What We Believe
Pebble Mine is a Crime! Be a Rebel Against the Pebble!
We are the Rebels to the Pebble, a group of youth in Dillingham, Alaska, who passionately oppose the proposed Pebble mine. We are writing to you because we need your support. The Pebble Mine would be a crime because it is bad for the environment, it will kill the salmon, and it will slowly kill the people, culturally and physically.
When Proposition 4 lost, we realized that we have to reach out to the rest of the state that may not have time to know all of the facts. We believe that if they did have the facts, they would support us on this issue. It is hard to get the truth out when the mining industry spends millions of dollars on advertising campaigns to make sure that attempts to stop the mine like Proposition 4 fail. The mining industry outspent the opposition two to one on Proposition 4. It’s hard to get the truth out when Sarah Palin waits until days before the vote for Prop. 4 to announce she opposes the referendum and when the Natural Resources Department ‘s website is displaying information about Proposition 4 that favored the mining industry, the department that is supposed to be stewards of the environment, but is led, thanks to Palin, by former mining industry officials.
You don’t have to be a tree-hugging environmentalist to appreciate the disastrous environmental record of mines and the reality of what they will do to the environment. Most people will agree on what will happen. The likelihood of an earthquake is high in the area of the proposed mine. If the tailings break, the effect will be devastating. Pebble Limited Partnership will not take the precautions to prevent a tailings leak from an earthquake. Even without an earthquake, a leak in the tailings is inevitable. The Bingham Canyon Mine is just like Pebble but half its size and the pollution has contaminated 60 square miles of groundwater near Salt Lake City, making the water unusable to thousands. Our area is even more fragile because of our reliance on the salmon, not to mention the rest of the delicate ecosystem. Also, glacial gravel, the soil here, is very permeable. Chemicals travel fast underground through the soil. Chemicals don’t need to travel into the surface water by waterways to contaminate the water where the fish are. The amount of water that Pebble will use to run the mine per year, 35 billion gallons water, is more than the city of Anchorage uses per year. Acid rock drainage is also inevitable and permanent. Most mines that followed water quality standards still contaminated the water with acid rock drainage, which is all is needed to destroy the salmon’s spawning routes. There is also great risk of water contamination. Mine operations use countless amounts of chemicals that are toxic to fish and wildlife, which will be released into local surface and ground water. Block caving mining creates more contamination because, over time, it causes settling and sinking on the land on the surface and when the water from rain enters the mine it creates acid that seeps into the waterways and becomes toxic to wildlife and fish. On top of all this, countless bridges and culverts will be built to create all the roads necessary around the mine for it to function. Culverts and bridges create water that is too shallow or fast for fish to cross. When fish passages are disrupted, populations will decrease and run the risk of the fish not returning to those areas. For all these reasons and more, there is No Such Thing as a Clean Mine.
It is hard to get the truth out, but that is what we have to do. We literally need the support of our fellow Alaskans if this mine is going to be stopped. We want the rest of the Alaska to take the time to care about this issue and stop the Pebble Mine. So, why should you care? The world is full of development and every time there is development, there is usually some impact on the environment. What makes this situation worthy of opposing this particular development of possibly the largest gold and copper mine in the world? If the environmental reasons arent' enough, there are many other reasons, but we would like to offer two more to convince you to actively oppose the mine.
The first reason is economic. Some people have been misinformed that we would be gaining great economic opportunity with the mine that would create income for our region through jobs. Some say that sacrificing some pretty landscape and some fish would be a small price to pay for economic development. This is untrue. Bristol Bay has the largest sockeye salmon fishing industry in the world that employs 17,000 people and brings in 100 million dollars every year, not including profits during and after processing. The salmon also attracts tourists and sportsmen from all over the world that supports a very strong lodging industry. Also, economically, the salmon industry is a renewable resource; whereas, obviously, gold and copper mines have a short lifespan and they are non-renewable resources. A hundred years from now, we will still be fishing but the mine will have come and gone and left destruction in its wake. On top of that, the state won’t benefit from its profits like it does from oil. The profits from the mine will not benefit the region or the state of Alaska.
The second reason is the one that is most dear to us and we believe that people from both sides of the issue don’t pay enough attention to. And that is the cultural impact of the proposed Pebble Mine. We, in the Rebels to the Pebble, are mostly Alaska Natives and even those of us who are not Alaska Native share the same belief- that the fight against the Pebble Mine is a fight to save the Yupik culture and other Native Alaskan cultures, not just the environment or fish or caribou or moose or a beautiful landscape. We are trying to save our culture. Our culture is suffering because of many factors already from the past and the present. The Pebble Mine could be the last nail in the coffin for our people and it would be a nail that was intentionally put in. It would not be an accident. It is dead wrong for anybody to knowingly risk the death of a culture and we need people to understand that that is what the Pebble Mine will do to us. Not only is it the right thing to do, but also the law protects our right to exist. The United Nations Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by United Nations in 2007 is a legal document full of language that protects Native rights, especially Article 32. We believe that the United States and Alaska must honor the highest law in the world, the United Nations and stop ignoring our legal rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations in 1948. This document also addresses Native Alaskan rights to having a say in the Pebble mine in Article 18, 22, and 27. ANILCA is the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980. It is one of the ways that federal law protects Native subsistence rights. One part says: It is hereby declared to be the policy of Congress “…to cause the least adverse impact possible on rural residents who depend upon subsistence uses of the resources of such lands…” “Federal land managing subsistence activities on the public lands and in protecting the continues viability of all wild renewable resources in Alaska, shall cooperate with adjacent landowners land managers, including Native Corporations, appropriate State and Federal agencies and other nations.” “Local residents... Aggrieved a failure of the State or the Federal Government to provide for the priority for subsistence sues set forth may … file a civil action in the United States District Court for the District of Alaska to require such actions to be taken as are necessary to provide for the priority.”
A long time ago, our Native people celebrated our harvests from our land with a dance. Now, we do that dance but we’re trying to keep the meaning of it alive as we strive to preserve and regain our culture that was stripped from us against our will before we were born. The Native people of Alaska are already suffering from the hands of years of oppression, which has taken the lives of our people through alcoholism, drugs, abuse, depression, and suicide. If the Pebble Mine comes, it will be even more devastating than it already is. The groundwork for cultural genocide has already been laid. We’re fighting an uphill battle to restore our culture while still contributing and functioning in the Westernized technological world.
Stopping the Pebble Mine is dead serious to us. We are struggling to prevent the annihilation of our culture. To knowingly eliminate the existence of an ethnic group is called genocide. Killing a culture with guns, gas chambers, starvation, denying basic rights to life and liberty; how it is done doesn’t matter- if we knowingly kill a culture, through the development of a mine- it is genocide.
We want to prevent the Cultural Genocide of our people.
If you would like to make a difference with us, write to us and join the cause!!
Rebels to the Pebble
Stacy Rolf, Co- Chair
Tamrit Grewal, Co-Chair
We are the Rebels to the Pebble, a group of youth in Dillingham, Alaska, who passionately oppose the proposed Pebble mine. We are writing to you because we need your support. The Pebble Mine would be a crime because it is bad for the environment, it will kill the salmon, and it will slowly kill the people, culturally and physically.
When Proposition 4 lost, we realized that we have to reach out to the rest of the state that may not have time to know all of the facts. We believe that if they did have the facts, they would support us on this issue. It is hard to get the truth out when the mining industry spends millions of dollars on advertising campaigns to make sure that attempts to stop the mine like Proposition 4 fail. The mining industry outspent the opposition two to one on Proposition 4. It’s hard to get the truth out when Sarah Palin waits until days before the vote for Prop. 4 to announce she opposes the referendum and when the Natural Resources Department ‘s website is displaying information about Proposition 4 that favored the mining industry, the department that is supposed to be stewards of the environment, but is led, thanks to Palin, by former mining industry officials.
You don’t have to be a tree-hugging environmentalist to appreciate the disastrous environmental record of mines and the reality of what they will do to the environment. Most people will agree on what will happen. The likelihood of an earthquake is high in the area of the proposed mine. If the tailings break, the effect will be devastating. Pebble Limited Partnership will not take the precautions to prevent a tailings leak from an earthquake. Even without an earthquake, a leak in the tailings is inevitable. The Bingham Canyon Mine is just like Pebble but half its size and the pollution has contaminated 60 square miles of groundwater near Salt Lake City, making the water unusable to thousands. Our area is even more fragile because of our reliance on the salmon, not to mention the rest of the delicate ecosystem. Also, glacial gravel, the soil here, is very permeable. Chemicals travel fast underground through the soil. Chemicals don’t need to travel into the surface water by waterways to contaminate the water where the fish are. The amount of water that Pebble will use to run the mine per year, 35 billion gallons water, is more than the city of Anchorage uses per year. Acid rock drainage is also inevitable and permanent. Most mines that followed water quality standards still contaminated the water with acid rock drainage, which is all is needed to destroy the salmon’s spawning routes. There is also great risk of water contamination. Mine operations use countless amounts of chemicals that are toxic to fish and wildlife, which will be released into local surface and ground water. Block caving mining creates more contamination because, over time, it causes settling and sinking on the land on the surface and when the water from rain enters the mine it creates acid that seeps into the waterways and becomes toxic to wildlife and fish. On top of all this, countless bridges and culverts will be built to create all the roads necessary around the mine for it to function. Culverts and bridges create water that is too shallow or fast for fish to cross. When fish passages are disrupted, populations will decrease and run the risk of the fish not returning to those areas. For all these reasons and more, there is No Such Thing as a Clean Mine.
It is hard to get the truth out, but that is what we have to do. We literally need the support of our fellow Alaskans if this mine is going to be stopped. We want the rest of the Alaska to take the time to care about this issue and stop the Pebble Mine. So, why should you care? The world is full of development and every time there is development, there is usually some impact on the environment. What makes this situation worthy of opposing this particular development of possibly the largest gold and copper mine in the world? If the environmental reasons arent' enough, there are many other reasons, but we would like to offer two more to convince you to actively oppose the mine.
The first reason is economic. Some people have been misinformed that we would be gaining great economic opportunity with the mine that would create income for our region through jobs. Some say that sacrificing some pretty landscape and some fish would be a small price to pay for economic development. This is untrue. Bristol Bay has the largest sockeye salmon fishing industry in the world that employs 17,000 people and brings in 100 million dollars every year, not including profits during and after processing. The salmon also attracts tourists and sportsmen from all over the world that supports a very strong lodging industry. Also, economically, the salmon industry is a renewable resource; whereas, obviously, gold and copper mines have a short lifespan and they are non-renewable resources. A hundred years from now, we will still be fishing but the mine will have come and gone and left destruction in its wake. On top of that, the state won’t benefit from its profits like it does from oil. The profits from the mine will not benefit the region or the state of Alaska.
The second reason is the one that is most dear to us and we believe that people from both sides of the issue don’t pay enough attention to. And that is the cultural impact of the proposed Pebble Mine. We, in the Rebels to the Pebble, are mostly Alaska Natives and even those of us who are not Alaska Native share the same belief- that the fight against the Pebble Mine is a fight to save the Yupik culture and other Native Alaskan cultures, not just the environment or fish or caribou or moose or a beautiful landscape. We are trying to save our culture. Our culture is suffering because of many factors already from the past and the present. The Pebble Mine could be the last nail in the coffin for our people and it would be a nail that was intentionally put in. It would not be an accident. It is dead wrong for anybody to knowingly risk the death of a culture and we need people to understand that that is what the Pebble Mine will do to us. Not only is it the right thing to do, but also the law protects our right to exist. The United Nations Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by United Nations in 2007 is a legal document full of language that protects Native rights, especially Article 32. We believe that the United States and Alaska must honor the highest law in the world, the United Nations and stop ignoring our legal rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations in 1948. This document also addresses Native Alaskan rights to having a say in the Pebble mine in Article 18, 22, and 27. ANILCA is the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980. It is one of the ways that federal law protects Native subsistence rights. One part says: It is hereby declared to be the policy of Congress “…to cause the least adverse impact possible on rural residents who depend upon subsistence uses of the resources of such lands…” “Federal land managing subsistence activities on the public lands and in protecting the continues viability of all wild renewable resources in Alaska, shall cooperate with adjacent landowners land managers, including Native Corporations, appropriate State and Federal agencies and other nations.” “Local residents... Aggrieved a failure of the State or the Federal Government to provide for the priority for subsistence sues set forth may … file a civil action in the United States District Court for the District of Alaska to require such actions to be taken as are necessary to provide for the priority.”
A long time ago, our Native people celebrated our harvests from our land with a dance. Now, we do that dance but we’re trying to keep the meaning of it alive as we strive to preserve and regain our culture that was stripped from us against our will before we were born. The Native people of Alaska are already suffering from the hands of years of oppression, which has taken the lives of our people through alcoholism, drugs, abuse, depression, and suicide. If the Pebble Mine comes, it will be even more devastating than it already is. The groundwork for cultural genocide has already been laid. We’re fighting an uphill battle to restore our culture while still contributing and functioning in the Westernized technological world.
Stopping the Pebble Mine is dead serious to us. We are struggling to prevent the annihilation of our culture. To knowingly eliminate the existence of an ethnic group is called genocide. Killing a culture with guns, gas chambers, starvation, denying basic rights to life and liberty; how it is done doesn’t matter- if we knowingly kill a culture, through the development of a mine- it is genocide.
We want to prevent the Cultural Genocide of our people.
If you would like to make a difference with us, write to us and join the cause!!
Rebels to the Pebble
Stacy Rolf, Co- Chair
Tamrit Grewal, Co-Chair