Pryor was arrested a couple weeks ago for trespassing. She was walking her dog to Eagle Rock, a sacred site to Anishinaabe tribes. Rio Tinto, not the land owners yet, called law enforcement who arrested Pryor when she refused to leave.
The Yellow Dog River watershed in Michigan's Upper Peninsula is still public land. Rio Tinto, who wants to gouge the land and poison the watershed to extract nickel and copper, has a land lease that still has no federal authority to be used. Rio Tinto has been stopped in their press to pollute the Yellow Dog River watershed in the past. Yet Rio Tinto has bulldozed, and blasted and now has engaged law enforcement for their private use - on public land.
The picture on the left is one of the small falls on the Yellow Dog River. It is pristine, beautiful and rolls as nature intended to Lake Superior. The picture on the right is a mountain stream that feeds into the Cheat River in West Virginia, rocks stained permanently by the mining operations in the area.
The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community has joined the protest to protect their treaty rights and their sacred site.
I blogged about the Yellow Dog, the legacy of metallic sulfide mining and the stay of execution for this wilderness granted by Ingham County Circuit Judge Paula Manderfield, exactly one year ago today.
Kennecott (Rio Tinto) needs to be backed off their treacherous trail immediately. I'm writing to Senators Stabenow and Levin right now. It's the feds who have not approved yet, and it's the feds that need to step up the volume on their disapproval.
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