By Rod Coronado
In this sacred place that we fight to protect, long before Earth First! warriors occupied the frontlines here, we came to pray. Here where the Earth spirits are strong, warriors of the Apache and Yaqui Nations came. This is where I choose to tell a story of underground resistance to defend the Earth, not the whole story, only what I remember and can now safely tell. It is one small part, maybe only a chapter in what must be a continuing resistance.
Dzil Nchaa si an - Mt. Graham, southeastern Arizona
It is a long road that brought us where we are today; like the sun that rises, our resistance follows darkness. We have been here before, and we will be here again. I remember standing on the Dakota prairie, where the blood and bones of many Earth warriors lay, when She first spoke to me. The Awakening. My first realization that this struggle is much bigger than any of us. When I became physically aware of what it meant to put the Earth first. To not only eschew the anti-nature laws of the Invader, but to aggressively break them in defense of all we love. The Earth mother cared not who we were, only that we were willing to defend her.
Monkeywrenching is more than a tactic or strategy, it's the way of warriors. A way of life. The way of the wild and the free. A refusal to allow our spirits to be broken. It is our spiritual duty for that most ancient power in our world, the life giver, our one Mother Earth.
In the autumn of 1986, after fighting Nordic whalers in the fjords of Iceland and the Faroe Islands, I came home not to something new but something very old: human children putting their lives on the line for Earth once more. We were no longer asleep.
Awakened in the night, we attacked the machines destroying Earth. As we liberated ourselves from societal control, we began to become more than a movement. With strong hearts tempered in the dark, with sweat and oil, we became a tribe again. Across North America, monkeywrenching became the answer for those frustrated with the ineffectiveness of working within the system.
Cutting fences, pulling survey stakes, removing orange flagging and sabotaging heavy machinery became the natural reaction when these things were discovered in the wild forests, deserts and prairies we loved. Fanning the flames were allies in the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) who paralleled Earth First!'s guerilla resistance with arson attacks and animal rescues on the torture chambers holding hostage our animal relations.
The Earth First! Rendezvous became our time to share skills, stories and music. Like any tribe, our songs told the story of warrior deeds. Darryl Cherney, Dana Lyons, Joanne Rand and others sang of the love and humor our actions reflected. Together we laughed, loved and strengthened our bond to each other and the Earth.
Springtime in the Pinacate Mountains, near Cerro Colorado Crater, Sonora, Mexico
At the 1988 Rendezvous, EF! co-founder Dave Foreman hoisted Icelandic saboteur David Howitt and myself up on stage to salute our raid on pirate whalers, welcoming the new generation of eco-warrior, the young anarchistic animal liberationists who also embraced Deep Ecology. Earth First! was changing. It wasn't just beer-swilling rednecks for wilderness anymore. The call for Earth defenders made by Abbey, Watson and Foreman was heard by many primed and ready for action outside the traditional ranks.
Like all struggles for freedom, our resistance to evil forces also awakened the attention of the Spirit Hunters. In the Arizona night of May 1989, flares lit the desert sky as federal agents with automatic weapons and infrared goggles surrounded four saboteurs cutting a transmission tower. Although all four were arrested, the main target of this FBI counter-intelligence campaign was Dave Foreman, who was indicted as a co-conspirator.
It wasn't long after this government attack on the radical environmental movement that warriors renewed their raids. In April 1990, inspired by a call for a direct action response to the corporate buyout of Earth Day, the Earth Night Action Group downed power lines from a coal-fired generation station in California.
An FBI memo circulated during the investigation revealed the government's fear: "...various activists groups... ALF, Earth First!, Lockheed Coalition, Hunt Saboteurs and the Anti-Nuclear Alliance are no longer fighting amongst themselves because of single issue orientation but have instead banded together, thereby providing a larger number of extremists to draw from in order to commit crimes..." My elder warrior-friend Paul Watson warned that when our struggle began targeting institutions within the United States, we would bring down upon us the full weight of the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies fighting terrorism. Our struggle was awakening a giant.
The repression of 1989 and 1990 was a historic response to legitimate resistance. The feds began to harass family and friends of suspected eco-warriors, driving a wedge between the underground and above-ground support. Violent attacks against activists like Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney were ignored while the feds concentrated on the enemies of profit and property. Some activists began to cower as grand juries subpoenaed many to testify against colleagues in the movement.
We began as a small group engaging in property destruction, but evolved to a larger network, carrying out large-scale raids on universities and corporate targets and costing them millions. Rather than rushing to the newsstands to read of our exploits, we began to cover our tracks. The FBI was constantly on the hunt, waiting for us to make that one fatal mistake that would lead to capture.
I moved to the Sisiyou Mountains and organized attacks, believing one should only be amongst the enemy to raid. Living with the source of my power, the animal people and the wild Earth, I began to renew a vital connection. Alongside the survivors and refugees of humans' war on nature, I saw that all living beings in Creation were nations unto themselves, struggling to raise their families and stay alive in a relentless war that wiped out entire races.
By 1992, the feds were hot on the trail of eco-warrior cells across the West. In April, federal agents kicked in the door of my Siskiyou stronghold just days after I had fled. It was time to go underground. I took refuge in the prairies that hid Lakota warriors after their victory over General Custer. It was there that I realized what this struggle was about. Sleeping with a loaded handgun under my pillow, waiting for the agents of repression to take me away, I gave them power in my fear. I still recognized the US government's ability to control my destiny.
I reached the breaking point. On a long walk on the prairie I prayed and told Creator that even if death lay ahead, I stood with all creation. On the side of the bobcat and the lynx, the coyote and the mink. It was they I fought for, and I wasn't ready to turn my back now. A gentle wind brought a hawk gliding over, and with his glance I knew I was not alone.
That's when she spoke. I cannot describe it as anything other than love. A flow of energy that reduced me to tears as I awakened to the Spirit around me. "We are here. We have always been here. We will always be here, but there is nothing we can do for you until you believe in us more than you believe in them." Suddenly the whole world was alive, and every being in it consciously aware of its connection to all others. A coyote stared. In its gaze I heard, "Now you are a hunted one. Now you are one of us." At that moment I became aware that all the legends, myths and stories about the Earth and her animal children were true.
A task force of federal, state, county and university police were after us. Grand juries in Oregon, Washington, Montana, Louisiana and Idaho were trying to intimidate us. It was time to show our power. I headed for the Rendezvous. Hiking in 13 miles, I arrived at night to the sounds of campfire. Standing outside of its glow, I waited until I could identify trusted warriors. Within days we were on another reconnaissance mission.
When the government's Animal Damage Control Predator Research Facility went up in flames, stories were told of how the coyotes who could not be rescued helped those who could. A chorus of howls covered the sounds of warriors entering the labs. When cages were being cut, coyotes dug frantically alongside warriors and ran toward the calls of their free cousins. Three warriors went to jail for six months instead of cooperating with the Spirit Hunters. At the height of repression meant to crush us, we demonstrated what it meant to be free.
Two years later I was tackled by federal agents, and in fall 1995, I stood here on Dzil Nchaa Si An, praying. That day I would surrender at federal prison to a four year sentence. The resistance continued. The same month of my imprisonment, warriors struck a fur farm releasing thousands of mink. In September of this year, 14,000 more went free in the sixty-eighth raid on a fur farm since 1995. There have been nearly that many raids on genetically engineered crops. All the federal agents in the United States will not stop more actions of this sort. The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) burst onto the scene in 1996, demonstrating an ability to raid corporate targets before drifting away as silently as they came. In December 1998, when all legal channels had failed, the ELF carried out on a spectacular multi-pronged attack on a ski resort responsible for destroying habitat for the endangered Canada lynx in Colorado. The $26-million act of sabotage harmed no one, and over 80 federal agents have been unable to capture a single warrior.
Daily I pray for our warriors. May they move as swiftly as the mountain lion in the night and strike as rapidly as the owl. May their footsteps be silent like the lynx, their strikes like lightning. May the enemies of the Earth sleep uneasily, never knowing when or where we raid next. As Earth warriors, we choose to be participants in the ancient battle between good and evil. On our side stand the waters and wind, and all things wild and of the Earth. On the other side, consumed with greed and in pursuit of power, control and money, stand all the dark forces that lay waste to Her.
One day our animal relations will no longer run from us as if we were enemies. They will know us as friends. Until then, we must continue to demonstrate to them, ourselves and the whole world that we are willing to risk our freedom for them and their wilderness homes.
Some say it's a wild and impossible dream, but I don't want to live in a world without dreams. Dreams are what kept our warrior ancestors alive in their darkest hours, and they will keep us alive in ours. Warriors have to live and love life today if we want to be free tomorrow. The gift we are given is not just for us, it must be shared, as a key to free others. This is where our dreams begin and where generations of warrior dreams continue.
Rod Coronado has been a warrior with Earth First!, Sea Shepherd and the Animal Liberation Front since 1984. He spent four years in prison for ALF actions and currently works with indigenous youth and environmentalists in the Sonoran Desert.