Mohawk Iron Workers Mourned 99 Years Later

Submitted by Ann VanWert
by Cheryl Cornacchia CanWest News Service; Montreal Gazette
Wednesday, August 30, 2006

LEVIS, Que. - It was supposed to be one of the world's great engineering marvels but instead the Bridge of Quebec became a graveyard for 76 men.

The first riveted steel bridge spanning the St. Lawrence River, from Quebec City to south-shore Levis, collapsed 99 years ago Tuesday, exacting a heavy price in human life.

But none was higher than the price paid by Kahnawake, the Mohawk community across the river from Montreal.

A total of 33 of the 76 men who died August 29, 1907 in what became enshrined in history books as the ''Quebec bridge disaster'' were from Kahnawake.

The Mohawk men who lost their lives were pioneers in a trade that has made Quebec Mohawks world-renowned as skywalkers and put their skills in demand throughout the 20th century on bridges and skyscrappers across North America.

Tuesday, a group of 60 Kahnawake Mohawks travelled to this town to honour those men and to set in motion a year devoted to commemorating them and the disaster.'

'This is like a pilgrimage to Mecca,'' said 60-year-old Glenn French, a descendent of two men who died. ''You have to come here at least once in your life if you are from Kahnawake.''

Dozens of French-Canadian and Irish men from surrounding villages, and American ironworkers, also perished when the original bridge collapsed just minutes after a foremen's whistle announcing quitting time.

Many of them are buried in a mass grave in a Catholic cemetery in St. Romuald, which is today part of Levis.

But the bridge tragedy left a mark on Kahnawake like no other.

Four family names were totally wiped out. Of the 33 men who died, 24 were married and left families behind. The youngest victim was 18; the eldest 44.

So Se O Ri, the 44-year-old victim, left 11 children and a pregnant wife.

''After the disaster, the woman gathered,'' said Kahnawake grand chief Michael Delisle, who attended Tuesday's ceremony.

''We are a matriarchal society. They decided that never again would all our men work on the same job.''

''Just about every Kahnawake family lost someone here.''

Helen Morris-Montaur, a 74-year-old who travelled here with her sister, said she lost her great-grandfather, John Morris. Putting her hands to her ears, she said, ''You know the noise of a car crash. Imagine. This would have been about 1,000 times worse.''

That image of twisted metal was the one that Billy Two Rivers evoked during a traditional tobacco-burning ceremony to honour the victims. Descendants of the men placed tobacco in a fire to lay to rest their spirits.

Remi Giasson, an 88-year-old Kahnawake man who made the trip, said it was a sad day. At the time, Kahnawake had a population of only 1,500. His grandfather, Napolean Antoine, was the Kahnawake postmaster at the time of the disaster and, as such, owned the only telephone. He took the call.

''People were outside the house (i.e., Antoine's) for days waiting for news,'' said Giasson, who now lives in his grandfather's house.

Despite the disaster, Mohawks continued to work in high steel, and went on to become renowned in 20th-century North American construction history, for their role in building some of this continent's most prominent skyscrappers and bridges.

The U.S. Smithsonian Institute has put together a travelling exhibit to mark their contribution. It shows Mohawks high up on the Empire State Building and other major northeastern U.S. landmarks.

A decade ago, one in every four Kahnawake men was employed as an ironworker. Despite a slowdown since then in commercial construction, employment is expected to rise again as New York City sets out to rebuild the World Trade Center site, and construct new stadiums for the Yankees and Giants.

Hundreds of Kahnawake men are currently members of ironworkers unions in New York, New Jersey, Boston, Detroit, Kentucky and Montreal.

Floyd Bright Sky Brooks, 71, remembered how his mother Ida Lahache lost her father, uncles and brothers, 13 men in all, in the Quebec Bridge Disaster. But despite those losses, he said he couldn't help but become an ironworker himself.

''l loved it,'' said Brooks, who is retired.

ccornacchia@thegazette.canwest.com
Montreal Gazette
© CanWest News Service 2006

INDNs List Candidate, John Sparks, Wins Runoff - Completing OK Sweep

John Sparks, a member of the Cherokee Nation, won his bid for the Democratic nomination in the state’s 16th Senate District, moving all four INDN candidates of Oklahoma into the victory column. Scott BigHorse and Chuck Hoskin will join John Sparks in vying for seats in the Oklahoma House and Senate. Al McAffrey, a member of the Choctaw Nation, is uncontested in the general election and will be seated as District 88’s representative.

“This is yet another big day in a huge year for INDN’s List,” remarked President Kalyn Free. “Our success is in our candidates and their vision. They are proving that voters recognize and affirm the bold, positive vision that Indian candidates and the Democratic Party have put forward in states across the nation.”

Sparks, a married father of two, is the founder of a small business that widens healthcare access to children, the elderly, and those living with mental illness. He works tirelessly to serve the residents of Cleveland County, and his victory Tuesday moves Sparks a step closer to gaining a voice for Oklahomans across the state, from the panhandle to Green Country.

The voters of his district have spoken, but Sparks’ vision and campaign must continue to be heard as he works his way to the general election. To learn more about the forward vision of each of our candidates, read their profiles by clicking here.

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

Unicorn Subcritical Experiment Scheduled

"The Unicorn subcritical experiment will be conducted on August 30, 2006, at the Nevada Test Site.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is conducting the experiment to gather scientific data that provides critical information to maintain the safety and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons without having to conduct underground nuclear tests.

The last subcritical experiment, Krakatau, was conducted on February 23, 2006. Unicorn will be the 23rd subcritical experiment conducted since they began in July 1997.

Subcritical experiments examine the behavior of plutonium as it is strongly shocked by forces produced by chemical high explosives.

Subcritical experiments produce essential scientific data and technical information used to help maintain the safety and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile. The experiments are subcritical; that is, no critical mass is formed and no self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction can occur; thus, there is no nuclear explosion."

Please call your local congressional office and tell your Senators and Representatives:

--Continued testing at the Nevada Test Site violates the spirit, if not the letter of test ban treaties. We should be setting the example, not pushing limits.
--Asserting that these tests are necessary to the reliability of the stockpile, implies the continued willingness to use nuclear weapons, and such use is unacceptable.
--Testing of any kind at the Nevada Test Site is a violation of Western Shoshone sovereignty and must cease.

Thanks you for your continued support.
Shundahai Network
www.shundahai.org
P.O. Box 1115
Salt Lake City, UT 84110
Phone- 801.533.0128
Fax- 801.533.0129


U.S. To Conduct Non-Nuclear Experiment At Nevada Test Site
Las Vegas SUN
August 28, 2006

ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Government scientists were preparing Monday to conduct another in a series of underground non-nuclear experiments at the Nevada desert proving ground, the National Nuclear Security Administration said.

The so-called subcritical test, dubbed Unicorn, was being conducted at the Nevada Test Site by scientists from the government's Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, said Kevin Rohrer, a spokesman for the NNSA in North Las Vegas.

The planned test, scheduled Wednesday, would be the 23rd subcritical experiment since 1997 at the 1,375-square-mile federal reservation 85 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Subcritical tests involve the detonation of explosives around radioactive material in a vault deep underground at the Nevada Test Site. The explosions are designed not to reach critical mass necessary for a self-sustaining nuclear reaction.

Federal officials call subcritical experiments essential to maintaining the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Anti-nuclear groups criticize the experiments as contrary to the spirit of the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty on nuclear arms. The U.S. has observed a moratorium on full-scale nuclear testing since 1992, but has not ratified the treaty.

The test site hosted 928 full-scale nuclear tests involving 1,021 nuclear detonations from 1951 to 1992.
---
On the Net:
National Nuclear Security Administration: http://www.nv.doe.gov

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

In The Moon Of Black Cherries

Indigenous Nations Gather To Defend Bear Butte
by Debra White Plume, writing from the banks of Wounded Knee Creek

Many Nations of Indigenous Peoples, ngo’s (nongovernmental organizations), and government representatives gathered at the sacred mountain Bear Butte. Traditional Healers, Tiospaye Headsmen, Matriarchs, Traditional Societies, and community leaders camped together to have good talks, debates, and form agreements on how indigenous peoples can work together to strengthen the pockets of resistance across Turtle Island. All are working to stop the desecration of sacred lands and sacred places. While we camped at Bear Butte for those 42 days, we saw a rainbow surround the Sacred Mountain.

At the Summit of Indigenous Nations August 1-4, respected elder and leader Carrie Dan of the Western Shoshone Defense Project encouraged everyone to take a strong heart and keep working to protect sacred land, “We have to learn to use new words to educate the world about how indigenous peoples view our land-all land is sacred, but we have these special places that are tied to our identity”.

She spoke of how the Western world has a difficult time comprehending how native peoples have a relationship with sacred places, such as Bear Butte. An elder from Canada, Wolverine, addressed the people to remember that the fight is not over, as long as there is one sacred place still threatened, we must all come to the aid of our allies to protect these places and the ceremonies conducted there. Wolverine’s history of struggle includes an attack on his Sun Dance ceremony by the civil authorities in British Columbia in the mid-1990’s, who laid land mines on the road to his Sun Dance, exploding the vehicles driven by people traveling to the ceremony.

An action item for consideration by the full Summit was the Papal Bull of May 3, 4, 1493 Inter Cetera. The papal bull has been the basis for the extinguishment of aboriginal land title and the subjugation of indigenous peoples of North and South America. The implementation of the papal bull evolved in the United States through the Supreme Court decision of Johnson v. M'Intosh [1823] which established the precedent for the denial of aboriginal title to American Indian lands in the United States.

Delegations of indigenous nations and ngo’s, by consensus, adopted a resolution condemning the historical use of the doctrine of discovery as an instrument of genocide. Tupac Enrique Acosta, coordinator of the Tonatierra ngo based in Phoenix, AZ stated that this effort at Bear Butte continues the indigenous battle to halt genocide of indigenous peoples and seizures of their homelands in the Americas. ''It has been resolved by 23 Nations and NGO's and 100 individual signatories that the 'Doctrine of Discovery' is a legal and political fiction in violation of the rights of indigenous peoples and intellectual act of oppression which continues to serve to suppress and repress the indigenous peoples in the Western Hemisphere,'' said Tupac Enrigue.

Santiago Delacruz, vice president of CONAIE (Confederacion de Nacionalidades Indigenas del Ecuador/Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador). CONAIE is a formation of 28 indigenous nationalities and Pueblos of Ecuador said ''We have come from the southern part of this continent Abya Yala which we share with you all as indigenous nations of this hemisphere on a mission to strengthen and re-establish our ancestral ties as a continental confederation of nations and pueblos”.

Delacruz offered support for rescinding the papal bulls and support from the south for the protection of Bear Butte. ''It is with great concern that we have come to be informed of the threatened desecration of the Sacred Mato Paha, also known as Bear Butte, where we now gathered in summit as indigenous nations. ''This sacred area must not be allowed to be destroyed or desecrated by the proposed construction projects of 'biker bars' and the like,'' Delacruz said.

Chief Oliver Red Cloud of the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council said the Catholic church has continuously made money for the Red Cloud Indian School at Pine Ridge and has not helped the communities that are most in need for daily survival, not to mention the long term reservation needs to help address the causes of poverty.

Nongovernmental organizations presented the work they are doing at the frontline on the grassroots level. Rosalie Little Thunder, President of the South Dakota Peace and Justice organization encouraged all the delegates to continue in their struggle, that ancient ways of life will continue as we protect our sacred places.

Kent Lebsock and Chris Soverow from the American Indian Law Alliance presented, with Debra White Plume from Bring Back the Way, research data on the Cameco, Inc. uranium mine operating an Insitu Leach Mine through the company Crow Butte Resources, located near Crawford, Nebraska. “This uranium mine has had a leak which lasted from several months to two years, leaking radioactive contamination into the air, water, and land” said Severow to the stunned audience. “This mine is located on 1868 and 1851 Ft. Laramie Treaty territory, this mine uses up to 5,000 gallons of water each minute,” said White Plume. “Our Oglala Sioux Tribe must take the lead in fighting this mine, and lead the “Great Sioux Nation” in this fight. This contaminated land is just a few miles from where Crazy Horse was killed. This has to be a national issue as well.”

Young adults all the way from Canada down to Arizona participated in the Summit of Nations, giving speeches about sacred site protection work they are involved in which includes fighting the Sun Peaks Ski Resort, to the Snow Bowl Resort, to the bars and concert amphitheaters near Bear Butte, and the “Divine Strike” proposed 700-tom bomb the US plans to detonate on Shoshone Nation’s Ruby Valley Treaty land. The common linkage to these developments all revolve around business owners not only making money, but increasing profits that are already in the millions per annum range.

The final day of the Summit the delegations marched on Sturgis and had a rally downtown in order to educate the bikers about the Bear Butte desecration issue. “Don’t Ride Highway 79” and “Bear Butte is Sacred Land” were the major messages of the protest.

The Summit of Indigenous Nations delegations will take home to their communities the collective action taken at the Summit for increased public awareness, and more discussion at the grassroots level. The Summit will reconvene in the summer of 2007 for the delegations to gather again, the 2006 Summit served as a starting point for collective action and the making of allies.

We honored Carrie Dan and Wolverine as elders who have committed their entire lives and who also have risked their freedom and lives to protect their ancestral land and ways of life. Both are tireless in their commitment and are a great encouragement to everyone who is in this for the long haul. We say wopila to them. (Part II next week).

FOR MORE INFO ON BEAR BUTTE GO TO www.bringbacktheway.com

ATT: Bint Alshama - I can't get in touch with you, Please reply - bobbieo

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

Nome Residents Fight Gold Mining Company

Submitted by Concerned Citizen
Please note - The 2005 Nome census lists 3,590 residents, 58.7% are Inupiat Natives.

No Cyanide, Protestors Tell Council
by Sandra L. Medearis
Nome Nugget - August 17th, 2006

More often than not empty of involved citizens, Nome Common Council chambers held a full house Monday as people opposed to the use of sodium cyanide over the next five to eight years at Rock Creek Mine got up one by one to speak their pieces. As a result, before the end of Monday evening's meeting, the Council took action to get more information on behalf of the City and community.

No formal state or federal environmental impact studies or environmental impact statements have been done, and the City of Nome has not requested any, City Manager Randy Romenesko said Monday evening. The mining company, Alaska Gold, a subsidiary of NovaGold, has submitted environmental studies to state Dept. of Environmental Conservation and the USCOE that the company contracted from Bristol Environmental and Engineering of Anchorage as foundation for permits.

No one got up to speak in favor of the current mining plan for cyanide leaching at the council meeting. Charlotte McKay of Bristol and reps from Alaska Gold were to be available at the Nome Chamber of Commerce at its Tuesday noon meeting to provide information and answer questions on the mining-cyanide setup at Rock Creek.

Some using the public comment session did not oppose mining, but said they wanted information and studies done to see what the damage would be from having the operation transport cyanide through the community and then use it for a cyanide leaching process currently planned for the site several miles northeast of Nome.

Jana Varrati said she was not opposed to mining, but concerning cyanide, "we have questions that have not been answered."

So far, she said, the response to concerns has been that the public has had an opportunity to be heard for two years.

Indeed, at the beginning of the meeting, Mayor Denise Michels greeted the public attending the meeting, saying that she hoped they would attend in such members regularly, but telling them the Council was not a permitting agency, there had been hearings, and they should address their concerns to the state and the U.S. Corps of Engineers.

"I know you're against mining. I know you want to vent," Michels said.

"There is a difference between open meetings, which are required by law, and hearings held to expose information and to inform," Varrati said when it was time for public comment. "Most didn't know the scope, danger or toxicity of the materials and methods," she said. She questioned whether notice of a hearing held by the COE had met legal requirements.

"I am dismayed and incredulous that our representatives took minimum steps to involve people they represent in state and federal permitting," she said.

"It irritates me and hurts me there hasn't been a very open public process," Sue Steinacher told the council.

Varrati and others voiced concerns on the transport of 500 tons of cyanide into the area by air or barge, and how the company proposed to safeguard about a million pounds of sodium cyanide at the Rock Creek site.

For Lisa Ellanna-Brandt, the issue was not getting more information through an environmental impact study, but eliminating the use of cyanide. She had heard horror stories about cyanide as a student at UAF. She said, "If it is placer mining, then I am all for it. If it is with cyanide, then, whew, that's scary."

Very little cyanide kills people fast, Dr. Karen O'Neill said. Or through chronic exposure, cyanide can kill over a period of time, affecting thyroid, heart, brain, nerve coverings and cause damaging diseases. "It is very important to ask how it will get to the mines and how it will be stored," O'Neill said.

Phil Pryzmont told the council they could cut the cyanide off at the pass. "People keep saying it is too late [in the permit process]. It has to get here somehow. You own the harbor, you own the port," Pryzmont said. "If you want to postpone it, the way would be not to allow it to come into port."

The major economic development fisheries group in the area, NSEDC, opposes the current cyanide leaching plan. A position paper notes that mining has been a major economic activity for more than 100 years, but it has comprised working placer deposits with gravity separation techniques. The resulting health risks from arsenic dust or tainted ground water have been addressed. On the other hand, NSEDC fish biologist Charlie Lean said, cyanide used in large scale, short term mining with toxic material generated in terms of 100 tons, is highly toxic to life on land and 1,000 times more lethal to fish.

NSEDC makes its living by harvesting renewable resources and does not oppose mining. Still, this proposed activity with cyanide provides short-term gain that has consequences for a long time into the future—250 to 2,500 years depending on the source you read, Lean said, and current monitoring plans are not sufficient in length or funding.

"Pumps are going to wear out, ditches are going to erode, the plastic liner over tailings will degrade. A 30-year budget for maintaining the tailing pile is unrealistic," he said.

Lean, the head of the City's volunteer ambulance department, said also that its emergency crews have not been trained at all to respond to the release of sodium cyanide.

Why is this? Councilman Stan Anderson, who spearheaded the Council's response to the public comment, asked. "We weren't aware of any problem [with cyanide] until this spring," he said.

"We've had no detailed discussion with Alaska Gold," Romenesko said. "The other issues we are going to grapple with are Coast Guard permits for loading it in Seattle, carrying it across United States waters and discharging it at Port of Nome."

At the end of the evening, the Council voted unanimously to direct Romenesko to get in touch with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to see about an Environmental Impact Study on behalf of the City of Nome before the end of the federal permitting procedure for the mining activity. The State of Alaska has already granted a permit for the mine.

Councilman Jon Larson asked that the city attorney be consulted on the issue of legal meeting notices.

If there was inadequacy of notice of the hearings, then permits granted based on inadequately noticed hearings were in question, he said.

Larson also pushed to examine the tariff for the Port of Nome to see, if through this and an ordinance action, the City could exert control over toxic materials coming across the docks and through the community. He also asked whether the City should look at annexing outlying areas to have more control over the surrounding environment.

Councilman Gerald Brown, who declared a conflict because of his employment with Bering Strait Development Corp., in business with Alaska Gold, said he believed that the cyanide extraction could be performed safely, but that he had questions that needed to be answered.

"I think getting correct information would alleviate a lot of concerns," he said.

The Corps of Engineers held a hearing at Old St. Joe's in June near the end of the public comment period on the federal permit. Many Nome residents attended and were almost 100 percent supportive, citing the need for jobs and economic development.

NOME NUGGET - Nome's Weekly Newspaper

Dear Editor,

I, like many other Nome residents, had no idea about Nova Gold's plans to use cyanide to extract gold at the proposed Rock Creek mine until a concerned Nome resident brought the issue to public attention at a June 26 public meeting in Nome.

I was particularly surprised by the sodium cyanide development because I am the Fish and Game Area Wildlife Biologist for Game Management Unit 22, and am responsible for maintaining healthy wildlife populations on much of the Seward Peninsula, including the areas where the Rock Creek and Big Hurrah sites are located. I would have thought the use of cyanide in a valley supporting important wildlife habitat and abundant wildlife might have warranted comments from the biologists responsible for maintaining those populations.

However, Fish and Game biologist are no longer part of the loop when it comes to reviewing development plans. After the meeting, when worried Nomeites called our office for assurance that no harm would come from this project, we were as uninformed as anyone.

The proposed Rock Creek mine site sits in the Snake River valley, which supports a uniquely rich wildlife habitat and an unusual abundance and diversity of species compared to the surrounding valleys. We are so fortunate to have this bountiful, unpolluted valley on our doorstep where many of us hunt, fish, trap, pick berries, camp and recreate so close to home.

Nome also has a rich and colorful mining history that should and will continue to unfold. However, it is important to understand that there is a world of difference between the placer mining that has fueled Nome's economy for the last 100 years and the hard rock mine proposed at Rock Creek, which will rely on large quantities of cyanide to extract gold from bedrock.

Acid mine drainage can be another serious concern during hard rock mining when bedrock is exposed to the atmosphere. Although geochemical tests indicate the bedrock at Rock Creek is not likely to generate acid, tests at Big Hurrah are less decisive. Acid mine drainage can cause leaching of heavy metals from rock into the water column, and both acid drainage and heavy metals are highly toxic.

While it seems NovaGold has done much to design a facility at Rock Creek to minimize potential environmental degradation, the use of a highly toxic chemical such as sodium cyanide is not without risk. Even if there are no mishaps during the life of the mine, a hazardous waste site will be left behind that will require vigilant monitoring for decades or longer and perhaps require cleanups of unknown effectiveness. The proposed operation sits in the midst of valuable wildlife habitat that supports diverse and healthy populations, and in an area close to town that is heavily utilized for subsistence and recreation.

There has not yet been adequate evaluation of the environmental impacts to the Snake River ecosystem or to our community below it, should the best case scenarios presented in the mine documents not go as planned. I believe the decision to proceed should only be made after careful evaluation of the possible impacts to existing uses, and after the public has had time to understand the situation, evaluate the risks and tradeoffs, and to comment in an informed and meaningful manner. This is an important decision that will affect the lives of people in our region for years, perhaps generations, to come.

An environmental impact statement is the appropriate mechanism to ensure that all conceivable impacts of a proposed development are considered. As I write this, the Army Corps of Engineers is still considering whether to require an environmental impact statement. Comments are still welcome and encouraged. You can send your comments to:

Department of the Army Section 404 Permit
Attn: Jim Wolfe, Project Manager
U.S. Corps of Engineers, Alaska District
Regulatory Branch, CEPOA-CO-R
Post Office Box 6898
Elmendorf AFB, AK 99506-0898
Telephone: 907-753-5532
Kate Persons
Nome, AK 99762

FACE-OFF
Iditarod musher, Joe Garnie squared off with governor Frank Murkowski during last Thursday's dedication of the new Glacier Creek road to access the proposed Rock Creek mine.

Garnie asked the governor for advice how to properly run city governments in bush Alaska and do away with nepotism and corruption. Garnie asked for the governor to send somebody out from his office to advise villagers.

Murkowski answered Garnie should run for city council and then walked away.

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

Quarry Mentioned As Blast Test Site

Environmentalists Fear Effects Of 700-Ton Bomb
Submitted by Eleanore Fanire, Mohave Downwinder

By Grace Schneider
The Courier-Journal – Louisville, Kentucky
August 17, 2006

With little fanfare, U.S. military officials and the operators of a limestone quarry near Mitchell detonated 3,000-pound batches of explosives in the summer of 2004 and in March 2005.

The blasts were part of an experiment by the federal National Threat Reduction Agency to fine-tune ways to root out enemies and powerful weapons nestled in limestone tunnels.

Although the tests largely escaped public attention, the same Hoosier quarry was identified this month in a published report as a possible location for a far larger experimental blast involving hundreds of tons of explosives.

Rogers Group, the Nashville, Tenn.-based owners of the Mitchell quarry, 30 miles south of Bloomington, disavowed any knowledge about the Lawrence County operation being considered for the larger blast.

But Indiana environmental groups are concerned nevertheless.

"Nobody can believe this. It's been a jaw drop," said Andy Mahler, an activist who lives near Paoli. "People are appalled."

That concern was prompted by an Aug. 2 Las Vegas Review-Journal story in which agency spokeswoman Irene Smith said that the Rogers quarry in Mitchell and a missile range in White Sands, N.M. -- both sites of smaller-scale tests -- were possible locations for the larger explosion, set for next year.

That blast -- dubbed Divine Strake -- originally had been planned for a 35-foot open-air pit dug into a limestone ridge at the Nevada Test Site, a former nuclear weapons test range 85 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Military scientists were preparing to fire off 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil to measure the impact on limestone tunnels below. According to some estimates, such a blast would have more than 200 times the force of the one that destroyed the federal building in Oklahoma City more than a decade ago.

But a pending legal challenge by an Indian tribe and citizens in Utah, as well as questions by Nevada environmental regulators about potential radioactive fallout from previous tests, forced the National Nuclear Security Administration to delay the experiment.

When The Courier-Journal inquired this week about whether the Mitchell quarry was an alternate site for Divine Strake, agency officials were less forthcoming.

Smith was said to be unavailable, and another spokeswoman said it's "premature" to identify any potential locations until an assessment is completed.

The spokewoman, Cheri Abdelnour, couldn't say for sure when the agency would make a decision. She said Divine Strake is now tentatively scheduled for mid- to late 2007.

Indiana officials, including those with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, said they were unaware of the previous tests at Mitchell, in which nitromethane was detonated. Nor, they said, have they been contacted about the possibility of the quarry being used in a larger experiment next year.

Jane Jankowski, a spokeswoman for Gov. Mitch Daniels, and Mark Hayes, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, said their offices had not heard of such an effort.

Rogers' prepared statement said that the previous explosives tests required no special permits because "blast levels were lower than typical blasting for our crushed stone business."

Still, they employed seismograph monitoring devices to ensure that the blasts remained within the mining guidelines.

The statement said the threat reduction agency "has not been in contact with Rogers Group regarding Divine Strake testing."

Although the Pentagon has assured the public that the test is not associated with the government's nuclear weapons program, watchdog organizations remain skeptical.

Utah's largest newspaper, the Salt Lake Tribune, suggested in an editorial earlier this year that Divine Strake might be a "prelude to a new round of nuclear tests."

Marylia Kelley, executive director of the California-based Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, which monitors the Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory east of San Francisco, said she doubts that the Indiana site will be chosen.

She said that's because it would be expensive to install monitoring and diagnostic equipment needed to study the blast, which is already in place at testing sites in the West.

Mahler questioned how agency officials could plan the explosion for next year given that a new location hasn't even been chosen.

Extensive environmental assessments would be needed, he said, and citizens would have a right to comment under federal law.

Reporter Grace Schneider can be reached at (812) 949-4040. Reporter James Bruggers contributed to this story.

Indiana Eyed As Bunker-Buster Weapons Test Site
WTHR – TV, Indianapolis, Indiana
Submitted by Eleanore Fanire

The United States government is considering testing a bunker-buster weapon right here in Indiana. It would involve an underground explosion of 700 tons of ammonium nitrate. The weapon test scheduled for the Nevada dessert could move to an abandoned quarry near Mitchell.

Divine Strake, as the project is known, is a $23 millionexplosive test designed for a Nevada Test site which has now been postponed indefinitely because of local opposition. "Is there a better place for these tests? I'm not going to say. I don't think there is any good place to do these tests," said a protester at the Arizona site.

But the Defense Threat Reduction Agency told a Las Vegas newspaper it is reviewing two other sites it has already used like White Sands, New Mexico and the a quarry site near Bedford, Indiana.

"Explosives and things connected with explosives are fairly common place in this area with this being so close to the Crane Naval Base," said Mayor Joe Klumpp, Bedford.

Word has also spread to the south in Mitchell, where more people would be affected than in Bedford. That is because the government has already conducted tests using up to 1.5 tons of explosives in the Rogers Quarry near Mitchell. It's front page news in Lawrence County because the bunker buster test will use the equivalent of 593 tons of TNT which could send a plume of dust 10,000 feet into the air. The goal is to see if shock waves can destroy underground tunnels like the one constructed for the Nevada test.

"For here it sure would be shaking the ground, I would think. Something that sizeable. We get sizeable explosions from Crane from time to time when they set off old ammunition but that is nothing like what this would be so I'm not sure what the reaction would be from the people till we found out if they are going to do this or not," said Mayor Butch Chastain, Mitchell.

Mayor Chastain says he has not been contacted about the possibility but says he would like to hold public hearings to give residents a chance to publicly discuss it.

A spokesperson for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency says this is all premature. An assessment of alternative sites is currently underway and there is no timeline for when that will be completed. Indiana 4th District Congressman Steve Buyer's office says while Indiana has a proud military heritage the state needs to be educated about this project and its possibilities.
John Blair

Scam Warning!!!
Beware of e-mail job offers from overseas employers that want you to cash their buyers money orders for a certain percentage - usually 10 per cent -then have you send the rest of the money to them via Western Union. The money orders are bogus and you get stuck with the entire bill.

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

Six Nations, And None Have A Word For 'Suburbia'

The New York Times
CALEDONIA, Ontario, Aug. 10 — Blame it on the American Revolution.

The Six Nations Reserve is located in southern Ontario.

At the time, six Indian tribes that had lived for centuries in what is now upstate New York sided with the British Crown, lost and were forced from their lands. For their troubles, however, Britain granted them a paradise rich in moose and deer, across the new border, in southern Ontario.

Today the game are largely gone. The wilderness has been transformed into suburban sprawl. The once pristine lands of the so-called Six Nations Reserve have been whittled away.

This year, one more housing development on the edge of town was one too many, and the Native Canadians decided to make a stand.

Since February, hundreds have blockaded roads, set bonfires, confronted the police with bags of rocks and lacrosse sticks, cut the maple leaf out of a Canadian flag and refused to obey court orders to vacate. During the height of tensions, a van was driven into a power station and set on fire, leaving residents in the dark for days.

The protests have become the knottiest of Canada’s many native land disputes and paralyzed the local economy.

“Some businesses are down 30, 40 percent,” said Neil Dring, who publishes a weekly newspaper here. “This has really hurt.”

For the Native Canadians, however, the dispute is a matter of mending a broken promise by the government to manage the land on their behalf. “Through the years, our people said, ‘You can come here, you can settle here,’ but that didn’t mean they could take over,” said Hazel Hill, who lives on the reserve.

Police officers brought in from all over the province now watch the occupied site around the clock, while town residents whose backyards border the land must show identification to be allowed down their street.

Confrontations have been laced with racial slurs and crude signs. Native Canadian protesters have surrounded the site with traditional flags, and many don fatigues when tensions are at their highest.

In early August, Native Canadians used a fire hose to repel crowds who marched to the site from the town to protest their refusal to obey a court order to leave the disputed land.

“People who live near the site are stressed beyond belief,” said Jason Clark, who lives in town. “They see flags flying and people wearing camouflage — it’s intimidating.”

A mile down the road from the site, downtown Caledonia is slow moving and rich in history. Canadian flags line the main street and businesses are a mix of restored heritage buildings and newer developments that have come with the town’s growing status as a bedroom community for cities like Hamilton and Brantford.

“We had a tremendous amount of housing growth in recent years,” Mr. Clark said. “But that’s come to a complete stop. That occupation is creating a lot of economic hardships in Caledonia.”

The police conducted a raid on the protesters in April, but they retreated when waves of Native Canadians arrived to reinforce the occupation.

“They really did us a favor,” Mrs. Hill said of the raid. “That’s when internal politics were put aside and everyone came together.”

The occupied land covers 100 acres among tens of thousands taken over by the government from the Native Canadians in the 19th century after a disagreement that lasted decades over whether the Native Canadians had the right to sell their land to British settlers.

The Native Canadians filed a lawsuit over the land in 1995, on behalf of the Six Nations: the Mohawk, Onondaga, Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida and Tuscarora. But, tired of waiting while housing developments encroached on the land, they took matters into their own hands.

A younger generation of Native Canadians has led a resurgence of indigenous culture across the country. Unlike many of their parents and grandparents, these Native Canadians did not attend residential schools, where Native Canadian students were often hit with a strap for speaking their own languages. Entire generations of culture were submerged.

The revival has not only restored pride; it has also opened old wounds over how the British and, later, Canadian governments negotiated land deals with chiefs.

In one such deal, chiefs had signed a document that the British interpreted as surrendering the land where Toronto now sits, but it was later disclosed that the chiefs had signed a blank piece of paper.

Native bands elsewhere are watching Caledonia, wondering if the protesters here have found a new way of forcing governments to settle land claims, or at least expedite them. The brash and confrontational nature of the dispute contrasts with the glacial system the Canadian government uses to settle land claims with its Native Canadian population.

Of the 29 claims filed by the Six Nations since the 1970’s, only one has been settled. There are some 770 outstanding claims across Canada, with more than twice as many claims coming in each year as are being settled.

“They’ve created a system to deal with these land disputes, but they take years in the courts,” Mrs. Hill said at the barricaded entrance to the occupation. “They’re the ones with the money who can afford that process. We decided it was time to deal with things differently.”

Whether their approach will work depends on politicians, the behavior of protesters on both sides, and the response by the police.

Nearly six months into the occupation, the Native Canadians have persuaded the provincial government to buy the disputed land from developers while forcing both sides to begin negotiating a settlement.
The question is whether, in the meantime, the Native Canadians and the townspeople can keep the peace.

“I’m concerned that at some point we’re going to see more violence,” said Mr. Clark, the Caledonia resident. “That’s not a threat, that’s just reality. People can only withstand so much.”

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

Tribes Need To Buy Bear Butte land

t(This suggestion has been made in past articles and editorials. So, it is time for the Bear Butte Indigenous Tribes to join together in “native unity”, launch a public relations campaign, solicit financial aid from the casino tribes throughout the country and buy the surrounding land.

Because if you don’t, someone else will! - Bobbie)

Rally Vs. Bear Butte
By The Rapid City Journal Editorial Board – 8/15

Now that the Sturgis motorcycle rally is over, attention will return to competing visions for the land around Bear Butte State Park: development or preservation.

American Indians and supporters marched to downtown Sturgis on Friday before rally week to call attention to their call for a buffer zone around Bear Butte, which they consider to be a sacred site. They also called on bikers to stay away from Highway 79 which runs past the butte so that the noise from their motorcycles don't disturb their prayers.

As action at the rally continues to move away from downtown Sturgis, more people will eye the land east of Sturgis and near Bear Butte as a prime location for rally-related events.

Buffalo Chip Campground, Glencoe Camp Resort and the new Broken Spoke Saloon two miles north of Bear Butte fall within the proposed five-mile buffer zone. The owner of the Broken Spoke plans to build an outdoor amphitheater in time for next year's rally to serve up the kind of musical acts that have made Buffalo Chip famous. Rock'n the Rally southwest of Bear Butte just finished its first rally concert season.

Indian tribes demonstrated at Meade County Commission hearings when liquor licenses for the Broken Spoke were approved. We admire and respect their willingness to peacefully demonstrate their objections to development encroaching on Bear Butte. Despite the protests, the commission had no legal reason to deny the liquor licenses. Nor can the Meade County Commission stop landowners from developing their land in the absence of county zoning that gives them that authority.

Indian tribes can't realistically depend on landowners and rallygoers to voluntarily adhere to a buffer zone. The solution is for tribes and supporters to buy the land around Bear Butte and preserve it from development. Three tribes have spent $1.3 million to buy 2.6 square miles of land near Bear Butte, but a five-mile buffer zone would encompass more than 78 square miles.

Buying a buffer zone would be expensive, but it also would be the surest way to preserve the land surrounding Bear Butte from inevitable development.

Native Journalists Meet In Tulsa For Conference
Friday, August 11, 2006

Hundreds of Native journalists and media types are in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the 22nd annual Native American Journalism Association conference.

Topics on the agenda include free press in Indian Country, coverage of Native issues by the mainstream media and new technologies like blogs and podcasting.

"We now have the opportunity to create community dialogues and community conversations and to reach far-flung Cherokees and Navajos and Ojibway people instantly," said George Benge, The Oklahoman reported.

The conference runs through Saturday.

Tribes and The Media -
Convention Looks At Improving Troubled Relationship

TULSA OK
Sam Lewin 8/10/2006

The way the mainstream media perceives Native Americans and vice-versa took center stage during a series of discussions at the Native American Journalists Association’s annual convention in Tulsa.

It’s not a secret that many tribal members consider press coverage of Indian issues to be lacking, to say the least.

“I get tired of seeing stereotypes of Indian people,” said Clarinda Underwood, the editor of the Washington State-based Quinault Indian Nation’s tribal newspaper, the Nugguam. “They don’t understand treaties, our history or tribal sovereignty. They put us down.”

Underwood is far from alone in her assessment. The dearth of quality reporting about Indian-interest topics frustrated Christina Good Voice so much that she pursued journalism as a career. Good Voice, a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and Oklahoma native, is now a reporter for the Associated Press.

The media “is not doing a very good job. I hope to be one to turn it around,” she says.

“A lot of people-particularly in the newsroom-don’t recognize how little they know about Indian Country,” said Dan Lewerenz, a member of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska and former president of the association.

Just a few months ago, the tension between the media and Oklahoma tribes simmered again during the controversy over tobacco compacts. Tribal members felt they were being portrayed unfairly, acknowledged the Tulsa World’s SE Ruckman, one of the few Native journalists employed by Oklahoma’s non-Indian media. Ruckman said tribal members frequently confronted her, asking, “What’s up with [the reporter covering the tobacco issue]?”

She says she finally had to tell them: “It’s not my story.”

George Tiger, a ranking official in the Creek Nation, recalls meeting with the newspaper’s editorial board to discuss the “negative reporting and half truths that were being written.”

Tiger and Ruckman spoke while participating in a panel discussion examining the complexities of establishing a “Native American Beat.” While both rank-and-file tribal members and tribal officials find fault with media coverage, blame goes both ways. Some Oklahoma tribal leaders are loath to speak to reporters, hoping that “if we ignore it, it will go away,” according to the Osage Nation’s Julia Lookout, another member of the panel discussion.

“Some of our elders really do have that mindset,” she said.

Linda O’ Leary, a member of the Cherokee Nation tribal council, agrees that some Indian Country leaders are too media-phobic, saying some of her fellow councilors will cease speaking during a council meeting if they notice a reporter in the room.

“That’s not right,” O’Leary said. “If they were going to say it in the first place, they should. The reporter’s presence shouldn’t deter them… I always thought that when I’m elected to that council seat they are going to have to shut me up.”

“That’s why she’s a dream source,” Ruckman said.

Solutions are available, the panelists said. Tiger believes that “educating our media about us as Indian people” is a tonic to improve relations between the two camps.

Lookout of the Osages was asked what her idea is of the perfect story.

“I believe every one of my people has a story to tell,” she said.

You can reach Sam Lewin at sam@okit.com

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

Juaneno Unity - The Real Struggle Is Not Federal Recognition

by Robert Bracamontes
May 14, 2006

When my grandfather, Anise Bracamontes, passed away, I always felt his presence. My pinky finger would fold down as if it was broken, just like his was for years. The rest of my fingers would follow and start falling as if they were going to close. I thought about his wishes, his hopes and dreams. One he shared with me, one I am sure many Elders shared with their families before they died, was tribal unity.

It was not federal recognition they saw as the most important goal, it was what recent immigrants have accomplished with millions marching in the streets: unity inspired by oppression and neglect. The years of back-breaking labor has created billions of dollars of profit, but it is not recognized by those who buy and control legislators' votes. The possible passage of laws to criminalize undocumented workers is what brought them together.

For us, it is a federal government that has failed to acknowledge our very existence, hasexcluded us from their history books and nearly exterminated us. When will we be inspired to unite?Over the years our Juaneno tribe has ended up in three groups. All of them have failed in bringing us together. We have let the rich government wave false promises of recognizing our existence, false hopes of gold and prestige, come between us. The government has failed to recognize many tribes across our land for hundreds of years.

And yet, we read their hypocritical criticisms of the newly, democratically-elected Palestinian government for not recognizing the existence of Israel. Have they forgotten about the many indigenous tribes that remain “persona non gratis” here, in Amerca.Each of our splintered groups has had grand visions of the blessings of casino money pouring in, which will aid our material wealth, but will not define us. Any federal recognition by the government will not make us more, or better, Juanenos. The only true way to define ourselves is by accomplishing what has been missing, what escaped our Elders, what is essential and what our Elders wanted all of us to understand: come together.

We are not alone in this endeavor. All of humankind struggles to accomplish coming together to make the world, our lives, our children's lives an example of unity under the banner of peace and love.

If we remain divided, without all of us sitting at the same table, federal recognition will be a hollow victory. I, for one, see us chasing federal recognition before we are unified. How sad, not for us, but for all those who dreamt a dream of youand I holding hands, ending hundreds of years of neglect and lies that were preceded by our near extermination. A dream in which we are told, "You are all here and the federal government recognizes the Juaneno Tribe."

We are indebted to our great ancestors like Many Horses, who was a great dancer, for showing us our true worth and the meaning of being Juaneno. He knew that it was about self-definition, not money, not recognition, but our acceptanceof all our people, united as one. And he did not have to put it in words. One merely had to watch him dance at the hundreds of powwows where he stomped his feet.

And if we are denied federal recognition, who will we be? A divided group of people who failed to stand up together and leave a real legacy for our children to remember, for history to record. Merely the fact that they were not united. Is this what we want?

There must be a reason why I feel Anise touching my hand, my finger and my soul. It is about a message from the past to the future. A message about the desire for all Juanenos to come together, to step in stride, much like my fingers wanting to close together. Our Elders' hopes and dreams can come true today, even if the front page reads, "Juanenos Not Federally Recognized....but they stand united as one."

Robert Bracamontes
www.onlinewithbob.com

Update On Alyssa Macy!

Dear Friends,
I hope this finds all of you doing well. I recently launched a website for my photography and wanted to share that with you. I am currently working to make available prints of my work for those who would like to purchase.

The site gets updated frequently with new photos and blogs. There is a series of blogs that you might be interested in that highlight the work done at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in May which I documented on behalf of theInternational Indian Treaty Council. I hope that you have the opportunity to visit the site!

The website can be accessed by visiting: www.indigeniusmedia.com

I am currently working as the Campaign Manager for an organization called Four Directions. FD is a nonprofiit organization focused on increasing electoral participation of Native American people in MN andMT. I will be documenting the FD effort through photos and possibly internet podcasting and am currently working on setting up the structure to do so. Please contact me if you interested in assisting with that effort. I look forward to a very busy and successful campaign season!

Again, I hope all of you are doing well. Please stay in touch!
Sincerely, Alyssa

Alyssa MacyPolitical/Media Consultant
Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon

Indigenius Media
http://www.indigeniusmedia.com

NativeShare - Educational Opportunities for Indigenous Peoples (2000+ Strong)http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NativeShare

Native Voter listserv - Sign up for the Native Voter listserv for the most up to date information on civic engagement work in IndianCountry. Visit: http://www.ccp.org/resources/lists.html

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

Indigenous Summit At Bear Butte Asks Pope For Help

By Journal StaffAug. 4, 2006
(http://rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2006/08/04/news/local/news01.txt)

BEAR BUTTE -- Tribal leaders and indigenous rights groups will ask the pope to rescind a 1493 Vatican document which they believe paved the legal road for Europeans to take land from indigenous American people.

Twenty-three organizations and 100 individuals signed a resolution Thursday at the Summit of Indigenous Nations at Bear Butte. The resolution, which will be sent to the Vatican for review, targets the Papal Bull Inter Caetera of 1493, in which Vatican officials urged Christopher Columbus to convert indigenous Americans to Catholicism.

"We command you in virtue of holy obedience that, employing all due diligence in the premises, … you should appoint to the aforesaid mainlands and islands worthy, God-fearing, learned, skilled and experienced men, in order to instruct the aforesaid inhabitants and residents in the Catholic faith and train them in good morals," reads the 1493 document.

"This is going to be history in the making," Vic Camp announced before the resolution and a separate treaty amongst summit participants were signed.

The resolution equally targets the Queen of England and asks her to rescind a 1496 Royal Charter

"It is with much honor that I put my hand on this instrument," Dennis Banks of the American Indian Movement said as he signed the resolution. "It's at least part of a solution. It's step one ... to pass this moment on to the next generation so they bear witness and we begin a new day."

Oglala traditional chief Oliver Red Cloud was the first to sign Thursday afternoon, followed by Floyd Hand, an Oglala elder and treaty delegate, and then the various indigenous entities.

Debra White Plume of Bring Back the Way, one of the summit organizers, said she experienced trauma attending Catholic boarding schools.

"I'm really proud to see (everyone) stand up against the people that said we weren't human," White Plume said. "We want our spiritual identity left alone."

The resolution states that the 1493 Vatican document and the 1496 Royal Charter "represent principles of religious intolerance in its moral and legal implications" and served as a "doctrine of discovery," a legal foundation for the "extinguishment of aboriginal title to Indian lands in the United States."

"The doctrine of discovery established a legal paradigm that has caused crusades in the name of Christianity and great harm and injury to Indigenous Peoples throughout the centuries, including the members of Indigenous Nations gathered at this Summit," reads a section of the resolution.

In addition, the Mato Paha Treaty of 2006 was signed Thursday. That document will be forwarded to the United Nations. It recognizes a union among the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council, the Northern Arapaho Nation, the Northern Cheyenne Nation, the Ponca Nation and the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador.

Through this treaty, the five entities established peaceful relations among themselves "to maintain an effective and lasting peace" and other goodwill stances, including trade, support and defense.

According to Debra White Plume, the treaty will be sent to the United Nations in about one month. Bring Back the Way will take the lead and send in the treaty. However, the group "needs to package it appropriately," White Plume said. Attorneys will draft a cover letter before the treaty is sent. The group expects the U.N. to keep the document on file but expects no further action.

Huntington Library Tells Stories Of 100,000 Mission Indians
Submitted by Christine Yazzie

Los Angeles Times, August 8th, 2006
Reclaiming a neglected part of California’s past, historians Monday unveiled an immense data bank that for the first time chronicles the lives and deaths of more than 100,000 Indians in the Spanish missions in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In an eight-year effort, researchers at the Huntington Library in San Marinio used handwritten records of baptisms, marriages and deaths at 21 Catholic missions and two other sites from between 1769 and 1850 and created a cross-referenced computerized repository that is now open to public access.

The Early California Population Project, its creators hope, will help bring the state’s Spanish colonial and Mexican eras from out of the long shadows cast by the 13 English colonies on the East Coast.

“What we are trying to do here is to say these people have a history, and it’s not a history that can be caricatured,” said the project’s general editor, historian Steven W. Hackel. “It’s a history that emerges from a deep native past and a deep Spanish past and shows how the two came together for better or worse.”

http://huntington.org

Database Documenting Early Californians Now Available Online
For the first time ever, scholars and the general public alike will be able to access a database that delves into the historical records documenting the lives of some 110,000 Californians between 1769 and 1850. Press release

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

Stamps, Protest, Ride - Festivities, Controversy Mark Sturgis Rally Opener.

By Bill Harlan, Rapid City Journal Staff Writer

STURGIS — Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne helped dedicate four new motorcycle-themed postage stamps in Sturgis as demonstrators protested against campgrounds and bars they say encroach on nearby Bear Butte.

The stamps were unveiled in a ceremony Monday morning, then 400 motorcyclists rumbled out of the Sturgis Community Center for the annual Mayor’s Ride, which officially opens the town’s giant motorcycle rally.

“Ride safe, respect one another, respect all of our surroundings and respect this great nation of ours,” Kempthorne told riders and various local, state and federal officials, who had gathered in a large, white tent next to the community center.

Protesters at the back of the tent held up signs and briefly chanted “Protect Bear Butte” after Kempthorne spoke, but they didn’t interrupt the ceremony. Outside, about 30 protesters held signs urging bikers not to ride S.D. Highway 79, which passes Bear Butte.

Kempthorne had met Sunday with tribal leaders in Rapid City, where he discussed a range of issues, but demonstrators camped at the base of Bear Butte say he should have talked to them, too. Many tribes hold Bear Butte sacred, but it is a state park surrounded by private land.

“This man has never taken time to learn about Indian affairs, and he’s in charge of all our affairs,” said demonstrator Carter Camp of the Ponca Tribe in Oklahoma.

Rep. Stephanie Herseth, D-S.D., had visited the camp Monday morning. “It was by and large a listening meeting,” Herseth spokesman Russ Levsen said. At the stamp unveiling, Herseth acknowledged the protesters, by thanking “those who are here to make strong statements about other issues that are important to them.”

Camp said the Bear Butte protest would continue through the Sturgis motorcycle rally, which runs through Friday.

Sturgis Mayor Mark Zeigler hosted the stamp ceremony and the ride. “It’s like being among friends and family,” he said.

South Dakota’s two senators, Republican John Thune and Democrat Tim Johnson, also attended the ceremony, along with Gov. Mike Rounds, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and James Miller III, chairman of the United States Postal Service Board of Governors. White House chief of staff Josh Bolten was scheduled to speak but did not attend.

The four new 39-cent postage stamps each picture an iconic motorcycle: a 1918 Cleveland, a 1940 Indian “Four,” a 1965 Harley-Davidson Electra-Glide and a “circa 1970 chopper.”

Rounds said motorcycles represent freedom. “They represent an opportunity to be free and to ride free.”

Johnson called the Sturgis rally a hallmark event for South Dakota. “All of our state benefits by what goes on here.”

Herseth said motorcycles had a “special influence” on culture in the United States, “but perhaps nowhere like it does here in Sturgis, South Dakota.”

Thune, who grew up in Murdo near Interstate 90, remembered working in restaurants and motels during past rallies. He urged bikers to stop in his hometown on the way home. “The local economy depends on it.”

Thune also acknowledged Mayor Ziegler, a motorcyclist, who will leave his job in September to become president of a university in Minnesota. “They’re taking job applications for the mayor of Sturgis right now,” Thune said, joking. “The job description now reads ‘Must ride Harley.’ The next mayor’s going to have big shoes to fill.”

Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah, who is a veteran dirt-bike rider, has been lobbying fellow governors, including Rounds, for an early Western states primary. “I think it would make us something other than a fly-over region,” he said, in a short interview before the ceremony.

Rounds, who was standing nearby, said he would consider the idea “as long as we get more interest in Western states.”

Huntsman added, “We need a critical mass.”

James Miller of the Postal Service Board of Governors, got the most laughs Monday, speaking in a folksy Southern drawl. “How many of y’all saw me poppin’ wheelies out there today?” he asked. “Well if you did, you’re on somethin.’ I don’t do wheelies.”

But he does ride, and he explained how mail carriers used motorcycles as early as 1907. He even quoted mail carrier Wallace Vance’s testimonial in a 1914 Harley-Davidson advertisement.

“I just wanted to tell you what a rural carrier can do with one of your machines in one week,” the ad read.

Here’s one day’s entry:“Monday: Ran mail route 25 miles, then packed and rode 30 miles before dinner.” (“Now that was back when it was breakfast, dinner, supper,” Miller explained.) “Fished in the afternoon and all day Tuesday.”

Miller said the four motorcycles on the stamps were carefully chosen. “They’re all classic examples of the freedom that motorcycle travel gives us.”

The chopper on the postage stamp is a graphic composite, but the motorcycles on the other three stamps are real, and their owners were at the ceremony.

Penny Nickerson of Long Island, N.Y., who owns the one-cylinder Cleveland, said Monday that she got her first cell phone for the trip to Sturgis. She traveled with her “significant other,” Charlie Bailey, whom she called “the last living Cleveland mechanic.” A spectator asked her if she rode the Cleveland to Sturgis. Nickerson replied, “Oh, heavens! That would have taken six weeks!” But the Cleveland does run.

Larry Spielfogel, a New York City food wholesaler who also collects motorcycles, owns the Indian. “It’s the Duisenberg of motorcycles, Spielfogel said, meaning the four-cylinder bike was powerful and “two or three times as expensive as any other bike.”

George Tsunis of Port Jefferson, N.Y., rode his 1965 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide across town to the event tent. “It started right up,” he said. This motorcycle was the last of Harley-Davidson’s “Panhead” bikes.

At 9:35 a.m., only five minutes behind schedule, Mayor Zeigler and his wife, Gae, led Rounds and 400 other motorcyclists for the ride to Crazy Horse Memorial, then to Custer State Park for a barbecue.

The annual Mayor’s Ride is a fundraiser for the Sturgis fire department.

Secretary Kempthorne was riding a motorcycle loaned to him by Steve Oberg, a South Dakota National Guard pilot who returned from Iraq in January. “South Dakota, I know, has sent many of your sons and daughters over there,” Kempthorne said.

Oberg, who flies C-23 Sherpas, loaned the interior secretary a 2003 100th Anniversary Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail.

Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com

Allen's Bar To Feature 'Best Breast' Contests

Friday, August 4, 2006
The owner of a biker bear near sacred Bear Butte plans to hold regular "Best Breast" contests at his controversial venue.

Jay Allen has been under fire ever since announcing plans for his biker bar. He originally planned to call it "Sacred Ground" and wanted to erect an 80-foot tall statue of a "praying" Indian.

He dropped those plans after opposition from tribal activists but they couldn't convince him to give up the entire concept for his $3.5 million 22,000-square-foot bar and campground. So hundreds of tribal members are camped out at Bear Butte to protest encroachment on the place used for ceremonies and prayers.

A march taking place today seeks to educate attendees of the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally, which official starts Monday. Some bikers are siding with the activists, as have some local ranchers and religious groups.

But the county and local developers say demands to restrict development near Bear Butte are unreasonable. Allen's venue has been awarded a beer license and another venue has won a full liquor license.

Bar Owner Takes Credit For Bear Butte Protest

Monday, August 7, 2006
The owner of a controversial bar near sacred Bear Butte in South Dakota is taking credit for this year's Native protest.

Jay Allen said he created a "bond" for Native and non-Natives protesters who have been fighting encroachment on the sacred site.

"I'm kind of proud that I'm creating this cohesion amongst those people, and I'm kind of complimented for it," he told The Sioux Falls Argus Leader.

Allen accuses the protesters of being hypocritical for opposing a beer license for his bar. "We all know that they're involved big time in tobacco sales, they're involved big time in alcohol, and they're involved big time in gaming," he said, apparently referring to tribes.

Thousands of bikers arrived in Sturgis over the weekend for the annual motorcycle rally. Among the attendees were Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and Joshua Bolten, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Indianz.Com. In Print.
http://www.indianz.com/News/2006/015276.asp

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

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Alaska Gold Co. - Community Conscious! Nova Gold - Cyanidization!

Submitted by a concerned citizen

Nome Nugget – www.nomenugget.net
Editorial

True Colors
Gold miners love to see color in their pans, and gold mining companies have always been seeking Nome's mother lode. The old Alaska Gold Company was generally a good corporate member of the Nome Community. What has changed? The pressure is on. Nova Gold, a Canadian –owned company, is anxious to have all the permitting agencies give them the checkered flag. They apparently mailed out form letters for businesses to express their favor to permitting agencies.

They canceled their account with Nome's largest privately owned business because its owner expressed his concern about the Rock Creek mine at a public meeting. They put barriers on public roads (Osborn) to bar passage for Nomeites. They plan to haul heavy-duty rock trucks over state and city roads to raise a lot of dust and rescue us from our depressed condition. They cast themselves as Nome's economic salvation with four to five years of jobs… crushing rocks, maybe driving some trucks and spraying some cyanide.

Nomeites remember the promises of WestGold and its offshore dredge BIMA. They pulled anchor, and the BIMA is now part of a loading dock at a Ketchikan fish cannery. We look at the old dredges #5 and #6 and the thaw field pipes and abandoned camp buildings. We look at the under-bonded arrogance of some large mining operations in Alaska and the fuel spills at Moonlight Springs watershed. How did we get to the point that we really believe that heap leaching with cyanide is a desirable mining practice?

Other states have outlawed the practice. What are Nome's emergency plans in the event of a cyanide spill either along the road or in the Snake River? How much bonding insurance will we require NovaGold to carry to clean up spills…especially problems that occur long after they have packed up and gone home. The $4 million they claim to have is not even a drop in the bucket against probable costs. They aren't inside our city limits, so maybe we can't require them to listen to us. Who will be monitoring the tailings ponds to make sure chemical contaminants don't escape? What kind of engineering guarantee do we have that the plastic liners won't crack or leak?

How anxious are we to sell our souls for ounces of cyanide heap-leached gold? Cyanide tailings don't just go away in a few years. They stick around for generations. NovaGold seems to be revealing its true colors. NovaGold needs to reconsider its gold extraction process. Nome is a gold mining town, but we are not a third world nation. We do have access to the Internet and we can find information about cyanidization. We don't swallow the "trust us, cyanidization is safe" concept. We need ironclad guarantees and perpetual watchdogs. We have some serious concerns and need some answers. — N.L.M.—

Letters -
Dear Editor:
Because of medical and family issues, I've been out of Nome for most of the past two months, so I have missed, I guess, most of the early discussions and meetings about the new mines.

I've tried to catch up by reading the paper and, on Thursday I attended the meeting of the Hazard Mitigation and Planning Committee at the fire hall. I was there to learn. The foresight shown by the Committee was and is impressive, especially regarding flood dangers.

Upon reading the Committee's materials and reflecting on them, I do have some questions, which I was going to address at the Common Council meeting Monday night. Because that meeting was canceled, I'll pose them in this letter.

1. Has the City or the Committee requested an Environmental Impact Study from the Corps of Engineers or required NovaGold to get one on the over 400 acres of wetlands that will be impacted by these operations? I understand that an application has been made to lower the water quality standard from drinking water quality in Lindblom and Rock creeks. What does that mean? Lowering standards never sounds like a good thing to me, whether it be in school performance, eligibility to serve in the armed forces, or in water quality.

I wish the City had done an EIS before it allowed the wetlands between Sixth Avenue and the Bypass Road to be filled in. Ever since it was, a lot of that trapped water has traveled to the backyards, homes and streets south of the area. Our house, for instance, now has ever-present water under it from breakup till deep freeze. Good thing we're on pilings! But getting under there is awful for plumbers. Our neighbor has had to continually fill sinkholes in his yard because of the underground runoff. There are another couple of sinkholes in (not on) I St. between 5th and 6th Avenues.

Wetlands are sensitive areas! We should be very respectful of them and at least try to mitigate our impact on them.

2. The Hazard Mitigation Committee had several areas of seismic concern listed as projects for testing. Has the City required NovaGold to conduct seismic tests in the mine areas? Even if those mines are in stable areas now, how stable will they be during and after continuous blasting?

Granted, the mines are not within city limits. However, the consequences of those preliminary mine operations have already had and will continue to have effects on our lives long after the five-year life of the mines. How do years of mineral extraction balance out positively for we who plan to live here for the rest of our lives?
Re the "lake" that will be created to smother with water weight the depleted extraction paste. What steps are being taken to ensure the seismic safety of its bottom?

I don't want to contemplate the effect of a leak into the valley and its river, let alone think of the teens who might think it a terrific adventure to drive out there for a summer moonlight swim. Nor am I comfortable with the fact (source: Army Corps of Engineers) that the "lake" is designed to overflow in roughly two years. Yikes! Overflow to where? Into the river, the ground water, the remaining wetlands?

3. How many acres and to what depth in the permafrost will the mines intrude in the large extraction pits? We all know that once permafrost is exposed to sunlight, it turns to jello. That melting jello spreads and spreads. Global warming is slower than this effect, it seems to me.

4. What really are the benefits to Nome while the mines are operating? We will collect no taxes, we will be subject to enormous amounts of increased dust pollution and road hazzards, we'll be left with a huge polluted "lake." Our wetlands will be gone or compromised, our rivers in the area will no longer contain "drinkable" standard water (and do we really want to eat fish from those waters?) I don't!

So, who's going to benefit? The bars! Young people whooping it up and spending money in the bars. Perhaps those businesses who sell tourist items — also incidental. I don't know but would like to know…will this increased activity require additional and constant efforts by the Nome Safety Patrol?

5. How many of those 135 jobs will be filled from Nome?

6. And most important to me is that when a question was posed at the Hazards Mitigation, etc. meeting on Thursday, WHY was it answered with something like, "We'll deal with planning for that when all the permits are issued!" AFTER?????? After is too late! The questions/concerns should be addressed (should have been addressed) long before this! And certainly before the permits from various state and federal agencies are issued.

7. What is the national and international reputation of NovaGold regarding environmental, reclamation, and cleanup issues? We, us citizens, have a right to know.

8. What effects will the aftermath of the mines have on Moonlight Springs, the sole source of our drinking water?

9. If NovaGold is indeed a good corporate citizen, why didn't it go ahead and request an Environmental Impact Study when it was contemplating, years ago, these huge mines?

I'm not against mining; after all, Nome was built on mining – but not this kind of HUGE open pit mining. I'm not against Nova Gold; they have been very supportive of many community non-profit efforts, including my own.

I just believe this whole process or lack of it is now racing toward us like a huge avalanche, and our elected decision-makers are watching and muttering, "Whoops! Didn't think of that!" Or now that people are paying attention, will they say, "Hey, wait a minute! We need some answers!"

It's also interesting that the public comment process began and ended while so many people were at camp. Surely, our city officials would have warned the state and federal agencies about that!

Just wondering.
Jana Varrati, Nome
Nome Nugget - July 20th edition

Scientists Comment On Rock Creek Mine Project
By Diana Haecker

Two scientists with the Center for Science in Public Participation issued comments on permit applications by the Alaska Gold Company currently under state and federal scrutiny, expressing concerns dealing with acid mining drainage and cyanide in connection with the proposed Rock Creek mine and mill project.

Dr. Glenn Miller, CSPP chemist, said in his comment, "As I review the plan, the greatest risks are from acid generation and the subsequent release of contaminated water; non-acidic (but still contaminated) water draining from the site; pit lake water quality; nitrate from residual cyanide and cyanide complexes; reclamation and other closure issues and mercury release."

Miller suggests an underground mine at the site, rather than an open pit, due to contamination issues. "As presently proposed, it is likely that environmental problems will be created which will threaten water quality around the mine for a very long time," Miller concludes.

According to Alaska Gold Company planning documents, the open pit at Rock Creek will measure 3,445 feet in a north-south direction and 1,312 feet in an east-west direction. The pit at Big Hurrah is slated to be 1,640 feet long by 820 feet wide. The pit will partially be back-filled at closure with 1,305,000 cubic yards of "potentially acid generating development rock," according to the planning documents.

Miller explained that acid mine drainage is created when sulfide-containing rock (primarily pyrite) is brought to the surface and exposed to oxygen and water.

"Acid mine drainage from hard rock mines is often considered the most serious water quality problem in the mountainous areas of the western United States, since once it begins, it is very difficult to halt acid production. Release of acid can continue for decades and centuries," Miller commented.

Miller also pointed to AGC's request to downgrade the current stream classification of Rock Creek and Lindblom Creek from drinking water quality to lower grade water.

"It appears that this is a de facto admission that water quality will be degraded," wrote Miller.

Planning documents say that water outflows from the development rock dumps on site will be routed to either Rock Creek or Lindblom Creek.

Geophysicist David Chambers, Ph.D. said, in an interview with The Nome Nugget, that his greatest concern with the proposed Rock Creek project applications are that significant information is lacking on the design and the function of the cyanide destruct system and the water treatment system, as well as the potential for acid rock drainage.

"The conclusion that acid rock drainage will not be a problem at the sites is an oversimplification related to the conclusion that the waste dump material is overall non-acid-generating," Chambers commented.

Chambers also said that monitoring plans should include the testing for cyanide levels in the recycle water pond which, he maintains, contains cyanide.

Cyanide leach mining uses a cyanide solution to extract minute amounts of gold diffused in large amounts of ore. The cyanide forms a water-soluble compound with gold from which the gold then is recovered.

Cyanide refers to various compounds that contain CN - one single atom of carbon and one single atom of nitrogen.

Chambers, a Montana-based scientist, found a lack of discussion of how the company plans to destroy free cyanide to control the level of the toxin in the tailings. Free cyanide is the cyanide ion and hydrogen cyanide, both highly toxic to humans and aquatic life. Depending on the pH level of water it is released in, it forms hydrogen cyanide. At a pH below 7.0 — acidic water — all dissolved cyanide transformed to hydrogen cyanide, which forms a gas released into the air. The gas is used in execution chambers.

The Center for Science in Public Participation is a non-profit organization providing objective research, education and technical advice to various organizations, regulatory agencies, businesses and tribes on natural resource issues, especially those related to mining.

In 1998 Montana voters banned the use of cyanide in mining in the state.

At press time, the permitting agencies had not yet released a response to the comments received for the first permits under scrutiny by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (Waste management permit); Army Corps of Engineers (Section 404 Clean Water Act); and Alaska Department of Natural Resources (draft reclamation plan, six temporary water use permits and one fish habitat permit). The public comment period for the ACOE section 404 permit dealing with the filling and disturbance of wetlands was extended until July 20.

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.

Divine Strake Test Postponed For More Study

Submitted by Eleanore Fanire, Mohave Down Winders

By Suzanne Struglinski
Deseret Morning News - Wednesday, Aug.2nd

WASHINGTON — The controversial, government-sponsored weapons test known as Divine Strake has been put off at least until next year, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency announced Tuesday.

The National Nuclear Security Administration is still working on its environmental studies regarding radiation exposure related to the blast, but the Defense Threat Reduction Agency has stopped preparing the Nevada Test Site for the experiment, designed to produce ground motion and shock wave data on penetrating hardened and deeply buried targets.

"The earliest point at which the Divine Strake experiment can be conducted would be at least several months into calendar year 2007," according to the agency announcement sent to congressional offices.

The test was supposed to take place June 2, but a lawsuit filed by opponents pushed it off until June 23. Then the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the Nevada Test Site that is home to the experiment, withdrew an environmental assessment of the program, pushing it off to an undetermined date.

The detonation of 700 tons of explosive ammonium nitrate and fuel oil slurry would have created a huge mushroom cloud and critics feared it would kick up radioactive fallout left from atmospheric and below-ground nuclear weapons tests and lead to the development of low-yield nuclear "bunker-buster" bombs.

The proposed blast raised concerns by Utah and Nevada congressional delegations and prompted protest petitions by hundreds of people.

"This delay is reflective of a cancellation of the planned explosion," said Robert Hager, the plaintiffs' attorney in the case against the Defense Department on the test. "The agencies' pursuit of data regarding background radiation and global fallout is a dead-end path that will not put to bed public health concerns about re-suspension of radioactivity. People do not die from inhaling background radiation.

"Until the agencies analyze what is in the soil, and disclose that data, this blast will never be allowed by the court."

The agency may also opt to move the experiment somewhere else. On Tuesday, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, met with the agency's director, James Tegnelia, who told the senator that he would assess other locations for the blast.

"I believe he now clearly understands the unique sensitivities that the people of Utah have regarding this subject," Hatch said.

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, said the fact the government still has no data showing the possible health risks associated with the test coupled with its desire to get more information "is tacit acknowledgement that uncertainty remains" and he remains skeptical of any weapons test deemed "safe" by the government.

Vanessa Pierce, program director at the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, said it is integral that the public is included to ensure that the experiment be done with the public's health and safety in mind. She said this did not happen decades ago and now people are living — and dying — with the consequences.

"I think that the prior delays were 'PRpr' tactics meant to take the wind out of the public's sails in fighting against the project," Pierce said.

But now this postponement shows that the government wants to make sure all the details are in place and it will comply with environmental laws before conducting the experiment, Pierce said.

J Truman, a Malad, Idaho, man who grew up in southern Utah and directs the fallout victim advocacy group Downwinders, said, "I think this shows the power Utah Downwinders have achieved to where they can say, 'No,' and their politicians have to listen and act!"

"No more days of being helpless guinea pigs in a deadly experiment," Truman said.

Beyond the potential health effects associated with the blast, Pierce said the other main concern is the test's potential step toward developing new nuclear weapons, including mini-nukes.

Pierce said the government has not be able to explain what else the test can be used for if not to build new weapons.

Contributing: Joe Bauman
E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com
© 2006 Deseret News Publishing Company

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Matheson Applauds Further Postponement of Divine Strake
Still Awaits Answers to Health, Safety Questions

Salt Lake City, UT-Congressman Jim Matheson said today he is pleased with the announcement that the so-called "Divine Strake" non-nuclear explosion-planned for the Nevada Test Site-has been postponed yet again. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) announced today that the "earliest point at which Divine Strake can be conducted would be several months into 2007".

Matheson, after reading Defense Department budget documents this spring, wrote to DTRA, expressing concerns about both the actual purpose and the health and safety ramifications of the planned 700-ton conventional explosives detonation at the desert test site 65 miles north of Las Vegas.

"This is the second postponement announced by DTRA. The government has yet to provide environmental data regarding what the health risks are to communities downwind of the explosion. Absent that data, I think the postponement and announced intention to gather more information is tacit acknowledgement that uncertainty remains," said Matheson.

Matheson said that officials have confirmed that one purpose of the test is to validate modeling codes for designing a nuclear weapon. The Divine Strake blast will be detonated in a shallow pit dug above an underground concrete tunnel. The site is about a mile from an area where six underground nuclear bombs were exploded in the early 1970s.

Matheson said he shares Utahans skepticism when the government says testing is "safe", given the past history of government deception surrounding nuclear weapons testing in Nevada.
xxx

Published Aug 4, 2006 from thespectrun.com

THE 21st CENTURY MOTTO OUGHT TO BE 'NOT ON MY PLANET'
by Valerie Brown
Divine Strake - the detonation of 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil (ANFO) at the Nevada Test Site - has been postponed while the Department of Energy's National Nuclear
Security Administration (NNSA) gathers more detail about the test's environmental impact.

According to the NNSA, Divine Strake will be a non-nuclear explosion; all its effects will be local; and none of those effects will harm humans. I'm not so sure. The test will loose many tons of toxic chemicals. Since our planet's air and most of its water are interconnected, Divine Strake's waste may travel far from the detonation site. Even if it's not a nuclear explosion, Divine Strake is a bad idea on these grounds alone.

The Divine Strake Revised Environmental Assessment (REA) dated May 2006 states that Divine Strake will be in compliance with all federal and state air quality regulations, but there's no real way to confirm that assertion given the arrogant secrecy of the Bush administration. In a tactful understatement, a Nevada official told me that the NTS "does a lot of its own self-monitoring."

The Divine Strake REA asserts that all the material used in the test will be "detonated" and that the resulting cloud will "dissipate." That can only mean that concentrations will decrease locally, not that by some magic the debris and gases will disappear completely or be rendered biologically neutral. Unless there is no wind whatsoever and it rains right after the test, it is implausible that all the combustion products of Divine Strake will stay on the NTS.

It is especially galling that the NTS once again plans to wait until the winds blow northward to detonate the explosion. During the nuclear testing years, some residents of adjoining states were forewarned of the site test schedule, but Idahoans and Montanans were told almost nothing - while receiving the highest doses of Iodine-131 released from the NTS. Clearly, today as in the past, populations downwind of the site are considered entirely expendable.

Just what will Divine Strake put into the atmosphere? ANFO is a mass of hydrocarbons. According to the REA, the test will produce two tons of cyanide compounds, 25 tons of particulates, a ton of hexachloroethane, a ton each of tetrachloroethylene and tetrachloromethane, a ton and a half of phosgene, nearly a ton of sulfur dioxide, more than 31 tons of carbon monoxide, seven tons of nitrogen oxides, nearly two tons of chloroform, and many other noxious compounds. Who wants to be downwind of that?

Some of these chemicals break down benignly in air or water. However, several are persistent in the atmosphere. For example, it takes about 30 years for hexachloroethane, a chemical used to make smoke in military and pyrotechnic applications, to migrate out of the lower atmosphere into the stratosphere.

Tetrachloromethane, formerly used in dry cleaning and refrigeration, stays in the atmosphere for 30-50 years and has been detected at the South Pole. The National Toxicology Program rates both hexachloroethane and tetrachloroethylene, the latter also a dry cleaning solvent and metal degreaser, as "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen." Phosgene was used as a chemical weapon in World War I. Sulfur dioxide is the cause of acid rain.

It is true that the chemicals released by Divine Strake will be diluted in the air so that humans outside the NTS will probably not be exposed to high doses. But there is more and more evidence that lower exposures, exposures to combinations of chemicals, and interactions between hormones and chemicals, can result in serious health effects, particularly for pregnant women, fetuses and children. There may even be synergistic effects between radiation and chemical exposures. And, as with radiation exposure, problems stemming from chemical exposures may not surface for years and by then are difficult to trace conclusively to a particular source.

The products of the explosion do not have to reach the stratosphere to travel. For example, soils and mine tailings in Nevada may be the source of alarming levels of mercury in the Great Salt Lake and Idaho's Salmon Falls Creek Reservoir. Certain airborne pollutants released at or near ground level even cross the oceans. Some dust reaching Florida from North Africa contains 2 parts per million of mercury - far greater than amounts normally found in the air, probably coming from Algerian open-pit mines. Likewise, the U.S. receives pollutants traveling across the Pacific Ocean from coal-fired plants in China. Many industrial chemicals also move by atmospheric transport toward the poles, which is why polar bears have some of the highest levels of PCBs in their tissues of any animals on the planet.

These facts show that we are all Downwinders eventually, whether the toxins falling on us are radioactive or chemical. Yet the Nevada Environmental Protection Bureau of Air Pollution Control appears to be the only governmental entity pushing back against the NTS even a little. Given that the defense-related federal agencies stonewall federal environmental monitoring, environmental and health agencies in downwind states ought to join with Nevada to protect their citizens. The motto for the 21st century should be, not NIMBY- "Not In My Back Yard" - but rather NOMP: "Not On My Planet."

Valerie Brown is a freelance science writer based in Oregon. She is an Idaho native and a thyroid cancer survivor.

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE or OPINION PIECE to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

Visit Vietnam Vet. Larry Mitchell at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.