The Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians has applied to the federal government for authority to run its own water quality program on the Lac du Flambeau reservation. The tribe says this power is essential for it’s survival. This legal authority is called “Treatment as State.” And under the 1987 amended federal Clean Water Act, recognizing tribal  sovereignty, qualifying American Indian nations, may be granted the right and responsibility by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, to establish water quality standards, just as a state would.  Right now more than thirty Indian nations across the United States have been granted “Treatment as State” status by the EPA. This includes , near Crandon, Wisconsin,  the Mole Lake Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians.  Nick Vander Puy from the Superior Broadcast Network talks with a Lac du Flambeau tribal natural resources  manager and an elder about efforts to protect water on the Lac du Flambeau Chippewa reservation. Click here to hear the radio story with tribal elders.

 

The Lac du Flambeau Chippewa reservation in northern Wisconsin covers a twelve mile by twelve mile square  territory. More than 1/2 the rez is covered by water. The Lac du Flambeau homeland boasts more than 250 lakes, several rivers, and thousands of acres of wetland.

Larry Wawronowicz is the Lac du Flambeau tribe’s deputy administrator for Natural Resources. Wawronowicz says right now there are no legal standards in place for protecting water on the Lac du Flambeau reservation. Wawronowicz explains why the tribe is pursuing treatment as state status from the federal government for setting water quality standards.

“So the reservation and the tribe is, you know, intimately connected with the water. I mean everything from fishing, to providing water for mahnomin, for ceremonial purposes, for spearfishing, supporting a sportfish industry, supporting a tourism industry, is all tied to water.”

Water, or in the Indian language nibi is the lifeblood of the community. Mahnomin is wild rice, a sacred food that requires clean, flowing water.

 

Across from Wawronowicz’s desk is a poster showing an Indian baby, being cared for, on a cradle board. The caption reads, “We are not here just for the children of today.  Preserve the land for all children and love it.  Anishinaabe.”

 

“Every time, you know there is a decision to be made  about natural resources I take a look at that picture. It reminds me, you know, that we’re not only thinking of today, but tomorrow, and the little girl that is in that cradle, her and her offspring need clean water, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years from now, in which we can never forget.”

The Lac du Flambeau tribe says they’re concerned about the potential for upstream point source pollution.  The Lakeland district water treatment facility dumps treated sewage upstream from the reservation on the Tomahawk River. And getting Treatment as State status would allow the Lac du Flambeau tribe a say in any water treatment expansion.  That’s because the tribe could set water quality standards that would prevent polluted water from coming downstream onto the reservation.

Some industrial advocates and real estate interests are very concerned  The developers are alarmed about imprecise, nebulous, or non-quantifiable water quality standards. 

In fact, back in 2004 Dale Alberts, then the manager for Nicolet Minerals Company, near Crandon, complained to  Congress about the Mole Lake Chippewa Tribe’s Treatment as State water quality standards. The proposed metallic  sulfide mine was about a mile upstream from Mole Lake.  Alberts told Congress Mole Lake’s “spiritual integrity of water” standard established an insurmountable hurdle for the mining company.

The proposed Crandon mine wasn’t built, much to the relief of some downstream neighbors, Indian and non-Indian alike.

There are similar feelings on the Lac du Flambeau Chippewa Reservation. 

Back in 1975 Mike Chosa was also helping his tribe deal with a multi-national mining company.  The Phelps Dodge Mining Company wanted to build an immense copper mine on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation, near Mishonaagon Creek.  Mishonaagon Creeks flows towards Minocqua-Woodruff.

Chosa talked with tribal medicine man Archie Mosay about mining and the impact on water.

“He said I don’t know too much about what you’re telling me, but I know what my great grandfather told, he taught me that there are four major powers of the Ojibwa Nation, the first and foremost is the power of water, and the power of fire, the power of the land, and the power of the air, and water being the first and foremost, that’s the one we have to protect.”

Listening to these words, the Lac du Flambeau Tribal Council rejected the mining deal.

Chosa says some Minocqua- Woodruff business interests should remember how Lac du flambeau protects the water, especially from today’s building boom.

“I say, and remember this, what you do effects us, and your lands and your waters where you build your homes so close to the water, your boathouses, your big skiing and whatever else, polluting that water, and it’s coming this way, it’s polluting our land and our water as well. What you do affects us, we’re trying to set it up right, we want level playing field, that’s all, and we’ll get it. Our people have been here since the beginning of time.  And we’ll be here long after you leave, and  we’ll continue to protect the water.”

I’m Nick Vander Puy for the  Superior Broadcast Network.

To view the document itself click here (it's very beautiful writing)

 

To view a detailed explanation of the need for Lac du Flambeau water protection standards, please click here