Scientists Say Klamath Basin Water Agreements Threaten Survival of Klamath River Salmon

Editor's Note:  This is the first in a series of posts concerning the longrunning battle for water in the Klamath Basin and the Klamath River.  Although this press release was issued in March of 2008, we are publishing it because it sets forth a scientific basis for the concerns environmental organizations and several affected Indian Tribes have regarding the so-called "agreements" that are titled the "Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement" and "Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement."  On December 14, 2009, the NEC pulled out of the settlement talks altogether, citing concerns that the proposed agreements were too weak to actually protect the Klamath River and its salmon.  For the latest news on this and other environmental issues that impact Indian tribes in northwestern California, go to NEC's ECONEWS.

The Klamath Basin ecosystem includes Upper Klamath Lake, Lower Klamath Lake, Tule Lake and the Klamath, Williamson, Sprague and Lost Rivers which feed and drain them.  These lakes comprise the Klamath Wildlife Refuges system, the largest and most important resting and feeding stop for millions of waterfowl on the Pacific Flyway.  Almost all of the land and water in question was a part of the aboriginal territory of the Modoc Indian Tribe until it was seized by the federal government during the Modoc Indian War of 1872-73.  The Modoc Indians, a federally recognized tribe, are currently working to secede from the political confederation known as the Klamath Tribes, set up their own separate government, and reassert tribal sovereignty over these lakes, rivers and wildlife refuges.  Their long-term goal is to restore them to their natural condition. - Perry H. Chesnut, Editor, NRN

 

News Release

NEC Rejects Klamath Agreement

Top scientists say Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement is flawed, and could prevent fish recovery, without guaranteed downstream flows

Contact: Greg King, Executive Director

Northcoast Environmental Center

707-822-6918

Science Contacts:

Dr. Bill Trush: 707-826-7794 x. 12 Dr. Thomas Hardy: 435-797-2824

Greg Kamman: 415-491-9600

March 3, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Arcata, CA — The Northcoast Environmental Center (NEC) will not support the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement as it is currently written, the NEC’s Board of Directors decided in late February. The NEC, which has worked for 37 years to protect the Klamath River and its fishery, is concerned that the Agreement does not contain a guarantee of water for fish nor even a goal for fish recovery. Yet the Agreement would give farmers in the upper Klamath basin an unprecedented guaranteed allotment of water for irrigation.

The decision not to support the Restoration Agreement (also known as the Settlement Agreement) is based on scientific analyses provided by three of the West’s most respected river flow analysts, who concur that as a “plan for a plan” — even with the removal of four dams — the Agreement could result in Klamath River flows so sparse at crucial times that endangered salmon may not be able to recover from what are now critically low numbers.

“We want nothing more than to support a workable agreement that would result in decommissioning of four mainstem Klamath dams and provide fish with the water they need to avoid extinction,” Greg King, Executive Director of the Northcoast Environmental Center, said Monday. “The independent scientists we have commissioned and consulted, who are among the most respected river analysts in the west, tell us this deal won’t do that. This Agreement would lock us in to supporting water allocations for agriculture, as well as state and federal legislation, that could result in stream flows so low as to cause extinction. We can’t do that.”

The NEC is one of 26 parties to the Klamath Basin Agreement. Last year the organization contracted with hydrologist Greg Kamman, of Kamman Hydrology in San Rafael, and fisheries biologist Dr. Bill Trush, of McBain and Trush in Arcata, to analyze the scientific modeling and conclusions contained in the Restoration Agreement. In their reports (available at http://yournec.org) both scientists concluded that the Agreement could lock into place water allocations that would harm salmon.

Last week Trush completed an alternative plan for evaluating the needs of Klamath River fish prior to approval of the Restoration Agreement. That plan (attached) would have to be well under way, or completed, before the NEC will support the Basin Agreement.

In his alternative plan, Trush wrote, “The Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement relegates salmon and the Klamath River ecosystem to the status of junior water users, while Upper Basin irrigators become the senior water users. This premise squarely places onto the salmon and the river ecosystem any risk inherent in the conclusion that flows contained in the Agreement will actually provide enough water for recovery of the species. Nowhere is this clearer than in the future allocation of water. … Quantitative goals for fish and the river ecosystem, conspicuously missing from the Settlement Agreement, are necessary to establish how much improvement (benefit) is required for restoration. … The NEC shouldn’t support the Settlement Agreement until these specific concerns are addressed quantitatively.”

In addition to Trush and Kamman, another river scientist, Dr. Thomas Hardy, has expressed trepidations about the Basin Agreement. Hardy is the Associate Director of the Utah Water Research Laboratory at Utah State University. Many consider his studies of Klamath River hydrology to be the “best available science” for evaluating the river’s fishery. Last year the National Research Council utilized much of Hardy’s work in its definitive text, Hydrology, Ecology, and Fishes of the Klamath River Basin. In February 2008 Hardy told the NEC Board of Directors that in the Restoration Agreement, “Agriculture gets all the guarantees, and everything related to the environment is left to somewhat vague processes and committees.

”Hardy said that in dry years agriculture in the upper basin will be “taking too much water from the system,” with flow models demonstrating that the river will probably go well below 1,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) in late summer and early fall. “I’m just scared to death any time the flows get below 1,000 cfs,” said Hardy. Such low flows, he said, “double the risk to the system.” Flows that resulted in the 2002 fish kill, which killed nearly 70,000 adult Chinook salmon, were between 600 and 700 cfs.Hardy said that an acceptable Agreement would “guarantee flows for fish first, then other water uses.”

In his hydrological report, Kamman said, “I am concerned that the successful implementation of the Settlement Agreement hinges on a conceptual plan which has no guarantees of being achieved within a specified amount of time – time does not appear to be on the side of Klamath River salmonids.”

Under the Agreement, water in the mainstem will be reduced from September to February, “and this reduction in flow may prove detrimental to Klamath River salmonids,” said Kamman. “These flow conditions further emphasize the imbalance in flow and likely, in turn, salmonid habitat quality between the winter and spring periods (a time of salmonid immigration and spawning).”

Kamman also reports that the flows recommended in the Basin Agreement will draw too much water from Upper Klamath Lake, part of the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex, one of the most important habitats in North America for migrating waterfowl. Kamman said water use projected in the Basin Agreement could result in “lower total annual lake storage than was experienced historically.”

The NEC is also concerned that Settlement parties are being asked to support the Basin Agreement without seeing a dam removal agreement from PacifiCorp, owner of the four mainstem Klamath River dams whose relicensing process was the catalyst that brought the 26 Settlement parties together nearly three years ago. The PacifiCorp deal has been marred from the start by the company’s intransigence and occasional fits of economic hubris.

“Tearing down these dams would be the best thing to happen to an American river since dams started going up in the first place,” said the NEC’s Greg King. “You’d think that in facing the best opportunity in history to save precious salmon from extinction the folks at PacifiCorp would declare a ‘no-brainer’ and just go ahead and do it.” PacifiCorp ratepayers, said King, would also save $114 million if the company tore down the dams, as opposed to building the more expensive fish ladders required by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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Oregon Wild

Native Rights News is making this material from [name of news source] available in accordance with a press release. This article is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information. Distribution of this material is for research and educational purposes that will promote social and economic justice and benefit society.

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Native Rights News (NRN) is published by the Alliance for Indigenous Rights, a nonprofit corporation owned and operated by Temple Beit Shem Tov as part of its Social Justice Ministry.

Ninth Circuit Court Blocks Open Pit Gold Mine on Sacred Mount Tenabo

For Immediate Release:
Contacts:
Larson Bill, South Fork Western Shoshone, 775-397-6726, 775-744-2537
John Hadder, Great Basin Resource Watch, 775-722-4056
Julie Cavanaugh-Bill, Western Shoshone Defense Project, 775-397-1371
Roger Flynn, Western Mining Action Project, 303-823-5738


Western Shoshone Prevail at Ninth Circuit Court on Mt. Tenabo – Court Issues Ruling Enjoining Cortez Hills Open Pit Gold Mine

Court Agrees with Western Shoshone and Allies that the Interior Department’s Approval of the Mine Likely Violated Federal Law

December 3, 2009: San Francisco,CA and Crescent Valley, NV – In a major ruling, the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today issued its ruling enjoining the construction and operation of the Cortez Hills gold mine, proposed by Barrick Gold Corporation. The Ninth Circuit reversed the decision of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, which had denied the motion for preliminary injunction filed by the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs in the case are: the South Fork Band Council of Western Shoshone, the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone Indians, the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe, the Western Shoshone Defense Project, and Great Basin Resource Watch (the “Plaintiffs”). The Plaintiffs challenged the U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) decision to approve the Cortez Hills Mine in November of 2008.

In overturning the District Court’s decision, the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of their legal arguments that BLM violated federal environmental and public land law in approving the Mine. The Ninth Circuit also found that enjoining the Mine was in the public interest due to the “irreparable environmental harm threatened by this massive project.” Among other issues, the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their claims that BLM violated the National Environmental Policy Act in failing to properly analyze the environmental impacts from the Mine on groundwater, air quality, and other resources. “Suspending a project until that consideration has occurred thus comports with the public interest.”

The Cortez Hills Mine would be one of the largest open pit cyanide heap leach gold mines in the United States. It would be located on the flank of Mount Tenabo – an area well-known for its spiritual and cultural importance to the Western Shoshone. The area is home to local Shoshone creation stories, spirit life, medicinal, food and ceremonial plants and items and continues to be used to this day by Shoshone for spiritual and cultural practices. Over the years, tens of thousands of individuals and organizations from across the United States and around the world have joined with the Shoshone and voiced their opposition to this mine. The proposed mine area has been found by the BLM, in repeated ethnographic studies, as being of extreme spiritual and cultural importance to the Western Shoshone. One report says: “Mt. Tenabo is … considered a traditional locus of power and source of life, and figures in creation stories and world renewal. As the tallest mountain in the area – the most likely to capture snow and generate water to grow piñon and nourish life – it is literally a life-giver. Water is to earth what blood is to the body, and these subterranean waterways are likened to the earth’s arteries and veins.”

The Mine is proposed by Barrick Gold Corporation, the world’s largest gold mining company, headquartered in Toronto, Canada. The Mine would blast and excavate a new massive open pit on Mount Tenabo over 800 acres in size, with a depth of over 2,000 feet. It would include several new waste disposal and processing facilities (including a cyanide heap-leaching facility), consisting of approximately 1,577 million tons of waste rock, 53 million tons of tailings material, and 112 million tons of spent heap leach material. The Mine would include an extensive groundwater pumping system to dewater Mount Tenabo (in order to keep the open pit and mine workings dry during mining) and associated water pipelines that will transport the pumped water away from Mount Tenabo. In total, the mine would permanently destroy approximately 6,800 acres land on and around Mount Tenabo, over 90% of which is classified as federal “public” land. Despite the pending case before the Ninth Circuit appealing the District Court’s denial of the Plaintiff’s motion for preliminary injunction in January, 2009, Barrick decided to begin construction of the Mine. The Ninth Circuit’s ruling today orders the District Court to issue an injunction against the Mine.

“We are pleased with the Ninth Circuit’s ruling,” said Larson Bill, Tribal Council Member of the South Fork Band Council and Te-Moak Tribe. “This is a result of Western Shoshone people remaining committed to protecting our land and environment. It is unfortunate that the company decided to push this forward without addressing all concerns, especially those of the Shoshone people. Barrick operates world wide and is well-versed on these issues – they knew that an injunction was a possibility – especially where there has been continuous opposition and litigation.” continued Larson Bill.

Carrie Dann, a world renowned Western Shoshone grandmother, and recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (known as the “alternative Nobel Peace Prize”) has been among those to lead the fight to protect Mount Tenabo from mining for over 15 years. “Mount Tenabo should be left alone – no further disturbance. This mine will drain the water from Mount Tenabo. They will be sucking the water out of the mountain forever. The destruction of the water is like the destruction of the blood of the earth; you are destroying life of the earth and the people and wildlife that depend on it. Dewatering is taking the life of future generations. Water is sacred, all life depends on it,” says Carrie Dann.

“None of us are opposed to mining, if it is done responsibly, however this project is as irresponsible as it gets. The BLM has a legal responsibility to protect the air, water, and ecological values of the area as well as the religious freedom of Western Shoshone, and to fully analyze the impacts of a proposed project. The Ninth Circuit correctly found that BLM failed in its legal responsibilities,” said John Hadder, Executive Director of Great Basin Resource Watch.

The Plaintiffs are being represented in court by Roger Flynn of the non-profit legal firm, the Western Mining Action Project, based on Colorado, which specializes in mining, public land, and environmental law.

For more information on the Cortez Hills Project, Mount Tenabo, and the legal challenge go to http://www.gbrw.org/ and http://www.wsdp.org/. The Ninth Circuit Decision can be downloaded at: http://www.gbrw.org/images/stories/publications/tenabo/Ninth_Circuit_injunction_ruling_12-3-09.pdf
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Source: Western Shoshone Defense Project

Native Rights News is making this material available as the result of a general press release received from the source cited above.

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Native Rights News (NRN) is published by the Alliance for Indigenous Rights, a nonprofit corporation owned and operated by Temple Beit Shem Tov as part of its Social Justice Ministry.

Federal Court Hearing Underway on Shoshone Request to Stop Mine Expansion on Mt. Tenabo

For Further Information Contact:
Julie Cavanaugh-Bill, Western Shoshone Defense Project (775) 397-6726
Dan Randolph, Great Basin Resource Watch, (775) 348-1986

Barack In, Barrick Out!

On Inauguration Day, U.S. Court to Hear Shoshone Request to Stop Mine Expansion at Spiritual Mountain

For Immediate Release

January 19, 2009 Reno, NV. At 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning (PST), the Federal District Court in Reno, Nevada will begin a two day injunction hearing to protect the world-recognized Shoshone spiritual area, Mt. Tenabo from what would be one of the U.S.' largest open pit cyanide heap leach gold mines. Just two months ago, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved the construction of the mine, wholly owned and operated by Canadian multinational mining giant Barrick Gold Corporation. Western Shoshone communities, the Western Shoshone Defense Project and Great Basin Resource Watch filed suit immediately and a partial temporary restraining order was put in place in early December. Mt. Tenabo is home to local Shoshone creation stories, spirit life, medicinal, food and ceremonial rocks and plants and continues to be used to this day by Shoshone for spiritual ceremonies and cultural practices. Over the years, tens of thousands of individuals and organizations from across the United States and around the world have joined with the Shoshone and voiced their opposition to this mine –in fact, the mine is being referred to as the "most opposed mine in the world".

Barrick, the world's largest gold mining company, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, plans to construct and operate the mine, known as the Cortez Hills Expansion Project. The Project area is located entirely within the territory of the Western Shoshone Nation, recognized in the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley. The Mine would blast and excavate a new massive open pit on Mount Tenabo over 900 acres in size, with a depth of over 2,000 feet. It would include several new waste disposal and processing facilities (including a cyanide heap-leaching facility), consisting of approximately 1,577 million tons of waste rock, 53 million tons of tailings material, and 112 million tons of spent heap leach material. The Mine would include an extensive groundwater pumping system to dewater Mount Tenabo (in order to keep the open pit and mine workings dry during mining) and associated water pipelines that will transport the pumped water away from Mount Tenabo. In total, the mine would permanently destroy approximately 6,800 acres land on and around Mount Tenabo, over 90% of which is classified as federal "public" land.

"Martin Luther King had a dream, Shoshone people have a nightmare. Barack is being inaugurated, Shoshone are being intimidated. Shoshone religion lives not in a building, but in a clean environment.." Says Larson Bill, Vice-Chairman of the South Fork Western Shoshone. "Mt. Tenabo is a specific area of spiritual significance for thousands of years hopefully our new President will support a change in favor of protection. Barack In. Barrick Out." "There are dozens of active gold mines on Western Shoshone lands already, there is no need for this one, which is clearly immoral and irresponsible. The public should be aware that Nevada is not a waste land, but is the home of ranchers, sportsmen, fishermen and homesteaders that have enjoyed the lands alongside the Shoshone people for generations. We have been clear in our opposition to this mine and while Barrick trys to cloud the real issues with gifts and money, we continue to oppose this project – they have not bought our people, the traditions nor the lands of the Shoshone." he adds.

The proposed mine area has been found by the BLM, in repeated ethnographic studies, as being of extreme spiritual and cultural importance to the Western Shoshone. One report says: "Mt. Tenabo is one of a system of three mountains in the (Western Shoshone) homeland, … it is also considered a traditional locus of power and source of life, and figures in creation stories and world renewal. As the tallest mountain in the area – the most likely to capture snow and generate water to grow pinyon and nourish life – it is literally a life-giver. Water is to earth what blood is to the body, and these subterranean waterways are likened to the earth's arteries and veins."

Just before Thanksgiving, a group of Shoshone grandmothers came together and held a Day of Resistance at the mountain. "The whole area is a temple". Stated one of the grandmothers, Mary McCloud. The grandmothers' will be coming together again at 8 a.m. each morning before the Federal Court House in Reno. Religious leaders from different faith backgrounds will be joining the Shoshone in the public demonstrations. The address is the Bruce D. Thompson Federal Building, 400 S. Virginia St., Reno, Nevada.

While the hearings are held in Reno, back at the mountain, some of the Shoshone men have built an arbor where they will be holding a 24 hour encampment and watch throughout the court hearing.

The plaintiffs are being represented in court by Roger Flynn and Jeffrey Parsons of the non-profit legal firm, the Western Mining Action Project, which specializes in mining law.

For more information on the Western Shoshone land rights issues, Cortez Hills Project, Mount Tenabo, and the legal challenge go to www.gbrw.org.

WHAT YOU CAN DO AS WE AWAIT THE COURT'S DECISION: We need supporters and media at both of the following locations:
1. Attend the Public Demonstration to Protect Native Spiritual Areas and Human Rights in front of the Courthouse on S. Virginia Street beginning at 8 am on both Jan. 20th and 21st.
2. Attend the Mt. Tenabo encampment and Arbor Vigil which began Thursday Jan. 15th and is lasting through the following week of hearings at the gathering area on the Southeast flank facing Grass Valley, Nevada. (Contact wsdp@igc.org for directions and supplies needed) (Beowawe/Crescent Valley exit of I-80, then south through Crescent Valley, turn left before Pipeline mine – head towards Grass Valley through Cortez Canyon, after leaving canyon look for large green army tent about a mile after exiting the canyon). Please remember NO Drugs, Alcohol or Firearms and – Respect the Mutual Court Order to refrain from disturbing the mine employees as they refrain also from disturbing us – stay away from operations at a minimum of 200 yards. The Court hearing on Tuesday and Wednesday is important and we must respect the mutual temporary restraining order. Report in to Mike Miller upon arrival.

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Posted By Alliance for Indigenous Rights to Native Rights News at 1/20/2009 12:14:00 PM

Western Shoshone Call for Peaceful Demonstrations Outside of Federal Court in Reno

Great Basin Research Watch
85 Keystone Ave., Suite K
Reno, NV 89503
775-348-1986
www.gbrw.org




For Immediate Release January 16, 2009

Contact: Julie Cavanaugh-Bill (775-397-6726), wsdp@igc.org
Dan Randolph (775-348-1986), dan@gbrw.org

Hearing to Stop Further Mining at Tenabo
Demonstration and News Conference to Protect Native Religions

Where: Gordon R. Thompson Federal Bldg. (S. Virginia and Liberty)
When: Tuesday, January 20, 8:00 AM

On this day of the inauguration of a new president with hope for the future we are reminded that the founding fathers of the United States dedicated into our constitution freedom to practice religion as ones tradition required.

Just two months ago, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved the construction of a massive open pit cyanide heap leach gold mine on the face of well-known spiritual area, Mt. Tenabo. Western Shoshone communities, the Western Shoshone Defense Project and Great Basin Resource Watch are seeking an injunction to stop further destruction of Mt. Tenabo by Barrick Gold Corporation. The Federal Court in Reno has scheduled a hearing on Jan. 20th and 21st.

The peaceful and respectful demonstration will open with native drumming, song, and prayer. Western Shoshone elders will speak, and supporting local religious leaders will follow. Just before 9:00 AM the demonstration will close and all supporters will be invited to attend as much of the injunctive hearing as they can in support of religious freedom. There will also be a similar demonstration at the same time on January 21.

"Denabo (correct pronunciation) has special significance for Western Shoshone, it means the writing on the rocks walls of the mountain (White Cliffs) put there by our Creator. We go to pray to our Creator to give us strength to keep us going. How can we pray to our creator when the place is being blown up?" - Joyce McDade, Western Shoshone Grandmother.

"When God makes a covenant to provide for human beings, the covenant always includes the land. Our well-being as a species is conditioned upon our capacity to love and care for the land. Native American communities and their spiritual practices have enlightened our way to this love and care."– John Auer, Reverend First United Methodist Church, Reno NV.

Barrick Gold Corporation is the world's largest gold company and operates mainly on Indigenous lands for the extraction of gold. This company has refused to accept its social responsibility to protect Indigenous peoples' land, sacred areas, water, and air pollution.

This destruction of Indigenous spiritual areas must stop now.

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Posted By Alliance for Indigenous Rights to Native Rights News at 1/19/2009 08:24:00 AM

Conflict Over Mining Deepens Between Correa Government and Indigenous Peoples and Environmentalists

Ecuador Anti-Mining Blockades Met With Repression, National Mobilization Called for January 20

Written by Daniel Denvir, Photographs by Ximena Warnaars

Friday, 09 January 2009

The ongoing conflict over mining in Ecuador escalated this week as blockades shut down highways throughout the country’s Southern Andean highlands and Amazon rainforest, while nationwide protests have been called for January 20. The government of President Rafael Correa has assumed an aggressive posture, insulting indigenous and environmental activists and pledging to secure approval for a controversial new Mining Law. Canadian companies hold the majority of mining concessions in Ecuador and are pressing for a new law that would allow for large-scale, open pit metal mining. A number of leaders have been arrested and other protesters were beaten and shot at by police. Campesino and indigenous protesters, who depend on clean water to farm and for drinking water, are demanding that the government shelve President Rafael Correa’s proposed Mining Law, saying that it would be a social and environmental disaster. The rural blockades follow months of regular protests in Quito and other parts of the country Protesters also argue that the law contradicts important provisions of the new constitution protecting water, the environment and indigenous peoples’ rights. The document drew international attention for awarding legal rights to nature. The new constitution, approved by popular referendum in September, is the centerpiece of Correa’s first term. After emergency meetings on January 7, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) called for a national mobilization on January 20, calling the government “dictatorial.” It is unclear whether the January 20 mobilization will spread road blockades to other provinces in central and northern Ecuador. Protesters are demanding a dialogue with central government leaders and for a broad national discussion on mining before any legislation is passed. Some protesters in the Southern provinces of Zamora Chinchipe and Morona Santiago suspended their blockades for 24 hours in response to the provincial governor’s promise to reach out to Francisco Cordero, the President of the Congresillo, Ecuador’s interim legislature. Other blockades were suspended in anticipation of the nationwide actions. The blockades began on Monday January 5 in the Southern province of Azuay, cutting off much of the traffic into and out of Cuenca, Ecuador’s third largest city. Over the next few days, the protests spread to the neighboring Andean province of Loja and to the Amazonian provinces of Zamora Chinchipe and Morona Santiago. In Giron, Molleturo, Tarqui (Azuay), Limon Indanza (Morona Santiago) and in El Pangui (Zamora Chinchipe) protestors have been beaten or shot by police. Police officials and journalists were released after being briefly detained by campesinos. On January 6, campesino leader Vicente Zhunio Samaniego was arrested in the Southern province of Morona Santiago, showing up 16 hours later in a hospital with bullet wounds to the head. On January 7, protest leader Miguel Ángel Criollo and his son Orlando were arrested in an early morning raid on the village of Pueblo Nuevo in Azuay province. The newspaper El Universo reports that over fifty police officers from the Special Operations Group (GOE) took part in the raid. When villagers tried to defend the Criollos from arrest, police fired tear gas, forcing the evacuation of a local school. In the city of Cuenca, police violently repressed protests at the Court of Justice. As six leaders began a hunger strike inside the building, the police attacked a press conference taking place outside the building, arresting Water Board leader Carlos Pérez Guartambel. Police used tear gas to disperse protesters attempting to defend Pérez. Police then forced hunger strikers and four women supporting them out of the Court building, dragging them by their necks. The governor of Azuay denied that Pérez was arrested, and he was freed later that day. The six hunger strikers are now in Cuenca’s San Roque Church. According to the newspaper El Comercio, Minister of Mines and Petroleum Derlis Palacios said that the government would push forward with the Mining Law. Palacios said that Ecuador “was a poor country that could not afford to just sit on these large resources.” He added that protests were the result of manipulation by indigenous leaders who mislead community members by claiming that mining would harm their access to clean water. Palacios said that the new law would ensure that water sources are protected. Congresillo President Cordero told El Comercio that protesters were using the demonstrations to advance electoral ambitions. The CONAIE condemned the government’s description of protesters as “criminals and subversive terrorists,” saying that “the only thing we are fighting for is life and dignity for all of Ecuador’s citizens.” The CONAIE that such comments are aimed “to stigmatize [protesters] and prepare public opinion for even more severe repression.” Correa is coming into increasing conflict with social and indigenous movement activists. On Thursday January 8, the United Labor Front (FUT), Ecuador’s largest labor federation, announced mass protests for a higher minimum wage increase for January 15. They say that Correa’s proposed increase of $18 a month, to $218, is a step back and fails to meet provisions in the new constitution ensuring that all Ecuadorians are paid a living wage. Ximena Warnaars is an anthropologist and PhD student from the University of Manchester, UK living in Cuenca, Ecuador. Daniel Denvir is a Quito, Ecuador based journalist in the process of moving to Philadelphia, and a 2008 recipient of NACLA's Samuel Chavkin Investigative Journalism Grant. He is an editor at www.caterwaulquarterly.com.

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© 2009 Upside Down World

Native Rights News is making this material from Upside Down World available in accordance with the Fair Use Doctrine codified at Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107: This article is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information. Distribution of this material is for research and educational purposes that will promote social and economic justice and benefit society.

Ecuadorian Government Debates Law Favoring Canadian Mining Companies over Constitutional Rights of Nature and Indigenous Tribes

Indigenous anti -mining protests hit Ecuador

By Daniel Denvir, Today correspondent

Story Published: Jan 2, 2009

(Story Updated: Jan 2, 2009)

On Dec. 21, more than a thousand indigenous and campesino activists marched to the Ecuadorian National Assembly in opposition to President Rafael Correa’s proposed mining law. In the Southern Province of Azuay, campesinos blocked a number of highways, resisting police efforts to dislodge them. Protesters said that large-scale mining would damage Ecuador’s environment and pollute rural communities’ water.

The Mining Law, currently under debate in the provisional National Assembly, or Congresillo, would replace the Mining Mandate passed in May of this year. The Mandate froze mining operations and revoked a number of concessions to foreign corporations. The law would create a National Mining Company and increase state control over foreign corporations, which are largely Canadian. But the law would also allow mining to take place anywhere, including in protected areas and sharply limit community input.

In Quito, buses arrived from throughout the country to protest the mining law. Marching to the National Assembly, protesters clashed with police, who used pepper spray to push back activists intent on meeting with legislators. A small delegation was allowed to enter in the afternoon. The protests were organized by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) and the Coordinator for the Unity of the Left and for Life, a new organization dedicated to regrouping social movements to confront Correa.

The march is possibly a prelude to a nation-wide uprising. While the protest was not large by Ecuadorian standards, representatives from many communities were present. Earlier this month, more than 30 organizations gathered in the Amazonian city of Coca and agreed to oppose Correa’s business friendly policies. Former Correa spokesperson and Assembly Member Monica Chuji said, “Today is a first step in a broader process of unifying social movements. Today we don’t have quantity, but we have unity.” Chuji, an Amazonian Kichwa, broke with Correa’s Alianza País Party in September, accusing the president of opposing indigenous rights.

Correa insists that responsible mining is necessary for Ecuador’s development. In November, Correa accused the indigenous movement of “losing their compass and playing into the hands of sectors that they have historically criticized, such as the Right, which the current administration is combating.” Correa has threatened to send the Mining Law to a national referendum if the indigenous movement alters it or blocks its approval, accusing the CONAIE of being anti-democratic.

But Dr. Byron Real López, an expert in environmental law, wrote in a recent report that the Mandate “is concerned with solving important issues. ... such as the corruption surrounding the indiscriminate granting of concessions. But the proposed law ignores the ecological and social conflicts that mining activity causes. ... and thus would tend to aggravate them.” López argues that the proposed law would violate a number of provisions in the new constitution, such as those protecting the rights of nature and indigenous communities.

Juan Francisco, a young Kichwa, traveled from the Southern province of Cañar. “We will never let them into our territory, which provides our water. Responsible mining is a miserable lie that the government wants to sell to us.” Juan Francisco said that the government should instead support sustainable and organic farming.

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“We oppose the Mining Law because we love nature. Mining will kill us, it will poison the water with chemicals. We all drink this water and we all will die. Water doesn’t belong to anyone. It belongs to us all.”

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Despite Correa’s dismissive comments, it appears that the government is taking the movement seriously. Two days after the protests Ecuador’s interim legislature, the Congresillo, announced that they were considering extending discussion on the law by seven days – potentially pushing back a vote until Jan. 12. On Dec. 26, Congresillo President Francisco Cordero began a series of meetings with social movement leaders opposed to the project. The stated objective is to incorporate critics’ perspectives before the proposal undergoes a second debate, the last step before a vote.

But the CONAIE demands that the law be shelved so that a national debate on mining can take place. And protesters were adamant in their opposition to large-scale mining.

Carmen, a Saraguro Kichwa woman from the Southern province of Loja, said, “We oppose the Mining Law because we love nature. Mining will kill us, it will poison the water with chemicals. We all drink this water and we all will die. Water doesn’t belong to anyone. It belongs to us all.”

Campesino Jorge Marin traveled hours by bus from the Southern Amazonian province of Morona Santiago. “We’re here to stop the Mining Law, a law that will make it impossible for us to be owners of our land. We are here to defend nature and let the Congress know that we depend on the Amazon for life.”

Leaders of the CONAIE were scheduled to meet in a special assembly the first week of January to discuss a possible national uprising.

Salvador Quishpe, a Kichwa leader from the Southern Amazonian province of Zamora Chinchipe, told the crowd that mass mobilization would be necessary to stop the Mining Law. “If we have to celebrate Christmas in the streets to stop this law, we will!” Quishpe said that while it was impossible to bring thousands of people from Zamora Chinchipe to Quito, 1,500 delegates met in his province earlier this month and declared their support for nation-wide mass mobilizations.

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© 1998 - 2009 Indian Country Today

Native Rights News has adapted and is making this material from Indian Country Today available in accordance with the Fair Use Doctrine codified at Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107: This article is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information. Distribution of this material is for research and educational purposes that will promote social and economic justice and benefit society.

The Black Mesa Nightmare Returns

Why Raul Grijalva matters at Interior
The Black Mesa nightmare returns
Posted by Jeff Biggers (Guest Contributor) at 10:42 PM on 07 Dec 2008

For the sake of a deliberate and balanced approached to mining, indigenous rights, and environmental concerns, let's hope U.S. Representative Raul Grijalva takes the reins at the Department of the Interior in Obama's administration.

Take this week's startling announcement that the George W. Bush administration might quietly give the green light to reopening the scandalous Black Mesa Strip Mine on the ancestral lands of the Dine (Navajo) and Hopi.

Within a few days, the U.S. Office of Surface Mining will release a "Record of Decision" on the "Black Mesa Project" Final Environmental Impact Statement, which could ultimately grant the Peabody Coal Company a "Life-of-Mine" permit to re-open and expand one of the nation's largest coal strip mines.

Like a voice in the wilderness, Grijalva recently wrote the current Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne to request a suspension in the OSM's "hurriedly conducting a deeply flawed environmental review."

Despite a Hopi tribal government in disarray and a deeply divided Dine-Navajo community, the George W. Bush administration's 11th hour move to unleash Big Coal in the tribal lands will not only jeopardize the Navajo Aquifer -- the main source of drinking water for the area residents and farmers -- but will re-open one of the bitter wounds in contemporary tribal conflict.

Like mountaintop removal in Appalachia, the decades-long battle over Black Mesa and the ensuing Hopi-Navajo Settlement sybolizes shameless disregard of human rights and environmental protection for the sake of extraction industry profits.

It's an old story, of course, dating back to the discovery of one of the largest coal deposits in the country on Black Mesa over a century ago.

Over a decade ago, documents emerged that proved that the main lawyer hired to represent the divided Hopi was also on the payroll of the Peabody Coal Company and might have actually helped gerrymander the massive land deal and subsequent settlement acts. This not only resulted in unfair royalty payments and virtually no environmental safeguards, but bitterly divided tribal interests and relations.

In the process, one report estimated that over 12,000 natives were forced to relocate while one of the largest strip mines in the nation swept across the northern Arizona desert.

As investigative reporter Judith Nies wrote:

In Los Angeles, air conditioners hummed. Las Vegas embarked on an enormous building spree to make gambling a family vacation. Phoenix and Tucson metastasized out into the desert-building golf courses and vast retirement developments with swimming pools and fountains. Few realize that much of the energy that makes the desert "bloom" comes from the Black Mesa strip mines on an Indian reservation. Even fewer know the true costs of such development.

And water, in this upland desert, was pumped away. As part of a 273-mile slurry line, billions of gallons of water were siphoned from the Navajo aquifer for decades. Not only the main water source for the native farmers and ranchers in the area, this caused wells and springs to dry up, groundwater levels to plummet and native vegetation to vanish.

According to native Black Mesa advocates today, the rammed through OSM report has numerous flaws, legal or otherwise:

• The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) does not address the pumping of the Navajo Aquifer for the last thirty years. These amounts exceed the aquifer's ability to replace water annually, and have adversely impacted the natural springs and seeps all over Black Mesa. Springs no longer can produce the water needed for Navajo families to survive daily. Instead families must abandon local water resources and use community wells 20-30 miles over unimproved roads. Peabody has not included in its application the impact on the people of Black Mesa and how long they can expect to survive with continued use and contamination of the only source of drinking water the people have. Nor are measures in place to insure an alternate source of water in quality and quantity for local residents will be delivered if there is irreversible damage to the N-Aquifer;

• local Black Mesa residents have been inadequately informed of the proposed changes; • due to changes in the original alternatives, the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) is outdated and has irrelevant information; • the DEIS mentions lung problems and only proposes mitigation for mine workers, not residents. The EIS must look at mitigation measures for local residents to avoid health problems associated with black lung, asthma and other lung ailments;

• the DEIS does not consider how the OSM will comply with the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act, and prevent substantial burden on the tribes' ability to practice their religion; • the DEIS does not compare the economics of additional coal mining vs. transitional renewable energy development on the mine site and reclaimed areas to prevent long-term cumulative impacts by additional coal mining; • the DEIS does not recognize the impact of the potential relocation of native families;

• the DEIS does not address the current U.S. federal laws that make CO2 a pollutant, and uncalculated CO2 emissions that will contribute to global warming until 2026, if more mining by Peabody coal company continues.
Last month, Rep. Grijalva asked for delay until the OSM "can determine the actual purpose and need of this project."

Let's hope the OSM heeds his sound advice.

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Native Rights News is making this Gristmill material available in accordance with the Fair Use Doctrine codified at Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107: This article is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information. Distribution of this material is for research and educational purposes that will promote social and economic justice and benefit society.

Western Shoshone File Suit to Prevent Desecration of Sacred Mount Tenabo

For Immediate Release

Contacts: Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone grandmother, 775-468-0230
Dan Randolph, Great Basin Resource Watch, 775-722-4056
Jason Bill, Western Shoshone Defense Project, 775-397-6726 or 775-744-2565


Restraining Order Requested – Shoshone Grandmothers Plan Resistance Day Proposed Mine Site

November 25, 2008, Crescent Valley, Newe Sogobi ( Nevada). As the holidays approach and the world watches President-elect Obama and the bailouts; back in Nevada, home state of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, it’s business as usual. Late yesterday, attorneys for several Western Shoshone tribes and non-profit indigenous and environmental organizations filed a request in the federal District Court in Reno, NV seeking a restraining order against the construction of one of the country’s largest open pit gold mines on the flank of spiritual Mt. Tenabo. The mine company has already begun demolition of the pinyon forest with heavy machinery on the site ripping out trees at a reported rate of 30 acres per day.

As they await a Court hearing and feeling compelled to take immediate action, tomorrow, a group of Shoshone grandmothers will travel to the proposed mine site to conduct a day of Resistance to the destruction of the area and the approval of the mine by the United States. Mt. Tenabo is a well-known home to local Shoshone creation stories, spirit life, medicinal, food and ceremonial plants and rocks and continues to be used to this day by Shoshone for spiritual ceremonies and cultural practices. Over the years, tens of thousands of individuals and organizations from across the United States and around the world have joined with the Shoshone and voiced their opposition to this mine –in fact, the mine is being referred to as the “most opposed mine in the world”.

“We want them off this mountain, this is a spiritual genocide what’s going on; destroying our mountain is destroying our beliefs. Removing water is death to the mountains. No way. We will take whatever action we need to – we’re going through the U.S. courts and we will stand on this Mountain in support of her and call on those people around the world to stand with us in solidarity.” Stated Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone Grandmother, Executive Director of the Western Shoshone Defense Project and recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (the alternate to the Nobel Peace Prize).

Barrick Gold Corporation, the world’s largest gold mining company, headquartered in Canada, plans to construct and operate the mine, known as the Cortez Hills Expansion Project. The area is located entirely within the territory of the Western Shoshone Nation, recognized in the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley. The Mine would blast and excavate a new massive open pit on Mount Tenabo over 900 acres in size, with a depth of over 2,000 feet. It would include several new waste disposal and processing facilities (including a cyanide heap-leaching facility), consisting of approximately 1,577 million tons of waste rock, 53 million tons of tailings material, and 112 million tons of spent heap leach material. The Mine would include an extensive groundwater pumping system to dewater Mount Tenabo and associated water pipelines that will transport the pumped water away from Mount Tenabo. In total, the mine would permanently destroy approximately 6,800 acres land on and around Mount Tenabo, over 90% of which is classified as federal “public” land.

In 2002 and 2003 the BLM conducted a series of armed seizures in the same area, of the Dann family’s cattle and horses, claiming the Danns were “trespassing” on public lands. The Danns, along with other Western Shoshone, have challenged the U.S. claims to their ancestral and treaty lands as recognized by the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley, which recognized Western Shoshone rights in much of Nevada. These legal battles went all the way to the Supreme Court, and on to International Fora. In March 2006 the Western Shoshone received a ruling from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, CERD, a treaty body set up by the United Nations and ratified by the United States in 1993.

The Decision issued by CERD, and reconfirmed this year, urges the United States to immediately freeze, desist and stop any further actions against the Western Shoshone peoples, including legislative efforts to privatize their land. CERD ordered the United States to stop immediately and initiate dialogue with the Western Shoshone. The Decision specifically mentioned Mt. Tenabo and the destruction of Western Shoshone lands by mining corporations.

“In the 1800’s, the U.S. sent in the Calvary to remove the Indians and to kill off our sources of food, such as the Buffalo. Now here they are, just days before Thanksgiving in 2008, destroying our Mountain of life and the pinyon trees which are our food. This is happening today and it’s outrageous.” Says Joyce McDade, Western Shoshone grandmother.
Barbara Ridley, another Western Shoshone grandmother participating in the resistance states: Who’s Thanksgiving is this anyway? What have we got to celebrate? There’s no Thanksgiving for our people – they tell us we don’t have our land but we still use it for our foods, plants and ceremonies. This mountain is very important to us and people should respect our request to leave it alone.”

The plaintiffs are being represented in court by Roger Flynn of the non-profit legal firm, the Western Mining Action Project, which specializes in mining law. The Grandmothers’ Resistance Day will take place of the South Flank of Mt. Tenabo at the proposed mine site beginning at approximately 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, November 26th.

For more information on the Western Shoshone land rights issues, Cortez Hills Project, Mount Tenabo, and the legal challenge go to http://www.gbrw.org/ and http://www.wsdp.org/. A copy of the Temporary Restraining Order filed yesterday is attached.

BLM Gives the Go-Ahead to Desecration of Western Shoshone Sacred Mountain

For Immediate Release:
Contacts:
Larson Bill, South Fork Band Council of Western Shoshone, 775-744-2565/775-397-6726
Dan Randolph, Great Basin Resource Watch, 775-722-4056
Julie Cavanaugh-Bill, Western Shoshone Defense Project, 775-397-1371


Thanksgiving the “Cortez” Way - U.S. Ignores Western Shoshone Objections – Barrick Gold Readies Itself to Carve up Mount Tenabo Spiritual Area


November 20, 2008 Reno and Crescent Valley, NV

Last week, after years of determined opposition from Western Shoshone, the U.S. Department of Interior, through its Bureau of Land Management (BLM), approved one of the largest open pit cyanide heap leach gold mines in the United States on the flank of Mount Tenabo – an area well-known for its spiritual and cultural importance to the Western Shoshone. The area is home to local Shoshone creation stories, spirit life, medicinal, food and ceremonial plants and items and continues to be used to this day by Shoshone for spiritual and cultural practices. Over the years, tens of thousands of individuals and organizations from across the United States and around the world have joined with the Shoshone and voiced their opposition to this mine. The mine has been referred to as one of the most opposed mines in the world and indeed the level of public opposition is unprecedented for the BLM. With the threat of mine construction beginning as early as this week, the South Fork Band Council of Western Shoshone, the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe, the Western Shoshone Defense Project, and Great Basin Resource Watch, today filed a complaint in the Reno Federal District Court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to stop the mine.

Barrick Gold Corporation, the world’s largest gold mining company, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, plans to construct and operate the mine, known as the Cortez Hills Expansion Project. The Project area is located entirely within the territory of the Western Shoshone Nation, recognized in the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley. The Mine would blast and excavate a new massive open pit on Mount Tenabo over 900 acres in size, with a depth of over 2,000 feet. It would include several new waste disposal and processing facilities (including a cyanide heap-leaching facility), consisting of approximately 1,577 million tons of waste rock, 53 million tons of tailings material, and 112 million tons of spent heap leach material. The Mine would include an extensive groundwater pumping system to dewater Mount Tenabo (in order to keep the open pit and mine workings dry during mining) and associated water pipelines that will transport the pumped water away from Mount Tenabo. In total, the mine would permanently destroy approximately 6,800 acres land on and around Mount Tenabo, over 90% of which is classified as federal “public” land.

“How are we, as a nation, showing our values, if we allow a transnational corporation to destroy this ‘church’ for all time, just to get 10 years worth of gold.” Says Larson Bill, Vice-Chairman of the South Fork Band Council. “There are dozens of active gold mines on Western Shoshone lands already, there is no need for this one, which is clearly immoral and irresponsible. The public should be aware that Nevada is not a waste land, but is the home of ranchers, sportsmen, fishermen and homesteaders that have enjoyed the lands alongside the Shoshone people for generations. We have been clear in our opposition to this mine and while Barrick tries to cloud the real issues with gifts and money, we continue to oppose this project – they have not bought our people, the traditions nor the lands of the Shoshone.” he adds.

The proposed mine area has been found by the BLM, in repeated ethnographic studies, as being of extreme spiritual and cultural importance to the Western Shoshone. One report says: “Mt. Tenabo is … considered a traditional locus of power and source of life, and figures in creation stories and world renewal. As the tallest mountain in the area – the most likely to capture snow and generate water to grow piñon and nourish life – it is literally a life-giver. Water is to earth what blood is to the body, and these subterranean waterways are likened to the earth’s arteries and veins.”

Carrie Dann, a world renowned Western Shoshone elder, and recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (known as the “alternative Nobel Peace Prize”) has been among those to lead the fight to protect Mount Tenabo from mining for over 15 years. “Mount Tenabo should be left alone – no further disturbance. This mine will drain the water from Mount Tenabo. They will be sucking the water out of the mountain forever. The destruction of the water is like the destruction of the blood of the earth; you are destroying life of the earth and the people and wildlife that depend on it. Dewatering is taking the life of future generations. Water is sacred, all life depends on it,” says Carrie Dann.

“Next week we celebrate Thanksgiving - The question that the courts and the people of this country need to ask themselves is will we continue to tolerate these violations against the First Peoples of this land or will we finally turn the tide of injustice and protect these sacred areas?” Says Julie Cavanaugh-Bill, Consultant to the Western Shoshone Defense Project.
“None of us are opposed to mining, if it is done responsibly, however this project is as irresponsible as it gets. The BLM has a legal responsibility to protect the air, water, and ecological values of the area as well as the religious freedom of Western Shoshone, and to fully analyze the impacts of a proposed project. In each case, this mine would clearly violate the law.” Says Dan Randolph, Executive Director of Great Basin Resource Watch. “This is an example of how the Bush Administration is rushing to protect their corporate friends in their last few months in power. The BLM denied requests to extend the comment period on the Environmental Impact Statement not only from us, but also from several Western Shoshone tribal governments. Therefore, we are forced to now turn to the courts to stop this project. We know that Barrick will begin work on the mine as soon as they can, to cause enough harm in an attempt to make the religious rights arguments moot, and the BLM and Bush Administration appear to be more than willing to help them in every way possible.”

The plaintiffs are being represented in court by Roger Flynn of the non-profit legal firm, the Western Mining Action Project, which specializes in mining, public land, and environmental law.

For more information on the Cortez Hills Project, Mount Tenabo, and the legal challenge go to http://www.gbrw.org/ and http://www.wsdp.org/

(Photo courtesy of Great Basin Resource Watch, http://www.gbrw.org/)

Portland Public Transit System Bans Kurok Indian Tribe's Ads to Save Klamath River Salmon

ACLU Files Free Speech Lawsuit Against TriMet

FEBRUARY 20, 2008 – The ACLU of Oregon today filed a lawsuit against Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet), alleging the public bus company has violated federal and state constitutional free speech protections in its rejection of an advertisement it deems “political.”

The lawsuit was filed this morning in Multnomah County Circuit Court, on behalf of the Karuk Tribe of California and Friends of the River Foundation, who had sought to place an ad on TriMet buses regarding the damage done to salmon runs by electricity-generating dams, owned by Portland-based Pacific Power, on the Klamath River. The ad depicts three salmon facing a wall of electrical sockets, along with the caption, “Salmon shouldn’t run up your electric bill. They should run up the Klamath River.” The ad then directs the public to a website – http://www.salmonforsavings.com/ – for more information.

TriMet’s Advertising Standards Committee rejected the proposed ad on the grounds that it did not constitute an “advertisement” and that the public transit agency did not want its buses or property “to become a public forum for the dissemination, debate, and/or discussion of public issues.” The ACLU appealed the committee’s decision to TriMet’s general manager, who in a letter dated Jan. 18, 2008, upheld the rejection.

The ACLU contends that both rejections represent an unlawful restriction on speech in violation of Article 1, section 8, of the Oregon Constitution and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. In filing its Petition for Writ of Review, the ACLU is asking the court to review these administrative decisions and determine whether TriMet’s advertising policies are unconstitutional.

“TriMet’s policies discriminate on speech based on its content, and we believe that is unconstitutional,” said David Fidanque, Executive Director of the ACLU of Oregon. “A public agency should not place itself in the role of deeming some speech acceptable and some speech objectionable. TriMet’s job is to transport riders, not to override free speech protections.”

The Karuk Tribe and Friends of the River seek to restore healthy salmon populations to the Klamath River. Their objective is the removal of PacifiCorp’s lower four Klamath River dams, allowing salmon to access more than 300 miles of their historic habitat.

“The Karuk Tribe has as much right to buy advertising space on publicly owned buses as anyone else,” said Leaf Hillman, Vice Chairman of the Karuk Tribe. “Our ad simply promotes a website with information about Pacific Power’s Klamath dams and how they impact the river as well as power rates. Refusing to run this ad is discriminatory and illegal.”

The Karuk Tribe and Friends of the River cite economic studies by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the California Energy Commission that show removing the dams and purchasing renewable replacement energy would save Pacific Power ratepayers about $100 million.

“We are trying to get the word out to Pacific Power’s customers that dam removal could save them a significant amount of money,” said Kelly Catlett, Hydropower Reform Policy Advocate for Friends of the River. “It’s unfortunate TriMet thinks that is a message that needs to be censored.”

The writ demands that TriMet turn over to the court, within two weeks, its documentation of the refusal of the ad. A court hearing then would follow.

Thomas M. Christ of Cosgrave Vergeer Kester LLP is ACLU’s cooperating attorney on this case.

See http://www.karuk.us/ , http://www.friendsoftheriver.org)/ and http://www.salmonforsavings.com/ for more information.