Bad River Band of Ojibwe sues Enbridge
By Winona LaDuke On July 23, the Bad River Band of Ojibwe filed a law suit against Canadian based Enbridge Company, seeking to force removal of the Line 5 pipeline. For 66 years the pipeline has crossed the Bad River Reservation and run through the watershed of the Bad River and Lake Superior. Most of […]
Minnesotan’s for Line 3 group is paid for by Enbridge Corporation
By Winona LaDuke Minnesotan’s for Line 3 is actually paid for by the Enbridge Corporation. The group participated in the regulatory process as a grassroots organization, and continues to run an aggressive pro-pipeline media campaign, including $11 million spent by Enbridge on lobbying for Line 3 – which was dealt a major blow by the […]
Born on the Fourth of July
By Winona LaDuke “There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.” – Howard Zinn I’m not the best on dates, so that Fourth of July can really creep up on me. This year marks my granddaughter Animikiinz’s third birthday, born on the Fourth of July. She gives me a […]
The stars, G5 cell towers, and electromagnetic radiation exposure
By Winona LaDuke Our ancestors navigated by the stars. Today most of us need a cell phone to know where we are going. That’s sobering. We are out of touch. That’s not to say I am going to be able to navigate by stars anytime soon, but I still like the directions of “turn at […]
The last tar sands pipeline
By Winona LaDuke In early June, I traveled to Enbridge’s Shareholder meeting in Calgary, in Alberta Canada. Outside, laid off oil workers screamed, “Build that Pipe” over a bullhorn, and asked people to honk if they supported Canadian oil. Those tar sands workers will likely never have jobs in the industry again – economists, and […]
Sex, fossil fuels, and matriarchal economics
By Winona LaDuke In July of 2013, Ramsey County charged Mike Allen with agreeing to hire and engage in prostitution in a public place. Mike Allen is a Canadian. At that time, Allen was an MLA, a Member of the Legislative Assembly. Allen represented Fort McMurray, the Tar Sands Capital of the Petro State of […]
The Last Tar Sands Pipeline
By Winona LaDuke This past month, Enbridge CEO Al Monaco shared his plans to complete Enbridge’s Line 3 through Minnesota by the end of 2019. That promise to shareholders may be an empty promise, as the legal challenges to the 915,000 barrels a day tar sands pipeline mount. In mid-February, the Walz /Flanagan Administration announced […]
Amazon.com Inc. should save the Amazon Rainforest
By Winona LaDuke Ever worry that one day you will wake up and find you are owned by Amazon? They keep growing. With all their influence, gobbling and growth, it would be great if they would do something good with it. Like save the Amazon Rainforest. Really though, they are buying everything, and somedays I […]
It’s the time of the Bear and the Green New Deal
By Winona LaDuke In the middle of winter, the Bears sleep and dream of food, and of adventures to come. That’s the time when we reflect and make plans for the spring. A Bear is also what they call a falling stock market – and that’s what happened this December. As of Christmas, all of […]
White Earth and Red Lake join with DoC to appeal Pipeline
By Winona LaDuke On Dec. 21, the Department of Commerce joined the White Earth and Red Lake Nations and environmental groups in the Minnesota Court of Appeals. The plaintiffs are asking the Court to overturn the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) decision to grant a Certificate of Need for Line 3. If the certificate of […]
Pipelines, migrating geese and really bad math
By Winona LaDuke As I watch the geese fly south, I pray that they will come home, giiwedinong to the north, and our lakes and waters will welcome them. In the meantime, there are some dumb decisions made. In Minnesota, we were able to have the highest voter turn-out of any state. We will hope […]
Indian summer, climate change, and the Necessity Defense
By Winona LaDuke I’m still waiting for my Indian Summer. That’s what we usually get in late September here in the north country. Instead we received four inches of snow. That’s climate change, well climate chaos. I could say “no problem” or, “it’s all good until the Monster Hurricane hits”. That happened, too. Hurricane Michael […]