Groundwork began at a Green Bay gathering to create a network for native activists working on environmental concerns in the Great Lakes.

An interim steering committee calling themselves the Great Lakes Indigenous Environmental Network agreed at the early November gathering to work on the development of a network organization.

Like its parent group, the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), the Great Lakes regional IEN will be designed to respond to environmental threats to native grassroots people and communities.

There are over 150 native villages in the Great Lakes and other watersheds in the Midwest. Great Lakes IEN will provide ways for support and communications between these geographically diverse villages.

The Great Lakes IEN steering committee expects to complete work on organizational documents by spring and anticipates hosting an annual gathering each summer or fall. In the meantime, they will use the existing umbrella of the national IEN office to respond to ongoing issues.

The National Office has already been involved in the region including work on a toxic dump at Bad River, a mining threat in Mole Lake, a chemical threat at Walpole Island, work with the First Nations Environmental Network, and the Eagle Project of the Assembly of First Nations. They have also provided support and testimony at recent meetings of the International Joint Commission.

Laura Menthe (Oneida) is the current delegate to the national IEN council and was reaffirmed as the lead Great Lakes IEN contact. She's agreed to help facilitate the organizational development.

National IEN Coordinator Tom Goldtooth offered organizational support from the national office in Bemidji, Minnesota. He will assign national lEN staff person Charlotte Caldwell to work with the Great Lakes steering committee.

In the first action of the Great Lakes Regional lEN, the delegates adopted the Albuquerque Declaration - an indigenous response to concerns over climate change and global warming.

Letter by IEN's New National Council Member Representing the Great Lakes Regional IEN

Seku, my name is Laura Manthe and I an the regional representative for the Great Lakes Regional IEN, a member of the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin, and I work for the Tribe as the Coordinator for the Environmental Resources Board.

We get a lot of information in our office regarding many environmental issues, but I would like to take this time to write about the hot topic of the Y2K computer problem or "Millenium Bug" as some people call it. (The "Y" means year and "K" means 1000, so Y2K means 2000). You may not have heard about it before now because it does not get big media attention. It's a computer problem we all will face even if we don't own a computer. It's a problem we must all work on together with our communities if we are going to survive the possible halt of all modern conveniences by the middle of next winter. We, as women and caretakers of the family, need to prepare for the loss of heat, lights, refrigerators, air conditioners and running water on New Year's Eve, 1999 because the computers may simply stop working. They may stop working because of a programming problem and we don't know how long they will be down.

Many computer programmers only used two numbers for the dates in computers so 1973 is just 73 and 1999 is 99; when 2000 comes around the computers that have this problem are called "non-compliant" computers.

My aunt invited me over to watch a video she had purchased from C-SPAN. She bought it after watching the Senate Hearing on the Y2K problem on June 15th. She insisted our family get together and plan how we were going to survive. We are now working on a plan for each individual and as a family.

After watching the video and taking some notes I got really scared. It was amazing to listen to one expert after another testify that the computers will not be fixed before Dec. 31, 1999 for the basic necessities of life: (utilities) no power means no water, no sewer, (telecommunications) no power means no phones, no faxes, no internet; (transportation) no power means airlines can't fly planes, trains can't run because railroad switches are all computerized, and newer cars may not run if they have computers, oil and gas need electricity to flow from the pump to your car; (financial systems) no power means no electric transfer on money (State and Federal payments to veterans, retirees, child support payments, direct deposit paychecks, etc.); and (government services) no power means no health care, no police, no fire, and no defense. The core infrastructure of the Nation may all have "embedded systems." Embedded systems within some larger piece of equipment, such as power stations, oil refineries, telephone switches, burglar alarms, emergency room equipment, air traffic control systems. Military defense gear, and chemical plants among others. There are an estimated 25 billion embedded chips; of these, 50 million are non-compliant.

I was shocked. How could this happen? Why didn't someone fix it? Ho do we know for sure this is really going to happen to us? I didn't understand the depth of this problem until I received my June 25th issue of Rachel's Environment and Health Weekly #604 and the July 2, #605 issue. It explained the problem in depth and had many quotes like -
calls Y2K "a crisis without precedent in human history' and Merrill Lynch, the financial management company, says "When the millenium arrives, many computer systems and global networks will fail because of an inability to properly interpret days beyond 1999." Please call Rachel's at (410)263-11584 or email erf@rachel.org and request these two issues then visit the websites listed to get more information. I recommend http://www.y2kwomen.com. It is written just for women.

Since that day in June we have been clipping newspaper articles and talking with people about the issue. We make copies of all the information and give it to people who are interested. I asked the Tribal MIS (Management Information Systems) person in our tribal building what he thought of the potential problem. He told me not to worry, then admitted that he was going to take a few hundred dollars out of the bank in December 1999 just in case.

I've received information from my investment company telling me they are Y2K compliant. I called a friend at the local electric company and asked him what he thought. He said they are working on it and everything should be fine. But I still have doubts. I plan for the worst and hope for the best. I read the Land, Air, and Sea newspaper that the Federal Government puts out to all of the departments who work for the Interior Office. They said they were launching a "Personal Awareness Campaign" for federal employees on Oct. 1. We sent an email to the Office of Information Resources to get information. We were told to contact Eddie Socks at the BIA in Albuquerque, NM on the computer at Ed Socks@~IBIA He should have something November 1. So we are waiting, planning, organizing, asking questions and buying things like solar panels, food dehydrators, wood stoves, extra canned goods, cigarettes and coffee to trade just in case things get really ugly at the grocery store next December when the media really picks up on this.

I read somewhere that only 10% of the population who are aware of this issue believe this is really going to happen. The other 90% who believe that told me, "they will fix it." My question is: Who are "they?" and why do "they" care about me? I don't think this is going to bee a one-day event; I think we are in big trouble and it is time to look to our elders for advice and guidance. They are the keys to our survival. They know what it is like to haul water, cook over a wood stove and live without the things we take for granted every day.

I was listening to the radio in September. Pat Boone came on the air and was advertising a Y2K hotline. I called 1-888-492-5277 (toll free) and received a free booklet and an audiocassette explaining the problem further. It also listed more web pages and had a book list for more information. Please make this call and order the Y2K CPR kit. Talk about this with your family and the people you care about. I may be completely wrong on this one but at least I'll be ready in case it does happen.

See you at the next IEN conference (June 10-13, 1999 near Mt. Taylor, New Mexico).

Signed,
Laura Manthe