Indigenous community leaders will be in New York addressing the United Nations.
They’ll be speaking at the UN’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues – about the Line 5 oil pipeline running through the Great Lakes region and Ontario, Canada.
Since 1968, it’s had 33 spills leak more than one million gallons of oil. Ships’ anchors also struck it in 2018 and 2020.
Whitney Gravelle, president of the Bay Mills Indian Community, said the permanent forum has called for the U.S. and Canada to decommission the pipeline.
“The permanent forum also stated it jeopardizes the Great Lakes in the United States,” said Gravelle, “that the pipeline was a real and credible threat to the treaty-protected resources of indigenous peoples in both the United States and Canada.”
Critics are taking legal action to stop the pipeline. One lawsuit stems from Bad River Band not renewing permits for Line 5 to cross through their land.
The other is from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, in which a state court ruled the pipeline should be shutdown.
But Enbridge has brought the case to a Federal Appeals Court, leading to further delay of the state court’s ruling.
Gravelle said a ruling for Enbridge in either case could set precedents for pipelines to operate on Indigenous lands without any recourse.
Misinformation has dogged efforts to shut down the pipeline – ranging from saying there are no alternatives to Line 5, to claims that it’s an important regional energy source.
One particular point Enbridge stands behinds the safety of Line 5, despite the leaks.
Gravelle called the pipeline an environmental threat.
“When it was first designed, it had seven layers of protective coating around the pipeline,” said Gravelle, “and in independent reviews, we have found that protective coating has either worn away or is down to the last layer in some places along the pipeline.”
She added that keeping this pipeline operating could lead to a much larger oil spill in the Great Lakes.
A University of Michigan study finds the pipeline’s location leaves it vulnerable to unpredictable currents that would make oil recovery almost impossible in the event of a spill.
Gravelle said the region’s Indigenous communities wouldn’t be able to survive an oil spill in the Great Lakes.
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The Nebraska Winnebago Tribe’s Ho-Chunk Community Development Corporation, or HCCDC, has been awarded $2 million through MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving company.
Some 6,300 nonprofits applied to Yield Giving’s open call for grants. The HCCDC was among 279 to receive a top tier rating. In the next-highest tier, 82 organizations each received $1 million.
Kristine Earth, executive director of the corporation, said the Tribe has a lot to be proud of but a lot of work left to do.
“We’re so excited and are so thankful for this generous gift for our community,” Earth stated. “We do have a lot of issues; we have a lot of health disparities. And so, a donation like this really is going to make an impact for our entire Tribe as a whole.”
HCCDC marks its 20th anniversary this year, working to improve economic, educational and social opportunities for tribal members. Earth pointed out they have five key initiatives: housing development, commercial development, financial services, quality of life and food sovereignty.
The Winnebago Tribe has experienced huge growth in its middle class in the past few decades but roughly 30% of its members still live in poverty. HCCDC created a farmer’s market, which Earth says is helping them address both health disparities and food sovereignty.
“Through our farmers market, now we’re able to touch on not only agriculture and tribal farming, but also our health care system,” Earth outlined. “Offering the fresh fruits and vegetables and the Indian corn; things that will restore the health of our people.”
Earth added Winnebago is in a “food desert,” making food security a major focus for the Tribe.
“It’s hard for people to access fresh fruits and vegetables, and we have such a growing community,” Earth stressed. “We are all coming together to grow our own food and to feed ourselves, so we can be sustainable in the future.”
On the website, MacKenzie Scott called all the open call grant winners “vital agents of change.” Scott’s Yield Giving organization has donated more than $17 billion to 2,300 nonprofit organizations since 2019.
Disclosure: Ho-Chunk, Inc. contributes to our fund for reporting. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.
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Billings-based Western Native Voice is holding its annual membership conference in Great Falls starting tomorrow, and members are discussing democratic participation but also cultural issues affecting tribes.
The conference is called No Vote Left Behind and will focus on helping Indigenous people register to vote and know where and when to cast ballots.
Just as importantly, workshops will discuss cultural identity and what it means to be Native.
Western Native Voice communication’s director Tracie Garfield is a member of the Assiniboine tribe, and said more than 50% of Indigenous people in Montana live off reservations – which leaves many wondering where and how they fit it with their culture.
“Participants and members of the workshop will be able to talk to each other – talk about what it means to be Native, how they grew up,” said Garfield. “Some grew up on a reservation. We’ll have people who grew up in urban areas. We’ll also have people who grew up in rural Montana – off the reservations.”
Cultural identity was the number one topic requested by members for this conference. Western Native Voice has over 13,000 members from Montana and across the U.S.
The conference starts tomorrow morning in Great Falls.
Garfield said Western Native Voice will hold its Expanding Horizons: Beyond Survival youth conference next Monday and Tuesday in Bozeman – where they will be learning about native history, traditional knowledge and cultural identity.
The conference will bring together students from both urban and reservation high schools. She said true native history and cultural identity weren’t always taught when she was young.
“When we were growing up, we weren’t really taught the true history of our tribes,” said Garfield. “Say I’m Assiniboine. I didn’t know my own tribal history. Even though I felt Native I didn’t really know what it meant to be Native.”
Garfield said cultural identity is a complex issue with so many people living in urban areas, and Western Native Voice wants to create a space for people to talk about it by training youth early on so they understand what it means to be Native in today’s world.
Disclosure: Western Native Voice contributes to our fund for reporting on Budget Policy & Priorities, Civic Engagement, Education, Native American Issues. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.
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Plans to open a new gateway to Redwoods State and National Parks got a big boost Tuesday, paving the way for a key parcel of land to be returned to the Yurok Tribe.
The place is called ‘O Rew in the Yurok language, on Highway 101, about 40 miles north of Eureka, at a former lumber mill site in Orick.
Joseph James, chairman of the Yurok Tribe, said this is a model for the “land-back” movement.
“We are able to share our culture, our knowledge as Indigenous people, first people, keepers of the land,” James explained. “It’s not driven by western society providing interpretation. It’s being driven by Yuroks.”
The nonprofit Save the Redwoods League bought the 125-acre property 13 years ago and has been restoring the mill site and nearby Prairie Creek alongside the tribe and the nonprofit California Trout. The area is closed for construction now, but will reopen in 2026 as the ‘O Rew Redwoods Gateway with new trails, cultural signage and visitor facilities.
Steve Mietz, superintendent of Redwoods National and State Parks for the National Park Service, said it is the first-ever comanagement agreement for tribally-owned land with the National Park Service and California State Parks.
“This is just a recognition of their sovereignty,” Mietz pointed out. “Their need to regain land that was taken from them years ago and turning it back, and creating greater understanding about the original people in this area.”
In future years, the Yurok Tribe plans to build a full visitor center, including re-creating a tribal village with plank houses and a sweat lodge.
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