The Covenant
Mother Earth is, in the north country, or Giiwedinong, telling us to take a breath, and tell aadizookaan, or sacred stories, take to the arts of weaving, quillwork or maybe just a reflection.
The Covenant
By Winona LaDuke
Mother Earth is, in the north country, or Giiwedinong, telling us to take a breath, and tell aadizookaan, or sacred stories, take to the arts of weaving, quillwork or maybe just a reflection.
In the deepest of winter, is a time to be grateful to listen. Maybe it is the sound of ice cracking on the lake, or the muffle and silence of the snow, burying deep the many things left in the yard.
The harvests are in, and the wood stove needs tending.
Mother Earth is, in the north country, or Giiwedinong, telling us to take a breath, and tell aadizookaan, or sacred stories, take to the arts of weaving, quillwork or maybe just a reflection.
That’s quite a bit different than the teachings of shopping. I, like many, rankle at the overconsumption and find myself returning to the teachings, softness and wonder of a new snowfall. At our core, we don’t live in a shopping mall, or on Amazon. The Amazon is a place in the world, not just a Prime account.
She is a living being, a river and a world.
View from the observation tower of rising mist from the rain forest canopy in the rain forest near La Selva Lodge near Coca, Ecuador. Credit: Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images
Jeff Bezos is not protecting the Amazon, he’s headed to space. On Dec. 4, the Constitutional Court of Ecuador ruled that a Canadian mining corporation’s proposal to mine in a protected area violated the rights of nature. Seven justices voted in favor and two abstained.
“[T]he risk in this case is not necessarily related to human beings … but to the extinction of species, the destruction of ecosystems or the permanent alteration of natural cycles,” Judge Agustín Grijalva Jiménez wrote.
Ecuador’s constitution recognizes the rights of “Pachamama,” or Mother Earth, to exist and to “maintain and regenerate its cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes.”
In 2008, the country was the first in the world to enshrine the rights of nature in a constitutional document, affording nature the highest form of legal protection.
The legal systems are changing, as legal rights which have been accorded corporations (considered natural persons under the law in the United States) are seen to be not only inequitable, but wrong.
And, indeed, the very foundation of some of American, British and other colonial legal canons is — based on precepts like “Doctrine of Discovery” or “Terra Nullius” (Latin for “empty land”) the idea that no one was in the Amazon, or the Northwoods before a white man showed up — are being turned on their head. Indeed, one only needs to ask the philosophical question “Is a corporation a person?” to come up with the answer. No, a corporation cannot be a person because a person has a soul, and a corporation does not. And, despite the trappings of “regulations” the fact is, that if you cannot drink the water, your regulations are, well, impotent.
The Ecuadorian case is not alone.
On Aug. 5, an action was filed in the White Earth Tribal Court by Manoomin (wild rice), which has legal standing in the Anishinaabe regulatory system.
That’s the same as Ecuador. Manoomin versus Minnesota DNR alleges that the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources violated the rights of the wild rice in the 1855 treaty territory and beyond, when the DNR allocated Enbridge 5 billion gallons of water from our then parched land, to provide Enbridge with enough water to drill our rivers, and contaminate them.
The fact is an aquifer breached in Clearwater County (l00,000 gallons of water a day are gushing out of the hole Enbridge made), and we have no idea how much water they’ve used.
And, it appears that the state of Minnesota does not care. This is the first case brought in a tribal court to enforce the rights of nature, and the first rights of nature case brought to enforce treaty guarantees.
PROVIDED BY RON TURNEY A closeup showed standing water in the wetlands being held back from the Mississippi River in Clearwater County, where the Line 3 oil pipeline tunneled under the river.
In December 2018, the White Earth Tribal Council adopted a “rights of manoomin” law. The law begins:
“Manoomin, or wild rice, within all the Chippewa ceded territories, possesses inherent rights to exist, flourish, regenerate, and evolve, as well as inherent rights to restoration, recovery, and preservation.” Indeed, attorney Dale Greene Jr. said, “It’s logical to give rights to plants, animals and the natural world, because the Ojibwe worldview holds that everything in nature is a spiritual being, and there is an acknowledged relationship with humans. “I sometimes call it a covenant,” he said. “They’re providing life to us. It just makes perfect sense that it’s a living, providing, spiritual being, in the form of water or food.”
This is how the world changes. Legal and regulatory systems set up to strengthen corporations and take from Mother Earth are being challenged internationally. And, as surely as slavery, which was once legal is abhorred. The world is changing.
In this time remember the words of the great Indian writer, Arundhati Roy: “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
“Mother Earth is, in the north country, or Giiwedinong, telling us to take a breath, and tell aadizookaan, or sacred stories, take to the arts of weaving, quillwork or maybe just a reflection.”
LaDuke: Slow down to take in the Creator’s Clock
When the crows gather, the maple sap starts to run. Aandeg Biboon (Crow Moon) some call it, or Onaabaanigiizis, the hard-crusted snow moon.
Just before the maple syrup time begins is the Ojibwe New Year. There’s time on the land and time on the clock; those are different. There’s what’s called Indian Time — you are waiting for the sap to run, or the wild rice to finish parching. Then there’s the time that your flight used to leave, or maybe a Zoom call coming your way. That’s a different time.
There’s time on the land, I think of as the Creator’s Clock.
photo credit Sarah Little Red Feather
When the crows gather, the maple sap starts to run. Aandeg Biboon (Crow Moon) some call it, or Onaabaanigiizis, the hard-crusted snow moon.
Reposted from The Bemidji Pioneer
Written By: Winona LaDuke | 11:00 am, Mar. 24, 2021
The time of the coronavirus pandemic, when we were collectively forced to slow down and take a breath. When we could see the crows gather and the swans return. I am glad I saw them. They are right on time.
Just before the maple syrup time begins is the Ojibwe New Year. There’s time on the land and time on the clock; those are different. There’s what’s called Indian Time — you are waiting for the sap to run, or the wild rice to finish parching. Then there’s the time that your flight used to leave, or maybe a Zoom call coming your way. That’s a different time.
There’s time on the land, I think of as the Creator’s Clock.
Giiwedinong, now, is the time when the swans return — waabiziiwag bi azhigiiwewag. They are coming home, by the thousands, nestling into cornfields on the Ponsford prairie, the Hubbard prairie, coming home to the lakes they will grace for the months ahead. Some tough birds. They fly to open water; no need to wing it to Florida, they gather just where the ice is gone.
Stopping Trump’s Last Pipeline Will Take All of Us to Stop Line 3
A report from occupied Palisade, where Water Protectors confront a dying, but still deadly, energy behemoth.
The Mississippi River where we are making our stand against one of the largest tar sands pipeline projects in North America. Known as Line 3, it has the potential to carry 915,000 barrels a day of dirty oil over 1000 miles, from Alberta in Canada to Superior, Wis.
Stopping Trump’s Last Pipeline Will Take All of Us to Stop Line 3.
by Winona LaDuke
Photo by Sarah LittleRedfeather - “On the bank of the Mississippi in the pathway of the pipeline, there is a prayer lodge, a waaginoogan, a ceremonial teaching lodge, and we have been praying there. We’ve built lodges like this on the shores of the river for generations. We built the lodge before Enbridge.”
A report from occupied Palisade, where Water Protectors confront a dying, but still deadly, energy behemoth.
The Mississippi River where we are making our stand against one of the largest tar sands pipeline projects in North America. Known as Line 3, it has the potential to carry 915,000 barrels a day of dirty oil over 1000 miles, from Alberta in Canada to Superior, Wis.
Palisade is the kind of place where most people know one another a couple of generations back, a town with a tiny main street and just one café. Now there are about 400 workers here—most from out of state—rolling heavy trucks and equipment down icy, windy unfamiliar roads every day.
This small town is nestled in the deep woods and muskegs of Aitkin County, the lands of the Chippewa of the Mississippi, as my people are known. Akiing, the Anishinaabe word for “the land to which the people belong,” is half land and half water.
Waters deep and shallow filled with wild rice, sturgeon and muskies, and all the mysteries of the deep waters. This is the only place in the world where wild rice grows. Each year in succession the manoomin returns, the only grain native to North America. This is the homeland of the Anishinaabe.
And here Enbridge, the largest pipeline company in the world, is hell-bent on jamming through their Line 3 Pipeline, the company’s most massive project, under the cover of this
Photo by keripickett
From the Water Protector Center at the edge of the pipeline route, Water Protectors gather. We hear the pounding all day long. The constant roar of heavy machinery as it rips through the forest and the wetlands. It’s brutal work, and dangerous as hell. Two weeks ago, Jorge Lopez Villafuerte was killed in the Enbridge Pipeyard, run over by a forklift.
He came here from Utah for work. Instead, he found death. Enbridge halted work in the area for less than four hours— and then the pounding began again.
Photo by Sarah LittleRedfeather - Jan. 9, 2021 at the location where Jorge Lopez Villafuerte was killed.
Then there’s the armed forces, the sheriff’s office, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) who have deployed here. Their wages are paid by Enbridge.
That’s because Minnesota noted the $38 million bill for Standing Rock, and decided just to pay in advance. A Canadian corporation paying for the police in Minnesota.
It looks like an occupation. It feels like an occupation. With all the violence that entails.
First the big dozers came, then the excavators, backhoes, and buncher fellers. That last one just sort of walks through the forest, beheads a tree, drops the top to one side, and then comes back for the rest of the tree. This is how Enbridge rolls through a forest. They are gunning for the rivers now, heading straight for them: the Mississippi, the Willow, the Shell, the Little Shell, the Crow Wing: 22 rivers crossings in all. They are coming with something called a High Directional Drill. So they can drill under the river, just like they did at Standing Rock, at the Cannonball River. It feels a lot like a rape.
Photo by Sarah LittleRedfeather - Jan. 9, 2021 at the location where Jorge Lopez Villafuerte was killed.
They don’t want us to see what they are doing. Last week, they put up a fence around the drill site. They plan to shove in that 36-inch pipe, so it can move 915,000 barrels a day of the dirtiest oil in the world across 330 miles of Northern Minnesota to Lake Superior.
We have been fighting this pipeline for seven years. And so far we’ve held it off in the courts and through the permitting process. The carbon output would be equivalent to opening 50 new coal plants—more carbon emissions than the entire current Minnesota economy. And all this for a dying industry. Energy companies and investors are fleeing the tar sands. Keystone XL is doomed, Dakota Access is in a legal mess (federal courts have ruled that its Environmental
Enbridge would like to start flooding the north country with oil, as quick as it can. The Red Lake and White Earth tribes and even the Minnesota Department of Commerce have filed suit in state courts to overturn all the permits on this pipeline. On Christmas Eve, we filed in Federal court to overturn the Army Corps of Engineers’ permits to cross the rivers. There has been no federal Environmental Impact Statement. We have a pretty good chance of prevailing in court. So Enbridge wants to finish this dirty work before the law comes.
UPDATE: February 8, 2021
Federal Court Allows Harmful Line 3 Oil Project to Continue
Minnesota Tribes press case to halt harm to waterways (read here)
On the bank of the Mississippi in the pathway of the pipeline, there is a prayer lodge, a waaginoogan, a ceremonial teaching lodge, and we have been praying there. We’ve built lodges like this on the shores of the river for generations. We built the lodge before Enbridge.
Photo by Sarah LittleRedfeather
A couple of weeks ago, my friend Tania Aubid and I returned to our lodge and found a stake in it, an Enbridge pipeline right-of-way stake. That was a surprise. One of the conditions of Enbridge’s permits is that they are supposed to have cultural monitors out ahead of the pipeline. But of course they didn’t. They just put a stake in the middle of the lodge.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources issued an “exclusion order” on December 5, excluding Minnesotans from public lands they had given to Enbridge.
Minnesota. We put up a “No Trespassing” sign with the American Indian Religious Freedom Act cited on it—USC 42. The lodge is still there. And so are we.
Not just in Palisade. Indigenous people and our allies are resisting across the whole pathway of this pipeline, from near the Red Lake Reservation in the Northwest, where a new camp just opened, to the Fond du Lac reservation on the eastern end, where Water Protectors have been disrupting the destruction everyday.
This past month we’ve been praying by the river, and asking others to come. And they have answered the call: legislators, friends from the cities, people of all religious faiths, relatives from South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, water protectors from all four directions to sing those Water Songs, as Enbridge drills.
Photo by itsdrw• Follow Saint Paul, Minnesota
The pipeline project is one month in, and already over 50 people have been arrested. Good people who put their bodies on the line because they believe in water more than oil. And more are coming every day.
We are digging in for the winter. After all, we’ve got good genes and warm clothes and being outside during the pandemic is a good idea. But, really, we are looking to Washington now. This is the Pandemic Pipeline Project, and it shouldn’t happen. It’s the end of the tar sands era.
Winona LaDuke Winona LaDuke, executive director of Honor the Earth, is an economist, environmentalist, activist, hemp farmer, author, and former Green Party VP candidate with Ralph Nader. She lives on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota.
To Be A Water Protector
The Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers
PAPERBACK $25.00
Winona LaDuke is a leader in cultural-based sustainable development strategies, renewable energy, sustainable food systems and Indigenous rights. To Be a Water Protector, explores issues that have been central to her activism for many years — sacred Mother Earth, our despoiling of Earth and the activism at Standing Rock and opposing Line 3.
For this book, Winona discusses several elements of a New Green Economy and the lessons we can take from activists outside the US and Canada. In her unique way of storytelling, Winona LaDuke is inspiring, always a teacher and an utterly fearless activist, writer and speaker.
This book is written in the spirit of acknowledging that Water is Life. This book is a testimony of the resistance and defeat of the Wiindigoo. The term, “Water Protector,” became mainstream under a hail of rubber bullets at Standing Rock. This book is about that spirit, and that spirit is forever.
I am pairing this book “To Be a water Protector,” with my Louis Riel Coffee - the coffee of the resistance with a 16 0z Ceramic Travel Mug. Make this a holiday gift for a friend, and I will sign the book. Join me in the reading, and during these times of winter, stay warm, drink coffee, and join the New Green Revolution.
Winter Count - The lake, The river, The drill
Credit Kirk Sidlo
Winter Count - The lake, The river, The drill
by Winona LaDuke
Sandy Lake
We sit on the shore of Sandy Lake. She’s marked on the migration scrolls of the Anishinaabe. She’s a big one, this lake, the place where 400 of the Anishinaabe perished over the winter of l842-1843, when the Great White Father, that would be Zachary Taylor denied treaty rations. They say that there were so many bodies wrapped in birchbark, that the shores were white. That was then.
The lake, and the flowage, from Sandy Lake, are some of the richest waters of the Anishinaabe- full of wild rice, and teeming with fish. The rice, or Manoomin from Sandy Lake Flowage, Minnewawa, are prized, as is the rice from Rice Lake, today called the Rice Lake Refuge. Akiing, the land to which the people belong is half land and half water. Waters deep, shallow filled with rice, sturgeon, and muskies of great lengths, and all the mysteries of the deep waters. Mermaids too. Those are the mysterious and wonderful waters of the north country.
Photo by Edward Iron Cloud III
This is where the wild rice grows, it’s the only place in the world. Each year in succession the Manoomin returns to the waters of the Anishinaabe, providing twice the protein and half the calories of brown rice. It’s the only grain Native to North America.
A couple of years ago, Enbridge forced the Fond du Lac band to make a Deal with the Devil. That’s to say, that the Fond du Lac Tribal Council, led by Chairman Kevin Dupuis, had to choose, which watersheds and sets of lakes he would sacrifice for an Enbridge pipeline. The price tag, rumored to be around $225 million to a tribe fighting a big mine upstream from the reservation, is something to hold on to.
The tribe chose to protect Sandy Lake. That’s because it’s on our migration scrolls, and our people died there as well. So it is that the Enbridge Pipeline project was pushed north- pushed north of Palisade, to the deep woods and wetlands.
The Willow River Enbridge is destroying
The Drill
I don’t know how to describe rape except that‘s what it feels like. That’s what it feels like here. First, there’s the big dozers, and excavators, backhoes, and bunch of fellers. That last one just sort of walks through the forest, beheads a tree, and then drops it to the side, coming back for the rest of the tree after that. It’s violent. Really violent how Enbridge rolls through a forest.
It’s a lot like pillaging a village, maybe a village in Rwanda, or maybe a village in Vietnam. It’s full of hatred.
Photo by Sarah LittleRedfeather
Then what’s left are the women. Then they go for the women. Lots of gang rapes, from Kosovo to Sand Creek. The woman is the river. It’s the Mississippi. The Willow River, the Shell River, the Little Shell River, the Crow Wing Rivers. Enbridge and the contractors, most of them from Texas, Utah, Louisiana, and elsewhere, are gunning for the rivers- heading straight towards the rivers. Enbridge wants to complete the River crossings, or the pipes under the rivers, as soon as possible. Enbridge is coming in with something called a High Directional Drill. That’s a drill under the river, like they did at Standing Rock, right there by the Cannonball River. There’s a big set of jamming generators. Those are going to drive this drill under the river. And it’s all really phallic. That’s what it feels like here. Like rape.
In fact, Enbridge would like to get the whole pipeline done and fill up the north country with oil, as quick as it can. Then what happens legally, is that they begin to slut the ecosystem. That’s to say, that there’s a newly introduced legal theory called the degradation principle.
That’s the legal theory that if an ecosystem is already polluted, you don’t have to apply standards like the Clean Drinking Water Act or the Clean Water Act. Sort of like saying if you’ve been raped, you’re no good. And, who cares if you get raped again?
Occupied Palisade
There are about l00 souls who live in Palisade most of the year. It’s a small town, you can be sure most people are related and know each other for a couple of generations back. Welcome to the North Country. There are about 400 workers surrounding Palisade right now, driving big trucks and equipment down windy icy roads. It looks like an occupation. And then there’s the pounding, the pounding of big equipment ripping through the forest and the land. There are about l00 water protectors gathering north of Palisade. They are gathering down by the River. Down by the River to Pray. And, it’s all during a pandemic.
Palisade and Swatara are sort of an unusual neck of the woods. Nestled in the deep woods and muskegs of Aitken County, or the lands of the Chippewa of the Mississippi as we are called, are these small towns. There are also springs, bountiful freshwater springs throughout the area. These towns have seen a lot. A set of proposals from downstate include an experimental city of 250,000; a plasma gasification garbage to energy proposal, a nuclear waste dump, and now a pipeline. It’s just a crazy set of ideas that people come up with from elsewhere. No one really needs it, any of it.
The Pandemic Pipeline
Enbridge wants to get this pipeline done before someone stops them. That’s what this is about. Final approvals on the Water Crossing permits by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency came out in November.
The MPCA set aside any pretext of environmental justice or protection of water quality in sensitive lakes. That was followed by the resignations of l2 of l7 members of that advisory committee. Advisory Board members said.
Then there’s what’s called Corporate Welfare. That’s when the state of Minnesota gives away a bunch of public land to a Canadian corporation. And public waters. The Department of Natural Resources had been busy giving away lots of Minnesota, and lots of Anishinaabe territories. That includes about 630 million gallons of water so that Enbridge can dewater and then flush it’s pipeline with water- moving it across watersheds, with no accounting for the quality or impact. Crazy stuff, add to that the large chunk of Minnesota being laid to waste, and ALL the cops.
That’s corporate welfare at its best, in this case, giving it all away to a Canadian corporation.
Sara Pajunen
What’s the Rush?
They want to have a pipe in the ground and full of oil before the people and the state of Minnesota get a day in court. That‘s the hurry. On August of, 2020, the Minnesota Department of Commerce, the Red Lake, and White Earth Nations filed suit in Minnesota Appellate Court to overturn both the Certificate of Need and the Route Permit. That’s because the math of this pipeline doesn’t work out, financially, and it doesn’t work out for the environment.
One big problem: There’s no plan if Enbridge Oil gets into Lake Superior. There’s no real plan.
And, then there’s the economics, which makes no sense. Companies are fleeing the tar sands, and Enbridge itself is putting 400,000 barrels a day less through its main lines than they did a year ago. They’ve got the Pandemic Pipeline Blues, and it’s the end of the tar sands oil world. So the company wants to sell the last pipeline.
The last Tarsands pipeline. It’s a blue light special on bad infrastructure, and the Walz Administration has taken the bait. While the state needs real infrastructure, like water, sewer and bridges, and such, we’re just getting a big Tar Sands Pipeline.
Time to heal. Time to move on.
To Be A Water Protector
The Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers
PAPERBACK $25.00
Winona LaDuke is a leader in cultural-based sustainable development strategies, renewable energy, sustainable food systems and Indigenous rights. To Be a Water Protector, explores issues that have been central to her activism for many years — sacred Mother Earth, our despoiling of Earth and the activism at Standing Rock and opposing Line 3.
For this book, Winona discusses several elements of a New Green Economy and the lessons we can take from activists outside the US and Canada. In her unique way of storytelling, Winona LaDuke is inspiring, always a teacher and an utterly fearless activist, writer and speaker.
This book is written in the spirit of acknowledging that Water is Life. This book is a testimony of the resistance and defeat of the Wiindigoo. The term, “Water Protector,” became mainstream under a hail of rubber bullets at Standing Rock. This book is about that spirit, and that spirit is forever.
I am pairing this book “To Be a water Protector,” with my Louis Riel Coffee - the coffee of the resistance with a 16 0z Ceramic Travel Mug. Make this a holiday gift for a friend, and I will sign the book. Join me in the reading, and during these times of winter, stay warm, drink coffee, and join the New Green Revolution.
Votes, Anti Fascism and Banana Republics
Votes, Anti Fascism and Banana Republics by Winona LaDuke
“Who’s the Banana Republic now?”
That’s the question the Colombian daily newspaper Publimetro chided on the front page with a photo of a man in a U.S. flag print mask. As Donald Trump lost both the popular vote and the electoral college vote, that would mean a transition to a new president. Well in a working democracy.”
Photo by Ojibwes for Responsible Government.
Votes, Anti Fascism and Banana Republics by Winona LaDuke
“Who’s the Banana Republic now?”
That’s the question the Colombian daily newspaper Publimetro chided on the front page with a photo of a man in a U.S. flag print mask. As Donald Trump lost both the popular vote and the electoral college vote, that would mean a transition to a new president. Well in a working democracy.”
Instead, as the New York Times reports, “What we have seen in the last week from the president more closely resembles the tactics of the kind of authoritarian leaders we follow,” Michael Abramowitz, the president of Freedom House, which tracks democracy, told The Times.
“I never would have imagined seeing something like this in America.” Indeed, as AP reported, “ Kenyan cartoonist Patrick Gathara tweeted that Trump “has barricaded himself inside the presidential palace vowing not to leave unless he is declared the winner,” with a mediator “currently trying to coax him out with promises of fast food.”’
Anti Fascism
While Trump talks about targeting the Antifa, as if that’s an extreme terrorist group, Antifa means “Anti fascist”, and Trump’s policies, rule of fear, mass incarceration, racism, and intimidation more closely represented the tactics of other authoritarian and fascist leaders like Mussolini, than elected leaders of legitimate democracies. In the end, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris received over 80 million votes, more than any other American President in history.
Taking a long view as Indigenous peoples, who have experience with democracy, and representative government, it’s easy to see that America is in a political crisis, which puts the country in the league of corrupt democracies worldwide. There’s a few examples, on a worldwide scale. Ruling parties in Zimbabwe reversed true election results in 2002, Iran did the same in 2009, Venezuela is a mess, and well the recent Bolivian elections and removal of democratically elected Evo Morales tell a more recent story of corruption , foreign influence and corruption. America seems to be no different. Politicians should not steal elections, nor should foreign governments or corporations determine election results.
In the meantime, something else is happening. That’s to say, despite voter suppression, armed white terrorists attempting to thwart voters, endless lines and for some of us, very remote polling places, this election changed our world. It turns out that Native voters helped put President Elect Biden and Kamala Harris into office, providing the votes in key states of Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan (Pennsylvania and Georgia).
Our native votes, although not large, are strategic. And, it is beginning to show. The question is how will that show up in Minnesota over the next two election cycles.
Get out the Vote work on Red Lake, Leech Lake and White Earth reservations stirred up some new voters, thousands of them. Red Lake Nation started their drive on October 4, training a get out the vote team who would travel by car, foot or bicycle. There was an expectation to register two voters an hour, and Personal Protective Equipment was provided. A friendly competition meant more voters.
According to Doreen Wells, who supervised the drive, 40-50 canvassers went out, and registered people, most from l8-45, driving beyond the reservation , into the treaty territories of Thief River Falls, Bemidji and beyond. Then there was the bus to Bemidjigamag, the first bus left the Red Lake Nation, with l2 Red Lakers from 25-72, who were first time voters in a non tribal election.
That’s how the vote was rocked.
Leech Lake had series of virtual get out the vote events, and White Earth tribal members went door to door, and then drove people to the polls before and on election day.
Here’s how it works.
Take the village of Pine Point, 320 tribal members live in that village, between housing projects and private homes. Those tribal members constitute of the Pine Point Township population, but the polling place is nowhere near the village- in fact, it’s in the middle of a snow bank in the Ponsford Prairie, in the heart of Trump country.
Despite that, voters turned out, driving to town, casting absentee ballots and boarding the White Earth Council of Elders bus to take a ride to the polls.
Tipping the Voted
Wisconsin, a closely watched state in the election, went for Joe Biden by fewer than 21,000 votes in the initial county. When the votes came in from the Bad River, Red Cliff, Menominee and other reservations, things changed. Native people represent about 90,000 tribal members, and Menominee County, Menominee County, which overlaps the Menominee Tribe’s reservation, voted for Biden 82%, compared to the state as a whole at 49.4%.
Meanwhile the Navajo Nation and Tohono O’odham Nation, which spans Pima, Maricopa and Pinal counties, most precincts were above 90% for Biden, according to a statewide map pulled together by ABC15 Arizona. With good reason.
The Navajo Nation has sued the Trump administration for botching the COVID Relief Program, costing Navajo lives. At one point in May, the Navajo Nation had the highest ratio of COVID-19 cases in the U.S., surpassing New York City. The Navajo Nation has joined other tribal nations in a lawsuit over the dispersal of the funds. Recent exit polls showing how Indigenous voters favored Biden overall in Arizona also showed the pandemic response to be the most important issue on their minds.
Tribal voters have long been discounted, and perhaps none so prominently as at the recent CNN Election night reporting which categorized voters into White, Black, Hispanic, Latino and, “Something Else.” This is how that “Something Else,” counts. In Minnesota, Biden won, but in the Deep North, Trump ruled.
Overall Clearwater County voted 71% in favor of Donald Trump, while Rice Lake, in La Prairie Township voted 72.5% for Joe Biden.
Similarly, Representative Steve Greene , although a tribal member, received little approval from tribal voters, where in Rice Lake 67% voted for Democrat Dave Suby and only 31.9% for Steve Green.
In Mahnomen County, Twin Lakes (Naytahwaush) voted 75% for Biden, while non Naïve voters narrowly secured a Mahnomen County victory for Trump of 49% versus 48%.
In Pine Point, Native voters secured 55% of the vote for Biden, while most non Native voters turned out for Trump. Red Lake, was a more unified vote, not surprisingly, as non Indian residency clearly colors the politics of White Earth. Remember, however that the average age for a White Earth tribal resident is roughly half that of a Non Native resident of the reservation.
Times will change.
Minnesota elected more Native people this year than in any previous election- from City Council and County Commissioners in Bemidji (Audrey Thayer and Tim Sumner), Lyz Jakkola (Cloquet City Council) to new additions to the State Senate- Mary Kunesh- Podein and representative Heather Keeler join others, and a rising number of Native elected politicians nationally.
Native people were given the right to vote in this country, when we were l% of the population.
That’s an irony of representation for the first people. Now’s the time when that l% has not only increased in numbers, but it’s flexing some power.
The Pandemic Pipeline- An Appeal to the Governor
Governor Walz has just issued all the state permits for Enbridge’s Line 3.
That’s including the Minnesota Pollution Control Permit called the 40l permit, which approves the water crossings on the Mississippi, Willow, Crow Wing and other rivers in the heart of Anishinaabe territory. The Governor’s Department of Natural Resources issued all permits, including one which allows Enbridge to kill endangered species, and then pay Minnesota $2,532,860 for the destruction of endangered species in the line of the pipeline.
There is no bonding for tribes, no protection for our wild rice and no justice.
Supporting our Water 💦 Protectors, Dawn Goodwin of Rise Coalition to protect our water.
Love Honor and Respect our Nibi. Photo by Sarah LittleRedfetherDesign.com
#WaterIsLife
Governor Walz has just issued all the state permits for Enbridge’s Line 3.
That’s including the Minnesota Pollution Control Permit called the 40l permit, which approves the water crossings on the Mississippi, Willow, Crow Wing and other rivers in the heart of Anishinaabe territory. The Governor’s Department of Natural Resources issued all permits, including one which allows Enbridge to kill endangered species, and then pay Minnesota $2,532,860 for the destruction of endangered species in the line of the pipeline.
There is no bonding for tribes, no protection for our wild rice and no justice.
Then there’s the pandemic.
This is a legacy Walz will have to deal with- shoving a pipeline down our throats during a pandemic, for, in the end 23 jobs. What’s clear is that all permits have been issued. The Governor should issue a stay in construction, to protect Minnesota and our people. There’s no urgency in a pipeline project.
To be clear, COVID is in an exponential growth period, and the counties along the proposed pipeline route, many of them with higher populations of Native people, are at risk. This is what exponential growth looks like: In Minnesota, our first 1,000 dead came by May 30 (4-5 months), our second 1,000 by Sept. 26 (4 months), our third by Nov. 18 (7.5 weeks), and, if trends continue, we’ll hit 4,000 dead before year’s end.
Native people are very high risk in a corona virus pandemic. .An analysis by U.S. News & World Report indicates that Native Americans have the highest racial disparity when it comes to COVID-19 hospitalizations of any group in the U.S. Native Americans are 5.3 times more likely to be hospitalized due to COVID-19 than white Americans. The inquiry shows that in 23 of the 31 states studied, Native Americans were at greater risk for COVID-19 infection. In Arizona, Mississippi , Montana, New Mexico and Oregon, Native Americans were more than four times more likely to contract the disease. We would prefer to not be studied after death, and instead request that you support our lives. We have already lived through small pox and influenza epidemics. And we should not be subjected to a state sanctioned expansion of the COVIC pandemic.
Now that all approvals have been issued, Enbridge is unrolling 4200 workers in the territory of the Minnesota Chippewa tribe , into trailer parks, RV sites, hotels , and on site man camps. All of those workers pose a threat to the health and wellbeing of the Anishinaabe and to the people of this state. We note particularly that the Enbridge pipeline route is also a route of significant COVID impacts. We also note a number of cases in western states where Pipeline workers and camps have increased the COVID rates and exposure with itinerant workers. See below a map of COVID cases and the pipeline.
“Minn. Tribes Seek To Halt Imminent Pipeline Construction”
The Red Lake Band of Chippewa and White Earth Band of Ojibwe, both of northern Minnesota, filed with the commission on the eve of Thanksgiving, pointing to cases currently before the Minnesota Court of Appeals seeking to undo state regulators' approval of the pipeline over unaddressed environmental risks.
The tribes sought speedy consideration of their motion Wednesday, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as well as a letter from Enbridge stating construction could begin this week.
"Since Enbridge has informed landowners that it is 'estimating construction on or near your property will start on approximately November 30, 2020,' and that it intends to complete construction within six to nine months of the start of construction, the tribes respectfully request that the commission expedite consideration of this motion," they wrote.
Health Care Capacity
Health Care professionals are deeply concerned about the raging pandemic. Health care professionals from Aitken county have called on the Governor to put a stay on the construction, noting that Aitken County has only four ICU beds, and a significant high risk population of Native and elderly residents. Cornerstone Nursing and Rehab in Bagley called on the National Guard the third week of November to support their diminished staff. Duluth hospitals are at risk, Bemidji and more. Our Indian Health Service is not equipped for a pandemic.
Minnesota is seeing increased community spread among health care workers. The Minnesota Hospital Association, noted an Nov. 11 spot check of their system showed “over 6,000 of our frontline health care heroes were out of service in our hospitals.” Bed counts mean nothing without qualified staff. Meanwhile, Children’s Hospital is similarly impacted, with Dr. Marc Gorelick reporting that over 200 Children’s Hospital of Minnesota staff were affected. Our tribal health care systems are already stressed, and this pandemic should not be expanded for the benefit of a Canadian multinational which has put our state and people at risk for fifty years.
The Public Trust Doctrine
Walz’s permits are a puzzle in a time when tar sands economies are collapsing, and when no other state has approved a pipeline project. Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, revoked the 1953 easement that allows Enbridge to operate pipelines through the Straits of Mackinac. That’s, also the heart of Anishinaabe territory. Governor Whitmer, acted under the state’s public trust doctrine, which requires state authorities to protect the Great Lakes.
“Enbridge has routinely refused to take action to protect our Great Lakes and the millions of Americans who depend on them for clean drinking water and good jobs,” Governor Whitmer said in a statement. In 2010, Enbridge’s Kalamazoo oil spill occurred sending 850,000 gallons of tar sands oil into the water. The spill had continued for l7 hours before it was noticed by Enbridge. Minnesota actually had the largest oil spill in US history, and it was an Enbridge spill in Grand Rapids.
Seems like someone should have a memory.
Elsewhere, the tar sands industry is collapsing and in other states, like New York, (Constitution pipeline), projects are being cancelled for economic reasons. In turn, the Bad River Band of Anishinaabe has rejected Enbridge’s continued use of an easement, now over 50 years old and asked that Enbridge remove the l3 miles of pipeline crossing that reservation. It’s baffling the Governor would approve this pipeline, in the face simply of the poor economic forecast for tar sands oil, and the fact that Enbridge has already cut throughput in the line by 400,000 barrels per day and moved the equivalent of any new proposed line into other pipes. More than that , the state, and tribes have appealed all the Public Utilities Commission decision ( an agency which needs to be entirely rebuilt). While Governor Walz has stated that he intends to follow the science and the process, allowing all construction and water crossings to be completed prior to a Court hearing., is a hollow promise .
That’s to say, that the state and our tribes have yet to have our day in the Minnesota Court of Appeals, where we have challenged this pipeline in terms of the Certificate of Need and the Route. This pipeline during a pandemic is a disaster for your state, and for our people. This is not an essential pipeline project by any means, and your legacy will be tarnished by the deaths resulting from this project.
In the end, this pipeline, according to Enbridge will leave 23 new jobs.
Those jobs, are conflict jobs, born of a battle, and dividing your state, and adding a huge carbon footprint in a time of climate disaster. We understand your commitment to labor and jobs, and respectfully request that you look beyond a dirty pipeline during a pandemic, and make, instead a legacy of hope, courage and well being for all of our people.
Please issue a stay on construction.
Important to know:
There are outstanding legal challenges to Line 3, however, “one is from the state’s Department of Commerce, an agency that contends Enbridge hasn’t properly shown demand for the oil the pipeline would carry. Agency spokeswoman Mo Schriner said Commerce is still reviewing its options for the appeals process.”
STOPLINE3.ORG
THE NEW GREEN REVOLUTION
. We want good jobs, jobs about life and goodness to each other and the environment. Governor Walz, we need you to lead. Minnesota needs a way out of madness, away from the archaic energy policies of the l980s. We need you to join us in creating the New Green Revolution. Minnesota was the birthplace of what’s called the Green Revolution, and that’s today’s agriculture. Let’s make it even better, stronger and less polluting. Plus, it’s a good defense against climate change, which is already here.
Youth from Red Lake and White Earth Reservation participating at Winona’s Hemp Crete Workshop at Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute
Winona LaDuke
So there I am, minding my own beeswax in a pandemic, growing some cool vegetables and a fiber hemp field. Hemp, the non-psychoactive relative of marijuana, is a big industry in the world, and the US imports $66 million in hemp products annually. I think we should grow it here again. Minnesota used to have eleven hemp mills; we want them back.
Winona La Duke and granddaughter work on a new hempcrete structure at the Anishinaabe Agriculture Institutes Farm
Meanwhile Red Lake nation is putting up a new big solar project, with more on the way- hoping for a 20-megawatt solar farm soon, but, with Solar Bear and the tribe, they are making a renewable energy future. And, on the White Earth reservation, the tribal government, in collaboration with the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance, is putting up 200 kw of solar on the White Earth reservation, to serve five villages. In Ponsford, 8th Fire Solar is manufacturing solar thermal panels which can reduce a heating bill by 20% in a Minnesota winter. Solar thermal trainings are underway on the Leech Lake and Nett Lake reservations. After all, staying warm is a good thing, not Democratic or Republican. And if you look up when you’re driving on Highway 71, you can see the wind turbine parts moving by, from the Port of Duluth to new wind farms in Nebraska. All those are imported parts. It’s happening, the world is changing.
In the midst of the pandemic, we’ve reduced fossil fuels consumption by about 9%. Turns out a lot of people actually like to stay home, working remotely because it’s less stressful and more productive. Out west, Google and Amazon are changing the world -- and growing. Those guys are now the highest valued corporations in the world. Exxon/Mobil isn’t even in the top ten. Plus, each corporation is buying l0,000 electric cars, and making a renewable economy in the process. That’s the future, and I plan to be there.
Then there’s the Deep North. Representative Steve Green is still promoting nuclear energy and more coal. The last time anyone was really talking about nuclear energy was the Nixon era. There hasn’t been a new nuclear power plant built here for 30 years! And, coal, well that’s gone. So is tar sands, the industry has collapsed. It’s really time to evolve, Steve and fellow, outdated politicians. Time to quit selling out to foreign corporations. It’s a new century and our country can be better.
Time also to look at Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline, which will bring 4,200 temporary workers into northern Minnesota during a pandemic. Some are already here: Pickup trucks gather at Lake George, Hill City, and Backus, and crews from Louisiana and Montana are coming to our north country. These are dangerous times, and there are strangers in our midst, not all of them good guys.
Let me put it this way. Line 3 is a huge liability for Minnesota this year, and over the long term. The fossil fuel era is ending, and we’re being sold a bad deal, just so a Canadian corporation can make more profits. Enbridge has already shut down 400,000 barrels a day because of the market, and has moved oil into other lines- 67 and 2, according to a new lawsuit filed by Honor the Earth. In other words, they don’t even need line 3.
More than that, there are jobs for life and jobs for death. These jobs are the latter. And we don’t really want those jobs here. We want good jobs, jobs about life and goodness to each other and the environment. Governor Walz, we need you to lead. Minnesota needs a way out of madness, away from the archaic energy policies of the l980s. We need you to join us in creating the New Green Revolution. Minnesota was the birthplace of what’s called the Green Revolution, and that’s today’s agriculture. Let’s make it even better, stronger and less polluting. Plus, it’s a good defense against climate change, which is already here.
Here’s my suggestion: solar, renewables, an expanded hemp industry, and the legalization of cannabis – all part of a just transition. Now, that may sound wacky, but that neighbor to the north, Canada, they ‘re doing pretty well with a green cannabis business worth $2.5 billion. Here in Minnesota tens of thousands of permanent jobs would be created with a legalized marijuana industry, and a full-scale fiber and food hemp economy. Taxes could fund schools and make them safer for our children. And these revenues could ensure that we have good internet service and health care. We all need it. Oregon, for instance, with a smaller population, has a l7% excise tax on recreational cannabis. That’s the equivalent of $l02 million back to the state! That’s more money -- and much easier to come by -- than the Enbridge dirty oil economy.
This isn’t new, radical thinking. We could make all that product we buy from China right here, and create more jobs than the paltry 23 Enbridge will leave us with Line 3. We could also make all sorts of equipment for this work in the Iron Range, rather than importing it from China. After all, the New Green Revolution needs some farm and processing equipment.
Let’s do this together. There’s more than enough hate in the world, so let’s vote for people who are sensible, and create the New Green Revolution. That will make America Beautiful again.
Announcement: Winona's Endorsement for President 2020
"Our future generations count on our vote. Our collective well being is at stake. It is time to power up for change.” This is a time of incredible change and transformation. Statues of confederates and conquistadors are falling and we are in the midst of a global pandemic. There is no return to normal, so let’s make this world beautiful. We can be part of the change by voting for courageous and decent people. My vote goes to Biden and Harris.
Winona's Endorsement for President 2020
Coming to you from my windy Hemp farm while harvesting my beautiful crops, I wanted to share my endorsement for President.
As former Vice President Candidate, twice, for the Green Party endorses Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris to be our next President and Vice President. Winona encourages you to not only vote for Joe Biden but to vote Democrat across the board.
Winona's reasoning is "Our future generations count on our vote. Our collective well being is at stake. It is time to power up for change.”
This is a time of incredible change and transformation. Statues of confederates and conquistadors are falling and we are in the midst of a global pandemic. There is no return to normal, so let’s make this world beautiful. We can be part of the change by voting for courageous and decent people.
Winona believes Joe Biden has a plan, a plan we can work and live with that will protect our future generations. Winona stresses there is more work is to be done, but this is a great start that we can see in our future 2020 into 2021. Vote!
Take Your Power Back - Make America Beautiful Again
by Winona LaDuke
Make America beautiful again. That’s what I say. I remember those old advertisements of the Indian guy in the canoe, tear and all. And there was all this pollution, burning rivers and garbage. Ugly. I want it to be beautiful again. But it’s not just environmental beauty, no more smokey skies or poisoned rivers, we want beautiful character and ethics in our society and in our government. I want leaders who are not self serving, lying, or serving foreign companies and countries, we want them to take care of the little people, those who need champions. In other words, we want to be decent people. We want to not have hatred, walls, and fear. I plan to be part of making America beautiful again.
Here’s my thinking. I’m not a Democrat or a Republican. After all, I ran two times for the office of Vice President of the United States as a Green Party candidate. I am a Green. That means I don’t really have a dog in this fight, neither of those parties likes a woman like me. But this year, I am weighing in. And I am weighing in on the side of decency and for a return to a democratic process. I’m voting for a world with less conflict, youth in detention camps, gutted environmental and civil rights protections, less hatred, no vote stealing, and fewer forest fires.
First, I am going to ask people to vote. We know that voting makes a difference because this last mid term, Peggy Flanagan was elected to the position of Minnesota Lieutenant Governor. We know voting makes a difference, because a young Puerto Rican woman named Alexandria Ocasio Cortez unseated a seven term New York City Politician Joseph Crowley to become a US Representative. The other side had the money, but people mobilized to turn over power.
And, her vision and ethics, combined with allies like Deb Haaland, from New Mexico, Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar is changing this country. They are leading the country and challenging business as usual in Washington DC. Now is the time for solutions, and those are not going to come from the folks who got us into this mess. The solutions and a “ Moonshot” for a better world, of a new economy are visionary. That’s what happens when people vote and organize. Minnesota had the highest turnout in the midterm elections, and we need to do it again.
About 700 young people became eligible to vote on the White Earth reservation for this election- and November 3 is about your future. It is about what jobs there will be, if we will have our wild rice, if we will be in ongoing crises of climate, police, riots and opioids. It is about ensuring justice, and about having enough for our communities- heat, food, and health. This is a vote during a pandemic, a vote when the world is changing, and we are the country with more cases of COVID than any in the world. This vote is about the future of our country, our water and our people.
Why vote Native Communities? Vote because there are Native people running for senate, house, city councils and county commissioner positions in Minnesota. And those people can bring a Native voice to the state. And, yet some of those native people, despite being tribal members do not always represent Native interests. That’s complicated, and maybe let’s vote on records and merits. And, then let’s remember that change can happen. It’s inevitable. It’s a question of who controls the change. A surge in Native voting will change the political landscape of the North.
Vote because it matters what kinds of leaders we have. This past week, Donald Trump’s tax returns became public, and we found out that he paid “$750 in federal income taxes for 2016 and 2017 and no personal income taxes in 10 of the 15 years previous years.” And, he spent $70,000 on hair styling and deducted it from his taxes.
In the meantime, millions of people are facing evictions, loss of jobs, and incredible despair, struggling to pay bills. There are over 210,000 people dead from COVID, and over 7.4 million contracted this serious virus as a result of bad leadership, the economy is in an ongoing crisis, there are riots in the streets, people getting shot and the west coast is on fire.
Death toll from the coronavirus pandemic could triple by year’s end, with the United States to 410,000, according to a new forecast from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
In September, it was estimated 650,120 people filed new claims under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Act.
Labor Department revealed that 837,000 Americans applied for jobless benefits in the latest week, in a release that did not include California, where the state has stopped accepting new claims as it investigates potential fraud.
And, then Trump has threatened that a transition may not happen.
My personal opinion: To have a Canadian corporation dictate and influence politics in the US is a problem. The guns they bring will also be a problem. Hatred is ugly. While tribal governments wield significant economic power, politicians do not always pass bills for the benefit of tribes. Our tribe has spoken and demands clean water and wild rice for the future.
Some of us want peace, security and prosperity. That’s the vision of the Green New Deal. That’s the vision of renewable energy, healthcare for all, small farmers, funded education, organic agriculture, and justice. That’s the vision that needs to be here in northern Minnesota- solutions, not more problems. That’s a wave which is moving nationally, and can really change the course of our history. I say ride that wave.
The forces at work in the north country are deep and every vote counts. President Trump did not come to Bemidji Minnesota to campaign just to see people with “good genes”. He came because what is happening here matters. It matters to our future generations that we care for them being healthy and protecting the world for them.
That’s a crisis. In Northern Minnesota, the crisis grows as well. We have an opioid crisis, we have a rise in hateful behavior, we have polarized communities, and winter is coming. We are faced with the end of Wiindigo economics, the mines have run out of ore, except for a few pebbles, and the tar sands are collapsing. Enbridge is hiring security forces and promising to bring in more militarization for a pipeline project which has been opposed by the Native people and 68,000 Minnesotans, as well as the Department of Commerce and the Attorney General of the State. This is a pipeline to nowhere. Sadly, many Democratic and tribal politicians lack courage, and are not against the pipeline, only David Suby running for House 2B, against Steve Green opposes Line 3.
In comparison, Steve Green (House District 2B), a tribal member, is pro pipeline, and has opposed return of land to the White Earth tribe.
Green tells us he “is addressing the nation’s energy issues by supporting the drilling of domestic oil, clean burning of coal and nuclear energy.” Senator Paul Utke has been in office since 2017, and has introduced 14 bills for the Native community, of which one passed. He is also pro Line 3, while our tribe has opposed the pipeline.
That’s at a time when the oil industry is dying and renewable energy is surging.
This is a vision which is part of the Green New Deal, Just Transition, and needs to come to what we call the Deep North. After all, Trump came to the Deep north because of the long history of Indian hating, and the desperation of the end of the road for late stage capitalism- that’s to say, that even the United Nations says that the kind of economics practiced by Enbridge, and RDO Offutt are not sustainable.
This is a chance to vote for the Good life, to vote to be beautiful.
That’s what we can do today voting early and on November 3.
* A FAIR JUST ECONOMY
* RENEWABLE ENERGY
* PLAN FOR A CLEAN ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
* RIGHT TO CLEAN AIR AND CLEAN WATER #WATERISLIFE
* HEALTH CARE SYSTEM THAT WORKS. HEALTH CARE THAT IS INCLUSIVE AND EQUAL.
* PROTECT OUR VOTING RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY
* CLIMATE CHANGE
* RURAL AGRICULTURE SUSTAINABILITY
* STRENGTHENING AMERICA’S COMMITMENT TO JUSTICE
* JOE BIDEN’S COMMITMENT TO INDIAN COUNTRY
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