Tribes celebrate end of mine saga

[sybylla]

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/news/archive/local_...

ASHWAUBENON — Wisconsin Indian tribes on Saturday celebrated a successful, nearly three decades-long fight to keep land near Crandon from being mined. A powwow to celebrate the resolution of the Crandon mine issue was held Saturday afternoon in the Brown County Veteran’s Memorial Arena.

Before the grand entrance ceremony, a coalition of 33 environmental groups honored the Forest County Potawatomi, the Menominee Nation and the Mole Lake Band of the Sokaogon Chippewa tribes for buying the land and putting to rest nearly 30 years of acrimony.

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Gus Frank, chairman of the Forest County Potawatomi Community, said a woman who works in his office best summed up the importance of the deal. "'She said ‘Now my grandchildren will have water to drink.' That was just a very profound statement," he said.

Environmentalists and the tribes said acidic mine runoff and cyanide used in ore extraction would jeopardize groundwater and adjacent wetlands, including the Wolf River.

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This deal takes the mining issue off the table for this part of northern Wisconsin. There has been nothing but fighting over whether or not a mine could be placed here without endangering the waters nearby, principally, the Wolf River, the only unpolluted large river in the state where you can actually eat the fish you catch without worrying about pcb's and mercury (thank you repukes and the paper companies).

Unfortunately, racism has started a rumor in Forest county, where the ore deposits are located, that the Tribes will wait a few years and begin mining the land themselves--greedy, cheating, back-stabbing bastards injuns are, ya know.