Menominee River Water Walk begins Saturday

Members of the Menominee Nation, other tribes and organizations, and supporters will hold a Menominee River Water Walk this weekend to create awareness of the Back Forty Mine proposal in Michigan.

The goal of the walk Saturday through Monday is to create awareness of the threat that the proposed mine poses to water, fish, wildlife and the newly seeded wild rice.

The walk will follow the tribal ancestors’ 107-mile journey to carry the sacred water to the the mouth of the Menominee River, considered the birthplace of the Menominee People.

The walk will begin at noon Saturday at Keshena Falls with the sacred water ceremony and “Taking up of the Water” be led by First Nations Grandmother Josephine Mandarin, of the Three Fires Midewiwin Lodge. She is also known as “the original water walker,” responsible for starting the worldwide water walk movement.

The walk is scheduled to end Monday at the public boat landing across the street from the Aquila Resources Stephenson Field Office in Stephenson, Michigan.

In November, Menominee tribal members, school children and other supporters gathered at the mouth of the Menominee River to seed wild rice in the waters for the first time in hundreds of years.

Two weeks later, the Back Forty project, which is an expansive open pit and underground mine, applied for a mining permit upstream from the very place where the wild rice was seeded. A mine could contaminate the Menominee River and destroy the newly seeded wild rice, according to the Menominee.

Aquila Resources Inc. projects mining 16.1 million tons of mineralized material, including zinc, copper, gold and silver, over the 16-year life of the mine, of which 12.5 million tons would be open-pit and 3.6 million tons would be underground.

For information about the walk, contact Menominee tribal members Guy Reiter at 715-853-2776 or anahkwet@hotmail.com, or Oralann Caldwell at 715-799-1586 or oralanncaldwell@yahoo.com.