Western Mining Action Network and Indigenous Environmental Network Indigenous Communities Mining Mini-Grant Program
The goal of the mini-grants program is to support and enhance the capacity building efforts of mining-impacted indigenous communities to assure that mining projects do not adversely affect human, cultural, and the ecological health within their traditional territories.The applicant must be an indigenous community organization with limited funds and has demonstrated the capacity to successfully carry out the project. Individual grants will not exceed $4,000 U.S. and cannot be used for general programmatic or operating expenses.
WMAN/IEN Indigenous Communities Mini-grants program criteria:
1. Applications will be taken at fixed times during the year (October 1, 2008; February 1, 2009, October 1, 2009, etc.)
2. Indigenous-led, indigenous community-based organizations, and Tribes or Tribal programs in the U.S. and Canada with any budget level may apply. However, if there are more applicants than funds available, priority will be given to indigenous organizations with an organizational or mining-specific project budget under $75,000 U.S.; priority will also be given to Indigenous community-based grassroots groups.
3. Requests must be project-specific for an immediate need such as legal assistance, organizing and outreach, development of campaign materials, media development, reports, travel, mailings, etc. to be fulfilled within the next four months on a specific mining campaign. Funds cannot be used for an organization’s general operating funds, staff salaries, rent or telephone bills.
4. Applicants who have received funds twice during the previous two grant cycles will be given lower priority than new organizations and programs. This will not apply to “emergency” grants.
5. Each grant issued will not exceed $4,000.
6. Funding recipients must submit a brief report detailing how funds were spent before the next grant cycle begins (4 months from the grant cycle deadline). Reporting on use of grant funds is extremely important. Failure to submit a report in a timely fashion or to make arrangements for a report extension will significantly lower chances for said organization to receive grants from the Indigenous Environmental Network/Western Mining Action Network Indigenous Mining Grant funds in the future. Click here to download the application. (MS Word Doc)
Any questions? Please contact Sarah Keeney, WMAN Network Coordinator at (503) 327-8625 or sarahekeeney@comcast.net or Simone Senogles, Indigenous Environmental Network, (218) 751-4967 or simone@ienearth.org.
Profile: Mining Minigrant Receipent - Keepers of the Water
"Keepers of the Water, an Indigenous-led, grassroots organization, originally began in the summer of 2006 with weekly traditional Ojibwe women’s teachings ending with a water ceremony on Gichigami (Lake Superior). We work mainly in a spiritual way, guided by sacred Ojibwe traditions, to protect the nibi (water).
In January 2007, the need to become official and act politically arose when we were asked to send a resolution (against a proposed metallic sulfide mine) to the governor. Since then, we have been actively working to protect the water in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and surrounding Great Lakes from metallic sulfide and uranium mining."
Last month using an Indigenous Environmental Network/Western Mining Action Network Indigenous Mining Mini-Grant (funded by Oxfam America) along with other funding, Keepers of the Water, Yellowdog Summer and Students Against Sulfide Mining held the "Protect the Earth Summit" to voice their oposition to Metallic Sulfide and Uranium Mining, and to advocate for the honoring of Treaty Rights and the Protection of the land and water.
Mine foes hold rally at Eagle RockBy MIRIAM MOELLER, Journal Staff Writer - August 4, 2008MARQUETTE - A group of 120 anti-mining activists gathered below Eagle Rock on the Yellow Dog Plains Sunday morning, blessing the land and protesting a planned nickel and copper mine nearby. "Since the 1600s the Ojibwe people have long lived and made their homes in the Upper Great Lakes region," said Susan LaFernier, vice president of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, adding that in 1842 the United States government bought the land in the plains but left treaty rights to the Indian community. "These are rights that we have always had as the first people to occupy these lands, and I am certain that their intent for all people was to honor and respect this creation and not to blast and tunnel underneath this sacred rock and under a fish-filled river." The rally was part of a two-day Protect the Earth Summit, organized by several local environmental groups, including Yellowdog Summer, Keepers of the Water, Save the Wild U.P. and Students Against Sulfide Mining. Click here to read the rest of the article.Click here to view the Protect The Earth Agenda |
 Stan Spruce of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community holds up a water staff with eagle feathers at Sunday’s Protect the Earth rally on the Yellow Dog Plains. (Journal photo by Miriam Moeller) |
Anti-mining summit held
Gathering steamBy MIRIAM MOELLER Journal Staff Writer - August 3, 2008
MARQUETTE - Al Gedicks of the University of Wisconsin LaCrosse said through "Protect the Earth" gatherings such as the kind held in Marquette this weekend a proposal for an underground zinc-copper-lead mine in Crandon, Wis., was stopped in 2003.
"We learned from each other," Gedicks said during his presentation at the "Protect the Earth Summit," organized by the local environmental group Save the Wild U.P. on Saturday. "We developed trust based upon a common goal to stop the project."
The summit was held to bring together communities concerned over metallic sulfide or uranium mining and was motivated by a nickel and copper mine planned for the Yellow Dog Plains near Big Bay.
Gedicks - author of several books, including one on indigenous land and mineral issues - spoke to a crowd of 40 people from all over the Midwest and Canada about how communities can come together and successfully protect their lands.
Gedicks focused his arguments around the metallic mine initially proposed by Exxon in the 1970s in northeastern Wisconsin near the city of Crandon. Gedicks said the mine was proposed in a water rich area and could have affected communities 40 miles downstream.
Five American Indian tribes owned land bordering the proposed mine area, he said. Through an organized effort of tribal members, rural residents, farmers, labor unions and students, the mine was never build, he said.
"We presented the mining industry with a coalition they had never seen before," Gedicks said. "They were shocked that we had a global reach just like they do."
In the 20-year battle, the environmental movement against the Crandon mine proposal became so prominent that even people in South Africa and Australia - who had been affected by other mining projects - supported the fight, Gedicks said.
In 1998 Wisconsin approved a mining moratorium that caused Exxon to pull out of the state, Gedicks said. He added that Wisconsin is now on the bottom of the list for states giving reception to mining industries. Michigan is not on the list.
In 2003, the Mole Lake Sokaogon Chippewa and the Forest County Potawatomi tribes purchased the proposed mine site and later 5,000 acres near the site.
"No one is ever going to develop a mine in Crandon," Gedicks said. "This was the first time anywhere in the world a large cooperation was defeated."
Gedicks said that despite the diversity of people in race, class and region, they overcame their differences because they fought a common goal. In fact, he said native communities and "white" communities that had been battling over treaty rights for fishing and hunting, were brought closer together.
Bob Tammen of Soudan, Minn., said he agreed with Gedicks' presentation. He added that there are proposed metallic sulfide mines in Minnesota that he and others are fighting.
Rosemary Grier of Houghton attended the summit with several friends as part of Friends of the Land of Keweenaw.
Grier said her community successfully fought a proposed paper pulp mill along Keweenaw Bay in 1990.
"That did not go in because of education on the issue," she said, emphasizing that truthful education on both sides of an issue is crucial. "Information is power. That's what all of us need to make: educated decisions on how we live and what we do."
The Summit continues this morning with a walk to Eagle Rock in the Yellow Dog Plains - a spot near the site of the planned metallic sulfide mine.
PROTECT THE EARTH - A SUCCESS!
A Protect the Earth Summit sponsored by Yellow Dog Summer, Keepers of the Water, and Students Against Sulfide Mining was held this weekend, August 2 and 3. The summit began with workshops and a rally and culminated with a walk to Eagle Rock on the Yellow Dog Plains, accompanied by blueberry picking. Nearly 140 citizens from Upper and Lower Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ontario attended the walk to Eagle Rock.
"This weekend's Earth Summit marked a turning point for the movement to protect our land and water from metallic sulfide and uranium mining. Wisconsin stopped metallic sulfide mining, and the power of that movement was realized in the diversity and unity of the local people, and diversity and unity are exactly what Protect the Earth gatherings are all about. Protect the Earth proved that dangerous mining is not a done deal in the UP, Minnesota or anywhere, as long as communities are willing to work together." Gabriel Caplett (Yellow Dog Summer).
Click here to read Gabriel's letter to the editor in the Marquette Mining Journal |
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