Capitalist globalization involving Berger, Ltd. a multinational corporation from Quebec has orchestrated a dirty, corrupt backroom deal to destroy a pristine peat bog in Minnesota... please help us fight back...

Dear Representative Sailer;

I just got off the phone with Jody Beaulieu, an archivist for the Red Lake Nation. She has told me that this letter I have sent to you earlier this morning reflects her opinions, also. I suggest that you contact her as soon as possible on this matter.

I have also just completed a telephone call with Judy Roy, the Secretary of the Red Lake Nation Tribal Council, and, in no uncertain terms, she assures me that there are no written records of the Red Lake Nation Tribal Council ever having changed its position from one of the longstanding opposition to this peat bog mining operation in the Pine Island State Forest; much less dropping its opposition as has been widely reported in the news media the past several months.

Where did United States Congressman Jim Oberstar and United States Senator Mark Dayton ever get the unmitigated gull to tell the news media that the Red Lake Nation dropped its opposition to this peat bog mining operation? Where is there anything in writing? Now is the time to lay all the cards out on the table in full view of the public. If such a document is in existance, bring it out and let us see who signed it.

I, also, have spoken with Roman "Ducker" Stately, who was on the Council at the time that this "dropping of opposition" would have occured. He, too, assures me that the Red Lake Nation Tribal Council took no such action.

I insist that you speak with Congressman Oberstar about his political future. My suggestion is that he should be told by the DFL to resign, immediately.

I intend to seek Congressman Oberstar's resignation very publicly if you and the Minnesota DFL can not resolve this issue.

I attended the Minnesota DFL convention in Duluth as an elected delegate from Roseau County and this entire dirty deal just sickens me.

I expect you to use your influence in the Minnesota State Legislature to immediately halt all work including the clearcutting and road-building now in progress in the Pine Island State Forest in relation to this peat bog mining operation. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources should immediately take the appropriate action to block all entrances from Minnesota Highways 71 and 72 into this site so that no further work is done. This is a pristine wilderness area that serves as the life-blood of the Red Lake Nation and acts as a natural water purifier for the entire region of northern Minnesota.

I intend to make this communication available to the general public.

Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing
Red Lake Casino, Hotel, and Restaurant Employees' Union Organizing Committee

58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763

218-386-2432

-----Original Message-----
From: Alan L. Maki [mailto:alanmaki@wiktel.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2005 8:37 AM
To: Brita Sailer; tdennis@gfherald.com; nwa...@nwatch.com
Cc: sen.david.tomassoni@senate.mn; sen.carrie.ruud@senate.mn;
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Subject: RE: Peat Mining and patience... A reply to Representative
Sailer.........

Dear Representative Sailer,

I'm sorry, your answer just doesn't jibe with reality. I don't think you are telling the truth about not knowing about this peat mining operation proceeding.

Here is why I don't believe you...

Rod Skoe, your trusted colleague is, and has been, fully aware of the peat mining-for-casino deal that went down through the Koochiching Economic Development Authority. How do I know he has been aware of this for over a year? Because I told both him and Leroy Stumpf about this in person.

Do you really expect me, or anyone else to believe that the so-called "Friends of Big Bog group at the State Recreation Area near Washkish", did not tell you about the peat mining? Come on, Representative Sailer--- my grandpa got off the boat before 1900--- I talked to the manager of the Big Bog State Forest Campground last week and he told me that you have been fully aware of this peat mining operation.

Not only that, previously you wrote me saying you needed to know more about what was going on with casino workers. Why? I sent you all kinds of information to your campaign e-mail address wayyyy before you were elected and you never responded.

Patience. Have "patience" with you, Representative Sailer? Patience while they push through the road to the mining site? Patience while they get ready to blast Margie off the map to get the rip-rap to make the road?

Get real, Representative Sailer, don't treat everyone like they are a bunch of stupid fools and are going to sit "patiently" by as your friends destroy this bog and in the process destroy the Red Lake Nation and northern Minnesota and its waters.

I gave you the facts. The social facts. The scientific facts. The economic facts. What is there that having "patience" will now resolve or discover? Are you saying you will find some new "scientific evidence" to refute what longtime Red Lake Nation Chairman Roger Jourdain testified to--- that this bog was the life-blood of the Red Lake Nation?

What we see unfolding here Representative Sailer is what happens when capitalist globalization is allowed to proceed unfettered and unchained--- in this case I guess you could say it really has run amuck. We see the raw greed and corruption, the environmental destruction. We see that greedy politicians and businessmen, while boasting to the world that this is the greatest democracy on the face of the earth, are willing to work behind closed doors to orchestrate seedy deals that trade our living environment for casinos and lots of money. What we see is politicians like yourself, willing to look the other way as thousands of Minnesotans are forced to work in these casinos at poverty wages with no rights in the workplace. What we see is that this peat mining project is out of sight; out of mind. Not only do casino workers have to work day-in-and-day-out in smoke filled casinos for poverty wages without any rights; but now, poverty wage paid workers will be forced to work in a dirty, dusty peat mining/packing operation... Maybe you should take a little drive up to the peat mining operation in Giroux, Manitoba...

...see what working conditions are like in that plant... how even the most elaborate breathing apparatusses and masks can't filter the filthy, dirty, dust from entering workers' lungs... and they have a union in that plant! Maybe you should talk to my friend who is the Minister of Labour for Manitoba and ask about the health and safety violations and the number of "accidents" that workers have suffered in that plant ranging from death to having their bodies mutilated when they get arms, hands, and fingers caught in unsafe machinery and equipment?

Patience for what Representative Sailer? For you and your friends to squeeze this through before the people can mobilize to stop this racist, genocidal, anti-labor plan from going through? Patience to you means, we sit around waiting for you to "look into" everything as a road is built and Margie is blasted off the map and you and your friends are allowed to continue to put your puzzle pieces together while everyone else still has their puzzle on the kitchen table all apart.

Let me tell you something Representative Sailer, I have been talking to the people of the Red Lake Nation, they are all of the opinion that this peat mining operation had ceased long ago! And I mean ALL! Why do Red Lakers think this, Representative Sailer? What would make the people of the Red Lake Nation think that this was a deal that had been stopped long ago?

Berger, Ltd. and that corrupt little crook from Koochiching County apparently had patience. They had the patience to pursue this deal through a complex maze of backroom deals--- out of sight; out of mind--- just like the location chosen for this peat mining operation.

I used to pick night crawlers for fishing when I was a kid. I had to get down on my hands and knees on the cold damp ground in the darkness of the night, flashlight in hand. Like you politicians, every time the flashlight shined a little light on the slimy little creatures... zoommmmmmmm, into their holes the night crawlers went! Every so often I would catch a night crawler or two. And off a fishing I would go, sometimes returning home with a gunny sack full of fish...

...Speaking of gunny sacks; a lot of your colleagues have written wanting to know... ok this is another story for another time...

While your campaign buddies have been out attacking me for every conceivable thing--- except what I have been saying for over a year about the bog being traded for casinos--- they have never had the moral or political courage to address this basic and fundamental issue: that wealthy business interests were doggedly pursuing this deal with the most corrupt and disgusting politicians ever to grace the Minnesota political landscape!

You might want to check into the kind of politics Berger, Ltd. is bringing in from Canada. No doubt their corrupt little buddy, Prime Minister Paul Martin, will be attending the ribbon cutting ceremony with the rest of you politicians when the peat mining operation goes into full swing.

As far as your idea that a Big Bog Interpretive Center will promote protection of the bog... I don't understand how at this late date and with everything we now know... how will an Interpretive Center protect something that is now in the process of being destroyed? What will there be left to "protect?" Please explain your logic, Representative Sailer? I could say something about education at this point; but I might offend the entire education profession.

You ran for public office and you don't even know what is going on in your own back yard. Here is one more news story that you missed:

Pine Island Peat Mine Gets Go-Ahead

Dec 14, 2004 6:26 am US/Central
Duluth, Minn. (AP) Plans for a peat mining operation in Pine Island have gotten a boost from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The project has seen years of delays and environmental concerns. But the EPA has dropped its own concerns and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has approved permits for the development to begin in a Pine Island State Forest bog.

Construction is expected to start in 2005.

Minnesota has few commercial peat operations. Interest has been low because of competition from low-cost Canadian peat and the relatively low economic value of bagged peat.

(© 2004 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. )

Here is one more link you may want to check out:

http://www.epa.gov/Region5/orc/enfactions/enfactions2001/week-0901.htm

Patience, Representative Sailer? I don't think so. I hope lots of people take advantage of your toll free number at the end of your letter and call you: 1-800-920-5867.

Sincerely yours,

Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing
Red Lake Casino, Hotel, and Restaurant Employees' Union Organizing Committee

Phone: 218-386-2432

-----Original Message-----
From: Brita Sailer [mailto:rep.brita.sailer@house.mn]
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2005 11:14 PM
To: alan...@wiktel.com
Subject: Peat Mining

Hello Mr. Maki

I do thank you for sending me the information about the peat mining
operations in Koochiching County and Nova Scotia. As I mentioned to you
in my earlier message, I truly did not know about the mining operations,
but had known only about the Bog as it related to the project currently
underway by the Friends of Big Bog group at the State Recreation Area
near Waskish. A project , which, as I see it , will promote protection
of the Bog as a unique and intrinsically valuable natural feature as it
helps people to understand the way in which a bog functions with regard
to water filtration, wildlife habitat and in many other capacities .

I am looking into the matter of the peat mining operations now and
will get back to you as I learn more. I appreciate your patience as I
become familiar with the issues of the peat bogs, the Red Lake Nation
and general Natural Resource issues in the northern part of this large
district.
Again, thank you for alerting me to this issue.

Brita Sailer

Brita Sailer,
State Representative, District 2B
327 State Office Building
100 Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155-1208

tel: 651-296-4265
toll free: 1-800-920-5867
fax: 651-297-8128