Gaylord Nelson, Father of Earth Day, protected the Namekagon River, much of
Wisconsin...and the earth
Tia Nelson says "good bye Papa"
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Tia Nelson is the daughter of Carrie Lee Nelson and Wisconsin governor and US Senator Gaylord Nelson. In 1970 Senator Gaylord Nelson founded “Earth Day,” this helped activate more than twenty million people for conservation. Gaylord Nelson’s passion for the land and water led to many fundamental laws that still protect it. Nelson helped preserve the Namekagon River in northwest Wisconsin, the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior, and the Blackjack and Headwater’s wilderness near Eagle River. At the age of eighty nine Gaylord Nelson died last July near Washington DC. Tia Nelson talks about her father’s death and final resting place. Nick Vander Puy from the Superior Broadcast Network reports. |
Gaylord Nelson died at home in his bed in a Washington DC suburb about five in the morning. During his waning days, his wife Carrie Lee Nelson was by his side.
“And my mother was lying in bed with him with her hand on his heart. And she had laid there like that for ten days and not slept because she was going to be present. And she woke me up first and I woke my brothers up afterwards and went downstairs and kissed him goodbye and then I went out in the backyard for a moment.”
Gaylord Nelson loved hummingbirds. And the days before he died he sat out in a chair out in the back near the flower garden and looked for them. According to Tia Nelson when the tiny birds wouldn’t appear he’d get kind of irritated and say to Carrie Lee, “Where’s the hummingbird, where’s the hummingbird?”
Well, the hummingbird reappeared.
“And all of a sudden a hummingbird dropped down in front of my face and just like this, you know, and right in front of my lips, buzzed and looked at me and kissed me on the lips and off it went into the sky, and for this day, and forever, hummingbirds will be that natural symbol for me and for Papa.”
During this past year Tia Nelson has been giving speeches honoring her father’s legacy.
“You know I tell people I’m the luckiest child in the world. It’s kind of like winning the lottery. You don’t do anything to deserve it and it pays for a lifetime. And in my case I didn’t even have to buy a ticket. And so, I’m a very lucky girl.”
Along with Governor Doyle, Congressman Obey, and Senator Feingold, Tia Nelson gave a presentation about her father at Bayfield’s Big Top Chautauqua.
Tia Nelson met Gerry DePerry, a tribal story teller from the Red Cliff Chippewa community.
“And he had this nice aura about him. And I introduced myself saying, I’m so sorry I wish my father could be here. And Gerry just looked at me and he smiled, all light hearted and said, How do you know he’s not here? And it was perfect.”
Doyle, Obey, and Feingold all did a great job. Tia Nelson spoke which was difficult because Bayfield and the Apostle Islands had been such an important place for her father. Gerry De Perry from Red Cliff told some beautiful stories.
A few weeks later near her birthday, Tia Nelson who was born on the summer solstice, contacted Gerry De Perry.
“He said, Well, what do you want to do? And I said I don’t know I think I want to go to Raspberry Bay I like that and there’s this beautiful pitcher plant bog. I love bogs there’re so primordial to me. They make me feel close with some ancient natural history. I knew at the time it was important to the tribe. But I didn’t know it had a special significance for Gerry who would often go up there and pray for the son he had lost.”
So they met at the Red Cliff casino parking lot. Gerry DePerry carried some tobacco and his feathers. They drove up to Raspberry Bay and walked through the old pitcher plant bog.
“And got to the bay and said a little prayer and put some tobacco in the water and I waded out to my knees with Papa’s ashes and dispersed them there in the lake and thought about just how lucky I was and how blessed I was the child of someone who took what was important about their values and made something lasting that would happen and benefit us today an experience that people would have a long, long time from now.”
I’m Nick Vander Puy for the Superior Broadcast Network.
Photos of Gaylord Nelson's visit to the Namekagon River
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To see more pictures
of this gathering visit www.protecttheearth.org |
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Pictures of the Namekagon River Gathering
are by Kathy Olson formerly of Stone Lake Wisconsin |
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Fighting the utilities ill conceived giant electric line slicing across northwest Wisconsin, Gaylord Nelson showed up several years ago amid the big pines with hundreds of supporters at the proposed Namekagon River crossing. We all stood with him. Wisconsin Public Television filmed it.
Gaylord Nelson, Wisconsin’s former governor raised his fist into the air and said, “There aren’t many rivers left around the country as beautiful and pure as the Namekagon. We should leave it as it is. I’ll have to be two hundred years old before I let the utilities cross our beloved river.” Footage from this event was recently shown on Wisconsin Public Television in “Beyond Earth Day and Beyond: Gaylord Nelson’s Good Fight”.
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