Copyright © 2000 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

December 11th, 1999 the State of Minnesota Department of Transportation, with support from the State Highway Patrol and the Minneapolis Police Department, carried out their plans to remove the Four Oaks Spiritual Encampment, to kill the Four Sacred Oaks, and to desecrate Mother Earth. All this destruction to prepare the way for their unneeded reroute of Highway 55.

At 10:30 PM on December 10th the camp received several tips that the State Troopers would be gathering to stage the raid at 5:00 AM, and coming into camp at 7:00 AM. Several helicopters with infrared sensors hovered over camp around 11:00 PM. Immediately the emergency phone tree was activated and the media contacted. Consistent to their inability to tell the truth, the Department of Transportation, had promised us that they would be contacting the media to ensure that the raid would be handled differently than the raid on December 20th of 1998 in which 802 state troopers, cops and sniper units pepper sprayed and tortured non-violent activists already in custody and destroyed sacred items including a ceremonial drum of the American Indian Movement. At around 5:00 AM the media told us that they had heard nothing, so many people became skeptical that anything would happen in the morning.

At 4:15 mobile security units of our encampment spotted the State Troopers gathering a mile south of camp at a Department of Transportation storage yard by the airport. Word of this build up was relayed back to camp. We called the media again, and they promised they would be at camp soon. People had been filtering in to camp all night and soon a gigantic bonfire was raging because we were not going to let them burn all of our supplies like they did on December 20th, 1998.

At around 6:00 AM people began to prepare themselves ceremonially by smudging with sage and circling around the four sacred oaks. At 7:05 AM a lookout high in an oak tree shouted to the people around the trees, "They're coming", and around the hill came four unmarked white rented trucks with their lights off. Following the trucks was a long line of state trooper vehicles and from the north end of camp the Minneapolis Police Department began to set up a cordon around the entire woods and camp.

Captain Kevin Kitridge approached the seventy or so people gathered in prayer around the four sacred oaks, and was told by David Manuel that we were in ceremony and that ceremony should not be interrupted. Kitridge was informed that we would be singing two more songs on the drum and that the sacred chanupa would be smoked by the entire circle. He was obviously taken off guard, but he agreed to let us finish the ceremony, but asked us if there were "some kind of problem", because we were taking so long. David said that we were in ceremony before the troopers arrived and not everyone wanted to get arrested, so Kitridge said that people who did not want to get arrested could go west outside of the police cordon when the ceremony was completed. Those who remained would be arrested.

33 people were carried away that morning, and immediately the camp was destroyed by their bulldozers. Later that day the four sacred oaks were killed by one man with a chainsaw. Eventually several activists were evicted from their tree sits.

We are still fighting to save Camp Coldwater Spring that has flowed for over 9,000 years. It is medicine to our people, and should be sacred to all people. We need your help and prayers now more than ever. All of our elders have told the truth about this sacred water, and we cannot let it be destroyed for commuters convenience.