| A HISTORY |
| Our home page states our mission and the purpose of this website, but to fully understand the "Big Dam -vs- Small Dam" you would need to have a bit of history to understand where we are now. However, before we begin to give you a history of the Mahoney Creek Dam issue, there are a few clarifications we would like to make. Since the inception of this website there has been alot of "input" of what should or should not appear in the contents of this website and some confusion as to who the owner of this site is. So let me take a moment to introduce ourselves to you. My name is Aniva and my husband is Doug. We are the owners of this website and our host server is Yahoo! Due to the media suppression of the opponents of the Mahoney Creek Dam and lack of adequate information and education, it is our intent through this website to educate those willing to learn about the issues involved and to have a place to discover the things that other types of media fail to tell the public at large. We named this website "NO MAHONEY DAM" because the placement of this dam across the Big Sioux River takes away everything that we, the fourth generation, strive to pass down to our fifth and sixth generations. We are members of the Save Our Farmland Coalition, Inc. and landowners paying taxes to the Lake Pelican Water Project District. The views or content of this website may not please all the people who visit us, but they are our views and the truth as we know it. We have divided this site into the catagories listed on the home page to help break down some of the many issues involved because the history of the Mahoney Creek Dam and how it is where it is today is a compulation of many factors. As such, the best way we can educate you is through our own eyes, as we have had much to learn as well. I have sat at the computer, at home and at work, for the past three days trying to put together the story for this web page. Each time I have something written out, it spins into a hundred other related stories. So the only way I could divide what has happened to us over the past six years without losing the bones of this story was to write separate "sub-stories". So you will find underlined links throughout the following story and if you click on these links it will give a more "in-depth" story/summary of the underlined link. Since this is a long story where the end still remains to be written....put on a pot of coffee (or beverage of your choice, non-alcoholic please), pull up a comfortable chair to your computer screen and prepare yourself to hear stories of amazing content. |
| When the hundreds of treaties with the First Nations were broken and thousands of acres of Reservation lands across the North Americas were reboundried and opened to settlement, it brought with it two kinds of people ~ those who believed in the guardianship of the land and those who came for the power and greed they could obtain. Farmers and Ranchers did not always practice the best methods of guardianship, but their way of life did teach them that to share in the bounties of the land, they had to learn to live with the land. But those that came for the power and greed only fed upon those that cared for the land. Facts the First Nations knew and fought so hard to keep from touching their way of life. As the power and greed grew, smaller communities began to die as they were swallowed by the town that became a city. Not being educated in the ways of the Earth Mother, sloughs (nature's holding ponds) were filled in and homes and businesses were built upon the flood plain and nearby lake without regard to future consequence. Tons of waste was pumped into a once pristine lake with no conscience thought as to its long term effects. The increase in industry necessitated a city airport in which its construction effectively closed off the only outlet for the lake. As the population continued to grow and no restrictions were placed on the growth within the flood plain or around the lake, it brought with it the slow destruction of all that was once natural. Lake Kampeska became the "status quo" of the rich and powerful and what was once pristine is now troubled. The waters of our Earth Mother are like her children ~ what goes into the body must have a way to come out of the body, or eventually it will die. |
| WAY BACK WHEN.... |
| To tell you exactly when the Mahoney Creek Dam was actually concieved, we can not say. We do know that there are US Army Corp of Engineer reports that exist with 1980's dates ~ Suffice it to say almost, if not more than, 15 years ago. We became involved from afar (we lived in Washington at the time) when in 1994 Doug's parents spent endless night after night knocking door to door all across the city and county getting voters to register and telling the people what the Mahoney Creek Dam construction would do to many lives. It was a county vote on whether or not to fund the Mahoney Creek Dam and a City vote on whether or not to build it. If it was built, we would lose all our inheirited lands. We felt helpless because we were not here to help his parents save that which was awaiting our guardianship. We were relieved when his parents called and told us the votes were defeated. Watertown injustice has touched the loss of life to our family before, and because of this, deep down inside we knew this issue would never be over. We moved back to South Dakota in October of 1995 to settle upon our family lands and take our place as its guardians. When my husband brought me here to his home and I first stood upon the hill of our property, I knew this place to be sacred. It went beyond just a pretty site. It was spiritual in a way that one who is not connected to the Earth Mother can not hear or see. I could feel the Ancestors speak to me as they told of the responsibilities we were about to embark upon. We began the slow process to rebuild all that was disappearing, both what was within us and the land we came to protect. Doug and I are at peace with life here and everything life has to give us is in this land we live upon and the lives that surround us ~ it has no price tag. Never ask us to sell it because our answer will always be no. Why is it that some people do not understand the concept of priceless???? We were right about comming home because the City of Watertown suffered a severe flood in the spring of 1997 that sent the Mayor of Watertown on a personal vengence to build the Mahoney Creek Dam. We were told some stupid law exists in South Dakota that says a taxing entity that sponsors a project can bring it to a vote ~ we're okay with that ~ but this law apparently applies to building structures outside of its jurisdiction without having those living outside of the city limits (the ones it effects), the right to vote as well. We live in the county and the city can vote to take our home away and not allow us the right to vote? What kind of justice is this???? A few days after Christmas and just before the New Year the family received a letter from the Mayor of Watertown stating that she fully intended to build this dam and would "Eminent Domain" any necessary properties to accomplish that goal. When we went to the city council meeting that pertained to this letter, they passed out a petition to be signed to bring forth a vote to build the Mahoney Creek Dam. Aren't the people the ones to bring forth already signed petitions to request a vote and not the city to initiate the petitions? Just how legal is all this? What happened to our rights under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when the county residents are told they will not be allowed to vote and the city council can initiate a vote for something that the people have not asked for? Oh what damage this issue caused to our community. The ill will between neighbors caused heated exchanges everywhere. Boycotting hurt our economy and the surpression of media and the corruption of the South Dakota government had no bounds. We can not tell you how many times we have asked ourselves if we truly live in a free and just America. How things we said were squashed and twisted we can not even begin to scratch the surface. The proponents said they feared for their lives when in fact it was our home that someone took it upon themselves to come and fire a shotgun towards! We didn't sleep for days fighting all the injustices that surrounded us to retain the guardianship of our home and lands. It seemed to last forever and then the day of the vote brought us the relief we so desperately sought ~ the Mahoney Creek Dam construction was defeated once again. We understood the problems that Watertown faced. Many of the county residents have friends/family that live in Watertown and yes, it affected us too. Not only did alot of our friends/family suffer in town from the flooding, so did many of us within the county. This vote tore a community apart and we all knew it would take a mutual effort to heal the open wounds. We agreed that farming and ranching practices required many changes and we were all for the most part willing to cooperate in making it better for everyone. But the city had to cooperate as well and work to clean up the problem that they faced as well. The City of Watertown has time and again refused to work with the Lake Pelican Water Project District and the landowners in the northern watershed. Despite this fact, Lake Pelican Water Project District has continued to move forward to institute a complete comprehensive managed watershed system that is beneficial not only to the northern watershed landowners and the City of Watertown but to everyone in the entire watershed basin. Our waters are precious and if we do not help the Earth Mother heal herself, she will continue to flood on us all. |
| BACK WHEN.... |
| WHEN.... |
| Even though 1998 brought about the total of three previous rejections to build the Mahoney Creek Dam, we knew now more than ever that the City of Watertown would never let this issue die. The deeper that one investigates into the corruption of this issue and the lives of all those it effects, both in the city and in the county, it is amazing that anyone can refer to this as a free America ~ because it does not exist in the State of South Dakota. Once again the City of Watertown brought forth a vote to construct the Mahoney Creek Dam. The city won the vote this time and have already begun setting in motion a steam roller without a conscience for anything that gets in its path. They believe that Lake Kampeska and the homes and businesses surrounding the lake are of more importance than the Big Sioux River and the homes and businesses that help feed the coffers of the city. When you believe you are more important than another ~ you are destined to fail. The City of Watertown may have won the battle and gotten enough votes within its own jusrisdiction to construct a dam in our jusrisdiction ~ but the arrogance that won that battle will be the downfall of the dam project ever becomming a reality. We will not roll over and tell you it is okay to take away our way of life and all that we live and work for. We feed this Nation with our lands and we will fight in every legal way available to us to prevent that from happening. We began cleaning up our own messes and working towards a better environment for ALL the people and not just a part of Watertown. That the city has refused every effort we have extended to join us to study and build a complete comprehensive watershed management program shows a blatent disrespect for the love of our Earth Mother. We can not continue to build structures that restrict how the Earth Mother is ~ we must begin to all learn to live and work within Her bounds to create harmony or Her dis-ease will destroy us all. We can not continue to pave Her skin with asphalt and expect to recharge Her parched body. The slow death of Lake Kampeska is proof of this fact. As we see it the City of Watertown has one of two choices, 1) continue to play politics and power games or 2) to help itself in a way that helps us ALL ~ "for the people, by the people, of the people" (last we heard that included us ALL), and not just for the City of Watertown or a "status quo" surrounding Lake Kampeska. We are all the community and until we begin working together, the things that are getting done will continue at the pace it is now, or they can be excelerated by working together. Already the US Army Corp of Engineers are "pounding away at numbers (so they say), and will be ready to speak with proponents and opponents sometime around December and then be ready to proceed with Cultural and EPA issues right after that" and that "feasibility as well as a larger structure with flood gates are being considered". Now just where do you think they have gotten the funds to do those studies??? Did the Corp press release not state that they would not even have budgeted funds from Congress to begin this until 2004? Just when did the City of Watertown plan on handing its "Concerned Citizens" their portion of the tax bill to pay for all this? |
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| BIG DAM ~VS~ SMALL DAM.... |
| The big dam only controls a specific area and maybe 5,000 homes and businesses are helped in the flood plain. It will still be designated a flood plain even with the Mahoney Creek Dam and you will still be required to carry flood insurance and you will still have the Earth Mother to contend with as She can not be controlled. The small dam concept already underway helps five times (25,000 plus homes and businesses) that many people from the start of the Big Sioux River to the end of the Big Sioux River and then some. A complete comprehensive watershed management system is the only way to heal that which we were all given guardianship of. The last time we looked, that covered a far greater area than just Watertown and Lake Kampeska. It is time for us all to learn to live WITH the Earth Mother, not control Her. |