[News] Pit River Tribe Rallies to Protect Medicine Lake

[Anti-Imperialist News]

March 17, 2015
*http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/17/pit-river-tribe-rallies-to-protect-medicine-lake/*

<http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/17/pit-river-tribe-rallies-to-protect-medicine-lake/#> 

*The Geothermal Threat to a Sacred Site*


  Pit River Tribe Rallies to Protect Medicine Lake

by DAN BACHER

On March 12, the Pit River Tribe and their Native American and 
environmental allies optimistically left the Ninth Circuit Court of 
Appeals in San Francisco following oral arguments in their long legal 
battle to protect the Medicine Lake Highlands from geothermal 
destruction and desecration.

The Pit River people, the lead defendants in the case, are fighting in 
court to defend the Highlands, known to them as “Saht Tit Lah.” The Pit 
River, Wintun, Karuk, Shasta and Modoc Nations hold the Medicine Lake 
Highlands sacred, and have used the region for healing, religious 
ceremonies and tribal gatherings for thousands of years.

The Tribe and their supporters appeared at the hearing with their 
attorney, Deborah A. Sivas, Director of the Stanford Environmental Law 
Clinic, in the case of the Pit River Tribe vs. US Bureau of Land 
Management, Department of Interior, Forest Service, Department of 
Agriculture, & Calpine Corporation, Defendants-Appellees. The Tribe’s 
supporters included the Native Coalition for Medicine Lake Highlands 
Defense, Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center, Save Medicine Lake 
Coalition, and Medicine Lake Citizens for Quality Environment.

“The struggle to protect the sacred Medicine Lake Highlands has been a 
long one, but over the years, we have only learned more and more about 
the importance of the landscape to Native Americans and California more 
generally,” said Deborah Sivas, who represents the Tribe and 
environmental organizations in the lawsuit. “I was happy to see that the 
court understood our arguments that the Tribe has a deep, abiding 
connection to the area.”

“The judges asked really good questions and we are optimistic about the 
outcome,” said Morning Star Gali, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer 
for the Pit River Tribe. “At one point Calpine said that nobody had the 
authority except for themselves to challenge the leases. This showed 
total disregard for the Tribe’s utilization of the sacred lake and 
highlands for over 10,000 years.”

Pit River Tribal Chairman Mickey Gemmill said, “Medicine Lake is a 
sacred place and it needs to be protected at all costs. We’re trying to 
preserve our culture and Medicine Lake is part of the beginning of our 
people. If we allow these corporations to come in and frack, we could 
lose that chance to bring back that part of our culture. So we’re asking 
the Calpine Corporation to step back and leave the Medicine Lake 
Highlands alone.”

The event began at 7 am with a sunrise prayer vigil and ceremonial 
gathering at Yerba Buena Gardens near the courthouse. Gorrina Gould, 
Ohlone leader, started the vigil with a prayer to welcome people in 
Yalamu territory. That was followed by a prayer and song by Caleen Sisk, 
Chief of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, and Radley and Louise Davis of the 
Pit River Tribe, according to Gali.

At around 8 am they began a “Protect Water and Sacred Sites, Defend 
Human Rights March” from Yerba Buena Park to the James R. Browning US 
Courthouse and then held a rally with speakers and a song by Radley 
Davis outside the courthouse. The court hearing lasted from 11:30 
AM-12:30 PM and was followed by a press conference on the steps of the 
courthouse immediately after the hearing.

Representatives of Native Nations and environmentalist supporters went 
before the U.S. Court of Appeals to argue their case that the energy 
leases were renewed illegally by federal agencies in 1998 for industrial 
development on national forest lands in the Medicine Lake Highlands, a 
near-pristine area about 30 miles northeast of Mount Shasta that has 
been designated a “Native American Traditional Cultural District.”

The Native American and environmental plaintiffs assert that industrial 
energy development would “desecrate and pollute” the beautiful area and 
pose unacceptable risks to California’s largest fresh water aquifer. 
They said that contrary to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) 
and other laws, the federal agencies never evaluated the threshold 
question of whether industrial geothermal development is even 
appropriate for this landscape.

“What was never considered is whether development is even appropriate 
for the Medicine Lake Highlands in the first place, given the area’s 
high benefit in holding California’s largest pure underground aquifer,” 
said Michelle Berditschevsky, senior conservation consultant for the 
Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center.

Berditschevsky said the panel of three Ninth Circuit judges will take 
the case under advisement, and a decision can be expected within three 
to nine months, or perhaps even longer depending on the backlog of 
cases. To read her legal commentary, go here 
<http://mountshastaecology.org/2015/03/12/medicine-lake-commentary/%C2%A0>.

Medicine Lake is a small high mountain lake, located at an elevation of 
6,680 feet, that lies within the Medicine Lake caldera, a depression 
near the summit of the Medicine Lake volcano. Medicine Lake offers 
boating, camping, fishing, hiking and swimming and other recreation. It 
is known for its abundant brook and rainbow trout that anglers pursue 
with an array of angling methods.

Five new geothermal power plant projects proposed by the Houston-based 
Calpine Corporation threaten to poison the waters of Medicine Lake, 
according to the Tribe and their supporters. A report by Dr. Robert 
Curry, a registered hydro-geologist and professor emeritus at the 
University of California-Santa Cruz, assessing the potential impacts of 
geothermal development suggests, “the processes that Calpine were trying 
to use, required chemicals to try and reach hot rock, as opposed to hot 
mud…were fairly experimental, probably inefficient, and would without 
doubt lead to contamination of the water supply.”

The Highlands are home to many unique plant and wildlife species that 
depend on clean water to survive. “Every day during the summer, bald 
eagles and osprey can be seen diving into Medicine Lake for fish. Deer 
pass through the campgrounds and occasionally an elk or black bear can 
be seen crossing one of the roads leading to the lake,” said Gali.

“Geothermal development in the surrounding national forest would 
increase traffic, noise, water and air pollution and would fragment 
wildlife habitat, turning the remote landscape into an industrial 
wasteland and threatening a reliable source of pure water,” said Janie 
Painter, executive director of the Medicine Lake Citizens for Quality 
Environment, consisting of Medicine Lake cabin owners and recreationalists.

Jason George, a certified Law student in the Stanford Environmental Law 
Clinic, noted, “It was great to see such a big turnout by tribe members 
at the hearing. We were gratified to represent the tribe and fight for 
the future of the Medicine Lake Highlands in the 9th Circuit.”

As California enters its fourth year of a record drought, the Medicine 
Lake Highlands hold tremendous and critical value as a water supply to 
California’s fish, wildlife and people from the summit of the caldera to 
the San Francisco Bay Delta Estuary.

Gali pointed out how the water from the aquifer travels from Medicine 
Lake and the Highlands to the Fall River, Pit River, Sacramento River 
and then finally to the imperiled San Francisco Bay Delta Estuary. “If 
Calpine is given the green light, this will definitely be a big 
detriment to the fish and the entire fragile ecosystem,” said Gali.

Caleen Sisk, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, 
commented, “The tribal attorneys did a fine job today. The questions the 
judge asked Calpine Energy forced their hand, and were quite direct. You 
know, these courts really weren’t built for us, for native peoples, yet 
we rely on them when development and economics override Mother Earth.”

“If the Pit River Nation prevails, it will be a win for everyone in 
California. Somewhere there must be someone who can stand up for Mother 
Earth. As I took photos today of the children who traveled here with 
parents, I was praying that this fight would not continue in their 
lifetime,” added Chief Sisk.

A phone call to a Calpine spokesman regarding their stance on the 
Tribe’s legal battle to protect Medicine Lake has not been returned.

The case proceeds through the courts as Governor Jerry Brown continues 
to fast-track his Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build the 
Peripheral Tunnels, considered by many to be the most environmentally 
destructive public works project in California history. The $67 billion 
plan will hasten the extinction of Sacramento River Chinook salmon, 
Central Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt, green sturgeon and 
other fish species, while imperiling the salmon and steelhead 
populations on the Trinity and Klamath rivers.

The court arguments may be archived at: http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/

http://www.youtube.com/user/9thcirc/videos

*/Dan Bacher/*/ can be reached at: Danielbacher at fishsniffer.com 
<mailto:Danielbacher at fishsniffer.com>/

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