Westwin Resistance continues opposition to cobalt/nickel refinery

Members of Westwin Resistance reiterated their views Tuesday on the company’s cobalt/nickel pilot plant project, to include chants during a City Council meeting that resulted in a group of residents being escorted from the council chambers.

Following comments made by Westwin Resistance member Lavetta Yeahquo during the public comment portion of the meeting, some audience members began loudly chanting “shut it down.” After issuing several warnings to stop, Mayor Stan Booker directed City Manager John Ratliff to have residents removed from the council chambers. At least six Lawton police officers — who already were in the council chambers — talked to Gen Hadley and others sitting around her, before they agreed to leave.

Before she got to her feet, Hadley objected to the Westwin project, saying she has relatives buried in the area and warning one officer that if she was touched, “it’s a hate crime.”

Before the chanting started, Yeahquo — a decades-long member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) — said she remains firmly opposed to the project, adding there are “lots of shady things going on in Lawton” and the council needed to listen to residents.

“Shut Westwin down,” Yeahquo said, adding there are things associated with the project that need to be looked at and she wants those issues analyzed so she can read the details.

Yeahquo, Hadley and many others in the audience were part of a rally and protest held in front of Lawton City Hall more than hour before the 2 p.m. council meeting. Tuesday was the second council meeting in a row Westwin Resistance members attended to object to the city’s support of the pilot plant project that Westwin Elements officials have said would provide the data needed for funding and development of a full-scale refinery. While the pilot plant already is under construction at Southwest 112th Street and Bishop Road, Westwin CEO KaLeigh Long hasn’t yet committed to building the refinery in Lawton, a proposal many of the city’s economic development leaders support because of its economic impact.

Ashley LaMont, national campaigns director of Honor the Earth, said tribal members and others remain firmly opposed to Westwin’s plan.

“No means no,” LaMont said at the rally, adding when Kiowa, Comanche and Apache leaders told Long during a special meeting in Anadarko that they were opposed to the project, Long told them she was going to build the plant anyway.

LaMont said Westwin Resistance is demanding that city leaders seek and obtain permission from the KCA before construction on the pilot plant continues, adding opponents fully understand the impact of the cobalt/nickel refinery.

“We cannot let it happen,” she said, adding city leaders need to listen to what residents are saying.

Yeahquo, who has local ties, also is a long-time member of AIM, reminding the crowd that Tuesday was the 51st anniversary of the occupation of Wounded Knee in South Dakota. Yeahquo said she was there, and remembers that AIM supported those who opposed what some tribal government members were doing and AIM would do the same with Lawton and Westwin.

“We stand for people who can’t stand,” she said, while AIM won’t come unless they are invited in, members are ready to fight. “We’re gonna win.”

LaMont said one of the key issues in the fight is respect of tribal sovereignty, but added that respect of tribal sovereignty is good for all people.”

Kaysa Whitley, representing Kiowa protestors, said there already was a small band of residents who had voiced their opposition to the Westwin project before tribal members became involved. She said Westwin Resistance is a coalition of concerned citizens, “not just confined to tribal members.” Whitley also said that when she was first organizing, information being put out by Westwin and the City of Lawton was misleading citizens, something this new coalition of residents wants to combat.

Officials said information to help inform residents will be provided through the Westwin Resistance website slated to go live Friday: www.westwinresistance.org.

Hadley said the resistance won’t stop.

“We’ll keep coming,” she said, adding that residents must stand together against the City Council. “We have to stop this.”