#turtle mountain

The Frank Slide was a massive rockslide that buried part of the mining town of Frank in the District of Alberta of the North-West Territories, Canada, at 4:10 a.m. on April 29, 1903. Around 44 million cubic metres/110 million tonnes (120 million short tons) of limestone rock slid down Turtle Mountain.

Frank Slide, Turtle Mountain

Paleozoic, Middle Carbonate Unit

Silicate Fossils-likely crinoids

Dolomite, Chert, and Limestone

Leonard Peltier is almost 80 years old. He’s a Native activist in the American Indian Movement (AIM), a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, and is now serving his 49th year of incarceration, making him the longest-serving political prisoner in U.S. history.

Leonard, now elderly and battling chronic health conditions that were made even worse after he contracted COVID while in prison, is serving two life sentences for his alleged role in the deaths of two FBI agents during a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Principally charged with the murders, Peltier’s co-defendants were found not guilty on grounds of self-defense. In Leonard’s case, exculpatory ballistics evidence was withheld, testimony coerced by the FBI was recanted, and a recognition of the violation of his Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury has fueled the global support for his release.

Over the years, the level of clear misconduct has prompted the very officials who put him behind bars to step forward and join the cry for justice for Leonard Peltier. Former FBI Special Agent and former Minneapolis Division Counsel Coleen Rowley wrote to President Biden asking to release Leonard Peltier and James Reynolds, the former federal prosecutor who oversaw Leonard Peltier’s post-trial sentencing and appeals, also wrote to Biden asking for clemency, saying:

“I have realized that the prosecution and continued incarceration of Mr. Peltier was and is unjust. We were not able to prove that Mr. Peltier personally committed any offense on the Pine Ridge Reservation.”

We have a lot of support in this urgent fight for justice. UN experts, U.S. Congressmembers, Amnesty International, the Democratic National Committee's Native American Caucus, the National Caucus of Native American State Legislators, the National Congress of American Indians, human rights leaders (such as Nelson Mandela, Coretta Scott King, and the Dalai Lama), and many others have called for Peltier to be released.

In addition to celebrities, human rights leaders, and United Nations legal experts calling on President Biden to grant Leonard Pelter his freedom, hundreds of Indigenous artists wrote in a letter to President Biden: “Nothing is more emblematic of the mistreatment of American Indians and the uneven hand of the criminal justice system than the handling of his case by the federal government.”

The time has long past for Leonard to be freed. Compassionate release was denied. We petitioned the Parole Commission to finally grant Leonard his freedom, and it was denied.

Now, President Joe Biden may be Leonard Peltier’s last and best hope for freedom. But let’s be clear, the only way Leonard Peltier can get his freedom restored is through public pressure on President Biden.

Peltier should be able to live out the rest of his life in dignity, with his family on his ancestral homelands.

Now, together with a broad coalition of organizations representing millions of people across the country, we’re asking you to join the fight.

Click ‘START WRITING’ to sign and send your message urging President Biden to grant executive clemency and free Native activist Leonard Peltier from federal prison now.

Time Sensitive! Please send your message now!

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A Stands for Amazing Travel Adventures – North Dakota

Hello and welcome to: A Stands for Amazing Travel Adventures – North Dakota. Read on to find your North Dakota Travel Destination Guide. National Parks, State Parks and International Peace Gardens are just a few of my new favorite things. Travel with me to North Dakota to explore all of the amazing adventures it has to offer. Parks and Beaches and Trail Adventures – North Dakota 1. Painted…

Frank Slide, AB (No. 3)

Initial news reports stated that between 50 and 60 men were within the mountain and had been buried with no hope of survival. In reality, there were 20 miners working the night shift at the time of the disaster. Three had been outside the mine and were killed by the slide. The remaining 17 were underground. They discovered that the entrance was blocked and water from the river, which had been dammed by the slide, was coming in via a secondary tunnel. They unsuccessfully tried to dig their way through the blocked entrance before one miner suggested he knew of a seam of coal that reached the surface. Working a narrow tunnel in pairs and threes, they dug through the coal for hours as the air around them became increasingly toxic. Only three men still had enough energy to continue digging when they broke through to the surface late in the afternoon. The opening was too dangerous to escape from due to falling rocks from above. Encouraged by their success, the miners cut a new shaft that broke through under an outcropping of rock that protected them from falling debris. Thirteen hours after they were buried, all 17 men emerged from the mountain.

The miners found that the row of cottages that served as their homes had been devastated and some of their families killed, seemingly at random. One found his family alive and safe in a makeshift hospital, but another emerged to discover his wife and four children had died. Fifteen-year-old Lillian Clark, working a late shift that night in the town's boarding house, had been given permission to stay overnight for the first time. She was the only member of her family to survive. Her father was working outside the mine when the slide hit, while her mother and six siblings were buried in their home. All 12 men living at the CPR work camp were killed, but 128 more who were scheduled to move into the camp the day before the slide had not arrived—the train that was supposed to take them there from Morrissey, British Columbia, failed to pick them up.  The Spokane Flyer, a passenger train heading west from Lethbridge, was saved by CPR brakeman Sid Choquette, one of two men who rushed across the rock-strewn ground to warn the train that the track had been buried under the slide. Through falling rocks and a dust cloud that impaired his visibility, Choquette ran for 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to warn the oncoming locomotive of the danger. The CPR gave him a letter of commendation and a $25 cheque (approximately $750 in 2019) in recognition of his heroism.

Frank Slide, AB (No. 1)

The Frank Slide was a massive rockslide that buried part of the mining town of Frank in the District of Alberta of the North-West Territories, Canada, at 4:10 a.m. on April 29, 1903. Around 44 million cubic metres/110 million tonnes (120 million short tons) of limestone rock slid down Turtle Mountain. Witnesses reported that within 100 seconds the rock reached up the opposing hills, obliterating the eastern edge of Frank, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) line and the coal mine. It was one of the largest landslides in Canadian history and remains the deadliest, as between 70 and 90 of the town's residents died, most of whom remain buried in the rubble. Multiple factors led to the slide: Turtle Mountain's formation left it in a constant state of instability. Coal mining operations may have weakened the mountain's internal structure, as did a wet winter and cold snap on the night of the disaster.

The railway was repaired within three weeks and the mine was quickly reopened. The section of town closest to the mountain was relocated in 1911 amid fears that another slide was possible. The town's population nearly doubled its pre-slide population by 1906, but dwindled after the mine closed permanently in 1917. The community is now part of the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass in the Province of Alberta and has a population around 200. The site of the disaster, which remains nearly unchanged since the slide, is now a popular tourist destination. It has been designated a provincial historic site of Alberta and is home to an interpretive centre that receives over 100,000 visitors annually.

The Turtle Mountain Rockslide

On this day in 1904 the mining town of Frank, Alberta was buried by a massive rockslide at 4:10 in the morning

110 Million Tonnes (or 120 million tons) of rock slid so fast it acted more like a liquid and poured down the mountain, over the town, and up the opposing hillside within 100 seconds (according to eye witnesses).

It is the deadliest landslide in Canada to date, with between 70 and 90 people who didn't survive.