Bad River Train Blockade

The Bad River train blockade was a 1996 action on the Bad River Ojibwe Reservation in Ashland County, Wisconsin USA. Ojibwe activists blocked the railroad tracks that would have brought sulfuric acid to a mine in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan bringing national scrutiny on the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and demonstrating the power of Indigenous rights in environmentalism.

Background

The copper mine in White Pine, Michigan had been an employer of thousands in the Upper Peninsula until the massive layoffs of the early 1990s that put the region into economic despair.[1] In Wisconsin, several Ojibwe bands were battling to stop sulfide mining at the proposed Crandon mine with newfound political power stemming from the Walleye War. Two Bad River tribal members, Lawrence “Butch” Stone and Alan “Buster” Couture, began having dreams that an environmental disaster was coming to the Bad River Reservation. While taking part in traditional sweats, Stone and Couture, among other Anishinabe Ogichidaa, began receiving messages through dreams and visions from Native American spirits and ancestors. The messages began a year before the Environmental Protection Agency published an announcement that the sulfide would be moved by rail over the reservation on Wisconsin Central Railroad tracks. In their dreams, Stone and Couture saw a train derail while crossing the Bad River Reservation, spilling a white powder into the river. The white powder caused disease and death of animals, plants and people, including the destruction of the sacred wild rice sloughs on the reservation at the delta where the Bad River meets Lake Superior. The sloughs were the reason the Ojibway settled in northern Wisconsin during the Ojibway migration from the east coast four hundred years earlier. In that migration, the Ojiway followed a megis shell to a place where “food grows on water.” Neither Stone nor Courture knew what the white powder was what they had seen in their dreams until the EPA announcement of the trainload of sulfide crossing the Reservation. The Anishinabe Ogichidaa made a point of carrying out the blockade in a way that was consistent with their beliefs. They had prepared during the prior year with sweats and prayer. Before blockading the tracks, they and other Ogichidaa, consulted with spiritual leaders and tribal elders. On arriving at the tracks to begin the blockade, they prayed, and then laid out sacred ground in a way specified by spiritual leaders, to add strength to their actions, including a sacred fire near the tracks, singing and drum sessions on the tracks, tobacco placed in the four directions and eagle feather lances in the four directions on and near the tracks. Stone and Couture had vowed to Gichi Manitou, or Great Spirit, before the blockade, that they would be willing to sacrifice their lives if need be to stop the sulfide train from going through. (Interview with Lawrence “Butch” Stone and Alan “Buster” Couture, leaders of the Anishinabe Ogichidaa, June, 2003. Excerpts available on You Tube by searching: Butch and Buster excerpts and Butch and Buster2.)

History

On July 22, 1996, a train bound for the White Pine copper mine in Upper Michigan was stopped as it crossed the Bad River Ojibwe reservation in Ashland County. The train was carrying tankers of sulfuric acid for use in pilot solution mining ("Chippewa" 3D; 1996). The mine had drastically scaled back operations and laid-off thousands the previous year due to its diminishing profits. Now, Inmet, a Toronto-based corporation, hoped to inject 550 million US gallons (2,100,000 m3) of acid into the mine to bring out any remaining ore. This raised concerns among environmentalists that the acid would contaminate groundwater and nearby Lake Superior. The EPA granted permission for the experiment without requiring a hearing or an environmental impact statement (Midwest Treaty Network; 1996). Among those astounded by this decision was Walter Bresette, a Red Cliff Ojibwe activist and Indigenous chair of the EPA’S National Environmental Justice Advisory Council. Bresette resigned his position and joined with the Native rights group Anishinabe Ogitchida, Ojibwe for “Protectors of the People,” on a new course of action (Grossman 396; 2002).

For weeks, the Ogitchida and white allies camped on the railroad tracks conducting ceremonies and protests. Initially, the focus was put on the condition of the Wisconsin Central Ltd. tracks themselves. The activists insisted they were unsafe, though the state had authorized their use provided the speed of the trains did not exceed ten miles per hour. Wisconsin Central insisted that the Ashland County sheriff arrest the protestors, but with the events taking place on the reservation and involving Native religious practices, the sheriff's office declared it a treaty issue and federal matter and therefore, took no action. (Meersman 3B; 1996).

There were two instances when the blockade nearly turned violent. The first was promulgated by a representative of the Wisconsin Central Railroad, a “troubleshooter” who was experienced in dealing with aboriginal conflicts throughout the world using strong-arm tactics. He approached the Ashland County Sheriff’s Department and offered to make their problem go away if the Department would look the other way. Sheriff’s Department representatives made it clear to the troubleshooter that such tactics would not be used in Ashland County. The second crisis point occurred when the Ashland County Sheriff’s Department went to the blockade site in force, ostensibly to review the situation and determine what, if anything needed to be done, including the option of removing the protestors from the tracks. Approximately one dozen armed Sheriffs Department members went to the site. The sheriff spoke with protest leaders. While this went on, Stone pulled the undersheriff aside and advised him that there were armed men in the woods protecting the site, including tribal members with military training, and if the sheriff’s department tried to forcibly remove the protestors from the site, Stone said he might not able to prevent gunfire. The Sheriff’s Department representatives left without taking action. (Interview with Robert Menard, former Ashland County Undersheriff during the blockade, February, 2003. Excerpts available on You Tube by searching: Menard Bad River. Also, from the book, Equilibrium, by Evan Sasman, published October 2013, by Honest Contempt for Authority Press. ISBN 978-1492300090).

After federal involvement, it came out that the Ojibwe had interests in the mining project beyond the safety of the tracks. On August 2, 1996, Justice Department mediator John Teronnez arrived on the scene and began negotiations with parties involved in the dispute (Meersman 3B; 1996). During these talks, Bresette and the Ogitchida revealed their deep concerns over the solution-mining and its potential effect on Lake Superior. Furthermore, they insisted the project was illegal because the EPA had given it approval without consulting affected Indian tribes who as sovereign entities were entitled to be involved in the process. An agreement was reached with the protestors agreeing giving up the blockade in exchange for an EPA inquiry into the project. The trains hauled the acid through the reservation and the protestors switched their focus to the mine itself (Maller 5; 1996). However, once the EPA looked closer, it raised enough questions that Inmet suspended its operations. In the face of legal battles over treaty rights, the company withdrew its mining-permit application the next spring.

See also

References

  1. ↑ White Pine - Michigan's Upper Peninsula

Sasman, Evan, interview with Lawrence “Butch” Stone and Alan “Buster” Couture, leaders of the Anishinabe Ogichidaa, June, 2003. Excerpts available on You Tube by searching: Butch and Buster excerpts and Butch and Buster2. Sasman, Evan, interview with Robert Menard, former Ashland County Undersheriff during the blockade, February, 2003. Excerpts available on You Tube by searching: Menard Bad River. Sasman, Evan from the book, Equilibrium, by Evan Sasman, published October 2013, by Honest Contempt for Authority Press. ISBN 978-1492300090.

External links