Loonsfoot didn't complain at all. She was smiling and proudly carrying a brand new blue and green Pendleton wool blanket. She'd received this blanket from a Keweenaw Bay Chippewa elder earlier in the week for helping start the camp at Eagle Rock [[Migiziwasin) to protect a sacred site.
She wants Rio Tinto Zinc mining company to leave Ojibwe ceded territory.
This link is to an article discussing the DEQ approving the mining despite Native rights and environmental concerns:
http://headwatersnews.net/mining-blo...pper-michigan/
Excerpt: Consistent with AIRFA [American Indian Religious Freedom Act], Administrative Law Judge Richard Patterson ruled in August of 2009 that both Kennecott and the MDEQ “did not properly address the impact on the sacred rock outcrop known as Eagle Rock,” further stating that “the excavation and drilling in the immediate area of Eagle Rock and fencing it off will materially affect its use as a place of worship. This should in some manner be accommodated, and would best be done so by relocating the access to the mine to a location that will not interfere with that function.” Ignoring both federal law and the judge’s recommendations, the DEQ decided that Eagle Rock did not constitute a place of worship and that Kennecott could retain its plan to blast beneath the outcrop.
NOTE: The American Indian Religious Freedom Act was signed into law by Jimmy Carter in 1978, finally granting to American Indians the religious freedom guaranteed to everyone else in the Constitution.
This article touches on the environmental concerns. I need to find an update that shows how DEQ as it was at the time, knuckled under and approved it anyway:
http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=1218 [[2005)
Like the Crandon project in the Wolf River watershed, the Eagle deposit threatens the pristine Yellow Dog and Salmon Trout Rivers with sulfuric acid mine drainage and heavy metal contamination. The proposed underground shaft would extend beneath the headwaters of the Salmon Trout River.The timing of Kennecott's permit is highly unusual. The State of Michigan has not yet come up with rules and regulations to implement the recently passed nonferrous metallic mineral legislation. Why is Kennecott submitting a permit application before the state has even agreed to a set of mining regulations? And why is Kennecott opposed to a hydrological study of the Yellow Dog Plains proposed by the U.S. Geological Survey?
The article reports on the public hearing, and on the deleterious effects of the same kind of mine at Flambeau in Wisconsin.
DEQ's Approval and some history, January 2010
http://lakesuperiorminingnews.net/20...cott-approval/
Excerpt:
Swept under the rug are comments made by the state’s commissioned rock mechanics expert, Dr. David Sainsbury, that the company’s mine plan was
“technically antiquated, sloppy and equivalent to high school level work.” Sainsbury also insisted that the DEQ kept relevant local geological information out of his reports and repeatedly said that Kennecott’s conclusions regarding the ability of the mine to not collapse
“are not considered to be defensible” and does “not reflect industry best practice.”
The report also says DEQ ignored certain concerns of violation of Michigan laws because they couldn't afford to enforce the laws.
Oh, yes, let's don't forget, there was a ruling that Eagle Rock could not be a place of worship because it isn't a building.