4 // October 1, 2013
Second Supper | The Free Press
SPECIAL REPORT
Mines CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 attractive to companies like GTac, but the furnaces would also require a new natural gas line. The morning after the hearings I decided to visit Harvest Camp, but it wasn’t easily to find. After driving back and forth for 30 minutes through what seemed like endless forest, I backtracked to a tiny town and asked directions from a man I found working on truck. He told me how to find the forest road that leads to the camp and ultimately to the mining site. After some nervous minutes driving through the forest, I finally came upon some pickups and a boat. The air was suddenly heavy with the smell of wood smoke. Deeper in the woods, a few wigwams and tarps were visible, but no people. Then, as I started into the trees they began to appear, silently, but without menace.
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The first was a couple who had come over from Lac Court Oreilles to help build a sweat lodge. They directed me to a fire circle where a young woman named Rose sat wrapped in some sort of plastic sheet. It had been a chilly night, so I asked if she was keeping warm. She smiled and answered no, it was mosquitoes. Then she arose, keeping the plastic wrapped around her, and volunteered to show me around the camp, where people had been drying herbs and mushrooms. Hunting and gathering on these lands is a right the federal government ceded to the Anishinaabe(or Ojibwe) long ago. Then I spoke with Karl, who works for the tribal radio station. He told me the asbestos released by strip mining would destroy their rice beds and ultimately their culture. “That’s genocide,” he declared. That seemed a bit strong, but Karl insisted that his dictionary calls destruction of a culture genocide. I haven’t been able to find that dictionary, but I get his point. He also averred that if the mining company or the governor tried to remove them or abrogate their rights, there could be serious confrontations. There had already been one famous scuffle where a woman named Katie Kloth grabbed a smart phone from the hands of a mine employee. This became an online video, and while no one was hurt, it was an excuse for GTac to hire Bulletproof Security, a private army from Arizona. They wear masks and carry automatic weapons. All this was deemed necessary to protect mineworkers and environmentalists from eco-terrorists. Eventually they were removed because Wisconsin requires private armies to be licensed. No surprise then, that soon after the DNR hearing, state Sen. Tom Tiffany introduced legislation that would ban all hunting, gathering, hiking, camping and almost any activity but mining in a vast portion of the Penokees. Currently public use is granted through an agreement with landowners, which gives them a large tax break in return. The governor, the senator and a GTac lobbyist have all called for the removal of illegal camps. A Bulletproof spokesman has claimed his force is the only one capable of searching out and removing them. That also means keeping out anyone
trying to monitor the condition of the land and water, other than the company’s experts. When the Bad River tribe sent in a scientist to survey wetlands, the company threatened legal action. They have also refused the tribe access to any part of the sample. Harvest Camp is on township land and operates under a permit, in spite of GTac and the state putting considerable pressure on the town to revoke the permit. The town stubbornly refuses to do that, although it is beginning to back down. The Bad River camps are also perfectly legal, and are apparently situated on land owned by the nature conservancy. They maintain they sought the permit so others could camp with them, but they have the right to be there anyway. It can be difficult to find people in the Penokees, which has led Sen. Tiffany to refer to the protestors as “shadowy characters lurking in the forest.” Neither he nor the GTac people seems to recognize that many of these protesters are Native Americans with explicit rights to be there, and in the end it may be the federal government, rather than our DNR, that saves the Penokees. Meanwhile, it may take months for the DNR to make a decision about granting a permit to GTac to do bulk sampling. Sen. Tiffany’s proposal to close thousands of acres of Wisconsin forestland is on hold, because he says he doesn’t have the votes at this time. But Bulletproof is scheduled to come back and will be ready go rout out the ecoterrorists. Winter comes early to the Lake Superior shore, and the earth freezes hard, but strip mining works best under those conditions, and the trucks can move back and forth without getting stuck in the mud. The Anishinaabe are used to northern Wisconsin winters and have no intention of leaving. The mosquitoes will go away and there’s lots of wood. As you read this they are winterizing their camps. Fall is also deer hunting season, when they traditionally take to the woods with their rifles to harvest winter meat. Add a private military with masks and automatic weapons and you have what Peter Russo, the Ashland County chairman, calls “a cocktail for disaster.”
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Families with low to moderate income interested in learning about building with Habitat for Humanity-La Crosse Area are invited to one of two upcoming informational meetings. Applications will be accepted at the meetings from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1, and 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Oct. 5, at the South Side Neighborhood Center, 1300 S. Sixth St., La Crosse. Habitat for Humanity-La Crosse Area is seeking to partner with individuals or families for two new, single-family homes to be built in the La Crosse in 2014. The homes will be built with donated money, materials and labor. When the houses are complete, the partner families will buy them from Habitat for Humanity through a zero-interest mortgage. Applications are being accepted from Oct. 1-15. Attending the informational meeting is the first step in becoming a Habitat homeowner. If you are unable to attend but are interested in applying, please call 608-7852373, ext. 602. Attendees will learn about Habitat for Humanity, how it works, and be asked to complete an application. Those interested in applying must bring the following items: • The last two pay stubs and 2012 income tax return. • Proof of other monthly income, such as food stamps, child support, disability, SSI, etc. • Addresses/phone numbers of employers, landlords, and references for last two years. • A copy of most recent bank statement. • Proof of expenses, including rent, car payments, insurance, childcare, student loans, alimony or child support, credit card payments, etc. (Proof includes receipts, cancelled checks, payment coupon books, court orders, etc.) Selection is based on applicants’ present housing need, willingness to partner (including completing 350 hours of “sweat equity”), ability to pay the interest-free mortgage, and residency in this community for the past 12 months.
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