Earth Day 2005 speech by Alan L. Maki: Save Our Bog

Earth Day 2005

Speech by

Alan L. Maki: Save Our Bog

Organize for Earth Day 2005---

[Speech by Alan L. Maki; delivered to the Thief River Falls Political Affairs Discussion Group on Sunday, April 3, 2005. Alan L. Maki is Director of Organizing for the Red Lake Casino, Hotel, and Restaurant Employees’ Union Organizing Committee; a 2004 elected Minnesota DFL State Convention Delegate, from Roseau County; and a founding member, Minnesotans for Peace and Social Justice. He is also one of the founders of the organization Save Our Bog.]

I was invited to address the AFL-CIO St. Paul Labor Speakers Club in April as part of the Earth Day 2005 activities; the invitation was withdrawn because of pressure brought as a result of my criticism of DFL Congressman Jim Oberstar who brokered this racist deal to destroy the Big Bog in a dirty backroom deal that traded this pristine bog for a Red Lake Gaming Enterprise operated casino to be built in International Falls, Minnesota.

Ironically, the invitation was initially extended to me because of my involvement to save the Big Bog. This is the speech that I was to have delivered at the St. Paul Labor Speakers Club… Whether you agree, or disagree with what I have to say--- I hope you will take what I have to say in the spirit of democracy and free speech. Please feel free to jot down any concerns you have with my presentation or any questions you would like answered. Feel free to challenge anything I say here today.

Thank you for inviting me back to Thief River Falls today. I enjoy these gatherings where we can share ideas and exchange opinions.

Today I would like to talk about some problems as we approach Earth Day 2005… We need your help to stop the Big Bog destruction now under way in northern Minnesota!

{Note: to help follow, Minnesota DNR maps may be helpful: DNR Pine Island State Forest Map; DNR PRIM map (Upper Red Lake area)}

Let me just show you on the map here the area I will be referring to. This is a DNR PRIM map; it is referred to as: Upper Red Lake if you are interested in obtaining this map; you can purchase them at many sporting goods shops like Gander Mountain or Cabela’s. Over here is a map also available from the DNR, it is called, Little Fork-Vermillion Fire Protection Routes.” And here we have a map, the DNR Pine Island State Forest Map. Also, this picture you are looking at is a photo taken on March 6, 2005. I will also be referring to this letter posted here on the wall from Red Lake Nation Chairman Butch Brun. In addition… I will be referring to this so-called public notice placed by the Minnesota DNR Land & Minerals Division whose long time head is Bill Brice. As you probably are aware, Gene Merriam is the Minnesota DNR Commissioner. On the wall over here you have his e-mail address: gene.merriam@dnr.state.mn.us --- Add to this mix a guy named “Shaky” who is the Koochiching County Commissioner pushing this destruction of the bog and I think we pretty much have our cast of characters.

One other thing:

Before I begin… over here is a resolution passed by the Red Lake Nation Tribal Council on March 8, 2005. This resolution passed unanimously and was introduced by council member Pemberton who also heads up the Red Lake Nation DNR... not to be confused in any way with the Minnesota DNR. I also have a stack of resolutions here from the Red Lake Nation Tribal Council spanning almost 35 years on this issue. I obtained these from Jody Beaulieu the Red Lake Nation archivist and a niece of longtime Red Lake Chairman Roger Jourdain.

Just a brief geography lesson, I will point things out on the map as I move along:
As you can see here on the map the Big Bog is jointly owned by the people of the State of Minnesota and the people of the Red Lake Nation--- the bog is being stripped-mined for peat in the Pine Island State Forest, this is a picture of me standing in the middle of the devastation, about one-half mile south of the Old Pine Island Ranger Station--- the bog is the victim of a racist, corrupt backroom deal orchestrated by United States Congressman Jim Oberstar. This dirty, racist deal traded this pristine bog for more casinos and more non-union, poverty wage jobs. Minnesotans don’t need either one. Our state already resembles a carnival midway and we have more poverty wage jobs than you can shake a stick at.

Minnesota and federal taxpayers have been unknowingly footing the bill to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars for building roads and digging ditches into this bog, and clearing the land; even paying for the “lease of this land,” over a period of many years, before a single permit was granted for this project to proceed; all clearly in violation of many laws. Work was going on even while public hearings were being held to determine if permits should be granted! All science and all public opinion was an overwhelming, “No” and continue to be an overwhelming “NO.”

This #30 out of Big Falls west from the Sturgeon River was just recently paved for this project. Take a Sunday drive and you will see, it is a road that anyone would have to ask, “Why the hell would anyone spend this kind of money paving this road when we have an entire bunch of legislators quibbling over where they will come up with money to take care of the roads we already have that are crumbling and full of potholes?” Then, this Pine Island Forest road has been “upgraded.” In fact it has been raised on average 3 to 6 feet right up to this mining site which is referred to as the “Old Pine Island Ranger Station.” All of this is out of sight and out of mind. A nice set up for anyone out to skin the taxpayers.

I must point out that everyone thought this project to strip-mine this last pristine bog in the lower forty-eight was a “dead deal.” Even Pegg Julson the head of the Little Fork, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ Office in whose district this strip-mining for peat is taking place was not aware that this project was going ahead until she read about it in the Duluth newspaper in December 2004… this past December!

In the winter of 2002 Red Lake Nation Chairman Butch Brun started looking to use the last remaining Casino license of the Red Lake Gaming Enterprises--- Red Lake has four such licenses. Congressman Oberstar hooked up Chairman Brun with “Shaky,” a Koochiching County Commissioner who wanted to get permits to go ahead with a peat-mining project which the Red Lake Nation has had a longtime historic opposition to--- these resolutions here prove that... Commissioner Merriam has these resolutions… or he should. Chairman Brun could now proceed with plans for a casino as long as he signed a letter dropping Red Lake’s opposition to the peat mining in the Pine Island State Forest.

And from here on out this is what happened…

Mr. Bill Brice, the head of the Lands and Minerals division of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources together with DNR Commissioner Gene Merriam approved the permit to mine the peat. How much Commissioner Merriam actually knows about this deal I am guessing is very little if anything. We won’t know until he speaks. So far he has remained mum. Mr. Brice assured me that he visited the mining site in the Pine Island State Forest before approving the permit. When I asked him what he did at the site he replied, “I drove by it.”

Now this is where things get very interesting. As I said, everyone concerned thought this deal was dead… Everyone. Why? Because the scientists--- from the EPA, the Army Corps, Red Lake DNR… everyone who studied the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) all exposed this as some kind of slick attempt to pass off corporate public relations for science. The Red Lake Nation at the time passed a very unambiguous resolution at the time.

So, what changed all of a sudden that got these permits approved? Did science change? No. Did the people of the Red Lake Nation change their position on this peat mining? No. What changed is that you now have Mr. Brun looking to build a casino in International Falls and you have this “Shaky” who is doing all this preparation to get this peat mining going. Both projects need help getting all kinds of federal red tape and permits. Enter Congressman Oberstar. The science hasn’t changed… but the politics have! And so an influential U.S. Congressman started flexing his political muscle.

All of a sudden you have the United States Army Corps of Engineers approving another required permit. Now, with the original scientist, Tom Gladzel--- retired, the United States Environmental Protection Agency stood by in silence as they accepted everything they were told by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers concerning this project that will destroy this bog. The strange thing is the United States Army Corps of Engineers relied for all of its information on a sleazy, incompetent Koochiching County official the local folks refer to as, “Shaky.” I know this all sounds incredible but you can pick up the phone and talk the Corps project manager for this peat mining operation, Mr. Smith in St. Paul.

The Red Lake Nation has had “historic opposition” to this project going back many years. Former, longtime serving Red Lake Nation Chairman Roger Jourdain explained that this bog, which is an ecosystem, is the “life-blood of my people and my nation.” Look, Mother Nature does not draw lines for her boundaries. Politicians may do this, but not Mother Nature. This statement from Roger Jourdain is a very powerful and strong statement. It is not an exaggeration. It is a true statement. It is a statement backed by scientific facts gathered by Tom Glatzel, now retired from the EPA, and Jeff Koshak, of the United States Army Corps of Engineers... the only two from their respective agencies who ever did the job out in the field at the site that we as taxpayers paid them to do.

Enter a letter from then Red Lake Nation Chairman, Gerald Brun to the Koochiching County Board of Commissioners, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (unbeknownst to Red Lake Council members or the people of the Red Lake Nation… and only now, under my pressure for public disclosure of the letter, made public by me; a letter the DNR, Army Corps, and EPA have tried to conceal from public scrutiny for two years). This letter signed off on the Red Lake Nation’s historic opposition to strip-mining the Big Bog; and wrote-off the tireless efforts of former Chairman Roger Jourdain to save and protect the Big Bog for the important resource and ecosystem that it is in its present pristine state that is worth more--- even in dollars--- as it is than being mined. And you know what, and this is even something the most stupid of all capitalists should be able to understand--- this pristine bog will become worth even more in terms of dollar value if for nothing else than the precious fresh water resource that it is! Not to mention the importance of this bog to the people of the Red Lake Nation as the primary aquifer and source of clean, fresh water; and, the social, cultural, spiritual, and economic benefit it is to the thousands of people who live and work on the Red Lake Nation whose incomes and culture depend on forestry, fishing, wild ricing, farming.

Congressman Oberstar has justified this project solely on the basis that it will provide forty jobs for the unemployed people living in and around the small community of Big Falls, Minnesota without giving one iota of consideration to how this strip-mining for peat project will impact the people of the Red Lake Nation… Congressman Oberstar did not even have the common decency or common courtesy to attempt to discuss this issue with the people of the Red Lake Nation before he used his congressional influence to twist arms to get the permits approved in this dirty, racist, backroom deal.

Let me just post this word up on the wall here because I am going to be using it frequently: RACISM.

Here we have resolution after resolution from the Red Lake Nation tribal council opposing strip mining the bog. Including this resolution of March 8, 2005. And how do the Army Corps of Engineers, Mr. Brice, and the EPA respond to reading this resolution? Their racist response is, “Oh well, the permits have been issued.”

You mean to tell me that I am living in the most democratic country on the face of planet earth, and public officials have no way of revoking permits issued in--- I was going to say issued in error--- but these permits were not issued in error, they have been issued by arrogant, racist acts of deceit with the intent to circumvent the democratic process.

Make no mistake… these Environmental Impact Statements are part of a hard fought for right that is now a fundamental cornerstone of our democracy. I urge you to appeal to Commissioner Merriam to revoke this permit and to urge him to implore legislators to bring the Big Bog under legislative protection with the understanding that this is a vital resource without equal; a resource that can not be valued in dollars; an ecosystem that is shared by the people of the Red Lake Nation and the people of the state of Minnesota!

Let our struggle for protection of the Big Bog serve as a warning to arrogant and racist public officials like Congressman Oberstar and Bill Brice that the people of Minnesota, together with the people of the Red Lake Nation will fight and struggle against the worst pollution of all: racism. Just as this peat mining threatens to pollute our waters; the racism involved in this dirty deal has polluted our political landscape.

But wait! It gets even better. If racism can “get better?” I thought in this day and age government agencies have the common sense to understand that their role is one of eliminating racism, not perpetuating racism! And let me be perfectly clear and not leave any ambiguities here--- approving and allowing this foreign company--- Berger, Limited out of Quebec, Canada--- to proceed with this strip-mining operation in the Big Bog located in the Pine Island State Forest is, in and of itself, an overt act of racism committed against Native Americans; but more than that… no--- worse than that--- this is what the United Nations refers to as an act of racist genocide against a nation of people… because it is a racist act perpetrated against a sovereign nation of First Nations Peoples with the express aim of destroying the people--- their economy, their culture, and their spirituality--- this is a nation!

First the United States government sends the United States Army out to steal the land from the First Nations People; then they hang those who fight to protect their homeland; then the Army chases the survivors onto a reservation; and now, along comes the United States Army Corps of Engineers to carry out the “final solution.” Only in America! And only in the state that executed 38 Dakotas in the largest mass execution in U.S. history for the crime of defending their homeland. Again, we have the Minnesota government engaged in a most vile, racist act against Indian People. I would challenge you to find a more vile, racist act in Minnesota history since that disgraceful mass execution in Mankato than what is taking place right here, right now, out in this pristine bog.

Look at this picture. Look at it good. These are your tax dollars at “work.” You are paying for this destruction. You are paying for this gross act of racism. All the time I hear from people, “We aren’t to blame for what happened a hundred or more years ago.” Well, this is happening here, and it is happening now. What are we going to do about this?

The Minnesota Division of Land and Minerals posted a notice asking for public comments in one single newspaper for four consecutive weeks announcing the closing date for public input as December 27, 2002. Isn’t this nice that Mr. Bill Brice gave Minnesotans notice that public input was being cut-off on December 27, 2002?

Here is the problem: The Red Lake Nation is almost 200 miles away from where this advertisement was run in the International Falls Daily Journal! How many readers do you suppose the International Falls Daily Journal has on the Red Lake Nation? I have asked Mr. Brice to supply me with the pertinent subscription information for paid and unpaid readers of the Daily Journal… I would assume the Daily Journal has such information available as I am sure they have the ability to sort by zip code. So far I have received no response from Mr. Brice.

Here is an interesting question: Why didn’t Mr. Brice run this notice in the Red Lake Nation News where he knew there was massive opposition to this project, not only from the elected leaders of the Red Lake Nation, but from among the thousands of Red Lakers themselves? Wouldn’t common sense and logic dictate that if you really want to hear from people you make sure you post the notice where those most likely to be affected will respond?

Based on the historic opposition that Mr. Brice acknowledges he was well aware of, I think it is quite legitimate to ask why the announcement seeking public input was not posted in the Red Lake Nation News? We need an answer to this question from Mr. Brice and DNR Commissioner Gene Merriam.

Further, had such notice been placed in the Red Lake Nation News, Chairman Brun’s letter would have been exposed at the time. It is the epitome of hypocrisy for Mr. Brice, the Army Corps, and the EPA to say, “Well we received this letter from Chairman Brun, so therefore Red Lake dropped its opposition,” when in fact they intentionally did not post public notice for public input in the Red Lake Nation News because they knew they would get heavy opposition! This is the worst kind of racism imaginable. It smacks of the same kind of “benign Anti-Semitism” of the Russian Tsar who pretended not to know that the pogroms were taking place while his underlings were ordering them.

Not only do we have an issue of state mandated and sponsored institutional racism that needs to be dealt with by having the permit to mine in the Pine Island State Forest of the Big Bog immediately revoked, but we now have the problem of institutionalized state sponsored racism combined with the problem of Mr. Brice and United States Congressman Oberstar subverting the democratic process; a process which we boast to the world that in this area we are second to none!

Think about it… here you have Mr. Brice, the head of the Land and Minerals Division of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources using tax-dollars to pay for an advertisement under the auspices of soliciting “public input” which is supposedly the foundation of our democracy and--- and the only safeguard we have to assure that an Environmental Impact Statement receives the challenges that it deserves is from this “public input”.
Think about this: There is only one reason for developing an Environmental Impact Statement… and that reason is to make sure that the project goals and objectives can stand up to any and all challenges. We must be perfectly clear, these challenges are not only in the area of science, but also in the areas of cultural, social, and spiritual impact… unless of course we are going to say the “United Nations’ Millennium Statement on the Environment is all wrong?”

Kofi Annan, the head of the United Nations has just proclaimed that defending the environment and defending our ecosystems that provide fresh water is part of the campaign to defend human rights, eliminate poverty, and protect the cultural connections people have with their ecosystems. When we judge the actions of U.S. Congressman James Oberstar and Mr. Brice in accordance with where the entire world stands on this question, what is the verdict? I would implore Commissioner Merriam to view this strip-mining permit he signed in this light, and now use his authority--- the authority which he has--- to revoke this permit.

And now Koochiching County Commissioners want to blow the small community of Margie completely off the map and destroy the rock formation it sits on for the purpose of getting more road building materials and rip-rap to complete the roads into the Big Bog strip-mining site so this huge foreign multi-national corporation can truck away the profits. Eventually, according to everything that has taken place, there will be a two-lane paved state highway to this site in the Pine Island State Forest at the “Old Ranger Station” so it is more convenient for Berger, Limited to haul away their profits--- as our resource, the Big Bog is destroyed. Why else would they have paved this stretch of road if they are still going to be hauling the peat down this stretch of gravel road? Come on, think about this. If you haul on gravel from here to here… does it really make any difference if you have to go this short distance to the Sturgeon River on gravel? These people are playing us all for fools here. They intend to build a two lane paved highway from Washkish to Big Falls… this is their intent.

I believe we are dealing with a strip-mining operation that will eventually consume approximately twelve to fifteen square miles. The handwriting is on the wall. No one undertakes this kind of road building and infrastructure expenditures to mine peat on 240 acres a year for fifty years!

Come on, these people are playing us all for fools. Congressman Oberstar should forget about strip-mining the peat from this bog and worry about how he is going to protect the futures of working people on the Range and up there in the Falls where Boise runs a company town and treats workers in the mill like disposable commodities… kind of like toilet paper… use it, abuse it, flush it. The Big Bog is not a disposable commodity like toilet paper.

The injustices are clear.

The issues are well defined.

Racism; Genocide; Environmental Destruction; poverty wages; union busting; circumventing the democratic process. This is raw capitalist globalization at its worst.

One has to wonder how human minds could possibly concoct such a hair-brained scheme to destroy this pristine bog and an entire Indian Nation in one fell swoop!

I guess leave it to a guy named, “Shaky.”

Why? For what?

Here is a clue; this is the International Falls Daily Journal dated Tuesday, March 1, 2005--- this newspaper is the mouthpiece for “wise use of natural resources” according to the Boise Corporation. This is the headline: “The secret is in the soil.” This headline might have been more aptly titled: “The profit is in the soil.” Then it would have been more truthful and we would have an easier time understanding why this strip-mining destruction of the Big Bog is taking place.

Longtime Congressman Jim Oberstar has held up forty jobs--- non-union, poverty wage jobs… part-time jobs at that because you can’t strip-mine peat in the winter when the ground is frozen--- as the bait to suck us into supporting this scheme. But what about the people of the Red Lake Nation, whose lives, income, and jobs have been built around this bog for hundreds of years, and who continue to rely upon this bog?

Let me just include here that the people of the Red Lake Nation have a much different approach to land ownership than many people do. Red Lakers for years have believed that the land belongs to the Nation and not to individual private owners. In my opinion, this has been the key to Red Lakers defending their sovereign nation status. Without this “common ownership” of the land this Nation might have been sold off piece-meal by now. In my opinion this is what strengthens our struggle to protect the Big Bog which is located in the Pine Island State Forest… to have allies and neighbors who understand “common ownership” of the land. As Minnesotans we should consider ourselves very fortunate to be sharing this bog with Red Lakers rather than with Boise, Potlatch or Koochiching County Commissioners like Mike “Shaky” Hanson.

Again, to quote former Red Lake Nation Chairman Roger Jourdain, “… This bog is the life-blood of my people; destroy this bog and you destroy my people, and our sovereign Red Lake Nation…What about Red Lakers, do they have a right to have a say in all of this?” As you look at this map, keep in your mind the fact that the Red Lake Nation shares ownership of the Big Bog with the people of the State of Minnesota; No one can say otherwise. This point is of paramount importance. Focus on this point. Mother Nature does not create well defined lines that a map-maker can pencil in when it comes to ecosystems. This is a shared bog and we are fortunate to be sharing this bog with people who understand its importance in the larger scheme of things because it is quite apparent the circus performers down in the cities do not understand.

Those who view this strip-mining of the Big Bog as a job-creating project are very, very shortsighted, because ultimately, the destruction of the Big Bog will destroy the very ecosystem that thousands of Minnesotans up in the North Country rely on for jobs in the forestry and related industries… again, just look the map--- this bog is the primary aquifer, just as Roger Jourdain asserted for many years. Destroy this aquifer and you destroy not only the Red Lake Nation… you destroy yourselves. There is a heavy price to pay for racism.

Like strip mining the bog for peat, racism just doesn’t pay for working people. Corporations profit from racism in many ways and working people always lose.

We don’t a need a foreign company offering more poverty-wage paying jobs up here in the North Country. We don’t need the jobs of a foreign company destroying this ecosystem. What we need is for the existing jobs to pay real living wages. We need forty-hour workweeks at real living wages; instead of 50 and 60-hour work weeks at poverty wages. Are there any lights going on upstairs in any heads? I wonder. Maybe the filaments in all the bulbs are burned out. Something to think about.

Unions need to organize the unorganized workers, not support the destruction of the Big Bog and more casino ventures when 14,000 to 20,000 Minnesotans now work in casinos without any rights, for poverty wages… many up here in the North Country. We need to win the right to collective bargaining and a union contract with Red Lake Gaming Enterprises, a business owned by the Red Lake Nation. I think when this casino issue comes to a vote that the people of the Red Lake Nation are going to show they have had it with the casino business. More and more people are recognizing that long term debt equals long term poverty. More and more people are coming to the realization that we don’t just need more jobs. We need real jobs that pay real living wages.

You see, these issues are intricately connected, just like the fragile ecosystems of the Big Bog… poverty wage paying employers stick together… it doesn’t matter who they are… defense of their profits at the expense of the workers they employ at cheap, poverty wages is the name of the game. The game is called capitalism. Capitalists will always sacrifice the welfare of the workers and the environment in quest of the almighty dollar.

Last year Bush went to Maine for Earth Day, and said he is doing better than saving wetlands… he is creating wetlands! All the while he knew the Big Bog was being destroyed because federal funds were being used to build the roads and dig the ditches.

This is the Alaska Wilderness being played out in our own backyard. Can we turn things around here in Minnesota? We have a chance to give real life to a new kind of politics that puts the needs of working people and our living environments before corporate profits as we struggle to save our bog.

There are only two known sources of wealth: Mother Nature and human labor. We cannot allow the continued rape of Mother Nature alongside the continued exploitation of human labor without challenging this in the same way we need to challenge this Environmental Impact Statement. To allow this situation to continue is foolish. We are in deep shit because of this and if we accept the present way of doing things we are only getting ourselves stuck deeper in a rut.

Talking about ruts. I don’t quite understand the logic of some people who call themselves environmentalists who will speak out in opposition to ATV’s making ruts in old logging roads but they are now quiet as a one square mile hole six to ten feet deep is being gouged out in the bog?
After subjecting the Big Bog to the destruction of strip-mining for the next thirty to fifty years, beginning with more than one square mile--- which likely will expand to include an area of many more square miles [again look at the location they are starting in and where the test holes have been dug] --- how will this last pristine bog in the lower forty-eight ever be replaced? Only a complete fool would talk of reclamation of such an enormous environmental destruction for corporate profits.

Look at the location… smack dad in the middle of three Scientific Natural Areas! Areas where you can’t pick a cranberry or kick over a pebble without getting fined.

And if reclamation were to be attempted… who will pay? If Berger, Limited, out of Quebec, Canada--- a huge multinational that operates world-wide will not even pay for the roads into the site or any of the preparatory work like land clearing; does anyone really believe this multi-national corporate pig is going to hang around to pay the costs for trying to reclaim the Big Bog to its natural state as those pushing this boondoggle, mired in racism and corruption, claim?

Wetlands and bogs are delicate ecosystems; once we destroy these ecosystems, we don’t replace, or reclaim them!

Wetlands and bogs are Mother Nature’s preventive medicines that help to heal ecological problems. We are killing the healer and throwing away the medicine. I guess in a country that doesn’t have socialized healthcare for the people we shouldn’t find it strange the corporate world views our living environment in any other way than in terms of trucking away the profits.
Wetlands and bogs are home to many species which include some of the most delicate plants, many trees, a myriad of insects, and many animals depend on these wetlands and bogs for survival. In fact, it is becoming increasingly clear that these wetlands and bogs play an important role in our own survival on planet earth.

I have taken pictures of moose in the Big Bog… Here is the picture of three moose, taken only a few miles from the mining site… here is where this picture was taken just this past fall… here is the mining site… here are pictures of moose tracks I photographed on the day I took this picture, just yards from where the dozer blade touched down. I have seen a pack of timber wolves out seeking their prey. I have watched fisher and marten seeking their next meal in the bog. As I photographed this destruction of the Big Bog I took photographs of fresh moose tracks not fifty feet from the devastation. Here is a picture of a dead fisher killed on number 30 going into Big Falls. I am sure these big double bottoms that will be hauling peat out of this bog twenty four hours a day seven days a week will be leaving behind lots of roadkill… something this EIS never considered. Beavers once called this home. Look, this is the beaver dam they broke and drained the impoundment… right on the entrance to the site. Mr. Smith the Army Corps project manager says he never saw a beaver damn. I don’t think Mr. Smith ever visited this site. The beavers have been poisoned out of their homes in order to dry out the peat so huge two-story vacuums pulled by huge tractors can suck up the peat as mercury is spewed into the atmosphere. Is this a good trade-off?

The mercury laden water will be drained through ditches into an intricate series of fens, creeks, and small streams until it finds its way into the Sturgeon, Tamarac, and Black Rivers--- carrying mercury contamination into the two Red Lakes (Upper and Lower) and into the Rainy River which flows into Lake of the Woods, where I live, fish, trap, and hunt--- on the edge of another bog.

Let me also point out another great boondoggle, because many of you have heard about the miraculous walleye recovery now underway in the Red Lakes due to a long drawn out restoration of this once tremendous fishery that provided many Red Lakers with income and included a co-operative fish processing plant owned and operated by Red Lakers where many people had good jobs.

But, what destroyed the fishery that existed up to not too many years ago? Many, like myself believe that it was the United States Government’s Army Corps of Engineers (the same outfit that Congressman Oberstar twisted arms to let permits for strip-mining the Big Bog) which placed “flood control structures, the one in this photo, including a dam at the outlet of Lower Red Lake, preventing normal spawning from taking place… and then blaming Red Lakers for over harvest, which I am sure was a factor, but not the primary factor that led to destroying this fishery. Now you will be able to catch huge 26” to 30” walleye and many good eaters, again… the problem is… what will you be eating? Mercury contaminated fish with mercury levels continually rising due to strip-mining the Big Bog. Are we supposed to say, “Yummy, yummy, yummy?”

Already family doctors are warning pregnant women not to eat fish from local waters because of high levels of mercury. Does it make any sense that we would intentionally cause these levels of mercury to raise just as the fishery is making a comeback?

I’m not a gambler, but if I was… and if I was really interested in creating jobs, I would put the money now being wasted on this peat strip-mining boondoggle, and give it to the Red Lake DNR for projects to overcome all the problems created by what the United States government and the state of Minnesota have done over the years to harm and hamper the efforts of the Red Lake Nation to resolve the problems forced on their Nation over many years--- problems created by our state and federal governments--- the best governments that corporate money can buy! What we would all learn would be money well spent.

As we approach Earth Day 2005, I think we all owe a debt of gratitude to the long legacy left to us by Roger Jourdain who so eloquently showed us the way to defend our ecosystems. This legacy makes a mockery of the “wise use” policies that have been forced upon us by the Pillsburys, the Washburns, the Weyhausers, The Boise Corporations and the Potlatch’s over many, many years. The legacy left to us by Roger Jourdain who pioneered the real “environmental movement” in teaching us to understand that civilization can advance in harmony with Mother Nature. That is a very important concept; quite different from the perverted “wise use” concept promoted by the corporations and their flunkies who they have placed in control of our natural resources... and our schools.

Wetlands and bogs protect our fragile ecosystem in many ways.
How we treat wetlands and bogs are indicators of how humankind interacts, and respects Mother Nature.

Big business views bogs and wetlands as wasted lands. They see only potential corporate profits in wetlands and bogs… only when they are drained and mined or have shopping malls built atop them are they of value.

Wetlands and bogs are drained into straight running ditches to enable corporate agribusiness to farm from fencerow to fencerow, and to strip-mine peat--- this contributes to flooding, and higher levels of mercury contamination.

Wetlands are drained to make way for mines, shopping malls and factories, thus destroying wildlife habitat and nesting areas for ducks and geese.

Wetlands and bogs are separated from the streams, rivers, and lakes they replenish. Roadways become dikes, destroying spawning areas for fish.

If you think United States Congressman Jim Oberstar understands anything about ecosystems I would urge you to go visit the Hibbing Taconite operation and see where they drain all the wastes. This guy is a real Democrat in the true meaning of the word going back to the days when the Democratic Party in Minnesota supported slavery and the complete rape of the land. There is nothing Farmer-Labor about this guy. He doesn’t even know that “L” is for “Labor.” Look at the Range under his leadership… it looks just like Appalachia and working people face the same kind of poverty they do in Appalachia… Oberstar’s ideas about the environment and labor are no different from that great philanthropic Democrat in West Virginia… Mr. Rockefeller… pits, poverty, pollution! I have been to Appalachia many times; my grandmother and grandfather are buried in that little cemetery in Gilbert, Minnesota overlooking the destruction wrought by Mr. Rockefeller and his gang of capitalist plunderers. I tell you… the environment and the social conditions of the Range and Appalachia are identical… only the dialects of peoples voices are different and coal is black and taconite is grey… the poverty, the pits, the pollution… its all the same; whether I stand on my grand parents grave or on top of “Old Smoky,” as a worker it looks the same. And this is no coincidence. The Rockefeller boot print is what has shaped the politics of Minnesota… from logging to mining and the railroads to the statehouse… so it is no coincidence that we are left with pits, poverty, and pollution here in Minnesota just like they have in the coal fields of West Virginia. Congressman Oberstar has been a get along, go along kiss ass to the Rockefellers from the day he was elected. He talks a good talk but it ends there. He should now resign or face a stiff challenge from a real Farmer-Laborite.

Massive bogs are turned into “horticultural development areas” and stripped of the peat for profit--- altering ecosystems that it took Mother Nature millions of years to create. These large bogs are like “sponges” that absorb melting snow and heavy rains. When we lose these “sponges” the result is flooding. When we lose the water that these bogs hold--- lakes and rivers and forests lose the water they need to recover during periods of lesser snowfalls, rains, and periods of drought.

These bogs are natural “Brita” filters for water we drink. Do any of you have one of those expensive plastic jugs called a “Brita Filter” at home? Here is a “Brita water filter” that I paid six dollars for… here in this picture is our bog… it filters the water for free. State Representative Brita Sailer might keep this in mind as she refuses to move forward to create legislation to protect the Big Bog by saying the strip-mining is taking place in Representative Irv Anderson’s district, and he refuses to address this issue; he won’t even return calls. Why is it so difficult for Brita Sailer and other legislators to understand, that we are talking about the health of an entire bog, a complete ecosystem that other ecosystems depend upon? Why is it so hard for Minnesota legislators to look at a map to understand that the Big Bog is jointly shared and owned by the Red Lake Nation and the State of Minnesota? Look at a map; see for yourself. The Big Bog is jointly shared and owned, just like I say. When a resource is jointly shared and owned one partner does not have the right to determine how that resource should be used or protected--- in this case destroyed. Partners make joint decisions. And I don’t think you want a foreign multi-national corporate pig making your decision for you? I know I don’t!

We have a circus supreme in St. Paul right now… and I am not talking about the Shrine Circus or Dr. Seuss’, “Circus MaGircus.” I would suggest that as we fight to stop any further destruction of the Big Bog we think about creating a new kind of political movement that places the needs of people and the environment before corporate profits. Look at the circus down there, you be the judge. You want to see this continue?

In my opinion we need to closely study the political legacies of Roger Jourdain, Floyd B. Olson, Elmer Benson, and John Bernard. In my opinion, we need to be thinking about building an alternative to the two parties of big-business that only have environmental destruction and poverty wages to offer while corporate pigs wallow in the profits and control the wealth that Mother Nature and human labor create together.

What can I say… look at this circus in the Cities… instead of raising the minimum wage to a living wage they want more casinos paying poverty wages; instead of creating a publicly owned wind energy manufacturing and power generating industry they want to use valuable farmland to grow corn to fuel gas guzzling automobiles instead of using farmland to grow crops to feed people… and these are the great-great-grandchildren of those who conquered this continent and told the First Nation Peoples they didn’t know how to use the resources wisely and needed to be “civilized” and “educated,” notice I put civilized and educated in quotes. We have the stupid teaching more stupidity. If you will mouth the corporate line without challenging it you qualify to teach in any college or university… if you don’t believe me go sit in the classrooms right here at Northland Community and Technical College… you will be taught racism and the virtues of this rotten capitalist system; and you will be instructed not to challenge the rest of the flunkies the capitalist have hired to run their rotten system.

I don’t want to run down all teachers because there are many that are bucking the system… but as a general rule they aren’t. I don’t want to get away from environmental issues… but you know, education is a major factor in environmental issues… how many school buses do you see carrying kids from their classrooms out to the Big Bog destruction where the kids can really see for themselves and get a real lesson in ecosystems and environmentalism together with political science and economics all at the same time?

I was driving up Highway 46 north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, actually five miles north of Squaw Lake--- the other day, right here on the map, and I saw a huge sign that read: “Timber harvest in progress to improve wildlife habitat.” While logging is needed by modern society, we should not justify what we are doing--- and trick ourselves into thinking that what we are doing is for the benefit of Mother Nature, or to improve wildlife habitat--- when it is really being done to improve the human condition, and more often then not with one, and only one, objective in mind… to bolster corporate profits in the shortest time, at minimal costs, and with virtually no long term planning or the protection of ecosystems in mind.

The only program the Bush/Pawlenty Administrations have when it comes to our living environment, is to say, “The hell with the environment and protection of delicate ecosystems; full speed ahead to grab maximum profits from Mother Nature using workers paid poverty wages.”

Did you know Pawlenty has contracted out reforestation projects in Minnesota, including tree planting, to “independent contractors” who hire cheap labor from South America? These “independent contractors” pay these tree planters by the job--- which amounts to less than $2.50 per hour! At least that is more than those cutting balsam boughs and those making Christmas wreaths--- by the piece--- with the balsam boughs earn! What is Minnesota coming to? The poverty wage capital of North America where you can’t even get a drink of fresh water?

Bush and Big Business exploit both our labor and Mother Nature… ruining the lives of working people and destroying Mother Nature and our living environment in the process. Worse yet, in the case of the Big Bog an entire nation, the Red Lake Nation faces destruction right along with the Big Bog… as I have said, the United Nations has a name for this: racist genocide.

Think about this: there are only two sources of wealth--- one is Mother Nature, the other is Human Labor… under this capitalist system both are abused and exploited for corporate profit. In fact, greatest corporate profits are derived when cheap human labor is used to rape the land! What does that say about a social/economic system? Not much, in my opinion, other than we need to get rid of the system.

The one and only objective of Big Business is maximum corporate profits… this is the nature of the economic system that Floyd B. Olson and Elmer Benson, Minnesota’s Farmer-Labor Party Governors, told us needed replacing over 70 years ago. They were right then; and this is proving even more correct in our times as capitalist globalization is laying claim to, and destroying our living environment… and us in the process.

On this Earth Day 2005, come take a walk out in our Big Bog… you be the judge; what is in store for our children and our grandchildren and the many generations to come if we allow this destruction of the Big Bog to continue?

Will President Bush, Governor Pawlenty, and Congressman Oberstar come to pose in bi-partisan unity with the destruction of the Big Bog as their backdrop on Earth Day 2005? Have you ever seen the pictures of all the students from a school taken by a photographer from up on the school roof?… Well, right at the edge of the strip-mining operation there is a stand that I understand has been used by a nature photographer over the years as she photographed moose, beaver, black bear, and timber wolves. Let’s ask all Minnesota legislators to come and have their pictures taken where moose used to stand… where a large cat, not a cougar, but a huge Caterpillar has begun to make way for the strip-mining to proceed. Let’s see how such a picture will play out in the next election? What politician will campaign for re-election using their photo in the midst of the Big Bog destruction?

I asked the manager of the Big Bog State Park to hold the picture of the Big Bog destruction I took while I photographed him holding the picture… naturally, he begged off.

Why is Brita Sailer pushing for a Big Bog Interpretive Center to the tune of millions of dollars when the destruction of the Big Bog is underway without her objections or offering legislation to stop it? Do her plans call for building a boardwalk out to the strip-mining so tourists can gawk at the huge machines as they tear up the Big Bog and vacuum up the profits? Leroy Stumpf?… another lost cause.

Will Congressman Oberstar invite the people of the Red Lake Nation to come out to the Big Bog on Earth Day 2005 for a picnic lunch and pass out hotdogs like the bank did at the IGA in Red Lake and then pick up and leave? Will environmental organizations come out into the destruction of the Big Bog to set up their tables with literature and displays?

Did you know that there was no meaningful Conservation Department or Department of Natural Resources in the State of Minnesota until popular, socialist Floyd B. Olson, the Farmer-Labor Party Governor of Minnesota, established it in the 1930’s? These were the days when the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party really stood for something. In those days people understood that capitalism was in its twilight and was going the way of the setting sun; and people were aware that cooperative socialism would replace this rotten capitalist system as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow. The Red Finns understood all of this.

Today, amid--- and due to--- all the confusion sown by those who administer our schools and those who control the media, things are not as clear anymore. There is muddle-headed thinking not only among university professors, but also in the ranks of our own labor movement. Quite frankly, I find the racist remarks directed towards the people of the Red Lake Nation from some of my sisters and brothers in the labor movement disgusting as we discuss this strip-mining in the Big Bog. There seems to be little understanding of class; and even less understanding that racism is tearing our labor movement apart. Our goal should be to build bridges to a cooperative socialist society, and a better world… we need to build a bridge that all working people can cross--- together. Racism and the lack of understanding of the class struggle makes it damn near impossible for us, as working people, to advance a progressive agenda that includes peace; single-payer, universal healthcare; the protection of our living environment with real jobs, that pay real living wages… we haven’t even touched wind generation of power… and, like I said, Minnesota legislators are so damn dumb that they don’t even understand that farmland is to grow food for people, not to produce fuel for gas guzzling automobiles… talk about stupidity!

Not understanding how all these puzzle pieces fit together makes it much more difficult for people to fight back and struggle for what is decent, right, and just.

Think about this: What could possibly be a more moral issue--- a family issue--- than saving the Big Bog from destruction at the hands of a greedy multi-national corporation? Yet, the same congressman, Jim Oberstar, who is against a woman’s right to choose… has orchestrated this dirty, racist backroom deal that will destroy an entire nation of people and carry with it mercury contamination that will deform the very fetuses he claims he wants to protect. Again, sheer stupidity. Have Minnesota politicians no shame in what they are doing? Something is screwed up. This is a United States Congressman now representing the Iron Range where John Bernard, the real Farmer-Labor Congressman during the 1930’s joined those in the mines, the forests, and the mills in organizing labor unions and fought to have the rights of Native Americans respected.

This is but one example of the way we have paid dearly for the sixty years of unfinished business… McCarthyism. I am a Red Finn and proud of it.
We must question what is going on in our state, and our country. We must begin to ask why all of this is going on.

Minnesota Farmer-Labor Governor Floyd B. Olson used to tour Minnesota stating, “Give me just one generation of boys and girls who are naturally predisposed to be inquisitive and eager to learn and let them be educated in the spirit of science and inquisitiveness; and we will have eliminated racism and exploitation for the future generations to come.” Now--- more than ever, we again need such a vision and voice to come forward from the ranks of our labor movement.

I bet you won’t find a voice like mine on the panel put together for the Earth Day event at the St. Paul Labor Speakers Forum. Why not? It is voices like mine and like yours that built the labor movement.

On this Earth Day 2005, make plans to bring your children out to the Big Bog up here in northern Minnesota. Let them see for themselves the destruction of the Big Bog now underway. Take the time to explain to your children why this destruction and the associated injustices are taking place; and we will have that generation of young people who will grow to adulthood putting an end to this rotten system that does these kinds of things against the environment and the human race.

Earth Day 2005…

Find a way to make Earth Day 2005 a day to protest the destruction of the Big Bog.

Join us on the Walleye Opener in Washkish, Minnesota on the shores of Upper Red Lake, the gateway to the Big Bog to say “NO” to this destruction.

We cannot do anything to heal the wounds of the Big Bog that have been ripped open by the huge machines driven by corporate greed; united, the people can halt further destruction and make these greedy corporate pigs pay for the destruction they have already caused.

Please take a few moments to call or e-mail:
Minnesota State Senator John Marty, the Chair of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources: 1-800-920-5867
Phone: 651-296-5645
E-mail: sen.john.marty@senate.mn

Carlos Mariani, the DFL Lead on the House Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources:
Phone: 651-296-9714
E-mail: rep.carlos.mariani@house.mn

Or e-mail DNR Commissioner Gene Merriam: gene.merriam@dnr.state.mn.us

Commissioner Merriam has full authority to revoke this peat mining permit. He should use that authority now.

As you begin to plant your gardens, do not purchase any Scott products or Miracle Grow Products because Berger, Limited is Scott’s and Miracle Grow's supplier of peat products.

… Let them know you want action in the form of legislation to stop the destruction of the Big Bog and to give this pristine bog the protection it requires--- forever.

After Earth Day comes May Day. For May Day take your children to the Iron Range. Visit historic Mesaba Co-op Park, built by the cooperative organizations of the Red Finns. Take your children to the cemeteries on the Range where many of the gravestones they step upon will be the gravestones of those who gave birth to the real Farmer-Labor Party. The old Red Finns like my grandpa and grandma and the thousands like them, ordinary working people who had the courage to think for themselves rather than letting the boss do their thinking for them… they won’t mind you stepping on their graves… they will smile, knowing a new generation is rising up, a generation that will have no choice but to fight for socialism if they want to survive.

Capitalism is the system of the bankers, the mine owners, the Bergers, and the casino operators; socialism is the workers’ system of protecting our living environment and of living wages, of quality public education, and universal healthcare.

As we look around this room we might be inclined to say, “What can this small group of twenty or so people do confronting these looming problems that seem so huge?” This is how movements begin. One, by one, by one. We talk and from here you go out and talk to your friends. How many people will each of you talk to in the next week… count them all… your children, your friends and neighbors, your co-workers… you might talk to twenty people or more in the coming week. Get a few photocopies of some of these things I have here made, pass them around. From this small group of 20 we will reach out to 400 people! This is the way movements grow. Movements have to be nurtured and given tender loving care, just like the tomato seeds you plant and the garden you will tend. We can make a difference. We can change things… If we work at it… together.

I appreciate the opportunity you have given to me to speak here today in Thief River Falls, home to the historic Floyd B. Olson Memorial Park.

I hope you will join us in trying to halt any further destruction of the Big Bog.

Again, thank you for giving me a forum and the opportunity to express my views; the opportunity denied me by the Minnesota AFL-CIO.

Let us work together to make Earth Day 2005 a day to remember.
Since I spoke here in Thief River Falls last I have learned that in the early 1900’s Thief River Falls had a socialist city government. Someday soon the red flag will fly over city hall here again. But for now pick up one of the new blue Legislative Manuals spread out over tables. They are free. We need to build a powerful movement to stop this destruction of the bog and there is a lot of useful information to help us do that in these manuals.

I hope you will all stick around. We are going to play a short movie about Minnesota Farmer-Labor Congressman John Bernard. The short video is called, “A Common Man’s Courage.”

I will be happy to take any questions or engage in a discussion about anything.

Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Red Lake Casino, Hotel, and Restaurant Employees’ Union Organizing Committee


“A union contract is better than a government anti-poverty program, and it costs the taxpayers a lot less…Four rolls of quarters, per employee, per hour; this is all it will take for casino workers to have real living wages, real benefits, and a voice at work… this is what we are fighting for.”
Alan L. Maki, addressing a group of Minnesota Legislators