ACTION ALERT: Ashland County Zoning meeting seeks public to testify on sulfide mining

Posted on March 7, 2019 by Barbara With

On Friday, March 8, 2019 at 9 AM the Ashland County Zoning committee will be meeting to move a new set of sulfide mining ordinances out of committee and on to the full board. Zoning Committee Chair Joe Rose Sr. is asking for the public to step up and testify in favor of the new ordinances. The meeting is being held in the Ashland County Board Room.

Tyler Forks, Penokee Hills, Wisconsin

Background: After Gogebic Taconite (GTac) was driven out of the state in 2015, the Wisconsin legislature, dominated by Republicans, overturned the decades-old “prove it first” Wisconsin sulfide mining law. The old law prevented companies that had a proven record of pollution from doing business in Wisconsin. After that law was overturned, the entire state became vulnerable to possible devastating environmental damages that would be caused by such a mine.

Sulfide mining focuses on copper, gold, silver and other precious metals. According to Save the Boundary Waters:

The sulfide-ore copper mining industry has a disastrous track record. A peer-reviewed report prepared by Earthworks studied fourteen sulfide-ore copper mines representing 89% of current U.S. copper production. Of those fourteen mines, all had experienced some sort of pipeline spill or other accidental release. Thirteen of the fourteen (92%) had experienced water collection and treatment failures that resulted in significant impacts to water quality. The tailings dam failure at the Mount Polley Mine in British Columbia in August 2014 shows the catastrophic potential for such failures (Earthworks 2012).

Read about the possible devastation of sulfide mining here.

Please come to the Ashland County Board Room and speak up in defense of the water.

Yellow mine waste water from the Gold King Mine is seen in San Juan County, Colorado

Benjamin Armstrong: Early Life Among the Indians

Posted on July 2, 2018 by Barbara With

On Sale Now $14.99

First published in 1892, Early Life Among the Indians is the biography of Benjamin Armstrong, who in 1840 took up his residence in northern Wisconsin. Having learned the Ojibwe language, he became a well-known interpreter. He was known for respecting and documenting the traditional life and culture of the Anishinaabe and became the adopted son of Ke-Che-Waish-Ke, Chief Buffalo, the most respected leader of the Lake Superior bands. In 1852 Armstrong accompanied Great Buffalo and other Ojibwe leaders to Washington, D.C., to plead against the proposed forced relocation of the Ojibwe west of the Mississippi. A meeting between the chiefs and President Millard Fillmore was a success and brought a reversal of the removal order of 1849.

Armstrong did more to humanize Native Americans than nearly any white person of his day. In the end, he writes: “… the unbiased judgment of the future will be that the Indians were found good and were made bad by white people, and that the condition of things has not been one whit improved by white associates, but, on the contrary, has been degraded … [the Indians] saw that the example of the white people was far from the teachings of the missionaries, far from the truth and the pretensions of the traders, and far from justice and right.”

Through his respect and love for the tribes and his connections with Chief Buffalo’s family, Armstrong was granted access to leaders of all the Ojibwe bands. Early Life Among the Indians contains his recollections of battles with Sioux adversaries, memoirs of the Sandy Lake tragedy, accounts of the crucial treaty councils that defined modern Ojibwe life, the arrival of miners and loggers in the Ojibwe homelands, and much more about northern Wisconsin in the 19th century.

This edition also contains a special message from the 7th generation of Chief Buffalo, his great-granddaughter Sandy Gokee, Anishinaabe kwe, mother, a daughter, a student, a teacher, and water protector living on the shores of Lake Superior.

Made possible by a generous grant from the La Pointe Center.

Proceeds from the sale of this book will be used to support the Madeline Island Jingle Dress Dancer Project.

$14.99

ACTION ALERT: Ashland County Public Hearing June 12 on new CAFO ordinances

Posted on June 10, 2018 by Barbara With

The Ashland County Land and Conservation Committee will be holding a public hearing from 5 PM – 7 PM Tuesday, June 12 at the Land and Water Conservation Department office at 315 Sanborn Ave, # 100, Ashland, WI 54806.

The purpose of the public hearing is to distribute information and to hear comments regarding the two agricultural ordinances proposed for Ashland County. The ordinances have been developed by the Land Conservation Committee with the assistance of the Ashland County Agricultural Ordinance Advisory Group.

Once they pass out of committee they will be sent to the full Board to vote on.

Please come and speak up in support of these new ordinances. Show Ashland County we are standing united in defense of the water.

For more information, County District 12 Ashland County Supervisor Joe Rose, Sr. at 715.292.7225

Bad River Band Denies Renewal of Enbridge Line 5 Grant of Easement

Posted on January 5, 2017 by Barbara With

January 5, 2017

Tribe calls for decommissioning and removal at Bad River, WI

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

P.O. Box 39 Odanah, Wisconsin 54861

CONTACT: Dylan Jennings
Bad River Tribal Council DylanJennings@badriver-nsn.gov (715) 348-6594

Odanah, WI, January 5, 2017- The Bad River Tribal Council passed a formal resolution Wednesday evening, January 4th that established the Tribes decision not to renew its interests in the grant of easement for rights-of-way of Enbridge Energy’s Line 5 crude oil pipeline through the Bad River Reservation. Furthermore, it calls for the decommissioning, and removal of the pipeline from all Bad River lands and watershed.

Bad River Watershed, including the Kakagon Sloughs

Formerly known as Lakehead Pipeline Company, Enbridge sought renewal of rights of way with the Band for the existing line that is now 64 years old. 15 Individual grant of easement rights of way for Line 5 expired in 2013, however, Bad River had reacquired interests in 11 of the 15 parcels of land within the grant of easement rights of way. “As many other communities have experienced, even a minor spill could prove to be disastrous for our people. We depend upon everything that the creator put here before us to live mino-bimaadiziwin, a good and healthy life.” said Bad River Tribal Chairman Robert Blanchard. He remarks in the Tribal Council’s decision, “We will work with our native and non-native communities to make sure that Line 5 does not threaten rights of people living in our region, and we will reach out to federal, state and local officials to evaluate how to remove Line 5, and we will work with the same communities and officials to continue developing a sustainable economy that doesn’t marginalize indigenous people”

The Band has directed Tribal staff to begin planning for the Line 5 removal project development and the environmental issues/hazards that exist with removal of old pipelines including hazards response and health study, pipeline contents recycling and disposal, and surface restoration. “These environmental threats not only threaten our health, but they threaten our very way of life as Anishinaabe. We all need to be thinking of our future generations and what we leave behind for them.” Says Tribal Council Member Dylan Jennings.

With over 7,000 members, the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians is located on an over 124,000-acre reservation in an area within Ashland and Iron Counties on the south shore of Lake Superior (known by the tribe as Gichi Gami). The Ojibwe people have a long and rich heritage throughout the Great Lakes region and at Odanah on Lake Superior prior to European traders, missionaries and settlers and continuing to today. Treaties signed by eleven Ojibwe Tribes ceded territory in the region, including what is currently the upper one third of the State of Wisconsin. Learn more about the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians on their website, badriver-nsn.gov.

Madison Common Council Alder Rebecca Kemble Arrested at Standing Rock by Dane County Law Enforcement

Posted on October 11, 2016 by Barbara With

October 11, 2016

Dane County law enforcement preparing to arrest water protectors at Standing Rock camp. Photo: Patricia Hammel

On October 10, 2016 Madison Common Council Alder Rebecca Kemble was arrested in Cannon Ball, ND where she was delivering a Resolution of Support to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in their stand to protect themselves from the Dakota Access Pipeline. The resolution was signed unanimously by the Council.

According to an eye witness, also from Madison, arresting officers were Dane County law enforcement, sent to North Dakota at the request of Republican North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple.

According to Cap Times, 10 Dane County sheriff’s officers were sent to Morton County, North Dakota to assist with the water protectors who have gather at Cannon Ball, site of the Standing Rock Sioux water protector encampment.

Dakota originally asked for 40 deputies, which Mahoney said was not feasible for Dane County. Other Wisconsin agencies, including the State Patrol, the Department of Natural Resources and four other sheriff’s offices are sending staff to make up the difference.

Photo: Patricia Hammel

On September 21, 2016, Madison Common Council passed the resolution to support the Standing Rock Sioux and the Sacred Stone resistance camp. Started in April with a hand full of people, the camp has grown to over 3,000, with support from over 200 indigenous tribes from around the world.

“NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Mayor and Common Council of the City of Madison, stand in support of the Indigenous opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline and call on all residents of Madison to raise awareness about this important struggle for Indigenous sovereignty and environmental justice and to support the Sacred Stone Camp efforts in any way they can; and,

FINALLY, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City of Madison calls upon the United States and the Army Corps of Engineers to obtain the free, prior and informed consent of the Standing Rock Sioux and any other tribe whose resources could be impacted by the pipeline prior to taking any federal action regarding the DAPL that would harm or destroy tribal ancestral lands, waters and sacred sites.”

Rebecca Kemble, District 18 Alder

Kemble spent the night in jail with over 20 other peaceful protectors who were arrested and is expected to be released today. The public is encouraged to call Dane County Sheriff Mahoney and County Executive Parisi and asked why Dane County law enforcement have been sent to North Dakota and are now arresting Dane county citizens who are peacefully protecting the water.

Sheriff Mahoney 608-284-6170.

County Executive Parisi 608-266-4114

Donate to help with water protector legal funds here.

Read more about the Standing Rock Sioux and their journey to protect the water here.

Sunrise at Sacred Stone Camp. Photo: Rebecca Kemble

United In Defense of The Water

Water is Life

Category Archives: Rights of Nature