Environmental Justice for the Menominee Tribe
On River’s Banks, Tribe Defends Its Heritage from Mining Threats
For those that imagine colonization ended once Lewis and Clark reached the West Coast, this is a reminder that it remains ongoing in the United States. For the Menominee of Wisconsin and Minnesota, treaties have been broken by the US government continuously for the last centuries. Now a zinc and copper mine has moved in to Menominee sacred grounds.
It’s often difficult to understand why sacred grounds are important to another culture, yet easy to see as a metaphor. Why is Arlington National Cemetery sacred ground? And indeed the bones of Menominee ancestors are buried in the same location as the Back Forty Mine site.
Rebecca Bowe at EarthJustice has written a great piece on the Menominee fight against the Back Forty mine. Earth Justice provides legal help for the Menominee, and I’m proud to wield artistic tools to support the people of fellow First Nations.