Published Tuesday, September 14, 2004 Montana tribes oppose return to cyanide mining FORT BELKNAP, Mont. - While the Bush administration pressed for a record number of oil and gas leases in the West, American Indians in Montana opposed new legislation that would permit mining companies to return to cyanide leach gold mining. Montana Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, said American Indians have a sacred responsibility to protect nature and points out the water and soil has already been poisoned by cyanide leach mining in Montana. "It is the fight that we have to do to protect nature, what was left here for us. We don’t own anything; it is not our place to tear up what does not belong to us. "We don’t even own our lives; we are here only on borrowed time. It is up to us as humans to protect what was put here for us to protect," Windy Boy told Indian Country Today. Windy Boy, Rocky Boy Chippewa-Cree tribal councilman, opposes new legislation, Initiative 147, which would repeal Montana’s ban on cyanide leach gold and silver mining, if passed by voters in November. Although the new legislation adds some environmental protections, tribal members say it is not enough. Windy Boy pointed out that Zortman-Landusky Gold Mines declared bankruptcy, leaving behind poisoned streams for Montana tribes and an enormous clean-up bill for Montana taxpayers. Zortman-Landusky Gold Mines were operated by Pegasus Gold Corporation in the Little Rocky Mountains, at the southeast end of the Assiniboine and Gros Ventre Fort Belknap Reservation. Catherine Halver, 74-year-old Gros Ventre tribal member in Lodgepole, helped lead the fight to halt cyanide leach mining, which destroyed burial grounds and poisoned streams. "Most of our water is contaminated and will be for years and years to come because of the way they were mining," said Halver, vice-chairman of the local Native grassroots group Island Mountain Protectors. Spirit Mountain was destroyed before the mining operations of Zortman-Landusky Gold Mines were halted. "A lot of our ancestors in the past used this mountain for vision quests and prayers. That was a very sacred mountain to our people. Now you go up there and it is just a little pile of rubble. "It really affects the old people; a lot of our burial sites were destroyed. There were people buried all over that mountain. They were just digging up the dead." Halver lives 15 miles from the mine sites and cyanide waters flow by, down Little Warm Creek, through her property. She had the water tested and cyanide was found years ago; now it is too expensive to have the test performed again. "The mine always said it would come out and test it and they never did." Urging voters to oppose I-147, she said, "Do not bring it in! We have got contaminated water running into our reservation every day. We have to live with all this destruction. Everything needs water. "Who is stuck with all this contamination? It is the Native Americans. It has affected our Native roots we use for medicine." Along with the medicine roots, she said tribal members wonder how much cyanide is in their sage and chokecherries. "We don’t know if it contaminated our berries and no one is helping us find out. "It has affected our way of living, our soil, the water, everything. The list goes on and on of the destruction. It will never in our lifetimes be cleaned up. The mining companies will say they are going to reclaim it, they claim there are new processes with new technology that they will use, but they are not going to use those, because they are too expensive." The cyanide spills and groundwater contamination from acid mine drainage from the Zortman-Landusky were documented. In 1982, 780 gallons of cyanide-tainted solution leaked from a containment pond when a section of piping used in the mine’s cyanide sprinkling system ruptured and released 52,000 gallons of cyanide solution onto lands and into creeks. There were at least eight other cyanide spills. Julie King, Assiniboine of Fort Belknap, remembered playing in those same mountains as a child in north central Montana. She said the waters no longer flow the way they did where the family fished when she was a child. Now, they have been diverted. Opposing passage of I-147, she said her concern is the contamination of the groundwater. King said American Indians and other residents are always promised reclamation after mining, but there is no way to reclaim lost living creatures. Pegasus’ Zortman-Landusky Gold Mines were sued under the Clean Water Act and faced a $36 million clean-up settlement in 1996. The company declared bankruptcy in 1998. Windy Boy said Zortman-Landusky made more than $250 billion before declaring bankruptcy. Now, the cost of cyanide leach mining cleanup is projected to be $60 million and required into perpetuity. "The state has determined that water treatment will be required forever." Further, he said very few tribal members in Montana ever benefited from the jobs, often claimed in publicity to support the push for new mining. Tribal members in Montana say the devastation is not worth it. During cyanide leach mining, a cyanide solution is trickled over crushed rock. After the gold dissolves into the cyanide, it is recaptured and processed to extract the metal. The new legislation, I-147 to overturn Montana’s ban on cyanide leach gold mining, is backed by the mining industry, which raised more than $1 million to press for passage. Of $1,057,805, 97 percent came from cash and in-kind contributions from Canyon Resources Corporation of Golden, Colo., which has joined forces with a Montana mining group. "The people of Montana have made it abundantly clear that they want the opportunity to vote on I-147," said Tammy Johnson, campaign manager for Miners, Merchants and Montanans for Jobs and Economic Opportunity. Windy Boy, however, urges American Indians to get out and vote against I-147 in Montana, pointing out that their vote can make a difference. "The Native vote has made a big difference in a number of key races." Now, with drilling and mining leases at a record high, the last pristine wildernesses of the West are at risk. Windy Boy points out waterways in the West are already contaminated with high levels of PCBs and mercury. Fish in many areas have been found unsafe for human consumption and PH levels in water near cyanide leach mines are the equivalent of battery acid. "Montana is the last of the Western frontier," Windy Boy said, pointing out the purity of the water in the region’s aquifer. "This water is the purest in the world. If the aquifer becomes polluted, we might as well kiss our human existence goodbye." |