Ramapough Lunaape Nation Chief Dwaine Perry, left, and Nation
delegate Floyd “Little Sun” Hicks, participated in a small
rally
against a proposed power plant in Wawayanda
WAWAYANDA – Opponents to the 650 megawatt gas-powered electric
generating plant proposed by Competitive Power Ventures in the Town of
Wawayanda have now been joined by Native Americans.
A handful of local residents gathered on Saturday along with Ramapough
Lunaape Nation Chief Dwaine Perry and delegate “Little Sun”
Floyd Hicks.
Chief Perry said all of the lands that spread from Rockland into Orange
County were once sacred Indian property that continues to be pilfered.
“Without clean air and clean water, there is not going to be any
life,” he said. “What has brought us to this point in time
is what brought initially these same people here in the mid-1700s –
greed and avarice. They destroyed the environment in Europe. They had
no option but to come to North America and they have destroyed and taken
and destroyed and built on racism and destruction of the people and the
land for the last nearly 300 years. It needs to stop now.”
Chief Perry said the project would be built on sacred Native American
burial lands, still another reason why is should not be approved.
Opponents of the power plant say it will release 2.1 million tons of CO2
annually – the equivalent of 210 miles of coal trains, into the
air. They said the site is located near public housing, residential communities,
and schools and pristine farmland.
