PRESS RELEASE
Indigenous Activists Conclude 3000-Mile Journey with Challenge to Weyerhaeuser CEO to End Clear-Cut Logging in Ancestral Homeland
For Immediate Release:
March 9, 2007
Activists on “Road to Seattle” want 15 minutes with Steve Rogel to share their stories
SEATTLE – This weekend, three members of the Grassy Narrows First Nation will conclude their “Road to Seattle” tour by kicking off a week of presentations, publicity and protests coordinated by Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and local supporters. Since leaving their 1,200-member native community in Northwest Ontario on Feb. 25, the group has told its story to hundreds of supporters in seven Canadian cities. During the community’s visit to Seattle, they aim to convince Weyerhaeuser CEO Steve Rogel to support an end to clear-cut logging of their ancestral homeland.
On Sunday, the group will speak at a public event sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, Seattle Rainforest Action Group and RAN. The interactive presentation will profile community efforts to establish a moratorium on all industrial activity within their Traditional Territory, as well as local efforts to support their struggle. The community has maintained the longest running Indigenous logging blockade in Canadian history, now in its fifth year.
On Monday, the group will hand-deliver a letter to Mr. Rogel at Weyerhaeuser Headquarters in Federal Way, Wash. Despite a similar previous request, Rogel refused to meet with community members during their visit to Weyerhaeuser’s Annual Meeting of Shareholders in April 2006. The letter states, “During our stay, we request that you take 15 minutes to meet us and listen to our stories.”
On Tuesday, Quadrant Homes, a wholly owned Weyerhaeuser subsidiary, will receive an award at the Built Green annual conference in Everett, Wash. Recent research conducted by RAN documents that Quadrant homes are constructed with Weyerhaeuser building materials made from wood clear-cut and taken without consent from Grassy Narrows. To expose the hypocrisy of Quadrant’s award, local activists and Grassy community members will dress as homeless caribou and wander around tree stumps in front of the conference.
“The clear-cutting of the land is an attack on our people,” said Roberta Keesick, a Grassy Narrows blockader, grandmother and trapper. “The land is the basis of who we are. Our culture is a land-based culture, and the destruction of the land is the destruction of our culture. Weyerhaeuser and the McGuinty government don't want us on the land, they want us out of the way so they can take the resources."
“Building American suburbs from Canadian clear-cuts is unethical,” said David Sone, Old Growth campaigner at Rainforest Action Network. “ Weyerhaeuser clings to outdated business practices that ignore the cultural and environmental value of the Boreal Forest. As CEO, Steve Rogel should promote stronger social responsibility at Weyerhaeuser, beginning with an exit strategy from Grassy Narrows.”
“We ask that everyone who hears us be an echo to our voice: stop the clear-cutting on our territory,” said Gloria Kejick, a Grassy Narrows community member on the “Road to Seattle.”
For more information, updates, and profiles on the community members, please visit FreeGrassy.org
GRASSY NARROWS EVENT SCHEDULE (call for updates and additions)
WHAT: Grassy Narrows Activists Speak WHEN: Sunday, March 11, 2007 at 6 p.m. WHERE: The University Friends Meeting House, 4001 9th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA WHO: Grassy Narrows First Nation, Rainforest Action Network, Seattle Rainforest Action Group, American Friends Service Committee
WHAT: Grassy Narrows letter delivery to Weyerhaeuser CEO Steve Rogel WHEN: Monday, March 12, 2007 at 11 a.m. WHERE: Weyerhaeuser Company, 33663 Weyerhaeuser Way South, Federal Way, WA
WHO: Grassy Narrows community members and supporters
WHAT: Protest at Built Green Conference: Exposing Quadrant Homes- The Green Imposter WHEN: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 starting at 9 a.m. WHERE: Built Green Conference at the Everett Events Center, 2000 Hewitt Avenue, Everett, WA
