Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
The Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News is the newsletter of the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund, published five times per year. The News is intended to provide a forum for the free exchange of ideas among citizens and organizations working to protect aquatic habitats in the Great Lakes Basin.
Volume 15, Number 6 • Spring 2007
Gentle Warrior
By Nick Vander Puy
Roscoe Churchill wasn’t a United States
military combat veteran, but he served
as a general in the late 20th century
Manufacturers Resource War against
the Earth. Churchill fought on the side of
responsible government, clean water,
fertile soil, untainted fish, wild rice, and
big trees. The anti-mining activist died
this month at the age of 90.
Roscoe was a true son of Wisconsin. For
the past 30 years Roscoe united
conservationists,Native American tribes,
sport fishing groups, some trade
unionists and students into a community
(one might even describe it as a tribe)
resisting a mining district in northern
Wisconsin. Hundreds of these folks
showed up in Ladysmith to say goodbye
to Roscoe and re-affirm their connection
and a memorial service we called a
"Fond Farewell."
Sandy Lyon, a community organizer who
also happens to be my wife, often jokes,
“Roscoe and Evelyn Churchill ruined my
ordinary life.” Sandy, Evelyn and Roscoe,
sitting around the Churchill’s farm
kitchen in the mid-‘90s, came up with a
challenge for the multi-national mining
companies: "Show us a successfully reclaimed
metallic sulphide mine that
hasn’t polluted the water." The mining
companies never could, and in 1998 the
Wisconsin Legislature and Governor
Tommy Thompson enacted the Churchill
Mining Moratorium bill. Because of the
bill, which would not have passed without
the fierce and sustained activism of
a broad and diverse coalition consisting
of thousands of people who care about
the earth,Wisconsin remains the one of
least attractive political climate for mining
in North America.
Artist Judy Gosz brought cedar from the
Stockbridge Munsee reservation and
dozens and dozens of pies to Roscoe’s
farewell. Roscoe loved stopping for pie.
Our daughters Annie and Sage passed
small cedar branches to everyone in the
circle. Judy’s husband-folksinger Skip
Jones opened the gathering with a song
by Kate Wolf called "Gentle Warrior."
Roscoe was known widely as the kind
and gentlemanly warrior from rural
Wisconsin.
We were transformed once again by the
ceremony into one heart and mind,
remembering the lyrics from
Kate Wolf’s song Gentle Warrior:
Brother Warrior
there are none of us
who walk this path alone.
We are crying for a vision
That all living things
can share
And those who care
Are with us everywhere.
The heartbeat of the movement, the
drum from Mole Lake, sat in the middle
with tribal judge Fred Ackley and the
other Anishinaabe singers. Songs on this
drum, during the mining moratorium
rallies, called in an eagle over the state
capital building. Eagle flight over the
capital had not been seen in modern
times.
February 27, 2007
Nick Vander Puy is lead producer for the
Superior Broadcast Network in northern
Wisconsin.
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