EARTHKEEPING NEWS A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY Volume Six, Number One November/December 1996 SHIPPING TOXIC MATERIALS OVER INDIAN LAND IS A RELIGIOUS ISSUE A condensation of a speech given by Walter Bresette at the NACCE Earthkeeping Ministries Congress, September 14, in Milwaukee. Walter Bresette is a Lake Superior Chippewa educator, activist and co-author, with Rick Whaley, of the book Walleye Warriors: An Effective Alliance Against Racism and for the Earth (New Society Publishers, Philadelphia 1994). In July 1996, Duluth and Twin Cities newspapers reported the blockade of the Wisconsin Central Railroad tracks by residents of the Bad River Chippewa Reservation to stop transportation of millions of gallons of sulfuric acid across their land. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), without requiring an environmental impact statement,1 had approved a pilot 'solution mining' project for the Copper Range Company of White Pine, Michigan, a subsidiary of Canadian International Metals (INMET) to use sulfuric acid to extract copper from an abandoned mine shaft. The mine is located close to the Mineral River and five miles from Lake Superior. Here is Walt Bresette's story of the blockade. The book, Walleye Warriors, was a case study of an event in history which we responded to in community. We found that the racism we experienced and recorded was a symptom of another problem – failed economic policy. That further suggests failed social policies. To the extent that social policies are determined by theological positions, in this case Christian theological positions, it was a result of failed Christian theology and application of scripture, as it applied to the people in our region. There were actual cases where pastors in northern Wisconsin said they could not address this issue (of Indian fishing rights) or they would be fired by their congregations. Racism was a symptom of a more fundamental fear, as external factors were exacerbating dysfunctions within the community. Recently there was another incident, on the railroad tracks, in which we engaged traditional native spiritual ceremonies in order to address an immediate threat to Lake Superior and Bad River watershed and the Bad River Indian community. For a year and a half we had asked for intervention by those who were making decisions. We were told to be patient. "More research is needed. You must take your concerns through the process." We were told that the corporation had a permit to build a mine five miles from Lake Superior, and in order to fulfill the requirements of that permit, it was necessary to move hazardous materials to that mine and that's why they were going across the reservation. It was as if we caught people in our house, burglaring, vandalizing our home, and the burglars say, "Wait a minute, we have a permit to do this." And you call the local law enforcement officer, and he says, "Yes, they do." What is your choice? Most of us choose to say okay, and we do it daily. But others say no. They are vandalizing our home on Lake Superior, and we have a religious duty to stop this, regardless of what that law says about that particular permit. As we assessed it, they were moving hazardous materials across unsafe tracks to an illegal mine. So we prayed, did ceremonies and asked our religious elders what to do. They said, do the right thing. At dawn on July 22 we lit a sacred fire and put a sacred encampment over the tracks and we stopped the railroad. We held the tracks for 28 days and then gave them over to the tribal leaders. We stopped the transport of acid to the mine. The question is what did we start? We started very little. We were disappointed that the sacred fire we lit over the tracks to shine light on the problem was misinterpreted. People would come, asking to record our chanting and photograph our ceremonies. We said, "No! Photograph those tracks! They are endangering this entire watershed. They will lead you to the source of the problem, to Lake Superior. And then you will see why we are here on these tracks." "We are happy the Indian people are doing this," they said. "This isn't an Indian issue," we said. "This is an issue of defending our home." For 28 days we waited. We wanted crucifixes on the tracks in Wausau. We wanted Buddhist chanting on the tracks in Madison and Chicago. We wanted Moslems coming out of the mosques and praying on the tracks. We wanted every denomination of Christians to step forward and say, "We understand. We have a duty here. We have a right as well as those people who are sitting on the tracks in northern Wisconsin." For 28 days we risked our jobs, our lives, our families and nothing happened. Nothing happened because we were unclear about what we were doing. It wasn't an Indian issue. I was on a national advisory panel on environmental justice. We passed a resolution asking the EPA to do their job, to hold one public hearing before they dump a billion gallons of acid in a hole five miles from Lake Superior. The EPA held no hearing. They rejected their own rules and regulations. It is a false hope that the US government will address its own racism with regard to projects that are tied to economic pressures of international corporations. Environmental racism prevails today. 1. Responding to the summer long protective action on the Bad River Reservation, the EPA said it would conduct an environmental assessment before allowing another acid shipment on those tracks. This could take months. INMET now has stopped shipping acid altogether, thus delaying indefinitely the opening of the Copper Range mine. For more information, write Walter Bresette, PO Box 1350, Bayfield WI 54814; 715/779-5071. or call the Bad River supporting encampment, 715/274-6354. Home     Table of Contents