Category Archives: Public Land

Drew Nelson Headlines Yellow Dog Watershed’s Annual Meeting

Message From the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve:

This year our annual meeting will be quite different from past years. On August 28, 2010, we will be joining up with Drew Nelson, a singer/songwriter from Michigan who is touring internationally and nationally, for an evening of fantastic music and fun. Our 15th annual meeting is co-sponsored by the Peter White Public Library and features a songwriting workshop for teens and adults at 3-5pm in the Community Room of the Peter White Library. Drew will assist participants in creating their own lyrical vision and offer encouragement. At 6pm, the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve staff and Board of Directors will meet to have their annual review of successes and outline of future work. YDWP members are encouraged to come and participate. There will be refreshments and a vote for new members of the Board. At 7:30pm, both Mike Waite and Drew Nelson will play for us for the rest of the evening and talk about how the people, community, and groups like ours can come together to solve larger problems. Donations are accepted at the door and the event is open to all. If you have questions, please call 906-345-9223 or email ydwp@yellowdogwatershed.org.

ACT NOW, Call Your Representatives

HERE’S THE CONTACTS
Please call and simply state, “I support the recently proposed amendment to the oil and gas drilling ban in the Great Lakes for suspension of sulfide and uranium mining.”
MIKE LAHTI Toll-Free (888) 663-4031 mikelahti@house.mi.gov
STEVEN LINDBERG Toll-Free (888) 429-1377 stevenlindberg@house.mi.gov
JUDY NERAT Toll-Free (866) 779-1108 JudyNerat@house.mi.gov
GARY McDOWELL Toll-Free (888) 737-4279 garymcdowell@house.mi.gov

MARY VALENTINE Toll-Free (877) 633-0331 maryvalentine@house.mi.gov
DEB KENNEDY Toll-Free (866) 725-2929 DebKennedy@house.mi.gov
REBEKAH WARREN Phone: (517) 373-2577 rebekahwarren@house.mi.gov
DAN SCRIPPS Toll-Free (888) 642-4101 DanScripps@house.mi.gov
ANDY DILLON Toll-Free (888) 737-3455 andydillon@house.mi.gov
LISA BROWN Toll-Free (877) 822-5472 LisaBrown@house.mi.gov
We need your call for support. Thank you.

Lahti to request response from DNRE on letter from citizens concerned about Kennecott Eagle Mine

By Michel Bourdieu, Keweenaw Now

LANSING — State Rep. Mike Lahti (D-Hancock) today told Keweenaw Now he plans to meet with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (MDNRE) concerning the recent letter to Michigan legislators requesting an amendment suspending sulfide and uranium mining be added to a proposed Great Lakes oil and gas drilling ban.*

Click here to read the entire article

Mining in Michigan Part Three: Major players in the mining leagues

by stelleslootmaker

August 12, 2010

The U’wa in Colombia, the Ogoni in Nigeria, the Quichua in Ecuador, the Cree in Manitoba, the Subanen in The Phillipines and the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula—these indigenous peoples are among the many making a stand against resource extraction companies that are devastating their lands. The environmental destruction wrought by these corporations threatens to further pollute the world’s water, air and land. As caged canaries warned coal miners in times past, these and other indigenous people are proclaiming the danger—some are dying in the process.

Click here to read the entire article

PROTECT THE EARTH 2010, PART 1: WINONA LADUKE, KEYNOTE SPEAKER

By Michele Bourdieu

BARAGA — The sacredness of Native people’s lands, fighting the “bad guys,” liberation from energy addiction, re-localizing the food economy and deconstructing colonialization were topics of two presentations by Winona LaDuke — Native American activist, environmentalist and writer — who spoke on Friday, July 30, and Saturday, July 31, at Ojibwa Community College in Baraga. She was the guest keynote speaker at the Third Annual Protect the Earth Great Lakes Community Gathering, hosted this year by New Warriors for the Earth. LaDuke’s Friday presentation was a preview of the keynote speech she delivered on Saturday.

Click here to read the entire article

Charlotte Loonsfoot sets up new camp on Yellow Dog Plains to protest sulfide mine

MARQUETTE — KBIC (Keweenaw Bay Indian Community) tribal member Charlotte Loonsfoot, accompanied by family and friends, has returned to the Yellow Dog Plains to pray, gather berries, fish and camp in protest against the Kennecott Eagle Mine.

Click here to view the entire story at  Keweenaw Now

Native Americans make the stand and bear the brunt

Mining Michigan Part 2: Native Americans make the stand and bear the brunt

AUGUST 4, 2010
by stelleslootmaker

This is the second of a three-part series . Look for Part 3 next week.

In 2005, the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community tried to lease the sacred Eagle Rock site from the State of Michigan for ceremonial use. Located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula near Marquette, Eagle Rock and the surrounding Yellow Dog Plains are part of lands ceded to the tribe for hunting and fishing by an 1842 government treaty upheld by the courts again in 1983. The DNR declined to lease them the land because of concerns about how ceremonial use might impact this pristine wildlife habitat.

In 2007, the State of Michigan leased the land to Rio Tinto’s Kennecott Mining Company. Today, the lofty trees, endangered animal habitats and celebrated blueberry bushes surrounding Eagle Rock are just a memory. Kennecott bulldozed them, erected chain-link and razor wire fence and prepares to drill its entryway to the new mine, directly through the sacred rock. This destruction will seem miniscule when compared to the environmental devastation that will soon follow—damage that will lay waste the Yellow Dog plains, poison the Salmon Trout River, kill wildlife and impact one of the world’s most important sources of fresh drinking water, the Great Lakes.

Why would the State refuse the gentle use of the land to its indigenous peoples but allow its destruction by a corporation known for environmental destruction and human rights abuses? Well, the answer of course, is profit. Profit has always trumped the treaties our government has made with Native Americans.

Who will stand and fight? The Native American people living in the area and their few allies. From the look of the situation today, the fight is all but lost.

“Throughout the US, Native American People are fighting to protect the sacred places from development,” says Jessica Koski, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community member. “The courts have ruled that constitution isn’t strong enough to protect native people, especially when it comes in conflicts with development.”

Some environmentalists say the new Michigan mining law is to blame. Others say the law is good, but the MDNRE (formerly MDEQ) is not enforcing it. Either way, our Native peoples lose. That loss will be felt sorely by all of Michigan’s residents in the not too distant future. Continue reading

Listen to E. Halverson Sing on the Yellow Dog River

Two songs posted at Headwaters News of E. singing this weekend on the Yellow Dog River:  Music in the Northwoods.

More Guard Harassment at Eagle Rock

Video and short blurb at Headwaters News:  Blueberry Outlaws

Protect the Earth Gathering,This Weekend

3rd Annual Protect the Earth Great Lakes Community Gathering, 2010 Baraga, MI

3rd Annual Protect the Earth Great Lakes Community Gathering

Friday, July 30:
Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College, Baraga, MI
1pm Workshop on the National Historic Preservation Act
…2:30pm Student Presentations
5pm Opening Community Potluck Dinner
6pm Featured Guests: Joanne Shenandoah & Winona LaDuke
7pm Film Screening of Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action

Saturday, July 31:
Ojibwa Powwow Grounds, Baraga, MI
8:30am Welcome & Four Thunders Drum
9am Opening Prayer & Remarks
9:30am Keynote Speech by~ Winona LaDuke
10am Environmental Issues Facing the Great Lakes Region
Featuring Lee Sprague (Climate Change Adaptation Strategies), Jeff Gibbs (Biomass) & Kathy Berry & Zak Nicholls (Chemical Valley in Aamjiwnaang First Nation)
12pm Lunch (on your own, vendors)
1pm Presentations & Discussion on Mining in the U.P.
Featuring Al Gedicks (WI Native-Environmental Alliance), Stuart Kirsch (Indigenous Movements), Robert VanZile (Mole Lake Sokaogon Chippewa), Jim St. Arnold (Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission), Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve, Yellow Dog Summer & the Stand for the Land

Evening Events:
Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College, Baraga, MI
5pm Traditional Feast
7-10pm ~Protect the Earth Concert~

Featuring Joanne Shenandoah, Bobby Bullet, Skip Jones & E

Sunday, August 1: Clowry Trail by the Yellow Dog River, MI
11am Picnic by the Yellow Dog River (bring your own)
12pm Annual Walk to Eagle Rock
1pm Speakers & Music at the Fence Line

Wild blueberry picking too!

The plains are full of wild blueberries this time of year. So  bring your blueberry pails for the sweetest, tastiest blueberries you’ll ever pick:)