archaeological and spiritual questions concerning the proposed DGR

The question to be asked is, by putting a mine filled with radioactive waste (deep geological repository) not only contaminating our water but an eternal disruption between heaven and earth? Spiritually, the question is beyond scientific. Maybe this impact process will answer this...

In terms of respecting indigenous appropriation we (myself or the archaeologists I worked with) always asked if the information was being shared freely. Elders like Emmaline Macpherson, Fred Pine and Alex Mathias all felt if we didn't share it then it would likely be lost. They are now all deceased and I am old old and feel it is important to communicate this information that was gathered by myself or those I worked, hunted, fished or picked berries with and knew socially from our community.

Previously, 1973, an elder in the Cree community of Fort George, located at the mouth of La Grande River in Quebec at Ft George was asked about hydro dams. He had never seen a dam. The impatient reporter then asked him about the Americans going to the moon? Again, the elder taking his time to thoroughly think the question through - replied, “maybe they had better see where they are walking first”. The LG-2 dam at mouth of La Grande River in Quebec was completed in 1980. Shortly after, approximately 10,000 caribou from the George River herd drowned in the reservoir behind the dam. The electricity goes to southern Quebec and the Untied States.

In the summer of 2021, I visited the borehole locations in Revell Township with the NWMO and asked if an archaeological reconnaissance of the site had been conducted prior to drilling and was told it hadn't. The importance of a surface survey of the sites by an archaeologist, preferably accompanied by a native elder can be revealing.

For example, in the summer of 1989, accompanied by Wabin elder Fred Pine of Garden River and two archaeologists, Dr. John Pollock and Thor Conway, we examined the Pearl Beach site at the height of land near Larder Lake, Ontario. The clearing had been denuded of trees prior to mining in the area in 1906 as had been noted in an earlier report by Willet Miller of the Geological Survey of Canada. I asked Fred why he was tapping the large exposed rock surface in a clearing. Fred said, “to hear if there was any hollow rock” (exfoliation)”. I then queried him how the rock would have been used? He went on to explain that several people, after medicine and fasting, would lie intertwined and outstretched on their backs in a circle with one person in the middle and focus on the bear (Pleiades) constellation. He said, “that is how we used to travel”. Accounts by Samuel Champlain, Chevalier de Troyes, Jesuits and fur traders noted how indigenous guides had a topographic knowledge of geography of large areas (they could sketch maps in sand or with charcoal on the sides of birchbark canoes) and could paddle over these immense territories knowing where to find difficult portage locations.

There were large boulders aligned along the north side of the clearing. I asked elder Alex Mathias about this and he said it was like a calendar. Vernon (Duff) Dufresne an amateur archaeologist from Larder Lake wrote an unpublished report entitled the “Pearl Beach conundrum” to show how this rock calendar was used to take astronomical sightings. The last elder to know how to use the calendar was Tonene who died at his camp on what is now Lake Tonene not far from Pearl Beach. His granddaughter, Emmaline Macpherson and Alex Mathias told us how people would come from the south and the north to meet at the height of land and Tegousawabie (Larder Lake). The dead are burnt to return their ashes to the land and release to their spirits to Raven Mountain. Near Larder Lake, the dead and their bones were brought to Mont Kanasuta, There were coming of age rituals at Mont Chemainus (Shamanus in Objibway).

A broader walkover of the site including the land around and in between Revell, Raleigh and Mamagweiss Lakes before drilling might have identified archaeological features. Former peoples lived lightly on the land however features such as fire rings, medicine circles , lodgepole stones, calendar rocks, bedrock clearings, etc. can tell a story. These headwaters locations and heights of land such in Northern Ontario such as Tip Top Mountain (Pukaskwa Park), Maple Mountain (Temagami Area), Pearl Beach, (Larder Lake), Cap Buji, (Brazil), Mach Pichu, (Peru), Kathmandu, (Nepal), Mount Sinai, (Egypt) and so on, were sites of annual pilgrimages. The white sediments in waters as glaciers receded from these areas were the holy foundations of life. Hindus regard the white sediment waters from the Ganges as sacred and won't drink white cows milk or kill a cow because of this. Spiritually, waters from any height of land, including the headwaters of the Turtle, English and Wabigoon River systems in heart of Treaty Three, need protection. Water is the foundation of life.

Plutons, like those in Revell Township are surface connections to liquid magma. Within this magma are two giant orbs that oscillate generating energy fields. In former times people would lie on their backs to connect with this energy and outer space. Along with radiation contaminating water, several kilometres of underground tunnels and caverns filled with nuclear waste will destroy the connection between the energy from inner earth and our ability to connect with it and the heavens. Besides eternally contaminating water, what are the implications of breaking this spiritual bond? Now that Trinity (first nuclear bomb) has happened it can't be contained in an underground box.