This Year’s Special Guests

Special Guests and Topics
Lorraine Rekmans: Serpent River First Nation (Uranium Mining)
Al Gedicks: University of LaCrosse WI, Wisconsin Resources Protection Council, Author and Filmmaker (WI Grassroots Multicultural Movements)
Esteban Chiriboga: GLIFWC (Treaty Rights, Metallic Sulfide Mining in MN)
Laura Furtman: Author (Pollution at Kennecott’s Flambeau Mine, WI)
Mole Lake Sokaogon Chippewa (Protecting Our Water)
Summer Cloud: Drum
Jessica Koski: Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (Sacred Sites)
Stuart Kirsch: Anthropologist, University of MI (Indigenous Movements, West Papua)
Megan Tucker: Anishinaabe Fancy Shawl and Hoop Dancer
Bobby “Bullet” St. Germaine: Ojibwe Folksinger
Victor McManemy: Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Musician
Skip Jones: Wisconsin Folksinger, Educator and Social Activist
Eric Hansen: Writer and Traveler (The Upper Peninsula, A Spiritual Homeland)
Lee Sprague: Sierra Club Clean Energy Campaign Manager and Former Ogemaw of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians
Mike Collins: Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition
And More…

Protect the Earth August 1st and 2nd, 2009

Last year, Protect the Earth was very powerful event that united people throughout the Great Lakes region who were concerned about protecting our land and water.  It was also a whole lot of fun too, so we are planning another one this year.  

We’ve already lined up some good speakers and presentations, a film premiere, as well as a tribute to legendary historian and staunch opponent of metallic sulfide mining along Lake Superior, Fred Rydholm, who passed away this winter.

Please stay tuned for updates and a schedule of events that will be out by the end of June.  Please contact us if you would like to get involved in organizing the event, participating as a speaker or performer or for more information.

Hope to see you this year!

Protect the Earth Footage Available Online

An excellent speech given by legendary area historian, Fred Rydholm, at the Protect the Earth Summit (August 2008) is now available in two separate parts.  [Video provided by Jeff Gibbs]

Protect the Earth Summit Considered a Success

by Gabriel Caplett

Over 200 concerned individuals from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ontario and Michigan attended Marquette County’s Protect the Earth Summit on the first weekend in August. Saturday events included workshops on treaty rights, successful grassroots opposition to metallic sulfide mining projects and a presentation on the polluted Flambeau Mine, in Wisconsin. A rally was held, at Marquette’s Presque Isle Park that featured musicians and speakers, including Fred Rydholm, Laura Furtman, Al Gedicks, Bobby Bullet, Victor McManemy and Jim St. Arnold, as well as traditional Anishinaabe shawl and hoop dancing, performed by Megan Tucker.

Citizens from Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan Walk to Eagle Rock, on the Yellow Dog Plains; Photo courtesy Teresa Bertossi

On Sunday, over 120 people walked to Eagle Rock from the Yellow Dog River and held a rally and sacred eagle feather ceremony at the site of the proposed Kennecott Eagle Mine. The event was sponsored by Yellow Dog Summer, Keepers of the Water and Students Against Sulfide Mining.

The event marked a turning point in the citizen movement to protect public land and valuable freshwater from metallic sulfide and uranium mining and was defined by its diversity of attendees and the unity and determination of those involved. Speakers affirmed that, by remaining active and asserting the power of community and sovereign rights, dangerous mining is not a done deal in the U.P and throughout the Great Lakes.

“A Permanent Victory” in Wisconsin

University of Wisconsin sociology professor, Al Gedicks, discussed the successful opposition to the proposed Crandon Mine, adjacent to the Mole Lake Sokaogon Chippewa’s reservation. A nearly 30-year battle pitting a coalition of five tribal groups, sports fishermen, farmers, union workers and students against mining giants Exxon, BHP-Billiton and Rio Algom effectively ended, in 2003. The committed opposition had made the project so unattractive to investors that the mining giants were encouraged to leave the area for good. According to Gedicks, this represented the “first time anywhere in the world where not only a large corporation [had] been defeated but defeated in such a way that it is a permanent victory.”

Gedicks emphasized that this victory was accomplished when tribal and grassroots groups rejected a compromise stance taken by mainstream environmental groups. Describing what is commonly called a “consensus process,” Gedicks explained “the entire process is dominated by the mining company lawyers. For example, the whole process of permitting the metallic mining regulations in the state of Michigan were premised on the fact that there would be no consideration of a mining moratorium law. People that were in favor of the mining moratorium were excluded from participation in that process.”

Retired iron worker and summit speaker, Bob Tammen, commented that “the consensus process compromises what we stand for.”

Another Way

Gedicks asserted that alternatives exist to mining metals, such as copper, nickel and zinc. He stressed the importance of accessing recycled metals found in landfills. Currently, in the US, the amount of metal thrown in landfills, each year, equals the amount found in roughly 35 Kennecott Eagle Projects. Recycling opportunities abound also in the reuse of metals from abandoned military equipment. According to Gedicks, “Nickel is a war metal. You cannot wage war without nickel….all the equipment that has ever been used in any wars, from prehistoric times to now, that metal is still available. That metal is not now being recycled because it is more profitable to go after virgin sources of metal than there is to go after recycled metal.”

Gedicks warned attendees that “Everywhere you go, mining companies tell communities we’re going to have a mining project here. The first thing they say is that my state [e.g. Michigan] has the most strict environmental legislation . . . none of the state’s have strict environmental legislation.  The strictest environmental legislation is in Ecuador.”

“There Will Be No Mine, As Long As I’m Alive”

The event culminated with a rally on the Yellow Dog Plains and took a focus on treaty rights and community rights. After a jubilant 2-mile walk from the Yellow Dog River, Mole Lake member, Jerry Burnett, performed a highly emotional eagle feather ceremony, prior to presenting the feather to members of U.P. opposition. The eagle feather was offered by Sandy Lyons, one of the founders, along with Walt Bresette and Jim Schlender, of the Protect the Earth Gatherings, in Wisconsin.

Burnett told attendees, “It’s an honor and it’s a privilege to be here with you people. That’s one of the biggest things I’ve said to Exxon, Rio Algom, BHP, including Kennecott. I told them there will be no mine as long as I’m alive. And you have to believe that in your heart. Keep coming back for this and keep doing it until they’re gone.”

Following the eagle feather ceremony KBIC member, Stan Spruce, raised the Mole Lake water staff and said, to applause, “Kennecott can only hope to have this much power.”

Recovering the Sacred

Traditional Anishinabe Dancer, Megan Tucker, at Presque Isle; Photo courtesy Teresa Bertossi

Susan LaFernier, vice-president of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community urged attendees to remember that “Water is a gift of life and is sacred. Sulfide mining is not a done deal… Remember that we do have the power to effectively stop developments of unpopular mining plans and we must do so…I pray that our ancestors vision and our determination will be honored and that we allow our water to continue to purify itself as it knows how to best, since Creation.”

Fred Ackley, Mole Lake tribal judge and instrumental figure in stopping the Crandon Mine project, spoke with a sacred pipe in hand, “The Creator has given us all these things you see here…We have all these things he gave us.  He also gave us a way how to live. So I pray for the nibi , the water; I pray for the fish in the water; I pray for all the human beings who drink water.”

Encapsulating the Summit’s theme, Al Hunter, poet and author from the Rainy River First Nation, in Ontario, told attendees that the mining companies “might have economic power, they might have political power, but they don’t have the spiritual power and that will trump everything, every single time. I want you to remember that.”

Organizers intend to hold a similar rally, next year, to address themes of treaty rights and the role citizens can play in actively stopping unpopular and dangerous metallic and uranium mining in the Great Lakes region.

Editorial on Protect the Earth 2008

by Gabriel Caplett

(Last) weekend’s Protect the Earth Summit turned out to be even more successful and amazing than any of us anticipated.

Indicative of how broad the opposition is to metallic sulfide mining along the Great Lakes, there was a wide diversity of attendees that included members of the Mole Lake Sakaogon Chippewa, a strong group that successfully stopped Exxon, BHP-Billiton, Rio Algom from opening a mine right next to their reservation in Wisconsin.

In a response to the event, Jon Cherry says that because of activities like Protect the Earth, Kennecott is now “better able to ensure our plans and activities align as closely as possible with the community’s priorities.”

Protect the Earth (of) 2008 reminds Kennecott that this community’s priority is to protect our valuable and sacred freshwater. Attendees affirmed that the only “plans and activities” Kennecott has community permission to perform is to pack up and leave.

Cherry maintains the company’s Flambeau Mine “was successfully reclaimed nearly 11 years ago” and that Kennecott received a certificate of completion for the mine.

It is true that Kennecott received that certificate. They were able to do so because it doesn’t address the actual 32-acre mine site and did not include consideration of groundwater issues, only the surface.

This worked well for Kennecott because the company buried its waste, unlined, right at the site and that waste will be, according to Kennecott’s own figures, leaking high amounts of heavy metals and other contaminants into the Flambeau River for tens of thousands of years.

I propose a debate between Cherry and Laura Furtman, an expert on what Kennecott did and did not do at the Flambeau Mine. Furtman can bring the Wisconsin DNR and Kennecott’s own data showing the mine is polluted and Cherry can bring his wishful thinking.

I am not sure how Cherry defends the idea that “support has grown over the years for the Eagle Project.”

The same proponents of the project today have endorsed for years, before anything was even known about it or a mine plan formed – the Chamber of Commerce, various politicians, Kennecott/Rio Tinto employees and people that are on the payroll or think they will make money off of it.

Originally posted by the Marquette Mining Journal on August 16, 2008

Mine Foes Hold Rally At Eagle Rock

In her coverage of the Protect the Earth Summit rally at Eagle Rock, Miriam Moeller writes:

A group of 120 anti-mining activists gathered below Eagle Rock on the Yellow Dog Plains Sunday morning, blessing the land and protesting a planned nickel and copper mine nearby.

“Since the 1600s the Ojibwe people have long lived and made their homes in the Upper Great Lakes region,” said Susan LaFernier, vice president of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, adding that in 1842 the United States government bought the land in the plains but left treaty rights to the Indian community. “These are rights that we have always had as the first people to occupy these lands, and I am certain that their intent for all people was to honor and respect this creation and not to blast and tunnel underneath this sacred rock and under a fish-filled river.”

Click the link, below, for more of Moeller’s excellent coverage of the Protect the Earth Summit rally at Eagle Rock.

Mining Journal Protect the Earth Article August 4, 2008

Anti-Mining Summit Held

In her coverage of the Protect the Earth Summit’s day of lectures and presentations, Miriam Moeller writes:

“Al Gedicks of the University of Wisconsin LaCrosse said through “Protect the Earth” gatherings such as the kind held in Marquette this weekend a proposal for an underground zinc-copper-lead mine in Crandon, Wis., was stopped in 2003.

“We learned from each other,” Gedicks said during his presentation at the “Protect the Earth Summmit,” organized by the local environmental group Save the Wild U.P. on Saturday.  “We developed trust based upon a common goal to stop the project.” “

Click the link, below, for more of Moeller’s excellent coverage of the Protect the Earth Summit’s lecture and presentation day.

Mining Journal Protect the Earth Article August 3, 2008

Schedule of Events Available for Protect the Earth Summit 2008

Please click the link, below, to access a brochure containing a schedule of events for Protect the Earth 2008.

Protect the Earth 2008 Schedule of Events