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Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Eagle Rock camper counts coup on Kennecott

EAGLE ROCK -- On Sunday, May 23, one of the campers "counted coup" on a Kennecott worker putting up a fence around Eagle Rock. Kennecott informed the Michigan State Police, who are now investigating it.

According to one of the spiritual advisors at Eagle Rock, "Coup is a hundreds-of-years-old tradition of touching your enemy without hurting them. It brings shame to the enemy, Kennecott, by getting that close to them."

According to Gabriel Caplett, a camper at the Eagle Rock settlement, "Kennecott seems to have a habit of blowing things out of proportion. We’ve seen this when they wasted taxpayer resources getting a citizen arrested for sitting on a stump with her dog. While campers at Eagle Rock have had to listen to Kennecott supporters drive by at night yelling racial slurs, swerving at us while we walk on the road, throwing beer cans and, in one incident reported to the State Police, firing shots, Kennecott gets the State Police investigating a camper who tapped a construction worker on the butt with a jackpine twig. This is kind of ironic coming from a company with one of the worst human rights and worker rights records around the world."

The fence would prevent the Eagle Rock community from accessing their water sources, community garden and sacred medicines. The community asked Kennecott staff not to put the fence up for these reasons, but their request has been ignored.

Settlers at Eagle Rock are planning to hold a meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday evening, May 26, to discuss this situation and plans to finish planting their community garden. The public is welcome to attend.

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