News: Navajo Nation hit hard by COVID-19; Smithsonian won’t repatriate Seminole ancestors’ remains, and more

In this blog:

• Navajo Nation hit hard by coronavirus, NM Gov. warns it could be ‘wiped out’
• Smithsonian won’t repatriate Seminole ancestors’ remains; Seminole Museum withdraws as Smithsonian affiliate
• The big emergency: A critique of media coverage of Standing Rock and DAPL
• Mining and Petroleum Workers: ‘Essential’ or ‘an Enormous Risk’?

In another sign of ‘corporate capture,’ MPCA posts video promoting Enbridge Line 3

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has posted a video on its website which can only be called a PR win for the Enbridge Line 3 crude oil pipeline, reassuring the public that everything’s going to be OK.

The MPCA’s mission statement is supposed to be “to protect and improve the environment and human health.” The MPCA has lost its way. Somehow it has come to believe that Enbridge, a Canadian corporation, is its main customer. Enbridge is not its main customer. It’s customers are the citizens of Minnesota and the environment that MPCA is charged with protecting.

The MPCA’s video is an example of “corporate capture,” a term used to describe how economic elites undermine human rights and the environment “by exerting undue influence over domestic and international decision-makers and public institutions.”

White Earth to Walz: Live up to your pledge of ‘meaningful consultation’

Michael Fairbanks, chairman of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, has written Gov. Tim Walz reminding him of his promise of “meaningful consultation” with Native Nations, and urging him to intervene on a key Enbridge Line 3 crude oil pipeline permit. In the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak, he’s asking Walz to direct the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to deny Line 3’s water quality permit, allowing Enbridge to refile after the health crisis passes. This would allow time for meaningful engagement.

It’s the latest example of efforts to stop environmentally damaging projects that are moving forward while much of the country is being required to stay at home.

Amid health crisis, Trump administration finds time to attack Indigenous rights and the environment

With the coronavirus dominating the daily news, with much of the country in virtual lock down, with the federal government struggling to coordinate an effective pandemic response, the Trump administration is quietly attacking Indigenous rights and the environment.

News/Events: Federal judge strikes down DAPL permits; MPCA favors Enbridge, fails the pubic, in Line 3 review, and more

In this blog:

• Federal judge sides with Standing Rock, strikes down DAPL permits
• MPCA favors Enbridge, fails the pubic, in Line 3 permit review
• Condor and the Eagle on-line film screening and discussion Thursday

This day in history, March 24, 1999: U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of Mille Lacs Band’s treaty rights to hunt, fish, and gather

On this day in history, March 24, 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa had treaty-protected rights to hunt, fish, and gather on the lands the Band ceded to the U.S. government by an 1837 treaty. It’s known as the Treaty of St. Peters (present day Mendota), the first treaty in which the Anishinaabe people ceded significant lands in what would become the state of Minnesota.

This treaty — and the 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision — have particular relevance today. The Red Lake and White Earth nations have opposed the Enbridge Line 3 crude oil pipeline through northern Minnesota based on treaty rights to hunt, fish and gather along Line 3’s proposed route. They cite the 1999 U.S. Supreme Court case as precedent.

Reads: Homeless Native Americans and the coronavirus; The census and shifting definitions of race; and more

In this blog:

• Homelessness, Native Americans, and the coronavirus
• The census and shifting definitions of race
• Tar sands oil price tanks