Dan Millis Article Summary Post #3

http://www.protectourmanoomin.org/1/post/2013/02/wisconsin-mining-bill-threatens-genocide.html

"Wisconsin Mining Bill Threatens Genocide"
by Barbara With

Wisconsin's Bad River Band of Ojibwe's way of life, as promised to be protected by treaties of 1837 and 1842, is being threatened by Assembly Bill 426.  "The treaties of 1837 and 1842 guaranteed the Ojibwe [the right] to stay in Lake Superrior basin in exchange for ceding the US government 23 million acres.  In return, they would receive annuity pyments for 20-25 years, a combination of cash, food and services, and the right to hunt, fish, and gather on those 23 million acres for perpetuity (forver)."  What that means is that they were allowed to stay, and continue living their lives as they had done for thousands of years, and even get a little monetary compensation for roughly a quarter century.  Of course, it was understood by Chief Buffalo, who signed the treaties, that refusal to cooperate would end in the bloody demise of his entire nation.

 Assembly Bill 426 threatens to turn the Ojibwe civilization in to a "21 -mile open-pit mountaintop removal iron ore mine."  On January 23, current chair of the Bad River Band, Mike Mike Wiggins, jr., was allotted 2 minutes to stand before representatives of state legislature in Madison and "beg for the lives of 7,000 members of his community." With was in attendance and notes, "Having faced similar tibunal several times before, Wiggins looks slightly impatient with the new incarnation of yet another committee pushing the same corporate sponsored bill.  Neither he nor any other representative of Wisconsin's Native Soverign Nations have been consulted."

So is Bill 426, this disgusting demolition of land and person, worth the opportunites for our state that it can't even guaruntee?  This is the fourth time the public has been heard in regards to 426 since 2011.  Each time evidence of the destruction iron mining wrought on our neighbors in Minnesota.  "...iron ore mining [has] killed off wild rice in the St. Louis River for 100 miles..." 

The Bad River Band relies on the waters of their land for the survival of his people, and Wiggins issues warnings to the committee- "Because were directly downstream and set to endure the impacts of this project, we view it as an iminent threat.  This human threat really manifests itself in a form of genocide. Genocide."  and "the obliteration of the head waters in a watershed system is catastrophic.  It is catastrophic for the ecosystem, which is ultimately catastrophis for the human populationthat is dependent and interconnected with it."

Certainly what is acceptable treatment of human beings has changed since the first treaties were signed at gunpoint in the 1800's, but wiping out an entire civilization by poisoning its water in 2013 would be sending us back in time faster than Doc Brown ever could.  The state of Wisconsin will have blood on it's hands if bill 426 is passed and mining begins.