'Crying Earth Rise Up’ premieres

By Talli Nauman

CRAWFORD, Neb. –– Lakota grandmother Debra White Plume didn’t set out to become a filmmaker. It never crossed her mind. She had no training in film school, yet she spent the past seven years of her life doggedly making a feature documentary that premiered just in time to serve its purpose.

“Crying Earth Rise Up,” a compelling case for preventing further uranium mining, showcased in Crawford, Neb., on Aug. 6 and 13, providing audiences with a panel of experts to discuss the issue immediately prior to the opening Aug. 24 of federal hearings on contested applications by Canadian mining giant Cameco Corp. for renewal and expansion of permits at nearby Crow Butte in situ leach operations.

“Making a documentary seemed the logical way to describe the issue, which is complicated and important,” said White Plume, founder and director of the non-profit Owe Aku (Bring Back the Way), which has raised money to help her intervene in the permit hearings of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB).

Owe Aku, a grassroots organization that seeks to protect “the coming generations' right to live as Lakota people,” is based at Manderson, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, 30 miles north of the Crow Butte mine fields.