Defending Sacred Eagle Rock

May 5, 2010

Author: Greg Peterson

Source: Indian Country Today

http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/greatlakes/92880679.html

As the spirits whispered through the towering pines on 40 mile per hour winds atop sacred Eagle Rock, American Indian warrior Levi Tadgerson said, “you can feel our relatives and the spirits with us.”

He stood on the cliff’s edge looking out upon northern Michigan’s Yellow Dog Plains for another approaching storm – literally and figuratively – as Tadgerson’s fellow warriors are trying to stop an international mining giant from destroying the site where Ojibwa ceremonies have taken place as long as elders can remember.

In late April, Kennecott Eagle Minerals began site preparation work for its sulfide mine called the Eagle Project. The entrance to the nickel and copper mine will be built at sacred Eagle Rock.

“We are defending the water, we are defending our treaty rights and our right to practice our culture,” said Tadgerson, who describes himself as “an Anishinaabe man who loves and respects the environment.