Protecting Mother Earth: Advocating for a Nuclear-Free World

During the “18th Protecting Mother Earth Conference” in Cherokee North Carolina, I had the honor of interviewing Jesse Deer in Water. The conference was founded by the Indigenous Environmental Network and was hosted by the Eastern Band Cherokee Indians. The conference was held on the Qualla Boundary Land Trust.
 
Jesse Deer in Water is a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. He is a Nuclear Abolitionist. Jesse has a long history of working to make Turtle Island safer by advocating for structural changes to nuclear facilities. Jesse is the director of Citizens Resistance at Fermi 2 (CRAFT). He works with allied organizations such as Beyond Nuclear. He views nuclear power, uranium extraction, and nuclear disasters as all threats to indigenous peoples and to citizens of the world. It was impressive to see his fund of knowledge and to learn of his body of work as an advocate. 

Jesse watched his mother as she evolved into an effective nuclear abolitionist. The construction of a nuclear reactor was proposed for Oklahoma. Jessie Pauline and others organized and advocated for the plant to not be built. They were successful. After that victory they found out that Kerr-McGee had applied to dispose of nuclear waste from the Sequoyah Fuels Corporation (SFC). Jessie Pauline and then Vice-Chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma joined together to create the Native Americans for a Clean Environment (NACE). After ten years of advocating the SFC closed.  

She then moved to Michigan with the goal of retiring from the hard work of being a nuclear abolitionist. However, that was not to be. On December 25, 1993, Fermi 2 had a malfunction of a turbine. The result of this was that 1.5 million gallons of untreated toxic, radioactive water was dumped into Lake Erie. Jessie Pauline was then contacted by locals to assist in a response. She was clear that she was not knowledgeable about engineering designs of nuclear plants, but she did know how to organize community. In response to the Fermi 2 malfunction the Citizen’s Resistance at Fermi 2 (CRAFT) was founded. CRAFT was active until 2001. At that time several central organizers left the area and CRAFT became dormant. 
 
Events once again resulted in the reformation of CRAT. In 2011 there was a significant nuclear accident at the Fukushima reactor in Japan. The reactor was the same model as the one in Michigan. Elders gathered to consider a reaction. The result was that in 2012 many of the original leasers gathered and CRAFT was revived. Jesse Deer in Water became the Community Organizer. He focuses on community engagement and education. He focuses on Extraction of radioactive material, transportation of radioactive material and radioactive waste, and then energy production and the safety concerns related to the reactors. Part of community education is helping citizens understand there are multiple avenues of contamination. These include Nuclear or radioactive contamination, toxic contaminations such as heavy metals and forever chemicals, and thermal pollution. Jessie’s concerns were not hypothetical. During a plenary session it was announced that the transportation of uranium through a reservation was to restart. For all these reasons Jesse collaborators with other groups whenever possible. This includes university law department, university biology researchers, and together they produce reports for the Federal Energy Regulatory Agency or FERC. 
 
Jesse was an active presence at the Protecting Mother Earth conference. He led two breakout session He was sought out by other participants. This is not surprising. His mother was his mentor and role model. He saw here in action, and she brought him to IEN conferences and other networking events. That impact was evident. Jesse brought a number of youths to the conference. He was not attempting to create junior nuclear activist. He was modeling community, culture, being a responsible member of the web of life. For the youths' part, they were just having fun while learning about life. 
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The interview reflects his depth of knowledge, the complicated world in which he lives, and his decades of contribution to all of us.   ​

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