Rally & Protest to Protect Sacred Places: Save Medicine Lake!!

San Jose, CA - Pit River Indian Tribe members and Indigenous and environmental justice supporters delivered an eviction notice to Calpine Corporation in downtown San Jose on Monday, January 29, 2007 demanding they drop their decades-long attempt to build polluting power plants in the Medicine Lake Highlands near Mount Shasta. Tribal members and supporters will vow to nonviolently defend Medicine Lake from any attempts to build power plants at this area that is profoundly sacred to area Native peoples.

The protest started with a 10 a.m. rally at Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park and at 12 noon we marched to Calpine Headquarters, 50 West San Fernando Street, San Jose for a rally.

The protest comes at a critical time in the long fight to protect the sacred Medicine Lake Highlands from environmental and spiritual degradation. In November 2006, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision and indicated that the federal agencies neglected their fiduciary responsibilities to the Pit River Nation by violating the National Environmental Protection and the National Historic Preservation Acts and that the agencies never took the requisite "hard look" at whether the Highlands should be developed for energy at all. As a result, the court rejected the extension of leases that would have allowed Calpine to develop geothermal plants, and the district court is now directed to enter summary judgment in favor of Pit River consistent with this opinion. Tribal members and supporters demand that Calpine drop their plans once and for all and not appeal the court decision.

Sponsors of the event include Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites, Seventh Generation Fund, Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, International Indian Treaty Council, Indigenous Environmental Network, Citizens of the Pitt River Nation, Indian People Organizing for Change, Vallejo Inter-tribal Council, Native American Sisterhood Alliance of Mills College, Da'hu La'h As Sacred Sites Defense, Redding Rancheria Cultural Department.