up a $20 billion escrow fund to compensate victims of the Gulf oil disaster. The victims of Chevron’s contamination were not so fortunate. Thirty-thousand indigenous peoples and settlers from Ecuador’s Amazon basin are suing Chevron for contaminating some 1,700 square miles of Amazon rainforest in what the plaintiffs say is the largest contaminated site on Earth. The case, originally filed in 1993, is now being heard in the oil town of Lago Agrio, Ecuador. The suit charges that Chevron/Texaco engaged in “negligent, reckless, deliberate and outrageous acts.” The plaintiffs allege these actions led to the systematic and irreversible destruction of their homelands and provoked a health epidemic. Levels of petroleum byproducts have been found in water used for drinking, washing and bathing that are far in excess of recognized European safety limits. Residents of oil-impacted communities have suffered increased rates of cancer, birth defects, miscarriages, skin disease and nerve damage as documented in recent scientific studies.

The company has argued it already spent $40 million on cleanup and that the Ecuadorian government had already released the company from any liabilities associated with its operations. However, as the trial proceeded it became clear that Chevron’s cleanup consisted of covering some of the waste pits with dirt while the toxins seeped into the groundwater. If Chevron loses this case, as appears likely, the company will face a $27 billion liability for oil damages, cleanup costs and compensation for cancer deaths.

When the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York sent the case back to Ecuador in 2002, it also ruled that any financial penalty imposed against Chevron would be enforceable by U.S. courts. To avoid paying the $27 billion, Chevron has filed a claim under the United States-Ecuador bilateral investment treaty asking an arbitrator to order Ecuador to prevent judgment from being enforced against Chevron pending the outcome of the arbitration. Steven Donziger, a U.S. adviser to the plaintiffs, says Chevron is trying to evade responsibility for its toxic legacy by taking its case to a court where the plaintiffs aren’t represented. The arbitration claim does not affect the Ecuadorian court proceeding.

A victory for the plaintiffs in Ecuador will reinforce and extend the precedent already established in the BP disaster – namely, that Big Oil cannot escape liability for environmental negligence, no matter where the damage occurs.

Gedicks is a sociology professor at the UW-La Crosse and author of “Resource Rebels: Native Challenges to Mining and Oil Corporations.” Posted in Guest on Friday, June 25, 2010 4:45 am ChevronAmazon Rainforest

Is Michigan’s BP Disaster Brewing in the UP?

By Phil Power | Published: June 27, 2010

From   http://www.thecenterformichigan.net/

Today, TV screens, newspapers and the Internet are  consumed worldwide with the horrendous British Petroleum oil leak into the Gulf of Mexico, now believed to be the greatest man-made environmental disaster in our history, if not that of the planet.

But something eerily similar is going on, far from the cameras, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula near the tiny village of Big Bay.

There, a company with a history as one of America’s greatest polluters is now planning to mine for copper and nickel right under one of Michigan’s most uniquely famous trout steams.

The design for this mine has been attacked by independent mining engineers, who see it as all too likely to cave in. If that happens it will kill the trout, and release a pulse of dissolved copper and nickel into a stream flowing into Lake Superior. It takes only tiny amounts of these heavy metals to wipe out fish and plants.

Michigan needs jobs, true. But under the best of scenarios, the mine would employ maybe 200 workers – many from out of state – for less than 10 years. That would  bring big-time industrial development to one of Michigan’s most pristine wilderness spots and threaten long-term tourism, fishing and hiking resources, perhaps forever. Worse, the mine would also defile Eagle Rock, a site sacred to Native Americans. Members of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and local residents are camping there, watching in frustration as crews clear-cut the timber from the surrounding area.

What’s going on here, anyway?

Welcome to the so-called Eagle Prospect mine, a project of Kennecott Eagle Minerals Corp., a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, Ltd., a vast London-based mining company. The Rio Tinto board of directors announced last week it would invest $469 million in the mine. That may sound like a large sum, but it’s a pittance compared with the $5-$10 billion worth of ore they believe is there.

The mine will be dug directly under the headwaters of the Salmon Trout River, one of Michigan’s best trout streams. Perhaps more importantly, it’s also one of the world’s last remaining spawning sites for the Coaster Brook Trout, a variant of the native speckled trout that behaves like a steelhead and comes near it in size.

Recent research suggests there are less than 400 of these iconic fish left in the river. Kennecott plans to blast through the Eagle Rock into the ore body which is located in sulfide rock, which when exposed to oxygen and water produces “acid mine drainage,” including sulfuric acid and dissolved heavy metals.

Every such “sulfide mine” ever opened has produced long-term acid mine drainage – some dating back to Roman times.

What if the mine does, in fact, cave in?

Alas, Kennecott has no known disaster plan for managing the resulting environmental damage. The trout will all die, of course — and that may not be the worst of it. Sound like Michigan’s version of the BP disaster in the making?

How could this have come about?

Approval of the mine was recommended by the Michigan Office of Geological Survey, which used to be a division of the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and is now part of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The Survey is our equivalent of the now-infamous U.S. Minerals Management Service that oversaw BP’s operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The head of the Survey Office’s mining team called the Kennecott project “my baby” and identified the company as “my customer.” During the review process, he admitted  suppressing an expert memorandum that spoke to the risk of a mine collapse. Another member of the state’s mining team formed a business partnership with Kennecott employees to offer mining services to the private sector; the partnership was dissolved after it became public. And Governor Jennifer Granholm’s UP representative who helped her formulate her position in support of the mine has left government service to work — you guessed it — for Kennecott.

There have been efforts to stop it, including several lawsuits, one of which came before a state administrative judge who was caught sending a note to a top official at the DEQ asking how he should deal with the resulting appeal.

Permits for the project have been issued by the DEQ and confirmed by the DNR, supposedly in accordance with a newly passed law governing metallic mineral underground mining.

That statute required Kennecott to submit environmental baseline studies on both the actual mine site and also the “affected area,” the nearby land and water that ran the risk of being environmentally compromised if something went wrong.

Kennecott’s permit applications ignored that provision, among others. (Full disclosure: I was a member of the work group that wrote the statute, and I am a member of the Huron Mountain Club, a UP group that is suing to try to halt the mine.)

Kennecott has not yet received a federal permit from the Environmental Protection Agency to inject treated water from the mine into area ground water. Yet the company is proceeding full speed ahead, as if no permit was needed.

And no evidence has been produced that Kennecott has a disaster plan in place to cope with the environmental trouble that many experts see as likely, if not certain.

In the BP/Gulf of Mexico oil spill scandal, it has become clear the agency with regulatory oversight of the offshore drilling industry – U. S. Minerals Management Service – had been “captured” by the very industry it was supposed to oversee.

And we now have seen the result. The Kennecott Eagle Prospect mine is exactly the same kind of disaster just waiting to happen … for similar reasons.

This is a true outrage. But so far nobody seems to be noticing.

Mine opponents have tried to talk with DNR director Rebecca Humphries, but she hasn’t been responding. Concerned readers who might want to make their opinions known can email her at humphriesr@michigan.gov.

***

Editor’s Note: Former newspaper publisher and University of Michigan Regent Phil Power is a longtime observer of Michigan politics and economics and a former chairman of the Michigan chapter of the Nature Conservancy. He is also the founder and president of The Center for Michigan, a bipartisan centrist think-and-do tank which is sponsoring Michigan’s Defining Moment, a public engagement outreach campaign for citizens. The opinions expressed here are Power’s own and do not represent the official views of The Center. He welcomes your comments at ppower@thecenterformichigan.net.

One Comment

  1. ken schwartz

Posted June 29, 2010 at 8:32 pm | Permalink

Phil,

I read this article with great interest since I have been blowing this horn around Washtenaw County for over a year and now I’m starting to get a few listeners. Jeff Irwin, Washtenaw County Commissioner and State Rep candidate for the 53th wants to start the process of making much of Marquette and Baraga counties a national park. The Huron Mountain National Park. This new national park in Michigan will complement Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Isle Royale is Michigan’s only national park and it’s a 55 mile boat trip to get there. There’s limited opportunities for seniors or the disabled to enjoy Isle Royale as it is maintained as an undeveloped park. The preservation of the Huron Mountain area will be accessible, and if successfully developed will be enjoyed by all Americans forever.

The positive economic impact of a national park will last generations and Marquette and Baraga will see greatly improved economies. In 1957 the Huron Mountains were selected as the best site along the Great Lakes Shoreline to preserve and some of the most beautiful land east of the Mississippi.

The nickel sulfide mining project in this area will denude and pollute this great part of wild Michigan and will not provide the People of Michigan the economic growth promised and will lose the great cultural and recreational asset of a national park. A few years ago Conde Nast magazine rated the upper peninsula as one of the top ten tourist destinations in the world and last year Liane Hansen of NPR raved about the beauty and food of the U.P. as she toured this vast and unspoiled land.

Phil, I hope you can join Jeff Irwin and myself and push to preserve the Huron Mountains forever. This development will attract thousands each year from Chicago and Minneapolis to spend their money in Michigan admiring this unique world asset. One accident at the Eagle mine could destroy much of Lake Superior just as one accident has despoiled much of the Gulf of Mexico. I hope you continued success to push awareness below the bridge of this potentially devastating mining venture.

Update: “Protecting the Water” Camp on the Yellow Dog Plains

June 25, 2010

Charlotte reluctantly packed up her campsite Thursday night and returned to her home in Baraga for the long weekend. She and her family camped in the rain, sun and bugs this past week on state land adjacent to the Kennecott fence line.  Machinery and lights could be seen and heard on a regular basis and vehicles traveled the camp’s access road all hours of the day.

After her arrest for trespassing on May 27, Charlotte planned on re-setting camp on the Yellow Dog Plains to be near Eagle Rock- a sacred site to the Anishinaabe people. Her goal was to bring closure to her month long experience that began on April 23, when she first spent the night in her car at the base of Eagle Rock.   “I feel better now. This has been more  of a spiritual time for me. No stress. Quiet. I don’t want to leave, but there are things I need to do,”  said Loonsfoot.

Please pray for Charlotte and her family, Chris Chosa, Cynthia and others who have spent countless hours on the plains tending the garden, moving firewood, visiting and supplying the camp, and monitoring Kennecott’s activities. We will “Stand for the Land” as long as we are able!

Equipment and supplies for the camp remain in storage until further notice. Please contact the SWUP office, 228-4444 or Big Bay Outfitters, 345-9399 if you need to access personal belongings.

6-19-10
From Charlotte Loonsfoot and her family, daughter Shauna, sons Virgil, Robert and Christian and friend Jerry Buch. The campsite is just outside the Kennecott fence on the northeast corner and the sacred fire was lit Sunday night.

DIRECTIONS: From Marquette, just past the green 12-mile marker there is an intersection with a large yellow trucking sign planted at the entrance.Turn right on this road and drive back about 1/3 mile and watch for sign/ribbons at an intersection and take that road left. Then watch for camp sign.
From Baraga, take a left on the first road past the main mine entry, then same as above.

The camp is on state land just outside of K’not fence, not leased. Camping permits have been obtained.

Please copy and distribute the following invitation:
Boozhoo,

I am going out to set up a new camp by Eagle Rock, (not on Kennecott’s property) tomorrow.(Sunday)  I received a sign the other day telling me to get this camp set up right away.  We will post where the new camp will be at with a map as soon as we can. I want to go out there and get it set up first before hand and if its a surprise to them the better.  I learned a lot from the first camp and it was a lesson learned but we have to move forward and do it better the next time…thats how we learn in a good way.
Guidelines for “Protecting The Water” camp….
1. NO Drinking, Drugs, or Violence.
2. Treat people and live by the seven teachings…Love, Respect, Honor, Humility, Courage, Wisdom, and Trust.
3. NO Arguing, Bickering, or Negativity.
4. Don’t get to Hungry, Angry,  Lonely, or Tired.
5. Recycle, Reuse, Reduce.
6. Focus on our Purpose.
7. These guidlines are for keeping the peace between everyone that is involved, if you dont feel you can follow these guidelines please do not enter the sacred grounds as we are trying to have a peaceful camp.
I am formally inviting everyone to come out to the new camp, all colors and races that feel strongly about our cause “Protecting The Water”.
Miiqwich,                                                                                                           Charlotte

June 26: “Hands Across the Sand” Event on Presque Isle

Say YES to clean energy! Hit the Beach this Saturday and join hands with your neighbors and the nation.

Where: Presque Isle Park across from the Pavillion

When: Gather at 11:00 a.m. at the Pavillion.  The “line of hands” will be joined on the beach below at 11:50 a.m. for 15 minutes.

For more information:

http://handsacrossthesand.org/organize.php?state=Michigan

Civil disobedience, ‘Yooper’ style has lengthy history

By John Saari

June 13, 2010

Civil disobedience is commonly associated with historical struggles for basic human rights, a citizen recourse in situations where government has gone badly off course.

After Cynthia Pryor’s arrest near Eagle Rock, it is not surprising that some have linked her name with Rosa Parks, a notable civil rights era personality. Both openly refused to give up a seat, one on a segregated public bus, the other on a stump on contested public land.

But there is a home-grown tradition of civil disobedience in the Upper Peninsula that is perhaps more fitting as a comparison than the epic struggles over basic human rights. That is the tradition of standing up for one’s rights on the land, often in hidden resistance to authority.

Residents resent being told by the state, or any other outsider, what they can or cannot do, if their actions seem reasonable in their own eyes. Poaching game during hard times is a U.P. tradition tolerated in public opinion when tied to family and personal subsistence. My Uncle Vernon (Ironwood-Hurley) helped support his family during the Depression years by catching brook trout. Nothing went to waste, but he observed no creel limits. The illegal shooting of wolves today is another sign of a backwoods ethic that short-circuits the law.

Some hunters have taken the law into their own hands, convinced that wolves are killing “their” deer, or are a danger to children, pets or domestic animals. A conspiracy of silence seals lips, and this silence in itself is a type of resistance to state authority.

The 1980s and 1990s saw a strong push for landowner’s rights, sometimes called the property rights movement. Signs appeared in the backwoods of the western U.P.: “DNR KEEP OUT.” Some people resented, and resisted, DNR/DEQ restrictions on land use and resource management.

Richard Delene (Baraga) was perhaps the most notorious case. He was prosecuted and eventually banned from Michigan for contempt of court after controversial dredging and ditching on his Baraga Plains land. Many felt he did not get a fair hearing.

Customary road access on private lands has become a big current issue, as metal gates sprout up everywhere. New second home owners, often city folk from downstate or out-of-state, bring their urban values and fears with them. It’s the fence-me-in fence-you-out mentality. Vandalism of gates, signs, and property is not uncommon.

When Kennecott/ Rio Tinto began putting up fences on public land with “No Trespassing” signs, a shock of finality hit many mine opponents. Cynthia Pryor’s arrest for stubbornly sitting on a stump was a catalyst for a deeper emotional reaction: This is wrong. Tracts of public land should not be locked away for decades for private profit.

The recent Native American encampment on Eagle Rock lies within this Yooper tradition of civil disobedience over land rights. Treaties with the U.S. government in the nineteenth century secured them the right to hunt, gather and fish in the ceded territories.

Some of them have chosen to stand by their rights on these lands, in the face of controversial efforts by the state of Michigan and an international corporation to diminish those rights.

While Kennecott/Rio Tinto seemed prepared to negotiate some limited Native access to Eagle Rock as a religious site, the company’s bottom line was to secure its own access, by armed state police if necessary, to Eagle Rock as the mine portal.

Despite the fences, the signs and the bulldozed encampment, Eagle Rock will continue to be a place of resistance, symbolic or otherwise, to this mine. From a legal perspective, the protestors may seem to be in the wrong, however peaceful their stance. But in their guts many U.P. residents will understand where Cynthia Pryor and Charlotte Loonsfoot are coming from in this unequal face-off with corporate and state power.

They are standing by their land, whether it is public land or ceded territory, come what may.

Note:  Jon Saari is president of the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition and a member of Save the Wild U.P.

June 19 National Sacred Places Prayer Day: Honoring our Water

National Sacred Places Prayer Day:
Honoring our Water
All Welcome
June 19, 2010

Water Ceremony
Sunrise
Little Presque Isle Point
Marquette, MI

Print a poster and distribute!  PrayerBiishFlyer

Community Potluck Picnic and Gathering
12 Noon
Baraga Powwow Grounds Pavilion
Baraga, Michigan
Please join us on Saturday, June 19, 2010 for a day of prayer to protect Native American sacred places.  We will gather at sunrise at Little Presque Isle Point on the shores of Lake Superior to pray for threatened sacred places and to honor the sacredness of the water and Mother Earth.

Eagle Rock, a sacred place to Anishinaabe people, is currently threatened as the proposed mine portal for the Rio Tinto/Kennecott Eagle Mine on the Yellow Dog Plains.  Our fresh groundwater, waterways and Lake Superior are threatened by the Eagle Mine and increasing sulfide and uranium mining interests throughout the Great Lakes region.

Native and non-Native people nationwide will gather at this time for Solstice ceremonies and to honor sacred places, with a special emphasis on the need for Congress to build a door to the courts for Native nations to protect our traditional churches.

We ask that all women who wish to participate wear a skirt in order to honor our traditional way.    Women are also welcome to bring blue prayer ties and blue shawls for the water.

A community potluck picnic and gathering in honor of National Sacred Places Prayer Day will follow at the Powwow Grounds Pavilion in Baraga, MI at 12 noon.  Please join to show your support, ask questions and learn how you can help be a part of the movement to protect our sacred places, water and way of life for future generations.

Directions to Little Presque Isle Point:

From Marquette, Michigan, take 550 North towards Big Bay.  Turn right at the Blue Flag for Little Presque Isle Point.

Directions to Baraga Powwow Grounds Pavilion:

From L’Anse, Michigan take US 41 North towards Houghton.  Turn right at the Powwow Grounds sign.  Turn left at the red building and follow the road to the first pavilion.

Please contact jlkoski@gmail.com or 715.550.0124 if any questions.

Hosted by the Stand for the Land and Oshki Ogitchidaawin Aki (New Warriors for the Earth or NWE) which is a new Native/non-Native environmental organization grounded in Anishinaabe traditions with a mission to educate and empower our communities to take action on mining and other social-ecological issues facing our communities.