Our Way or the Highway

by Losure, Mary

• ISBN13: 9780816639052
• ISBN10: 0816639051
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-09-01
• Publisher: Univ of Minnesota Pr

Summary

Construction plans for the reroute of Highway 55 through south Minneapolis sparked an environmental movement that pitted activists against public authorities in one of the most dramatic episodes in the city's history. Mary Losure was there; as a reporter for Minnesota Public Radio she witnessed the neighborhood's transformation from a quiet street to the center of an emotionally charged standoff. Fueled by idealism and anger, a diverse coalition banded together to try to stop the highway expansion. Beginning in 1998, this group sustained protests for more than one year and eventually faced an unprecedented show of force by law enforcement.

In Our Way or the Highway Losure offers an inside view of the activist subculture that converged into a makeshift encampment dubbed the "Minnehaha Free State." Here, a retired stenographer befriended EarthFirst! members and appeared in the organization's national journal, fist raised in protest of the destruction of her home. A pipe fitter abandoned his old life to defend what he believed to be the sacred sites of his Dakot

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
The Camp	1	(24)
Operation Coldsnap	25	(14)
The Raid	39	(28)
Little Crow's Children	67	(28)
``I'll Do Anything''	95	(30)
Piestruck	125	(20)
Spring Comes to the Minnehaha Spiritual Encampment	145	(10)
Tree by Tree	155	(40)
Pour Bur Oaks	195	(14)
Coldwater Nation	209	(18)
Afterword	227	(2)
Acknowledgments	229	(2)
Note on Sources	231