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GOGEBIC COUNTY -- A member of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) has organized a sit-in encampment next to the proposed Copperwood Mine project site, in Gogebic County. The protest was expected to start Friday at 3 p.m. near the North Country Trail parking lot, 20 minutes north of Wakefield on County Road 519 and plans to go until late October, according to the protest organizers.
Charlotte Loonsfoot is heading the encampment. She also sits on the board of Protect the Porkies, an environmental activist group interested in combating efforts to put the Copperwood Mine adjacent to the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park and Lake Superior.
Loonsfoot said she has concerns about the proposed mine's dam breaking, referencing other mines where dams have broken, such as Eagle Mine. "We're here to take care of the Earth and the Earth takes care of us," she said. "The water is the most important thing in [our] culture to keep clean."
According to Protect the Porkies Facebook page, the aim of the sit-in is to garner tribal solidarity on this issue, as well as to inform tourists passing thru the state park about the potential Copperwood mine. Loonsfoot said there were never any agreements between tribal leaders and mine officials.
"We want to have a presence of resistance because we don't want it [the mine]," she said. "They [Copperwood] haven't really gotten an agreement, like they should from our tribes, saying we're okay with the mining."
KBIC released a statement during the Copperwood project's infancy in 2011. Citing concerns about its mining methods, tailings disposal facility and impact on Lake Superior.
"Heavy metals must be prevented from entering nearby waterways and Lake Superior, especially considering the human health effects of the disclosed constituents that would leach from the [disposal facility]," the 2011 statement reads. "Health risks associated with heavy metals released into the environment will disproportionately affect Ojibwa peoples with subsistence traditions and higher rates of consumption of fish and other species. Ojibwa and other peoples may utilize the area’s resources and harbors now and into the future."
It is worth noting the statement was originally given to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (now EGLE) and Orvana Resources US Corp., which does not have rights to the project. It is currently handled by Canadian company Highland Copper.
At press time, neither Highland Copper nor its regional partners have made any statements regarding the encampment. In a recent Mining Technology article, Highland Copper said it was targeting a Q1 2027 publication of a feasibility study for the project.
According to regional communications partner Moment Strategies, Highland Copper intends to move forward with a recent letter of intent from the US Export-Import Bank by creating a binding debt facility.
The project is moving forward to the despite the objection of activists like those in Protect the Porkies, but Loonsfoot said she hopes and expects many non-natives to sit in with her at the encampment in order to help spread awareness on the issue.
"It's not just our land either," she said. "We were the first ones here but, they [non-natives] live here too and they have concerns. They need clean water."
For more information about the encampment, visit Protect the Porkies' webpage at protecttheporkies.com/camp.