This article was written by my friend Rico. I
merely added the introduction and did some updating and editing of the
text. Settle in with a cup o' tea, because this is a long one...
Two years ago I was sitting at a campfire in Northern Wisconsin. Surrounding me were members of the Sakoagon Chippewa, members of Earth First! and various other environmental groups, and members of some of the surrounding communities. The group varied widely in race, class, political views, and just about any other variable, but we were all there for a common purpose. We all opposed the mine. As I looked around the campfire, I knew that despite our differences, we had all come together in this common purpose. And I felt something special was happening. This is the story of how a grassroots movement has successfully taken on a coalition of multinational corporations.
Some History
Our story is set in the woods of Northern Wisconsin, but similar stories may be told in Arizona, Minnesota, New Mexico, the Dakotas and anywhere else valuable minerals have been found under the land of indigenous peoples. In 1975, the Phelps Dodge Corporation applied for the mineral rights to copper deposits on the Lac Du Flambeau Chippewa Reservation. The application presented to the tribe required the Lac Du Flambeau Chippewa to put up an advance of $250,000 in order to participate in the exploratory stage of the project. This mercenary attempt by the Phelps Dodge Corporation is typical of the condescending ways multinationals have historically treated both indigenous peoples and third world nations. By providing the lure of potential future wealth, the corporations get their potential “partners” to provide the initial speculative investments. In this case however, the asking price was simply too high for a tribe with limited financial resources, and the tribal leaders were skeptical of the corporations promises. When the tribe asked to see Phelps’ economic feasibility reports, Phelps withdrew their proposal.
A month after this rejection, in May of 1976, Exxon announced the discovery of one of the world’s largest zinc-copper deposits. This deposit was located adjacent to the Sakoagon Chippewa reservation at Mole Lake, situated at the headwaters of the Wolf River in Forest County, just a mile away from the Chippewa’s wild rice lake. The smallest tribe in Wisconsin, with just over 200 members and a land base of 1,900 acres, was placed in the position of dealing with one of the world’s largest corporation. The tribe’s annual budget was a mere $1,200, while the value of Exxon’s energy reserves alone was in excess of $1,300,000,000. While the financial position of the tribe was weak, they were well aware of the history between indigenous peoples and mining companies. They decided to resist Exxon and the proposed mine. With the help of an environmental/native solidarity activist named Al Gedicks, they formed The Center for Alternative Mining Developmental Policy. They gathered what little financial support they could muster and began a fight that continues to this day. The purpose of the Center was simply to develop strategies to be used in preventing Exxon from mining their land.
The Center determined to study the possible negative social and economic impacts of the proposed mine. They studied failures of dangerous and unproven technologies, violations of native rights, and failures to comply with applicable environmental laws. It was discovered that the mine would greatly alter the wild rice production for the tribe and affect other tribes and people who lived near the area. Wild rice is an integral part of the Chippewa’s lifestyle as an important cash crop as well as a sacred part of the band’s religious rituals, and an essential ingredient in their diet. The proposed mine would interfere with the exercise of Chippewa’s off-reservation harvest rights and would be in direct violation of treaties signed in 1855, guaranteeing access to wild rice, fish and some wild game on the lands to be utilized by the proposed mine. The Sakoagon Chippewa are particularly susceptible to these negative impacts due to the extremely small reservation land. The Menominee Reservation, located directly downstream from the proposed mine would also be negatively impacted. The Menominee has occupied the Wolf River area for 8,000 years. In fact, the very name “Menominee”, or “Omaeqnomenewak” means “Wild Rice People”. The Menominee immediately recognized the potential threat to their lands and way of life and joined the Sakoagon Chippewa in their struggle against the proposed mine.
A Dismal Environmental Record
Exxon has historically had a strongly negative impact on the areas it has mined. It has also poorly handled native peoples and even their own workers. Exxon was once John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company, a monopolistic monster which attempted to crush the rise of unions and maximize profits above all else. Exxon is currently the world’s largest oil producer, and also a major miner of coal, uranium, copper and other minerals. It has investments all over the world, thus giving it tremendous power and influence. Exxon is a true multinational, whose interests lie in providing profit to their stockholders and has shown little interest in preserving the environment at a cost to their bottom line.
Exxon first became interested in native lands in the southwest. Under the name of the Standard Oil Company, it purchased an oil lease from five Diné (Navajo) men in 1923. The men at the time had no idea they were giving away the rights to their land. By the mid 1970’s, Exxon laid claim to “400,000 acres of Navajo reservations, 92,000 acres of Canoncito Navajo lands, 60,000 acres of Laguana Pueblo Lands, and 60,000 acres around Mount Taylor (considered sacred by both the Diné and Pueblo peoples)”. (Impacts on Indigenous Cultures-Midwest Treaty Network)
Ester Yazzie, a Diné tribal member, later commented at a Commission hearing: “We find that our culture is broken, our livelihood… We are afraid for the future of our children. What is life going to hold for the next generation? We were the keepers of the order, but the uranium mines changed all that. We have violence, social disorder, abuse of women and children… We were a people of five fingers, now some of us have more than five fingers or less than five fingers… We live in a desert where there is a lot of water, but now our water is extracted to carry coal on a slurry to a railroad to service a plant that doesn’t even service our needs”. (Ibid.)
One of Exxon’s mines, El Cerrejon, located on Wayuu (Guajro) land in the northern tip of Columbia, was put on the Survival International’s list of Top Ten Corporate Violators for their infringement of native rights. Between the years of 1986 and 1990, 32 mineworkers died on the job at this mine. The Wayuu had their water poisoned and their homes covered with coal dust. Exxon even dug up their graves to make way for an ore-hauling railroad. Jerry Goodrich, vice-president of operations at El Cerrejon has been involved as the president of the proposed mine at Crandon. One Wayuu leader said “he promised us jobs and prosperity and instead worked to destroy our traditional ways and forced us from our land. This must not happen again. To allow this mine is to disappear from the earth. (Cultural Aspects of Exxon’s Proposed Crandon Mine-Midwest Treaty Network)
Ricardo Plata, the Deputy Project Manager at El Cerrejon, was quoted as saying, “any process of development logically does violence to social structures, and produces, in some cases, if not physical ethnocides, certainly cultural ethnocides”. (Gutierrez, Cultural Survival Quarterly, Summer 1984) In 1989, Exxon had the worst mine safety record among the top twenty mining firms.
Exxon’s other notorious blunder is the famous Valdez oil spill. Exxon purchased the port of Valdez for one dollar from the Chugach tribe in 1969 with the promise that Prince William Sound would be protected. Not only has the spill damaged traditional hunting and fishing sites of the Chugach, Eyak, and other tribes, but also many cultural sites were robbed or vandalized during the cleanup effort.
The Social Costs
It is important to recognize the role multinationals play in environmental damage, but they also exact a high social toll on the inhabitants of the land they destroy. Native people in particular suffer a disproportionate environmental risk of illness from ingesting fish, deer, and other wildlife contaminated with industrial pollutants. In general, the more self-sufficient and reliant on the land, the greater the impact of environmental damage will have on a people. One reason Native Americans have a great respect for the Earth is due to their direct reliance on its health. The Sakoagon Chippewa rely heavily on hunting and fishing for food, as well as gardening, harvesting rice, and picking wild plants. (Final Impact Statement, Exxon Coal and Minerals Co.) The odds of getting ill with a mine in your backyard increase tremendously with the introduction of airborne pollutants such as PCBs and other contaminates that may leak onto land or into the water supply.
Some More History
The intrusion of Exxon onto Chippewa tribal land began in September 1975, when Exxon gave a $20,000 check to the Sakoagon Chippewa tribal chairperson for the right to explore for minerals on their small reservation. At the same time, Exxon began making offers to buy land in the surrounding area, including one to buy forty acres of corporate owned timberland, one mile away from the reservation for $200,000. One week later, the tribal council learned of the check given to the chairperson and tore it to pieces. Myra Tuckwab, a tribal member, summed up the feelings of many reservation residents by saying “we like where we’re living. They put us here years ago on federal land and now that we’re here – they discover something – and they either want to take it from us or move us away from it. We don’t want to do this. This is where I belong. This is my home. This is where my roots are and this is where I’m gonna stay.” (Gedicks, Al. The New Resource Wars – Native and Environmental Struggles Against Multinational Corporations, South End Press, 1993, pg. 63)
In 1976, Exxon submitted permit applications to begin mining, only to withdraw them in 1986, citing depressed mineral prices. This put an end to the mining dispute for six years. Exxon returned in 1992, and, with mineral prices once again on the rise, once again proposed undertaking the mining project. In addition to better market prices, the political climate was much friendlier towards mining. Tommy Thompson, a staunch Republican was in the Governor’s seat, and viewed the potential income from the mine as more valuable than potential environmental effects. And this time Exxon didn’t come alone. They brought a partner, Rio Algom, a mining corporation based in Canada had taken on fifty percent of the project. The new company created for the mining project was called the Crandon Mining Company. Rio Algom has an environmental record very similar, and in some aspects even worse, than Exxon’s. It is best known for its disaster at the Elliot Lakes mines in Ontario, where radioactive and heavy metals were leaked from the mines into the Serpent River over a twenty-year span. A nearby Ojibwa reservation was forced to halt all fishing due to chronic diseases, fetal deaths and abnormal births.
Environmentalists had taken notice of the proposed mine and had begun organizing by the time Exxon filed its mine application with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in December of 1982. They had begun to visit the area of the proposed mine and started preliminary environmental testing and meeting with local residents. The Wisconsin Resources Protection Council (WPRC) was established with the intent of opening a dialogue between those that would be directly impacted by the mine. These groups included the Sakoagon Chippewa, the Forest County Potawatomi, the Menominee, and their non-native neighbors. Opposition to the mine grew quickly. With the help of federal agencies and nationally affiliated environmental organizations, the proposed mine became a publicly debated issue throughout Wisconsin and the Midwest. Other mining companies had taken notice of the debate as well, and over a dozen of these looked to the outcome of the Crandon mine as a potential precedent.
In January of 1998, Exxon sold its fifty percent interest in the Crandon Mine Company to Rio Algom. The Crandon Mine Company then changed its name to the Nicolet Minerals Company. Exxon retains a profit-sharing agreement with Rio Algom under the terms of the sale. For the purposes of clarity, I will continue to refer to the newly formed Nicolet Minerals Co. as the Crandon Mine Company. This is the name which is still most popularly used by local residents when discussing the proposed mine. Despite the changes in official name, the proposed mine is still generally called the Crandon Mine, or the Exxon Mine.
The Mine
The proposed mine would rest on an area ceded by the Chippewa nation to the US in 1842,and directly on a 12 square mile tract of land promised to the Mole Lake Sakoagon Chippewa in 1855. As discussed above, these treaties guarantee the Chippewa access to wild rice, fish, and wild game on these lands. The Mole Lake Reservation that was founded in 1934 harvests Wisconsin’s largest wild rice crop in the nearby Rice Lake. A nearby creek, Swamp Creek, runs from the proposed mine directly into Rice Lake. It is this creek that would experience the greatest amount of pollutant runoff, and feed right into Rice Lake. The mine itself will be a vertical slab, about one mile in length, averaging two hundred feet in width and extending to a depth of 2,800 feet.
Since 1974, approximately 1,200 boreholes have been drilled in the area of the proposed mine to collect exploratory and projected environmental impact of the mine. The holes, seemingly harmless, have scarred much of the historical battlegrounds where Sokoagon Chippewa and the Dakota Nation once fought. Also, many burial sites have been disturbed as a result of these cultural and environmental surveys. In this way, it can be seen that even attempts to operate in a culturally and environmentally humane way can have seriously negative impacts on a land and culture.
Exxon’s projected $900 million investment in developing the Crandon mine was part of their diversification into base metal mining. Throughout the mid-seventies and into the eighties, oil companies began buying out other smaller oil companies, and also looked to expand vertically as well as horizontally. This brought these companies to begin exploring mining for minerals as well as oil. There are differences between drilling for oil and mining for minerals however. First, the development and discovery of mineral resources is capital and time intensive. Second, unlike oil, the demand and price of minerals is quite volatile. Third, the payback on mineral investments takes much longer to realize, as mines may not contribute revenues until many years after beginning the mining process. Finally, mining is much more visible to the public, as it requires a much more environmentally intrusive operation.
The Environmental Impact
The Crandon Mining Company plans to divert about 1,000,000 gallons of ground water from the mine each day during its twenty to thirty year operating life. This is necessary to keep the shafts dry and safe for mining. The wastewater produced from the mine will be sent across a 38 mile pipeline, from the mine site to a discharge point below the Hot Rapids Dam near Tomahawk, Wisconsin. This pipeline would threaten both the Great Lakes and Mississippi watersheds. The result would be a dramatic lowering of the groundwater and surface water in lakes and streams around the mine, resulting in the death of fish, wildlife and the wild rice harvests. This lowering of the water table would pull water out of the aquifer for up to 16 square miles, eventually altering the flow of water to nearby wetlands. This could also lower the water levels of nearby lakes by several feet, and completely dry up wells and streams.
An estimated 60 million tons of acidic waste would be generated over the life of the mine. About half of this would consist of fine tailings, similar to a powder, containing high levels of acid-generating sulfides and other heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, zinc, copper, and mercury). When these sulfide tailings mix with air and water, they form sulfuric acid. The tailings from the project would cover an area the size of 350 football fields and would be stored in tailing ponds, each of which would be 90 feet deep. The other half, the coarser tailings, would be re-deposited into the mine as landfill.
To safely dispose of these contaminates, the waste would have to be isolated from the environment permanently. The Crandon Mining Company has proposed covering and lining the tailings with a synthetic material that has a warranty of 50 years. The Company, as currently proposed, will only be responsible for this liner system for 40 years. After that time, the responsibility would go to the taxpayers to foot the bill for the costs of monitoring, maintaining, and replacing the system. According to Jerry Goodrich, president of the Crandon Mine Company, the plastic liner underneath the toxic mine waste will dissolve in 140 years. He is quoted as saying “after 140 years, it vaporizes. It’s gone.” (Culhane, Ed. Post Crescent, Appleton. 12/3/95) The DNR says that as presently designed, the proposed liner at the bottom of the waste dump “would not provide adequate protection to the groundwater”.
According to the US Bureau of Mines, drainage from other sulfide mines has already affected 12,000 miles of rivers and streams and 180,000 acres of lakes and ponds. “Acid mine drainage is generally regarded as potentially the single largest cause of negative environmental impacts resulting from mining.” (Reese, Beverly, “Acid Mine Drainage: Perpetual Pollution” Clementine, Mineral Policy Center, Winter ’95, pg. 3) According to one Exxon engineer, from the standpoint of the wetlands, the ground water, and the overall typography, “you couldn’t find a more difficult place to mine” than the proposed Crandon Mine site. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 1/30/96) The mine would create the largest waste heap in Wisconsin history. The DNR says the sulfide level in nearby creeks would rise fivefold, with threefold level increases in lead and arsenic.
The Economic Impact
Besides the environmental and cultural impact of the proposed mine, the economy of the region would also be altered. The mine would run seven days a week and would employ, according to the mine industry, 750 people during construction of the facility, and approximately 400-500 during its operation. Jobs are often the most cited reason for bringing industry into an area. But the economic impact of mines are generally “boom and bust”. This cycle has historically devastated communities across the globe. Mines generally attract more workers than they can employ, and jobs seldom go to local residents. Even though Exxon can promise new jobs will be created, they do not promise they will go to local residents. A former mayor of a coal boom town, Craig, Colorado said “the mining companies’ economic growth projections weren’t worth the paper they were written on”. (Gedicks, “Nashville Under Siege”)
The Fight Against the Mine
Since the creation of the Crandon Mining Company in 1993, the Wolf River, at the headwaters of the Crandon Mine, has been assigned endangered river status by American Rivers, the nation’s leading river conservation organization. The Wolf River is not only considered sacred to many tribal peoples, but also serves as a popular recreational area. Thousands flock to the river each year to enjoy boating, fishing and the scenery. The Wolf River is one of the last wild rivers in the Midwest, and Congress has recommended the river be placed on a list of national Wild and Scenic Rivers.
A day after the American Rivers designated the Wolf River as a threatened river, the Crandon Mining Company announced it was abandoning its plans to dump treated wastewater into the Wolf River. Instead, it planned to build a pipeline and divert the wastewater into the Wisconsin River near Rhinelander. The threat to the Wolf River remains however, as the mine wastes would still be stored at the headwaters of the river.
In September of 1994, Wisconsin amended its state statutes to allow the introduction of pollutants from drilling fluids for mining activities into groundwater. The state then went on to permit the Crandon Mine Company to conduct a pump test for 72 hours. The test lasted thirty days. This test, it was estimated, discharged six million gallons of wastewater, flooding the very heart of the Sakoagon Chippewa’s land. The following year the rice harvest failed.
Yet resistance to the mine remains high. In March of 1997, thanks to the efforts of a grassroots coalition of native peoples and environmental groups, a Mining Moratorium Bill was passed through the Wisconsin Senate, and later the Assembly. The bill, sponsored by Representative Spencer Black, requires the DNR to refrain from issuing permits to metallic sulfide mines (like the Crandon Mine) until the company can point to a similar project that has operated for 10 years and been closed for 10 years without polluting ground or surface waters. This bill is a major roadblock for the Crandon Mine Company and represents a tremendous victory for those who oppose the mine. As discussed above, both Exxon and Rio Algom have not been able to complete a mining project without significant pollution to both ground and surface waters.
Many groups have been able to gain worldwide support in their defense of the environment and tribal rights. In May of 1997, 40 Mole Lake tribal members forcibly took over tribal headquarters to protest what they believe is a collusion between their tribal leaders, including the tribal chairman, and the Crandon Mining Company. These group of protestors were also concerned with the tribe’s environmental engineer allowing federal and state agencies to collect sensitive environmental data against the tribal council’s wishes. Several of the accused tribal members were forcibly removed from their positions as a result of this protest.
In June of 1997, local residents of the town of Nashville, Wisconsin threw out their town board by electing new officials to four out of the five seats on the board. A representative from the Sakoagon Chippewa tribe now holds a seat on the board. The previous board had announced that it was ready to approve an agreement with the mining company to allow them to begin operations on town land. This board then held a meeting on the agreement. Three hundred people were in attendance to protest this agreement, yet the board gaveled the meeting closed shortly after it began, refusing to allow any of the residents in attendance were able to speak. Shortly after this meeting, ninety-nine percent of the eligible voters in Nashville turned out to overwhelmingly throw out the town board. Crandon Mine officials continue to insist that the contract they signed with the town of Nashville is binding, despite the fact that no community members were allowed participation in the decision-making process. Local residents are currently challenging this under Wisconsin’s open meeting law.
In August, 1999, the Federation of Fly Fishers announced the Wolf River as the most endangered river in the US, based on the threat it faces from the proposed mine.
The broad based coalition to oppose the Crandon Mine has fought an uphill
battle from the very start. Faced
with the intimidating financial and political resources of Exxon and Rio Algom,
environmentalists and native rights activists struggled to form a coalition that
was inclusive rather than exclusive. Indigenous
peoples worked diligently to form new alliances with old enemies.
They chose to put aside old feuds over spear fishing rights and joined
together with hunters, fishermen and other outdoors enthusiasts to resist the
mine and its possible environmental harm. The
inclusion of the fishing organizations in particular was important because they
are generally seen as nonpartisan, average folk by many in Northern Wisconsin.
Once these groups began acting in concert, they have worked hard to
maintain their alliances. For
example, organizers of the speaking tours against the mine insured that at each
community visited, townspeople would hear from an environmentalist, a sport
fisher, and a tribal member. (Shepard Express, 4/23/98)
These agreements reinforced solidarity and coalition supporters worked
hard to make sure no one group took charge to the detriment of any other group.
The struggle against the mine continues, as Rio Algom continues to
attempt to manipulate Wisconsin’s mining laws in its favor.
Yet the grassroots coalition has met them at every turn.
It is an example of how people, working together can effectively defeat
even multinationals. Many environmental and tribal groups now look to the Crandon
Mine issue as a blueprint for organizing opposition to proposed incursions into
the land.
For more information:
Indigenous Environmental Network http://www.alphacode.com/ien
Midwest Treaty Network http://www.alphacdc.com/treaty/antimine.html
Nashville, Wisconsin http://www.nashvillewiundersiege.com/wyskenv.html