Western Mining Action Network

Indigenous Environmental Network

Mini-Grant Recipients

March 2012

  1. Black Mesa Water Coalition, Arizona: Black Mesa Water Coalition is dedicated to preserving and protecting the natural environment and the integrity of Indigenous Peoples’ cultures, with the vision of building sustainable and healthy communities. BMWC was formed in 2001 by a group of young inter-tribal, inter-ethnic people dedicated to addressing issues of water depletion, natural resource exploitation, and health promotion within Navajo and Hopi communities

The group will use funds to take a 15-person delegation, primarily young people, to Washington, DC to meet with Department of the Interior Secretary Salazar and other key leaders. The focus of the meeting is to urge leaders to remove the Bureau of Reclamation’s majority ownership of the Navajo Generating Station (which burns coal mined on Hopi and Navajo lands) and reinvest in renewable energy development on the Navajo Nation.

  1. Chickaloon Native Village, Alaska: ChickaloonNativeVillage is an Ahtna Dene’ Athabascan Indian Tribe that for millennia has nurtured and utilized the lands, plants and animals of south central Alaska. Their traditional territory has experienced dramatic changes affecting the way of life. Dating as far back as 1900, ChickaloonNativeVillage’s traditional territories have been subject to non-sustainable resource extraction including coal, copper and gold mining, oil and gas drilling, and logging. In response to these changes and pressures, the Tribe re-established the nine-member Chickaloon Village Traditional Council (CVTC) in 1973 to reassert the Tribe’s identity, cultural traditions, and economic self-sufficiency while protecting our ancestral homelands from further resource exploitation and destruction.

With WMAN-IEN funding, ChickaloonNativeVillagewill send a Tribal representative to the Inaugural National Health Impact Assessment Meeting to be held April 3 and 4, 2012, in Washington, D.C. The meeting will convene policy makers, public health professionals, Health Impact Assessment practitioners, and others with an interest in learning more about health assessments. Alaska Native participants will bring home information on how this tool might be used to gauge possible health impacts from proposed new mining on their native lands.

  1. Colorado Citizens Against ToxicWaste, Colorado:CCAT is a non-profit grassroots organization in Fremont County, Colorado, that formed March 7, 2002, after the Cotter Corporation Uranium Mill announced plans to import 450,000 tons of radioactive/toxic waste from the Maywood Chemical Works Superfund Site in New Jersey. They are a diverse volunteer group with a goal to educate about radioactive industrial operations that threaten the environment, property values, health, economy, tourism industry, and social well-being.

CCAT will hire a technical consultant to review and critique the closure and reclamation plans and otherwise assist with the cleanup of the Cotter Corporation Uranium Mill. CCAT assisted in the successful passage of legislation in 2010 (The Uranium Processing Accountability Act), which contributed to the Cotter Corporation’s decision to close the mill, thus creating the current need for appropriate decommissioning and reclamation.

  1. Front 40, Michigan: Front 40 is a grassroots organization formed in 2003 in response to the threat of a metallic sulfide mine potentially being developed on the banks of the Menominee River in Lake Township, Michigan. The zinc, silver, gold, copper and lead ore body extends underneath the river into Wisconsin. It is the principle objective of the Front 40 to ensure that metallic sulfide mining operations are not allowed to adversely impact rivers, lakes, groundwater and lands.

Front 40 will use fundingto organize and develop outreach materials such as editorials, op-eds, and letters to the editor to inform the public about the dangers of proposed metallic sulfide mining. This mining threatens natural and cultural resources including Shakey Lakes Savanna and burial mounds and gardens. A specific focus will be to reach out across the border to Wisconsin citizens since the river the mine is proposed on is the border between the two states.

  1. Gifford Pinchot Task Force, Oregon: For more than 25 years the Gifford Pinchot Task Force’s mission has been to support the biological diversity and communities of the Northwest through conservation and restoration of forests, rivers, fish and wildlife. The GP Task Force is working to protect and restore these unique areas by integrating collaboration and restoration into the fabric of federal land management in the Northwest. The GP Task Force has over 4,000 members.

Funding will support a public outreach program dedicated to opposing a heavy metal open-pit mine directly adjacent to the Mount St. Helen’s National Monument. Funding would go toward hiring professionals to assemble the necessary information on impacts of drilling, reconstructing road access for the drilling sites, and use of water for drilling.

  1. Information Network for Responsible Mining, Colorado: Founded in 2001, objectives are to review all hardrock permitting and mining activities in the state, facilitate enforcement, influence state policy and regulations, advocate for best mining practices, provide information about mining to the public, and work with communities and organizations around Colorado on mining issues.

INFORM will co-host a Uranium Workshop in late spring in Moab, Utah, in order to gather uranium activists, share information and draw on lessons learned from opposition campaigns in Utah and Colorado while laying down a framework for cooperating on regional issues and meeting in a formal caucus later in the year. Presentations and discussions will be combined with the opportunity to see some of the only conventional uranium development occurring in the United States.

  1. Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug,Ontario: The mission of KI Lands and Environment Unit, a department of the KI First Nation, is to preserve and protect the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug’s Homelands from environmentally destructive human activities that will adversely affect the human, cultural, and ecological health. They have been at the forefront of protecting lands and resources that are at threat of domination by outside governments and industries.

KI will use funds to produce a series of videos and photo-essays documenting traditional uses of indigenous lands and the community’s ongoing efforts to protect and preserve the land from impacts associated with a proposed gold mine. Funding will cover expenses for the production, and post-production, of the documentary work.

  1. Lynn Canal Conservation, Alaska: The mission of Lynn Canal Conservation (LCC) in the ChilkatValley is to promote ecosystem integrity, protect quality of life and foster environmental awareness. For over 40 years, Lynn Canal Conservation has been instrumental in many successful grassroots efforts that have resulted in protecting ecosystems and quality of life for those who live in and around the ChilkatValley.

LCC will utilize funds for public education and outreach on environmental risks and impacts of sulfide mines. Grant funds will be used for presentations, production of media and materials, publicity and advertising, travel and other expenses related to bringing this information to greater public attention.

  1. Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, New Mexico: MASE is a coalition of communities in northwestern New Mexico that work to address the legacy of uranium contamination and stop any future mining projects. The coalition is three years old, but the community groups that comprise it our have been involved in uranium struggles for decades. The group is active in community organizing, lobbying, policy, and legal and technical battles.

Funding has been requested to host a multi-cultural Environmental Justice Summit for young people this July to engage them in work against uranium mining, to encourage collaboration, and to provide them with community organizing training.

  1. Native Aspirations, Wisconsin: Native Aspirations was established in Bad River in January, 2011. The mission of the program is to encourage traditional tribal practices or interventions in order to respond to youth violence, bullying and suicide risk. The goal of the program is to employ interventions that are grounded in cultural values and spiritual practices and ceremonies.

With mini-grant funds, Native Aspirations wants to begin to expand its programming to provide environmental education to Bad River youth to help them understand the relationship between water quality and mining. This project is also designed to build confidence and positive leadership skills in Bad River youth attending school in a community that is culturally divided on the issue of mining.

  1. Owe Aku / Bring Back the Way, South Dakota:Owe Aku, a Lakota term meaning “Bring Back the Way”, was founded in 1997 as a grassroots social change organization dedicated to the preservation and revitalization of the Lakota Way of Life, the 1851 and 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty Rights, and human rights. Their work goes beyond the Oglala band of the Lakota Nation and the Pine Ridge Homeland, to the Lakota Nation and the Oceti Sakowin: the Seven Council Fires, known historically (although incorrectly) as the “Great Sioux Nation”.

Owe Aku requested funds to educate and encourage support for the campaign to stop uranium mining on the Great Plains. Through events and web engagement, the project will bring together activists and Native Americans across regional, socio-economic and cultural boundaries, to inform and inspire collective and thoughtful action aimed at stopping destructive mining from contaminating native and non-native water.

  1. Red Water Pond Road Community Association, New Mexico: The Red Water Pond Road Community Association (RWPRCA) is a grass-roots organization of Diné families who are experiencing and living with the impacts of uranium mining waste and milling in the Northeast Church Rock mining area since the 1960s. The association was founded April 7, 2007, two days after the Navajo Nation ordered families to temporarily leave their homes while federal regulators removed radioactive soil.

Their mission is to restore environmental health and human health in theircommunity and protect and preserve their natural and cultural environment. Funding will be used to complete a comprehensive health study to assess the impacts of uranium mining waste to the environment and human health. The project will ensure that the diagnosis, treatment and monitoring will include both Western and Traditional perspectives.

  1. Tallahassee Area Community, Colorado: TAC was formed in February 2008 in response to an Australian mining company’s conducting unlawful uranium exploration activities in the community. The organization currently has approximately 200 members. Its purpose is to advocate for a clean and safe environment in Western Fremont County, Colorado and to represent those residents whose water quantity and quality will be at risk as a result of any uranium mining and milling activity.

TAC will utilize funds to help defray court costs associated with determining ownership of water rights in response to the mining company’s planned application for a uranium mining permit. This community group contends that the proposed mine will adversely affect water supply, contaminate the quality of the water in the surrounding tributaries, and also impact the Arkansas River that the county relies upon for fishing and tourism.

14.Wisconsin Resources Protection Council, Wisconsin: The WRPC was founded in 1982 to help counter the lack of information about the effects of large-scale metallic sulfide mining on Wisconsin’s precious water supplies, on the tourism and dairy industries, and upon the many Native American communities that are located near potential mine sites. Since that time the Council has broadened its concern to include peoples and resources throughout the Lake Superior region, including Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and Ontario. Members share a common goal: to educate the public about the consequences of allowinginternational mining corporations to develop a new mining district in the Lake Superior region under the present legal and regulatory framework.

WRPC requested funds for legal and scientific research costs related to a case in federal court regarding Clean Water Act violations by Flambeau Mining Company (a subsidiary of Kennecott Minerals/Rio Tinto) at their mine near Ladysmith, Wisconsin.

Note:This funding was made through an “emergency grant”, granted between cycles due to the time-sensitive nature of the work and particular need.

15. Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve, Michigan: This organization was created in 1995 by a group of local citizens who were concerned about unchecked resource extraction and the lack of community involvement in the health of the watershed. Since its inception, this group has brought a voice to those living in the watershed. Their mission is to preserve and protect the Yellow Dog River and its surrounding watersheds for the benefit of present and future generations. Goals include: to collect information for best land use practices, advocate for wise use of resources, educate students, develop current and future stewards of the land, and permanently protect the integrity wilderness.

The Preserve will publish photographs documenting the transition of this rural watershed to an industrial complex. The group will also develop a special insert to their widely-distributed newsletter highlighting their upcoming plans to invest in additional monitoring techniques to ensure ecological integrity of the watershed.