ONLINE: Keepers of the Water

Proposals for the "Crandon mine" near the headwaters of the Wolf River in northern Wisconsin caused statewide controversy for nearly three decades, and plenty of legal proceedings, until a coalition of groups opposing the mine won a precedent-setting U.S. Supreme Court victory in 2002. Despite that decision, mining remains a contentious issue due to a depressed economy in northern Wisconsin and continued exploration for mineral deposits by business interests (including drilling activities in 2020 by a subsidiary of Can-American Minerals). Water@UW hosts a screening of Keepers of the Water, a 1996 documentary produced by the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council featuring the activists who eventually helped defeat the Crandon mine proposal. The screening will be followed by a discussion by film director Al Gedicks, Menominee community organizer Anahkwet , and UW doctoral candidate Justyn Huckleberry . Register here for the Zoom link.

press release: With support from the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science (CUAHSI) and Wolf River Action Committee, Water@UW will host a screening of Keepers of the Water followed by a discussion with Director Al Gedicks & Anahkwet (Guy Reiter), Executive Director of Menīkānaehkem, Inc. Moderated by UW Doctoral Candidate Justyn Huckleberry.

The documentary is about a diverse coalition of environmental activists that defeated the Exxon and Rio Algom proposed copper-zinc metallic sulfide mine and toxic waste dump at the headwaters of the Mahwāēw- Sēpēw (Menominee)/Wolf River (English translation), in Crandon, Wisconsin.  

Al Gedicks, the film's director, is executive secretary of the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council in Tomahawk, Wisconsin & emeritus professor of environmental sociology at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

Anahkwet (Guy Reiter) is a traditional Menominee who resides in the Menominee Reservation. He’s a community organizer and author, and the executive Director of a Menominee Indian community organization called Menīkānaehkem, Inc.

Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies doctoral candidate Justyn Huckleberry's current research focuses on how people experience different types of conservation and extractive-industry development-induced displacement differently.

To request any accommodations, please reach out to Alexandra Lakind at water@mailplus.wisc.edu.