Water Protectors, Monster Slayers and the Enbridge Hearings
BY LE BOYD AND WINONA LADUKE For the past four years Dawn Goodwin, of Rice Lake, Minn., has driven thousands of miles, and missed weeks of family time and work to challenge the rights of a Canadian oil pipeline company – Enbridge, which threatens Anishinaabe water. The past three weeks of November were no exception as […]
NEWS BRIEFS: Dec 2017
HENNEPIN COUNTY BOARD VOTES TO CHANGE LAKE CALHOUN NAME MINNEAPOLIS, MN – The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners voted Nov. 28th to remove the name of a controversial historical figure from Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis. The board voted 4-3 to restore Lake Calhoun’s original Dakota name, Bde Maka Ska (White Earth Lake) back to the lake. […]
Enbridge: The last big pipeline battle
BY WINONA LADUKE In late October, I attended the Enbridge pipeline hearings by the state of Minnesota. It’s been a long haul, I feel like I have been in five years of hearings, hanging in there with all sorts of committed citizens, heroines like Dawn Goodwin, Joanne Gagnon, and Tania Aubid, who, I swear have been […]
POLITICAL MATTERS: Oct 2017
By Mordecai Specktor The next Standing Rock Enbridge Energy’s proposed replacement of its Line 3 oil pipeline is meeting popular opposition – and some nonviolent civil disobedience. On Aug. 29, six opponents of the oil pipeline were arrested for obstructing construction. Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) reported: “Alexander Good-Cane-Milk of the Yankton Sioux Tribe in South […]
Does Minnesota really need a new oil pipeline?
By DAN KRAKER/MRP NEWS Ever since Enbridge first proposed its $7 billion Line 3 project three years ago – its largest pipeline project ever – the company has touted it as a replacement project. The Canadian company has operated its existing, 1,000-mile Line 3 for nearly 50 years. But the pipeline is corroding, which necessitates extensive […]
Line 3 proposal shows willful ignorance of Ojibwe history and rights
By The Native American Caucus and the Minnesota House of Representatives In all the coverage of Enbridge Energy’s proposed Line 3 pipeline project, and in the recent and predictable pro-pipeline commentary by an Enbridge vice president, John Swanson, (Star Tribune: “Line 3 replacement is the safest option for northern Minnesota, July 2017”) we have heard […]
Riding the Line: Enbridge and the horse nation
By Winona LaDuke I am a traveler, for sure, but my love of the horse, the sound of horses on our Mother Earth, the chance to see a monarch butterfly, a back trail, and a ride with my grandchildren brings me to horse. And on Sandy Lake, it brings me to canoes. We have become […]
Courts, Pipelines and Liabilities: Minnesota may want to take note
By Winona LaDuke “We applaud the courts for protecting our laws and regulations from undue political influence, and will ask the Court to shut down pipeline operations immediately.” – Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II For the past two weeks, Minnesotans and tribal members have packed Department of Commerce meetings on the Draft Environmental […]
Hearings on new Line 3 tar sands pipeline to be held in June
By Winona LaDuke Line 3: It’s the sequel to the Sandpiper but larger. Last year, the White Earth Ojibwe people joined with many others to stop the Sandpiper, the fracked oil pipeline. Now Enbridge is back with another line – same route, same problems. This month, people will have an opportunity to ask questions and comment […]
Water Protectors Are Everywhere
By Winona LaDuke Water Protectors “They came from the four directions. They came from the stars. They came from the mountain, they stood and protected. They came from the depths of the beautiful ocean. They came from the corn pollen and sage they had gathered in their hands. They came wounded from generations of pain. […]