[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
dam-l FW: Voigt Intertribal Task Force unanimously backs LCO and PCN
Subject: Voigt Intertribal Task Force unanimously backs LCO and PCN
Watersmeet MI - 3 February: At the monthly board meeting of the Voigt
Intertribal Task Force, a constituent committee of the Great Lakes Indian
Fish and Wildlife Commission, the task force unanimously passed a resolution
affirming support for Wisconsin's Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior
Chippewa.
On 20 September, 1999, LCO became the first American tribe to officially
state its concern for Pimicikamak Cree Nation in northern Manitoba, linking
that concern to LCO's own history of inundation (in 1923, Northern States
Power built a dam which destroyed the tribe's way of life), and its
opposition to a planned 345 kV transmission line that would pass across or
near LCO traditional territory.
The September resolution also calls for "greatly increased investments by
tribal, local, state and national governments, as well as by individuals and
corporate and institutional entities, in energy conservation and genuinely
renewable energy sources in Wisconsin and the uppper Midwest, to displace
the 'need' to purchase additional environmental and socially destructive
electricity from Manitoba Hydro." As well, the LCO resolution "strongly
opposes the building of transmission lines in the territory ceded in the
treaties of 1836, 1837 and 1842 where Lac Courte Oreilles people hunt, fish
and gather for their subsistence."
Prior to the vote, Eric Robinson, Manitoba Minister, Aboriginal and Northern
Affairs, and Oscar Lathlin, Manitoba Minister of Conservation, addressed the
meeting. Both Crees, they acknowledged that hydrodevelopment has altered the
way of life in the north; that the recently elected Manitoba government
would be meeting with Pimicikamak Cree Nation "in the next little while to
correct the wrongs"; and that the issues PCN has raised have been
"outstanding issues" for a long time. The government's ministers told the
Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission they would issue a report
card in eighteen months. They stated that the Manitoba government will
appoint Aboriginal members to Manitoba Hydro's board of directors.
Michael Isham, Vice-Chairman of Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior
Chippewa, and Wayne LaBine, appointee to the Voigt Task Force from the
Sokaogon Chippewa Community of Mole Lake, reiterated tribal concerns about
EMF and the high rates of cancer among Chippewa people, and the irony of
having Manitoba shipping electricity to the proposed Crandon mine (owned by
a Canadian subsidiary) that would in turn, destroy Wisconsin's Wolf River
watershed and forever alter the Mole Lake community.
The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission resolution is as
follows:
Whereas, The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) is an
organization consisting of eleven federally recognized tribes from Michigan,
Minnesota and Wisconsin which have retained off-reservation hunting, fishing
and gathering rights in territories ceded to the United States in 1836,
1837, 1842, and 1854; and
Whereas, The Mission Statement of the Commission includes a duty to provide
assistance to member tribes in the conservation and management of natural
resources throughout the Great Lakes region thereby ensuring access to the
traditional pursuits of the Chippewa people; and
Whereas, The Chippewa lifeway, as recognized and protected in by federal
courts, depends upon clean and healthy natural resources for religious,
medicinal, cultural, subsistence and economic purposes; and
Whereas, the Voigt Intertribal Task Force, a constituent committee of
GLIFWC, develops natural resource management plans, assists its member
tribes in developing suitable conservation regulations, and directs GLIFWC's
programs with respect to territories ceded tot the United States in the 1837
and 1842 Treaties with the Chippewa; and
Whereas, a 345,000 volt transmission line is being proposed to bring power
from hydroelectric dams in the Province of Manitoba through portions of the
1837 and 1842 ceded territories in Wisconsin; and
Whereas, the construction, operation and maintenance of the proposed
transmission line poses threats to a variety of natural resources that
tribes rely upon to sustain their lifeway; and
Whereas, a number of First Nations in the Province of Manitoba have been,
and continue to be negatively impacted by the flooding of their lands for
hydroelectric generation; and
Whereas, GLIFWC is a signatory to the Anishinaabe Akii Protocol, which
recognizes the bonds of blood, clan, history, tradition, language and custom
among the Anishinaabe Nation, and pledges that the signatories will work
together to conserve all resources, including land, water and air; and
Whereas, the Lac Courte Oreilles Tribe of Lake Superior Chippewa, a GLIFWC
member tribe, has passed a resolution opposing the transmission line, a
portion of which may cross its reservation, and has raised a number of
significant concerns associated with the project.
Be It Therefore Resolved, that the Voigt Intertribal Task Force of the Great
Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission does hereby go on record in
support of the Lac Courte Oreilles Tribe's resolution opposing the
transmission line and the reasons that underlie it.
Be It Further Resolved, that consistent with the spirit of the Anishinaabe
Akii Protocol, the Voigt Intertribal Task Force of the Great Lakes Indian
Fish and Wildlife Commission wishes to express its solidarity with the
tribes of Manitoba that have been impacted by the flooding of their lands.
For more information:
LCO: Michael Isham, Vice-Chairman, 715-634-8934
GLIFWC office, 715-682-6619
PCN: Ann Stewart, US Information Officer, 612-871-8404
This material is produced and distributed by Ann Stewart (USDOJ FARA #5313)
on behalf of Pimicikamak Cree Nation.