Ironically, the electricity from the power lines is not currently needed; the utilities already have a surplus. As in the Four Corners area, the power lines are constructed to serve future energy needs--for mining and industry, not communities.

An article in the November 78 issue of Engineering and Mining journal, titled "Minnesota: Action Heats up in the North," reported that at that time 35,000 acres had been leased for uranium exploration to five companies. Seven months later, in June 79, exploration had drastically increased. As one local commentator explains the situation, "At least seven companies are exploring for uranium in northern Minnesota, including such late arrivals as Exxon and Annaconda. The most heavily involved is Rocky Mountain Energy, a subsidiary of Union Pacific Railroad. Rocky Mountain has about 75 percent of the 125,00 acres that the companies have leased altogether from private landowners hoping for a big payday--few knowing about the dangers of uranium mining and the nuclear fuel cycle. The area involved is about 100 miles north of the Twin Cities area, and about 20 miles south of the Fond du Lac Reservation. So far there has been no leasing of reservation land."

"An area group called Folks Organized for Responsible Energy has joined the Northen Sun Alliance in opposing the uranium development," he continues. "They have tried to influence county officials but have had little success. A battle in the legislature has resulted only in a standoff. The state regulatory agencies are lumbering into action but can barely keep up with the proposed copper and nickel mining. The state executive board will soon decide whether to allow exploration on state lands. Much education still needs to be done around the uranium mining issue."

The attempts by the government and the companies over the last decade have done little to ensure "reliable power" for industrial growth. If the work of GASP is a precedent, the industrialization and mining slated for "sparsely populated" areas might never come off the drawing boards.

Especially if the farmers continue to get more involved and agressive. In late August, two more power towers went down, the work of the notorious "bolt weevils." Three farmers from Villard, Minnesota, are charged with several felonies in connection with the incident. The trial of the three, Mark Hoyum and Bob and Dean Oeltjner, opened in September on charges of aggravated assault and aggravated criminal damage to property. The charges stem from an incident in late August, soon after the latest tower topplings. Hoyum was driving across backroads when company-hired security men, following up all leads in the case, began tailing him. What began as surveillance ended up as high-speed car chase, with the five pickup trucks full of Burns Security Guards (rented from a Chicago firm) trying to run Hoyum to earth. Debbie Pick of Gasp relates what happened next.

Hoyum stopped at the Oeltjner house, woke up his friends, and asked them to help him get home. The brothers grabbed shotguns, got into the car, and headed down the road towards the waiting security men. As Mark headed home, the guards followed, caught up, and surrounded the car on all sides. The trio jumped out of the car, shotguns drawn, and ordered the guards out of the trucks to be placed under citizens arrest. A couple of weeks later, the charges came down--against the Villard men, not the Chicago rent-a-cops.

The bolt weevils have become the first priority of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. In the last two months, the bureau has doubled the reward for information leading to the conviction of tower topplers--to $100,00. Obviously relishing their notoriety, the dairy farmers have been heard chanting, "We're number one..."

The utilities appear quite frustrated with the depth and strength of opposition to the power lines. And they are at a loss to figure out how to guard 1,000 miles of power line running across the land of people who don't want it there. Although they have hired security guards, their snooping, largely centered on Villard, has turned up nothing so far. Their divide-and-conquer tactics have done little better.

Farmers in the southern part of the state are now organizing too. Activists in the Southern Landowners' Association have told GASP that their organizational efforts will make GASP'S struggle "seem like a kintergarden picnic."

Besides opposing the power lines, the farmers are working on energy alternatives. "Windmills are starting to go up, solar collectors are being used, and people are working to control their own energy," Crocker says. "If you're going to be an addict, you might as well have your own stash."

Winona La Duke is a member of the Anishnabe Nation and works for Women of All Red Nations on energy issues.