UNLIKELY ALLIANCES : Treaty conflicts and environmental cooperation between Native American and rura

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UNLIKELY ALLIANCES Treaty conflicts and
environmental cooperation betweenNative American
and rural white communities
Dr. Zoltan Grossman, Member of the Faculty in
Geography and Native American Studies, The
Evergeen State College, Olympia,
Wash. http//academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz
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Stages of Evolution

• Tribes asserted cultural/economic/political
  autonomy.
• Backlash from some rural whites on use of land,
  resources
• ( Geographies of Exclusion)
• The conflict declined as common outside threats
  emerged.
• Cooperation develops common livelihood
  environment.
• (Geographies of Inclusion)

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Particularism vs. Universalism

• Particularism
• asserts intergroup differences
• (racial/ethnic/national identity).
• Universalism
• asserts intergroup similarities
• (environmental common ground).
• Not necessarily in contradiction.

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Ojibwe (Chippewa) lands ceded in treaties Six
Wisconsin reservations
Treaties guarantee tribal access to natural
resources (not mineral rights)
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Treaty rights conflicts

• 1988 Large mobs confront spearfishing,
• although Ojibwe harvest 3 of walleye.
• 1989 Witnesses monitor racial violence
• and harassment. Ojibwe reject treaty lease.
• 1992 Federal injunction against racial
• harassment anti-treaty groups
• environmental claims discredited.
• Chants of White Mans Land,
• Indians Go Home
• Geographies of Exclusion

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We have more in common with the anti-Indian
people than we do with the State of Wisconsin.
Spearfisher Walt Bresette, 1990
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Mining in WisconsinLac Courte
Oreilles(Ladysmith)Lac du Flambeau(Lynne)M
ole Lake(Crandon)
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Metallic mining concerns

• Environmental
• Sulfides (sulfuric acid) contaminate for 200,000
  years
• Heavy metals, cyanide, arsenic, etc.
• 10,000 miles of U.S. rivers poisoned
• Economic
• Boom-and-bust effect
• Impact on existing industries (tourism)
• Influx of outsiders

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Cultural concerns

• Wild rice beds
• Future of hunting/ fishing/gathering
• Burials and sacred sites
• Rural social fabric

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Lac Courte Oreilles Avoided spearing
conflict, but alliance failed to stop Ladysmith
mine Lac du Flambeau Intense spearing conflict,
yet alliance stopped Lynne mine Mole Lake Strong
spearing conflict, yet powerful alliance
stopped Crandon mine plans
Fishing Mining in Northern WisconsinThree
Ojibwe reservations
Red crosses mark spearing clashes
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The Crandon zinc-copper shaft mine Proposed
in 1976 upstream of the Mole Lake Ojibwe
Res.and Wolf River--by Exxon Corp.,later Rio
Algom,and BHP Billiton(among largestmining
companies)
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Niiwin (Four) Tribes

• Mole Lake Chippewa (1 mi.)
• wild rice beds, water quality
• Forest Co. Potawatomi
• (5 mi. downwind)
• air quality, toxic dust
• Menominee (30 mi. downstream)
• Wolf River water
• Mohican (Stockbridge-Munsee)
• Also aid from Oneida

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Menominee Sustainable Forestry
Chief Oshkosh of Menominee Nation secured
reservation in 1854
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Speaking tours build alliance, 1996-97

• Native American nations
• cultural concerns
• wild rice
• sacred sites

• Sportfishing clubs
• fish, surface water, toxics
• Environmental groups
• wetlands, groundwater
• wildlife/species
• Also students, unions, etc.

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Role ofTribal Governments

• Mole Lake Treatment As State (Clean Water Act)
• Potawatomi Treatment As State (Clean Air Act)
• Menominee, Potawatomi, and Mole Lake
• technical research (Gaming-funded, EPA-backed)
• Tribes protecting environment/economy better than
  State?

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Other Governments Roles

• Federal (trust reponsibility?)
• Army Corps of
• Engineers wetlands permit
• Possible role of EPA
• Local
• Nashville 1997 town election
• local agreement lawsuit
• Downstream govt resolutions
• State
• DNR permit process
• Proof of nonpolluting mines
• Cyanide ban bill

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Typical environmental movements

• Stereotype of environmentalists
• Urban-based
• White
• Upper middle class
• Not In My Back Yard
• Portrayal by companies
• Hippies
• Yuppie elitists
• Outsiders who dont care
• about rural jobs

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Northern Wisconsin movement

• Unlikely Alliance
• Rural-based
• Multiracial
• Middle/ working class
• Multigenerational
• Not In Anyones
• Back Yard
• Dilemma for companies
• Grassroots, common folk
• Insiders difficult to defeat

State Capitol rally, 1994
Honor Song for the Wolf River, 2002
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Drawing from strands ofWisconsin history

• Progressive populism
• LaFollettes legacy
• Regional pride
• Northern Wisconsin
• vs. Madison

• Environmental ethics
• Muir, Leopold
• Native American rights
• Opposed removal,
• treaty violations, termination

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CRANDON PROTESTS AUSTRALIA (BHP
shareholders meeting, 2001) SOUTH AFRICA (at
Sustainability Summit, 2002)
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Mining industry reactionto Wisconsin opposition

• The increasingly sophisticated political
  maneuvering by
• environmental special interest groups has made
  permitting a mine in
• Wisconsin an impossibility.
• North American Mining (Toronto),
  1998
• The Wolf Watershed Educational Project (WWEP), a
  U.S.-based
• alliance of environmental groups, Native
  American nations, local
• residents, unions and students ...is just one
  example of what is
• becoming a very real threat to the global mining
  industry
• global environmental activism...
• --Mining Environmental Management (London),
  2000

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More miningindustry reaction
Wisconsin anti-mine websites are operated by
barbarians at the gates of cyberspace. Mining
Voice (Washington), 1998 Wisconsins low
investment attractiveness score suggests
the impact of that states moratorium on mining,
and a well-publicized aversion to mining. One
vice president of exploration complains that in
Wisconsin, you cant get anything done that is
meaningful. Fraser Institute Survey of
Mining CEOs (Canada), 2000
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Mining industry reaction to alliance
Fraser Institute (Vancouver) issues an annual
Investment Attractiveness Index ranking the
reception that all countries, states and
provinces give the mining industry.
Wisconsin ranked at the global bottom in 2003,
with a score of 13 out of 100.
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BHP BillitonWorlds largest mining company
Australian/South African conglomerate has
poor track record toward indigenous peoples.
Takes control of Crandon project in 2000, but
sees as risky investment
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The End Oct. 28, 2003
Forest County Potawatomi and Mole Lake
announce purchase of mine site from BHP Billiton
for 16.5 million.
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The End Oct. 28, 2003
Mole Lake takes ownership of Nicolet Minerals
Company
We rocked the boat Now we own the boat.
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The End Oct. 28, 2003
5,900-acre mine site will be managed to protect
natural and cultural resources for future
generations.
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The End Oct. 28, 2003
Native/non-Native grassroots alliance lowered
sale price, wins a victory of national and global
relevance.
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The EndMay 31, 2006
Mole Lake pays BHP Billiton its 8 million debt
for purchase of the mine site.
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The End May 31, 2006
BHP Billiton donates 8 million to fund for Mole
Lake development, to help repair its poor P.R.
image (from its harmful track record toward
indigenous peoples).
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The End May 31, 2006
Fund can be used to pay for Mole Lake cultural
and environmental protection and economic
development, freeing up tribal money to pay off
bank loan.
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The End May 31, 2006
After 30 years, the Native/non-Native grassroots
alliance has chased out the worlds largest
mining companies.
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Websites on Crandon mine


Barbarians at the gates of cyberspace. Mining
Voice (Washington), 1998
Midwest Treaty Network www.treatyland.com No
Crandon Mine www.nocrandonmine.com Wolf River
Protection www.WolfRiverProtectionFund.org
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Similar alliances spreadingWisconsin farmers
fighting transmission line plan to bring power
from hydroelectric dams flooding ManitobaCree
lands. www.wakeupwisconsin.com
Wisconsin Michigan farmers and tribes
defeating Perrier plans to bottle
springwater www.saveamericaswater.com
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Assertion of Native Identity

• Conflict overcame tribal invisibility.
• Rural whites acknowledged continuity of tribal
• legal powers cultures (Learned about burial
  sites, plants, etc.)
• No unity without political /economic
  equalization.

Spearfishing conflict, 1989
Crandon mine victory, 2003
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Differences aided similarities?
Particularism (treaty rights conflict) opened
path to universalism (environmental cooperation)
This is my home when its your home you try to
take good care of it, including all the people in
it. -- Frances Van Zile (Mole Lake)
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Insiders to outsidersTribes were outsiders
in treaty-ceded territorylater replaced by
mining companies, state agencies(both northern
communities mistrustful of authority
independent-minded)
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Geographies of Inclusion

• Transgressing outsiders
• can become insiders
• within new mental boundaries.
• Mutual conflicts over place
• can ironically strengthen a
• common place identity.
• (both communities cared about resources)
• Local-scale place membership
• serves as an alternate strategy
• to state citizenship.

Huge celebration powwow, Green Bay
Honoring supporters at the powwow
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Place membership

• Based on multiethnic place
• watershed, mountain range, etc.
• Defines place territorially
• Uses local/subregional scale
• Goal of mutual inclusion in place

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New York Times
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New York Times
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Washington
Fishing rights struggle in 1960-70s (Boldt
I) Common ground of tribes, fishing groups began
in 1980s vs. logging, sprawl, dams Treaties
legal tool for resource co-management
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Washington Co-Management
State-tribal co-management of off-reservation
natural resources, 1989 (Boldt II) Tribes used
threat of lawsuits over habitat to bring State
timber companies to table Relationships among
local communities develop slower (habitat
projects, riparian repair, local govt)
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Columbia Basin

• Tribal alliances with
• fishing groups for
• dam breachings
• Umatilla Basin Project
• to restore water,
• protect fish habitat
• Contrast to Klamath
• Basin conflict today

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Columbia River Tribal Fishing
Celilo Falls destroyed by Dalles dam, 1957
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Hydroelectric Dams
Dams on Columbia and Snake Rivers block salmon
migration, affect fish habitat (2/4
Hs) Regional cooperation of tribes, enviros,
commercial fishers, sportfishers, to breach
dams
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Umatilla Basin Project Intense water rights
conflict between tribes Oregon farmers,
1970s Federally funded local project brought
together Umatilla tribes farmers, 1980s
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Government-to-Government relationship

• Focus on political leadership negotiations at top
• Focus on large geographic scale
• Emphasis on common national/state citizenship
• May or may not trickle down to local scale

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People-to-People relationship

• Focus on grassroots
• (often oppositional)
• Focus on local or
• subregional level
• Emphasis on
• territorial identity,
• May or may not affect
• government leaders

Wisconsin
Nevada
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Models of Ethnic Conflict Resolution

• Top-down (government-to-government)
• Risk Understanding at top undermined by
  alienated base
• Bottom-up (people-to-people)
• Risk Understanding at bottom undermined by
  intransigent leaders
• Parallel tracks most effective
• Bottom-up approach can break social
  barriers, create community ties

Palestinian-Israeli peace talks fail to
trickle down to mass base
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Montana
Alliance against coal mining around Northern
Cheyenne
Alliance against gold mining (cyanide) in Sweet
Grass Hills
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SE Montana ranchers farmers
Ranchers/farmers backed Northern Cheyenne Class
I air status (TAS/Clean Air Act), 1970s.
Limited coal development around Tongue River,
and defeated coal railroad,1990s
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Sweet Grass Hills Protective Association
Alliance of tribes farmers pressured Interior
Dept. to stop gold exploration in hills sacred
to four tribes, 1990s
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South Dakota

• Confrontations 1970s
• Alliances 1980s?
• Black Hills Alliance
• stopped uranium
• and coal mining
• Cowboy and Indian
• Alliance against
• bombing range
• Other oppositional
• alliances to present

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Bombing range proposal, 1987 Honeywell plan
near Hot Springs, in southern Hills Hell
Canyon site of petroglyphs Many local
ranchers opposed noise, radiation
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Cowboy and Indian Alliance (CIA)
White ranchers helped Lakotas
set up protest camp, defeat proposal.
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D.M.E. Railroad Early 2000s proposal from
Wyoming coal fields to Mississippi River (Winona,
Minn.) White ranchers, Pine Ridge
Lakota, environmentalists join as CIA II
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Defenders of the Black Hills Opposition
stopped shooting range near sacred Bear Butte
in 2002 Each successive S.D. alliance easier
to form yet racial tensions fester
Until the Treaties are upheld, the actions of
the Defenders are to restore and protect the
environment of the Black Hills and the
surrounding Treaty Area to the best of their
ability. www.defendblackhills.org
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Nevada

• Ranchers, Indians,
• Mormons defeat
• Carters M-X
• missile system, 1981
• Join to oppose bombing
• ranges, low-level flights
• Western Shoshone
• treaty rights lost in court

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Nevada Flight Bombing Ranges
Common cause of Shoshone, Paiute, white
ranchers, 1980s-90s. (Cooperation
rarely extended beyond ranges)
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Southern Wisconsin(Ho-Chunk Nation)
Military low-level flights Hardwood
Bombing Range expansion Land return negotiations
Ho-Chunk farmers had both been removed from
Kickapoo Valley (ex-dam site) Badger Ammo
(ex-munitions site)
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SW Wisconsin low-level flight plan
Air National Guard proposed flight range
expansion, 1995 Noise effects on kids, animals
fear of crashes
Alliance of dairy farmers, Ho-Chunk,
environmentalists, peace groups, Amish farmers
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Hardwood Bombing Range expansion
In central Wisconsin, mainly around Ho-Chunk
lands.
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Guard drops flight expansion, but keeps bombing
range expansion. Some SW Wisconsin activists
declare victory, fail to back Ho-Chunk.
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Common Sense of Place

• Reacting to an environmental threat depends on
  how much a group is affected by it.
• Defending a sacred place can build bonds around
  (different) values attached to land.
• Mutual cultural education based on respect for
  the land can be a result of these alliances.

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Common Sense of Purpose

Tribal legal and political powers establish clout
in non-Indian communities. Corporations or
governments can serve as the outside common
enemy. Economic equalization helps even the
playing field between the two communities. Reserv
ations can serve as greenhouses for
sustainable economies model to neighbors
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Common Sense of Understanding

• Conflict resolution motivates the building of an
  alliance to overcome strife.
• Bridge-building is initiated by individuals with
  previous link to the other community.
• Conflict can engender cooperation if the players
  consciously seek common goals.

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Miners Canary analogy
By Felix Cohen, 1953 (Modern founder of federal
Indian law)

• The Indian plays much the same role in our
  American
• society that the Jews played in Germany. Like
  the
• miner's canary, the Indian marks the shift from
  fresh air
• to poison gas in our political atmosphere and
  our treatment
• of Indians, even more than our treatment of other
  minorities,
• marks the rise and fall of our democratic faith.

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Greenhouse analogy

Tribes are in a position to apply their
traditional values to solve 21st-century problems

• Reservations at least partly shielded by
• tribal sovereignty, federal trust
  relationship
• Can grow their own forms of social organization
  
• and environmental sustainability
• Can develop solutions that benefit Native and
• non-Native communities alike.

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Greenhouse analogy
Reservations as testing grounds for new ways
of relating to the land

• Sustainable Development
• Land purchases put into trust for projects
• Stables, Deer farms, Organic farms, etc.
• Tribal policies
• EPA Treatment-As-State status
• Gaming enables technical/legal environmental work

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Greenhouse analogy

Reservations as testing grounds for new ways
of relating to people

• Development from gaming on some rezes
• Reverse migration from cities for new jobs
• Slow reversal of festering poverty inequality
• Tribal employment for non-Indians

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Greenhouse analogy

Not just casino money, but also cultural
resurgence

• Local cooperation
• Tribal investments in local festivals, tourism
  zones
• Tribal radio stations provide alternative
• Tribal models
• Tribal laws precedents for new local, state laws
• Potential reas of healing for the entire society
• (marking a shift from poison gas to fresh air?)