RAN’s international day of action for Indigenous rights is gaining steam! As of today, January 16, activists in 27 cities in the United States and Canada are planning actions at their local OfficeMax and Grand & Toy locations to demand that the companies publicly support a logging moratorium in Grassy Narrows.

We are really excited to see our plans for an international day of action come together, and we are even more excited when an ally organization wants to lend their support, without us even having to ask.

The East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), an organization based out of Oakland, California that works to promote economic and social justice for working families, contacted us earlier this week wanting to help. They buy paper through OfficeMax and wanted to find a way to support our campaign against OfficeMax here in the Bay Area. Because we aren’t calling for a complete boycott of OfficeMax products, (yet) EBASE offered to send a letter to their contact at OfficeMax pressuring them to support a moratorium in Grassy Narrows. I’ve pasted the letter below, with the name of OfficeMax’s account manager removed.

Thanks to EBASE for supporting Grassy Narrows and the struggle for a logging moratorium on their traditional territory!

-Annie

Dear [Account Manager]:

CC: Rainforest Action Network

Tension continues to mount in Grassy Narrows. We learned over the weekend that four clan mothers in the community have built a wigwam on an isolated logging road in the northern end the community’s traditional land use area in an effort to end destruction caused by industrial development. Read the ceremony notice – 1-6-07-ceremony-notice.pdf and this update, sent by a supporter in Grassy Narrows:

“These 4 Anishinabe women are from Grassy Narrows, Ontario Asubpeeschoseewagong and are so determined to protect the forest that they have committed to spend one night on an isolated logging road to build a wigwam. They are deep in the boreal forest with a small group of supporters/advocates. Throughout this time tonight they are doing a
vigil of prayer by lighting a sacred fire and putting tobacco in that fire. The danger is the possibility of a logging truck plowing through the wigwam. These women are putting their lives in danger.”

Less than a month ago, clan mothers in Grassy Narrows delivered an eviction notice to loggers in Grassy Narrows’ traditional territory.

And just last week we learned that Frank Iaccobucci, a former Canadian Supreme Court justice appointed by the Province to negotiate with Grassy Narrows called for an emergency meeting with the community today, January 7. Iaccobucci is apparently concerned that companies in the region are feeling a lot of pressure from their customers and he wants Grassy Narrows to back off. Grassy Narrows community members have told Iaccobucci that Grassy will not back down until their demands are met, especially the moratorium on all industrial activity in their traditional territory.

As things head up in Grassy Narrows, you can support the struggle for Indigenous land rights by participating in RAN’s international day of action against OfficeMax and Grand & Toy on Jan 30. OfficeMax and Grand & Toy sell millions of dollars of paper products made from trees clearcut on Grassy Narrows’ traditional territory – contact Annie for more information and to get involved.

A herd of 11 caribou migrated to OfficeMax in San Francisco today in search of their destroyed forest habitat and demanded that OfficeMax executives support the Grassy Narrows First Nation’s call for a logging moratorium on their traditional territory.

The caribou began their visit to OfficeMax by continuing their migration inside the store, to the paper aisle, looking OfficeMax brand paper products that used to be the habitat that they depend on. The caribou circled around reams of paper made from trees clear cut from Grassy Narrows and cried out, “I remember this tree! This tree was my home!” OfficeMax employees soon shooed the animals out of the store and to the front entrance, though they said that they intended to alert the store manager of the many concerns about habitat destruction and disregard for Indigenous land rights in Grassy Narrows.

On the sidewalk outside of OfficeMax, the caribou educated passers-by about the controversy in Grassy Narrows:

The caribou were sure to email OfficeMax CEO Sam Duncan photo-petitions of concerned OfficeMax shoppers who support the Grassy Narrows community’s demand for a moratorium on their land:

And of course, what’s a caribou protest without a song?
To the music of Home, Home on the Range:
Home, home on the range
Where the deer and the caribou play
Where seldom is heard, a Boreal songbird
And the chainsaws are buzzing all day

The afternoon was quite a success, the caribou were able to talk to a lot of OfficeMax employees and customers about the importance of respecting Indigenous rights in Grassy Narrows and left hoping that more caribou would feel inspired to migrate to an OfficeMax location near them.

RAN’s Old Growth Campaign is planning an international day of action on January 30th, 2008 against OfficeMax and their Canadian subsidiary, Grand & Toy to put pressure on them to publicly support a logging moratorium in Grassy Narrows. OfficeMax and Grand & Toy paper products are made from trees taken from the Grassy Narrows traditional territory against the wishes of the community. Join RAN activists all over the continent on January 30th and pay a visit to your local OfficeMax or Grand & Toy location, and demanding that OfficeMax and Grand & Toy publicly support a moratorium in Grassy Narrows.

Contact Annie for more information, and to get involved with the day of action on Jan 30th.

A couple of activists up in Seattle along with our old growth team sent a strong message to Weyerhaeuser and their doting subsidiary Quadrant Homes: stop logging land and forests that belong to first nation’s communities, like Grassy Narrows. Checkout the footage at Seattle’s King 5 website:

http://www.king5.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=136719

Nicely done folks. More info on this coming soon.

What a week RAN had in Seattle! The week of March 11th through the 15th was packed full of educational events, actions, meetings, and so much more. It’s took me a few days to get back into the swing of things here at the RAN office in San Francisco, and even more time to reflect on the experiences that we had in Seattle. This blog post is a bit later than it should have been, and I apologize for that.

The week started on Saturday the 10th when our friends from Grassy Narrows Maria, Gloria, and Warren arrived in Seattle along with RAN campaigner David and Hazel, a documentarian. Many of us were staying together and began the week by grocery shopping and making props for upcoming actions. On Sunday evening we piled into cars and caravanned over to the American Friends Service Committee’s gorgeous meeting house. We are very proud and honored that AFSC’s Indian Program offered to co-sponsor and host the Grassy Narrows speaking event in Seattle. The speaking event opened with an appearance by the Seattle Labor Chorus who sang songs celebrating the strength of environmental and social justice movements when they work in coalition. Singing was a great way to kick off the speaking event, everyone sang along and the mood was festive. As Maria, Gloria and Warren began to speak about their struggles in Grassy Narrows, everyone in the room was moved by the unbelievable hardships faced by the Indigenous community, as well as their continuing determination to fight for the survival of their culture. It was clear that if the struggle for Indigenous rights in Grassy Narrows will succeed, it will take a strong coalition of people and movements coming together.

On Monday morning, the representatives from Grassy Narrows went with David and Brant from RAN to meet with Weyerhaeuser executives at their Federal Way headquarters. While I did not attend the meeting, I heard Warren talk about how he felt it went. He told me that he felt like the executives had a hard time hearing what the folks from Grassy had to say. At one point, after one Weyerhaeuser executive had been dominating the conversation and asking a series of leading questions, Maria told her politely, but firmly, that they had traveled 3000 miles to attend this meeting and it was time that Weyerhaeuser stop talking, and try to listen. I have to whole-heartedly agree with Maria on that point, Weyerhaeuser spends a lot of time blaming the Province of Ontario for their “inability” to pull out of Grassy Narrows when they could instead start looking at the ways to honor and strengthen their existing policy toward Aboriginal rights.

Tuesday was a lot of fun, we once again piled into cars and caravanned up to Everett to meet up with the Seattle Rainforest Action Group (SeaRAG) organizers outside of the Everett Events Center for the 2007 Built Green Conference and Expo. We set up a banner that said “Built Green Beware! Quadrant Homes – Green Imposter” and laid out a couple dozen paper mache “stumps” to create a clear-cut on the side walk. Some activists donned caribou antlers and became homeless caribou without habitat wandering around the clear-cut. What was amazing about the Built Green Expo was that we were extremely well received by many of the people who were attending the conference. The Old Growth campaign has traditionally had great relationships with green builders, and this event was no exception. Quadrant Homes, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser and one of the largest builders of new-homes in Washington State, is a member of Built Green. Many of the conference attendees are frustrated that Quadrant Homes, and Weyerhaeuser have such low building standards and worry that Quadrant does more harm to the Built Green certification than good. Quadrant Homes was set to receive an award during the conference, and a couple of RAN activists went inside the conference center to protest their award. While those activists were promptly shown the door, they successfully embarrassed Quadrant for claiming a “green” label while building new homes from wood stolen from Grassy Narrows traditional territory.

Wednesday was definitely the most adrenaline-filled of the whole week! We woke up and got ready for the day’s events by waiting for a call from the action team. When it finally came, we raced out to a Quadrant Homes development in Bothell, about 20 minutes north of Seattle. We arrived to find two activists perched on the roof of a model home with a huge banner that read, “We’ll leave your home when you leave ours.” Nobody at the development had realized yet that a model-home takeover was just beginning! We got pictures of the representatives from Grassy Narrows standing by the house, under the banner and waited for the media and police to arrive. Over the next hour or so activists arrived to support the action, media streamed in to document the events, and police came to figure out what to do with us. The home takeover was entirely peaceful, and surprisingly calm. We were clear with our demands and our message – we wanted to hear from Weyerhaeuser CEO Steve Rogel. We wanted to know how Mr. Rogel plans to get Weyerhaeuser out of Grassy Narrows, and the activists on the roof weren’t going to leave willingly until we heard those plans. Toward the end of the afternoon, in an amazingly serendipitous moment, the fire trucks arrived just as two local-news helicopters started circling the model home – we were “Live at 5” on the news! Check out the great news coverage here-.

All in all, the week was great for the Old Growth campaign and RAN. We had three successful events, an opportunity to meet with Weyerhaeuser Senior Executives, and brought together a strong coalition of local Seattle RAN activists, human rights advocates, and Labor rights supporters. As the campaign moves forward, we plan to keep the pressure on Weyerhaeuser and their home-building subsidiaries such as Quadrant homes until they decide to pull out of Grassy Narrows.

Check out pictures at www.freegrassy.org.

-Annie

News helicopters captured footage of the RAN and Grassy Narrows occupation of a Quadrant home in Bothell, WA. Quadrant homes are built with Weyerhaeuser lumber taken from the territory of the Grassy Narrows First Nation in Ontario, Canada.

It’s 4 a.m. Activsts that took to the roof of a Quadrant Model home in Bothell, WA are safe at home with their friends and family. Check the news from KING5 and the Everett Herald on the newswire. Pictures are at our Flickr account. Stay tuned for video and commentary (just as soon as we get it cut together).

…When you Leave Ours!” – Grassy Narrows to Weyerhaeuser

Breaking News from Seattle today as activists from Grassy Narrows and RAN occupied the roof of a model home at Quadrant Homes’ Bothell Development, unfurling a large banner reading “Weyerhaeuser: We’ll Leave Your Home When You Leave Ours.” The plan is to occupy the house until Weyerhaeuser CEO Steve Rogel agrees to cancel contracts for all wood supplies originating in Grassy Narrows’ traditional territory.

Stay tuned as more action unfolds!

You can view photos from today’s action here

As promised, we spent the morning with a couple dozen folks from the Seattle Rainforest Action Group dressed as homeless caribou, wandering the streets of Everett, Washington. I’m speaking, of course, of our antics at the Built Green Conference and Expo. The annual event drew about 700 building industry professionals.

As conference attendees flooded into the building, the herd fanned out distributing flyers. Others held up a banner reading “Built Green Beware: Quadrant Homes, Green Imposter. Nearly everybody gave us their support. Green builders, it turns out, are not big fans of Quadrant Homes and the company’s prominence in the conference was a controversy well before we showed up.

Our protest drew also drew some pretty hefty security. About 20-30 of Everett’s finest greeted us bright-and early. (Can you imagine the morning briefing? “Men, we’ve got a whole herd of caribou downtown. I’m going to need at least half the squad.”) Weyerhaeuser’s head of security also showed up (He knows us by name. Hi Ron!) as did Frank Mendizabal, the ubiquitous spokesperson we met yesterday.

Inside, activists interrupted the morning awards ceremony with an award of their own: “Eco Imposter”. Security swiftly escorted the surprise presenter out of the auditorium but the show wasn’t over. She earned supporters among the audience. Some booed. Some asked why the conference couldn’t have a dialogue about its awardees. Everybody knew that a green award for Quadrant homes meant controversy.

Breaking news from the Built Green Conference up in Everett, Washington today. RAN and Grassy Narrows community members were on hand to expose Weyerhaeuser subsidiary Quadrant Homes’ greenwashing. Quadrant uses wood clearcut without consent from Grassy Narrows traditional territory to build homes in the Puget Sound area of Washington State. Stay tuned as more action unfolds throughout the day.

Check out images from the event here: