Winona LaDuke: Protect Ojibwe land from mines and pipelines

In Anishinaabe Akiing some new mining proposals, and pipelines threaten the water and land of this region. This past month, tribal governments stepped up to issue some big challenges to those plans.

In late February, the White Earth Tribal Council issued a resolution stating, “…it is opposed to the application field by the North Dakota Pipeline company with the Minnesota PUC with respect to a routing permit for the Sandpiper Petroleum pipeline between Tioga ND and Superior Wisconsin.” The White Earth tribe is concerned not only because the pipeline would be in Nora Township (one of the most northeastern townships within the l867 treaty reservation) just upstream from Rice Lake, the mother lode of ricing on White Earth. The tribe is also concerned because this pipeline, like the proposed expansion of the Alberta Clipper line, impacts the l855 treaty area lands, which White Earth tribal citizens need to feed our families and earn a modest living.

In early February, the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe admonished the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, for “ecological ignorance,” wherein the PCA seems to be trying to re-designate some of the waters where wild rice is found, so that those waters can have diminished water quality. In short, Norman Deschampe said in a letter to John Linc Stine, Minnesota PCA commissioner, “ … waters used for the production of wild rice … must remain on the wild rice waters lists for regulatory purposes. They cannot be pulled off and dropped instead onto the proposed watch list, in effect delisting them as class 4 status of the state with the stroke of a pen.”

So it seems like the state of Minnesota might have been trying to pull a fast one on the tribes, and it doesn’t look like it worked. In another building in St. Paul, the Minnesota PUC is considering issuing some permits for two big pipelines the Sandpiper and the Clipper, and the state and federal government are considering Minnesota’s first copper mining proposal, one which will require water treatment for 250 to l,000 years or so. The copper mining industry is anxiously awaiting the outcome of the environmental review as there are six or more similar and even larger and more polluting copper mine projects waiting in the wings. One might ask the question if these agencies have sole jurisdiction, based on the l837, l854 and l855 treaties and court decisions which reaffirm the Anishinaabe rights in this area.