"I used to love to drive past our Ya Ne Dah Ah School and the big lawn where so many children have played over the last 60 years. We moved to that area in 1950 and our home was always a safe haven for family and friends. Everyone was welcome, except if they were drunk or disorderly. My parents raised many children besides their biological ones.

To carry on the tradition of love and caring for one another, my mother, Katherine Wade, started our tribal school in 1993. We have been working hard since that time to keep our school going so that the children can learn their culture and the importance of caring for the earth and each other.

Now exploiters are determined to mine for coal and are busting a road into the forest right across from Ya Ne Dah Ah School.

Today when I drive past our Ya Ne Dah Ah School and the beautiful land where I grew up, it brings sadness and a heavy heart. Equipment is uprooting the beautiful trees and plowing through the ground, bringing death and displacement to the animals, insects and birds that have called this home. I can’t believe any government would allow this to happen so that greedy corporations can mine for coal, dirty the earth and ship coal to a foreign country. Coal has a very important role to play right where Creator put it, like purifying the water."

Get the Story:
Patricia Wade: Coal mine access road is across the highway from tribal school (The Frontiersman 8/2)

Related Stories:
APRN: Chickaloon Tribe worried about coal mine development (2/25)
Katherine Wade, Chickaloon clan grandmother, dies (3/25)