There is the cold science behind water. Like the human body is 72% water, going without water causes dehydration which can lead to allergies, colitis, asthma, constipation, migraines, rheumatoid arthritis and many more diseases. Water protects your heart, boosts your brain, helps with weight management and loss and keeps you alert. Obviously very important. That's the law of science. We as Original people can and should respect the law of science. It is ever changing as our understanding and scientific advancements deepens, however we as Original people came here on this Earth with original instructions, The very first instruction is to take care of our Mother Earth. We refer to her as mother because she provides for all of our needs if we work in conjunction with her, Like our relationship with The Creator Of All Natural Things (TCOANT), we are provided for as long as we put in work also. We fear the Earth like one should fear the sun, it is a respectful fear. Respectful of it's power. We are in awe that if we plant a seed and nurture it, keep it sheltered and watered it will grow into food to nourish us. We are in awe of the remarkable miracle of how that life is created. It's not a worship it is a respect and that is how we view water because it is so life giving and sustaining to us. It just makes sense to protect and care for water.
This is one of the issues we have with Whites and those in government. They know and understand how important water is to life, they are fully cognizant of how much we need water to survive. They are the ones who came up with the hard data and science of water. However they are the chief poisoners of water. From fracking to nuclear waste, from toxic chemicals to directing water away from needed areas they have no respect for the sacred and the only thing that matters is money.
Two Anishinawbe (Ojibaw word meaning Original People) Grandmothers, and a group of Anishinawbe Women and Men have taken action regarding the water issue by walking the perimeter of the Great Lakes. In 2003 the first Women's Water Walk took place as the grandmothers and sisters of different clans came together to raise awareness of the clean air and clean water being polluted by chemicals from motor boats, vehicle emissions, sewage disposal, agricultural pollution, leaking landfills and residential usage and the toll it was taking on this vital resource. We are taught from an early age that water is sacred and one of the most basic elements for life to exist.
The walk is done in the spring because of the natural re-growth of our natural habitat and because spring is a time for renewal, re-birth and re-growth.
Water is life giving and so are women, therefore women have traditionally held the position of keeper of the water and water carriers. Symbolically showing the symbiotic relationship they hold in importance of life to continue and exists on this planet.
Both are under attack.
Josephine Mandamin, a Grandmother and Water Walker has said, "Water is amazing, it flows where it wants to, it can go through any crack, crook or cranny. It can sing the most beautiful songs, if you listen well. She can sound like a male voice, especially during huge waves. It ebbs and flows leaving us messages in her journey throughout life. We are connected and united to life with water, and as we are all united by water; it seems we must be conscious of all things united.This connections or linkage helps us understand life and what it gives to humans, nature and animals. We are all so connected, so united with/by water. It is all life.
To see how water can mold itself to any situation, we can see it in any shape we put it in: jars, small containers, huge gallons - it flows to any shape or form. We are all connected by water and as we are all of water: 70 or 80% of our body mass, why can't we flow like the water? to unite ourselves with each other, to sing like the water, to think like the water, to be of one conscious entity? Why can't we? IF we could be, we will be one big ocean of love, kindness, respect, united and jelled together as one, we will be the generation to save our Mother.
Science is slowly catching up to our anishinabe thinking about our natural laws as governed to us by Creation/Creator. Our duty and responsibility is to our Mother's care and well being. The common denominator of life is Water. In our Mide Lodge we know all this from the teachings and oral inscriptions left by our ancestors, but we have not been vocal enough to tell the world and science that we know what they are collecting as new science. It is not new knowledge, or new understanding. it's been around as long as our Mide ancestors have been on this Mother earth. Our ancestors knew where water comes from, whence it flows, and how it flows. This is all understood in our waters songs and Lodge creation story."
Both are under attack. In Canada there are over 1200 murdered and missing Original women, in America the acounts of murdered and missing Native women is on the rise, the number of Native women being sold into sexual slavery is on the rise, the number of Black women is 64, 000. Sixty Four THOUSAND. Our women and our water are under attack and believe me when I tell you that it is not an accident. Keepers of the people and a vital element to sustain our people are being poisoned and are disappearing.
40 % of Navajo people in Navajo land live without running water. 60% of the homes on Pine are severely substandard without water, electricity, adequate insulation and sewage systems.
Chicago is over 30% Black and since the great influx of Blacks in the 1940's and forward the majority have moved into housing units often referred to as "projects". A good example of enviromental racism is the Altgeld Gardens a housing community on the south side of Chicago that was built in 1945 on an abandoned landfill to accommodate returning Blacks from World War 2. It is surrounded by 53 toxic facilities and 90% of the city's landfills. 90% of it;s population is Black and 65% live below the poverty level. The known toxins are mercury, amonia gas, lead, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB's), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH's), heavy metals and xylene all known to be poison to life.A study by teh Illinois Public Health Sector revealed excessive rates of prostate, bladder, and lung cancer. Other medical records show high rates of children born with brain tumors, fetuses that had to be aborted when tests revealed children developing with their brains outside of the skull and higher rates of asthma, ringworm and other ailments.
Chester, Pennsylvania, provides an example of "social, political, and economic forces that shape the disproportionate distribution of environmental hazards in poor communities of color". Chester is located in Delaware County, an area with a population of 500,000 that, excluding Chester, is 91% white. Chester, however, is 65% Black, with the highest minority population and poverty rate in Delaware County, and recipient of a disproportionate amount of environmental risks and hazards.
Chester has five large waste facilities including a trash incinerator, a medical waste incinerator, and a sewage treatment plant. These waste sites in Chester have a total permitted capacity of 2 million tons of waste per year while the rest of Delaware County has a capacity of merely 1,400 tons per year. One of the waste sites located in Chester is the Westinghouse incinerator, which burns all of the municipal waste from the entire county and surrounding states. These numerous waste facilities have posed negative health risks to the citizens of Chester, as the cancer rate in this area is 2.5 times higher than it is anywhere else in Pennsylvania. Also, the mortality rate is 40% higher than the rest of Delaware county and the child mortality rate is the highest. The clustering of all of these polluting facilities in Chester points to environmental racism. (Cole, Luke and Foster, Sheila. 2001. From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of Environmental Justice Movement. New York: New York University Press.)
New Orleans, Louisiana, has been cited as an example of past environmental racism. At the time of Hurricane Katrina, 60.5% of New Orleans residents were African American—nearly 50% higher than the rest of the United States. Pre-existing racial disparities in wealth within New Orleans worsened the outcome of Hurricane Katrina for minority populations. Institutionalized racial segregation of neighborhoods left minority members more likely to live in low-lying areas that were more vulnerable to the devastating effects of the Hurricane. Additionally, hurricane evacuation plans relied heavily on the use of cars and personal vehicles. However, because minority populations are less likely to own cars, some people had no choice but to stay behind, while white majority communities were able to escape. A report commissioned by the U.S. House of Representatives found that political leaders failed to consider the fact that "100,000 city residents had no cars and relied on public transit", and the city's failure to complete its mandatory evacuation led to hundreds of deaths. How could anyone deny that race was not a factor in the slow response and lack of accountability?
In 2007, NPR featured a class action lawsuit filed by Sheila Holt-Orsted of Dickson, Tennessee, against local waste treatment agencies. The well where the Holt family got their drinking water was only 500 feet away from a toxic landfill. They continued to use this well, unaware of any problems, for nine years. Although some of Holt-Orsted's neighbors were notified within 48 hours of the discovery, officials continued to tell the Holt family that there was no problem. The neighbors who were notified were White, the Holt family is Black. This is just one small exaple of the disparities in treatment by race. By the time the Holt family was informed that the water they had been drinking, showering in, and cooking with for years was contaminated with cancer-causing agents, they had already incurred a great amount of personal damage. Sheila Holt-Orsted suffered from stage 2 breast cancer, and she also lost her father Harry Holt to cancer in 2007. Four additional Holt family members suffered from various other illnesses. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Sheila Holt-Orsted and Beatrice Holt settled a lawsuit brought against the City and County of Dickson and three private companies to re mediate the public health and environmental risks posed by the contamination. Under the settlement, $5 million will be set aside to investigate and re mediate risks associated with the contamination, including by providing public water to local residents in the risk area. Under a separate settlement, the Holt family will receive $1.9 million in compensation for their injuries. Ask yourself, what is 1.9 million dollars to these corporations that knowingly poison people of color when they themselves are worth untold billions? How much is your life worth? or the life of your child or parent or spouse or sibling? Is 1.9 million dollars going to cover the relationship you have with your family? Of course not.
The International Tribunal of Indigenous People and Oppressed Nations, convened in 1992, established to examine the history of criminal activity against indigenous groups in the United States, published a Significant Bill of Particulars outlining grievances indigenous peoples had with the U.S., including allegations that the United States “deliberately and systematically permitted, aided, and abetted, solicited and conspired to commit the dumping, transportation, and location of nuclear, toxic, medical, and otherwise hazardous waste materials on Native American territories in North America and has thus created a clear and present danger to the health, safety, and physical and mental well-being of Native American People” "Indictment of the Federal Government of the U.S. for the commission of international crimes and petition for orders mandating its proscription and dissolution as an international criminal conspiracy and criminal organization.")
All of this is going on and we move on to Flint Michigan. Beginning in April 2014. After Flint, on order from Republican Governor Rick Snyder and his team of Republican administrators, changed its water source from treated Detroit Water and Sewerage Department water (which was sourced from Lake Huron as well as the Detroit River) to the Flint River, its drinking water had a series of problems that culminated with lead contamination, creating a public health danger. The corrosive Flint River water caused lead from aging pipes to leach into the water supply, causing extremely elevated levels of lead. In Flint, between 6,000 and 12,000 children have severely high levels of lead in the blood and experienced a range of serious health problems.The water change is also a possible cause of an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in the county that has killed 10 people and affected another 77. You read that right, ten people are dead and another 77 are infected with Legionaires disease.
That was in April of 2014 flash forward to November of 2015. That was when four families filed a class action suit against Governor Snyder and other state officials, then two months later three separate people also filed suit followed by four more law suits later, The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan and the Michigan Attorney General office opened investigations. Snyder knew what was coming, Snyder knew what was happening and being done to the population of Flint the entire time and so on January 5th 2016 he declared Flint to be in a state of emergency. President Obama declared teh crisis a federal state of emergency and authorized additional help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.
Four government officials—one from the City of Flint, two from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and one from the Environmental Protection Agency—resigned over the mishandling of the crisis. Snyder issued an apology to citizens and promised to fix the problem, and later sent $28 million to Flint for supplies, medical care and infrastructure upgrades.
Starting in 2010, Genesee County had spearheaded the development of the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA) to supply it and Lapeer and Sanilac counties—plus the cities of Lapeer and Flint—with water. On March 25, 2013, Flint City Council voted 7-1 to approve the purchase of 16 million gallons per day from the KWA rather than go with Flint River water as a permanent supply.Flint emergency manager (EM) Ed Kurtz and Mayor Dayne Walling approved that on March 29 and forwarded the action for the State Treasurer for approval.
The DWSD, on April 1, sent out a press release demanding the state should block Flint's request as it would hurt Detroit Water and start a water war and in the press release said that "any claim that it would save the cash-strapped city money is specious". The release also put out several options for Flint, including sale of raw untreated water. Genesee County Drain commissioner Wright, after accusing the DWSD of negotiating through the media, replied, "It would be unprecedented for the state to force one community to enter into an agreement with another, simply to artificially help one community at the other's expense. This is exactly what the (Detroit Water and Sewerage Department) is arguing should be done."
Regardless on April 15, State Treasurer Andy Dillon gave approval to Kurtz to enter into a water purchase contract with the KWA. EM Kurtz signed the KWA water purchase agreement on April 16. On April 17, the Detroit Water and Sewer Department gave its one-year termination notice to the city just days after the County and City rejected the DWSD's last offer. The DWSD also expected that Flint pay them for past investments in the water system that benefited regional customers; Flint and Genesee County rejected such responsibility, although they indicated willingness to purchase some of the pipeline. Governor Snyder called a meeting of the three parties for April 19 to discuss those and other issues related to the KWA project.
In late April 2014, in an effort to save about $5 million over less than two years, the city switched from purchasing treated Lake Huron water from Detroit, like they have done for 50 years, to treating water from the Flint River. The plan was to attach to the Karegnondi system, which was under construction, and would be completed three years later. The Flint River had been the designated backup water source for years. In December 2014, the city had invested $4 million into its water plant.
In January 2015, a public meeting was held, where citizens complained about the "bad water." Residents complained about the taste, smell and appearance of the water for 18 months before a Flint physician found highly elevated blood lead levels in the children of Flint while the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality boldly lied and insisted the water was safe to drink. It was determined that the river water, which, due to higher chloride concentration, is more corrosive than the lake water, was leaching lead from aging pipes.
While the local outcry about Flint water quality was building in early 2015, Flint water officials filed papers with state regulators purporting to show that "tests at Flint's water treatment plant had detected no lead and testing in homes had registered lead at acceptable levels.This was ALL lies.
"The documents falsely claim that the city had tested tap water from homes with lead service lines, and therefore the highest lead-poisoning risks; in reality; the city does not know the locations of lead service lines, which city officials acknowledged in November 2015 after the Flint Journal/MLive published an article revealing the practice after obtaining documents through the Michigan Freedom of Information Act.The Journal/MLive reported that the city had "disregarded federal rules requiring it to seek out homes with lead plumbing for testing, potentially leading the city and state to underestimate for months the extent of toxic lead leaching into Flint's tap water." (Robin Erb, Flint doctor makes state see light about lead in water, Detroit Free Press (October 12, 2015).
I need to make something clear here. When I say 'Detroit water" and how Flint was using "Detroit water" It is only filtered and treated at the Detroit Water Plant. The water itself comes from Lake Huron, the third largest body of fresh water in the world. It is a glacial lake formed over 10,000 years ago during the last Ice Age and it is still fed by pure underground springs. Flint is geographically the last place on Earth where one should be drinking poisoned water.
The people are suffering with rashes, hair loss, diarrhea and numerous other problems. When you go get water you must have I.D., which disenfranchises many Black and Brown families, and you only get ONE case of water. With this one case you are to bathe, cook and clean. The Red Cross and the United Way ask for I.D. What happens when you don't have an I.D.? You get no water. You get no relief.
On Saturday the 30th of January Student Minister Abel Muhammad and other brothers from Chicago's Mosque Maryam came to Flint for the second time in as many weeks with two van loads of water. Myself a sister named Lisa and Detroit Rap Artist Soufy joined them and we went into the neighborhoods, knocked on doors and passed out cases of water. We all are men of God and faith without works is dead. Our mission is among our people and that is where we went. We served Brown, Black and White people. There were spontaneous eruptions of prayers, tears of joy, disbelief and wonder. One woman was taking care of a seven month old baby and was telling me the baby had broken out in the rash. I asked how much water she needed and she told me, "I could use a lot. Maybe two cases?" I made the executive decision, ha ha!, and she got eight and three packages of baby wipes. Another brother who did not speak English took the water with tears burning his eyes and he kept repeating 'gracias' over and over. One house had 8 people living in it and so what little groceries we had we gave him those and eight cases of water. He asked, "Who are you guys? Are you all Muslims?" I told him, "We are your brothers"
This is the government that has a pipeline from kindergarten to prison, this is the government, filthy with devils, that enact laws to further oppress us, this is the government that employs killer cops, this is the government that gives aid to a nation that knowingly kills with precision strikes little Brown children in Palestine, this is the government that will not give you a proper education. This is the government that poisoned us in the first place are we supposed to expect them to take care of us? Minister Farrakhan asked for 10,000 to step up and take care of OUR neighborhoods. It put the fear of God into White's when he said that but when it was put into action we were the one's passing out water to our people.
Flint is not the only place to face a crisis like this. St. Joseph in Louisiana faces the same issues.
It's not enough. See the devil is real and the devil is tricky and the devil is selfish, arrogant, greedy and a killer. Switching the pipeline was a money saving measure. I will never be convinced that Snyder and his administrators were not warned beforehand of the danger of Flint's water. They knew, they noticed that Flint is 60% Black and they calculated the health risks to mostly Original people and decided to go with the money. With these devils it is always about the money.
