CONSEJO INTERNACIONAL DE TRATADOS INDIOS

INTERNATIONAL INDIAN TREATY COUNCIL

Administration Office

456 N. Alaska Street

Palmer AK 99645

Phone (907) 745-4482   Fax (907) 745-4484

Email: iitcak@ak.net

INTERNATIONAL INDIAN TREATY COUNCIL BOARD OF DIRECTORS

RESOLUTION NO. 2002 - 10 Adopted on September 21, 2002, at the regular meeting of the International Indian Treaty Council Board of Directors gathered at the Fort Belknap Reservation, Montana.

WHEREAS, environmental impact statements by governmental entities have shown that geothermal development by Calpine Corporation in the Medicine Lake Highlands, the home of the Pit River Tribe, would cause irreparable damage on the cultural and spiritual values of Sacred Medicine Lake Highlands that cannot be mitigated,

WHEREAS, the proposed geothermal developments would introduce large-scale, polluting, fragmenting and unsightly industrial elements into this natural area valued for its beauty, geological uniqueness, silence and purity—all qualities that are essential to the spiritual and cultural practices of the Pit River Tribe, the Modoc Tribe, traditional practitioners from the Klamath, Karuk, Shasta, Wintu and other more distant Tribes, and the Native Coalition for Medicine Lake Highlands Defense,

WHEREAS, the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places in the Department of the Interior determined that the Sacred Medicine Lake Caldera is a Traditional Cultural District eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, and a larger Historic District boundary must now be created to assure that spiritual and cultural values will be preserved,

WHEREAS, the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management have illegally leased 66 square miles to geothermal corporations in the Sacred Medicine Lake Highlands and have approved geothermal development in the area,

WHEREAS, the present developer, Calpine Corporation, in its filings with the California Energy Commission, in its US Department of Energy Geothermal Resource and Development application, itself has admitted the irreparable damage that its geothermal development will inflict on the cultural and spiritual uses of the Sacred Medicine Lake Highlands by Indigenous Peoples throughout Northern California and Oregon,

WHEREAS, the Pit River Tribe and other affected Indigenous Peoples were not consulted in the siting of the geothermal projects, nor have they given their free and informed consent to such geothermal development and have opposed such development and use in the Sacred Medicine Lake Highlands, since 1996,

WHEREAS, the international human rights and fundamental freedoms of the Pit River Tribe, the Modoc Tribe, traditional practitioners from the Klamath, Karuk, Shasta, Wintu and other more distant Tribes and Peoples, particularly as recognized by Articles 1, 18 and 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the United States is a party, are now and continue to be violated by Calpine Corporation’s geothermal development and proposed additional development,

BE IT RESOLVED that the International Treaty Council joins in and fully supports the Pit River Tribe’s opposition to geothermal development of the Medicine Lake Highlands by Calpine Corporation in the Fourmile Hill Area, as well as its pending application for additional geothermal development in the Telephone Flat area of the Sacred Medicine Lake Highlands; and,

BE IT RESOLVED, that the International Indian Treaty Council hereby calls upon the Department of Interior, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to observe and respect the United States’ human rights obligations and to immediately terminate the illegal lease and put a stop to Calpine Corporation’s geothermal operations and proposed operations in the Sacred Medicine Lake Highlands; and,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the International Indian Treaty Council strongly urges the Department of Interior, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to decide against any and all geothermal industrial development in the Sacred Medicine Lake Highlands.

Secretary, IITC Board of Directors