By Mordecai Specktor
Ma’iingan, Brother Wolf, in danger
The Musk (Trump) administration continues apace to dismantle the federal government. And a number of the changes wrought by the DOGE wrecking crew and the president’s sycophants are impacting tribes across the country.
For example, Trump’s minions are seeking to remove gray wolves from the Endangered Species Act (ESA) list. A proposal (HR 845) sponsored by Rep. Lauren Boebert (MAGA-Colo.) would delist the gray wolf “and would prevent judicial review,” according to the Wolf Conservation Center (nywolf.org). “If signed into law, the bill would effectively sign death warrants for thousands of wolves across the country.”
More than 60 environmental groups recently signed on to a letter to Congress protesting HR 845, which pointed out that gray wolf populations in the U.S. “were decimated by decades of predator control programs, as well as loss of habitat and prey. Since receiving protection under the ESA in the 1970s, the gray wolf has begun a comeback but remains far from recovered.”
Briefly, the Trumpites tried to delist gray wolves across 44 states in 2020; but in Feb. 2022, a federal district court ruled that the delisting decision issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was unlawful.
In other awful news, under Trump’s directive to “drill, baby, drill,” Lee Zeldin, the new director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has largely abandoned the “environmental protection” aspect of the agency he heads.
“EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has launched a brazen assault on regulations, canceled environmental grants and eliminated the agency’s environmental justice wing — all in less than two months,” E&E News by Politico (eenews.net) reported in late March.
“The policies are in lockstep with President Donald Trump’s plan to ‘power the great American comeback,’ lower the cost of cars and slash federal spending, Zeldin has said.”
E&E News added that the actions taken by the EPA under Zeldin “closely mirror Project 2025, the conservative blueprint from the Heritage Foundation that Trump once claimed to know nothing about.”
As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, the Musk (Trump) regime will boost sulfide mining schemes in northeast Minnesota. Over the past decade, Ojibwe bands in the state have been warning about the possible contamination of groundwater and surface waters from sulfate mine waste, a byproduct of mining activities. Remaining wild rice beds could be damaged from this type of pollution.
Update on Greenland
Vice President J.D. Vance, his wife Usha and other Trump Cabinet officials have returned from a four-hour visit to Greenland. Originally, the plan was for Usha Vance and other administration officials to visit Nuuk, the territory’s capital, watch the big sled dog race and meet the people.
As it turned out, the people didn’t want to meet Usha and the Trumpites.
So, the Vances and other officials visited U.S. troops at Pituffik Space Base in the north of Greenland. Then the vice president scolded Denmark, which holds the autonomous territory of Greenland and its mainly Indigenous population.
“Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance said, as per Associated Press. “You have underinvested in the people of Greenland, and you have underinvested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful landmass filled with incredible people. That has to change.”
Trump continues to say that U.S. has to have Greenland, for its mineral wealth and security purposes, and has not ruled out the use of military force in this pursuit.
Greenland held elections on March 11, and a four-party coalition now rules the territory. Jens-Frederik Nielsen, 33, leader of the Demokraatif party, is the new prime minister. He has previously condemned Trump’s threats to invade the island and supports independence for Greenland.
And I’ll mention that the Trump administration, which is advocating a new era of American expansionism (taking over Panama and making Canada the 51st state, in addition to acquiring Greenland), has been embroiled in a national security scandal: #Signalgate. In the run-up to a bombing campaign against the Houthis in Yemen, an elite group of Trump officials formed a chat group on the Signal app and mistakenly included Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who’s from Forest Lake, Minnesota, contributed a list of weapons systems and deployment times for the imminent attack on the Houthis.
The title of Goldberg’s original article was “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans.” When Hegseth and other officials tried to spin the story — and vilify Goldberg in crude terms — the editor released copies of the Signal chat that further embarrassed the officials.
So, if Trump decides to invade Greenland, there could be a leak of the attack plans.
