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May 19, 2004 Record-Eagle/Keith Matheny From left, Irene Peters, Josephine Mandamin and Melvina Flamand were among "the Grandmothers" heeding an inner call to walk around the Great Lakes to raise awareness about the importance of our fresh water and the need to protect it. BAY SHORE: Women are walking to honor waterByRecord-Eagle staff writer BAY SHORE - A group of American Indian mothers and grandmothers is walking along the Great Lakes to raise awareness about the need to value and protect water resources. The Mother Earth Water Walk started from Walpole Island, Ont., near Port Huron earlier this month. The journey brought them to Manistee, Frankfort and Peshawbestown over the weekend. Carrying a copper bucket filled with water, the group walked through Charlevoix and to Petoskey Tuesday. Their final destination is Escanaba. The copper pail is filled with Lake Michigan water. The group walked around the Lake Superior basin in 2003, carrying its water. The plan is to ultimately walk around every Great Lake, members said. Josephine Mandamin, "lead Water Walk grandmother," said it is right for women to take up the cause of protecting water. "Just as a mother gives life to her children through her blood, our mother, the Earth, gives us life through her water," said Mandamin, 62, an Ojibwe from the Wikwemikong reservation of Thunder Bay in the Canadian province of Ontario. The women are accompanied by male supporters and other participants. "We love, honor and respect our grandmothers," said Mark Bruder, a Water Walk supporter. "The grandmothers are standing up because society has become complacent about all of the toxic spills and degradation of our lakes, rivers and streams," he said. "It is up to the original people of this land, and all like-minded people, to stand up and demand change." The walkers have visited American Indian communities throughout the state on their journey, including the Little River Band of Ottawas in Manistee, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians at Peshawbestown and the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa near Petoskey. The walkers earlier this week canoed across Grand Traverse Bay to Elk Rapids, as their ancestors had done, Bruder said. Charlevoix resident Jo Anne Beemon, a local environmentalist and Charlevoix County's drain commissioner, accompanied the Water Walkers Tuesday. "I'm here to learn," Beemon said. "The thing I've learned is, I need to get back to my own Judeo-Christian heritage and learn the ancient ways to take care of the Earth. I need to go back to my own roots, as these women are doing." The group has received permission from the state to walk across the Mackinac Bridge early Friday. Raising awareness of the need to protect fresh water is a cause worth "walking the talk," Mandamin said. "I want to leave what I am doing for all of the future generations, so that they will know somebody cared enough to say something," she said. On the Net: www.motherearthwaterwalk.com
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