To stay current on Line 3, follow Indigenous social media

healingmn Enbridge Line 3, Missing and murdered indigenous women, , ,

State issues MMIW report, and other new and events

In this blog:

  • List of Indigenous social media links to stay current on Enbridge Line 3 resistance
  • Fundraiser for Indigenous media makers covering front-line Line 3 resistance
  • First report from Minnesota’s MMIW Task Force
  • Jesuits return 525 acres to Rosebud
  • Cleveland baseball team to change its name, just not right away

Indigenous social media following the Enbridge Line 3 resistance

Healing Minnesota Stories is happy to provide ongoing coverage of the Line 3 resistance, but we also want to lift up and recommend you follow those doing front-line resistance.

Giniw Collective: “Giniw Collective is an indigenous-women, 2-spirit led frontline resistance to protect our Mother, defend the sacred and live in balance. We stand unafraid. Prayers into action.” Giniw was founded by Tara Houska.

Line 3 construction in St. Louis County Monday. (Photo: Watch the Line)

Honor the Earth: “Honor the Earth was established by Winona LaDuke and Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, in 1993. … As a unique national Native initiative, Honor the Earth works to a) raise public awareness and b) raise and direct funds to grassroots Native environmental groups. We are the only Native organization that provides both financial support and organizing support to Native environmental initiatives.”

Line 3 construction in Aitkin County Saturday. (Photo: Watch the Line.)

RISE Coalition: RISE (Resilient Indigenous Sisters Engaging) Coalition “began in response to Enbridge’s Line 3 relocation project, which failed to secure informed consent of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. RISE works to protect land and water, treaties, and the rights of native people. Co-founders are: Nancy Beaulieu, Debra Topping, Anna Yliniemi, and Dawn Goodwin.

Line 3 construction in Kittson County Friday. (Photo: Watch the Line.)

Indigenous Environmental Network: “IEN is an alliance of Indigenous Peoples whose Shared Mission is to Protect the Sacredness of Earth Mother from contamination & exploitation by Respecting and Adhering to Indigenous Knowledge and Natural Law.” Dallas Goldtooth is the executive director.

Red Lake Treaty Camp: A camp established by Sam Strong, Secretary of the Red Lake Nation to protect Red Lake’s treaty rights against Line 3.

In other news …

Fundraiser for Indigenous media to cover Enbridge Line 3

The Giniw Collective, the Yes Men and Deep Soup Media are raising money to resource Indigenous media makers on the front lines of the Line 3 resistance. Their goal is $15,000 and they are 84 percent of the way there.

The money will be used to buy gear, software and training. More details here.

MMIW report issued to the Minnesota Legislature

The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s (MMIW) Task Force, created during the 2019 legislative session, issued its first report this month.

Among its findings:

  • Although American Indian women and girls make up just 1% of the state’s population, from 2010 through 2018, 8% of all murdered women and girls in Minnesota were American Indian.
  • From 27 to 54 American Indian women and girls in Minnesota were missing in any given month from 2012 to 2020.
From the report.

The 163-page report included 20 recommendations and a call to action. Those recommendations included creating an MMIW Office “to provide ongoing attention to and leadership for this issue,” and ensuring it had adequate funding.

The report also calls for a broader examination of the causes of disproportionate violence against Native women and girls, including such things as the “underlying historical, social, economic, institutional, and cultural factors.”

From the report: Community gathering and protest on July 27, 2020, when the U.S. Department of Justice opened the MMIW cold case office in Bloomington, MN

“Many of us have a story of a relative or loved one who has been missing or murdered,” said Nicole Matthews, Executive Director of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition and Task Force Vice Chair, in a media release. “This report with the included mandates is one more step that we are taking in Minnesota to address this issue and ensure that all our Indigenous relatives are safe.”

Click here for the full report.

Jesuits return 525 acres of land in South Dakota to the Rosebud Reservation

In the 1800s, the federal government took reservation lands and gave them to various religious organizations for churches and cemetaries. The Jesuits recently announced they would return 525 acres of land (about .8 square miles) of lands they received to the Rosebud Lakota, according to the White Wolf Pack blog. It quotes from a video of Jesuit Father John Hatcher:

“At the beginning of the mission, we had 23 mission stations,” Hatcher said. “But over the years as the people moved off the prairie and into cluster housing, those churches were closed because they were considered unnecessary.” Other properties never had churches built.

“It’s now time to give back to the tribe all of those pieces of land that were given to the church for church purposes,” Father Hatcher added. “We will never again put churches on those little parcels of land. But it’s an opportunity to return land that rightly belongs to the Lakota people” …

The property is spread out in smaller parcels throughout Rosebud’s 900,000 acres.

Cleveland baseball team changes its name, just not right away

The Cleveland baseball team is going to change its name … next year.

It follows on the heals of the decision by the Washington football team to drop its name and logo. The football team is playing this year without a name. It’s just the Washington Football Team.

Team owner Paul Dolan said “It’s time,” according to ESPN. Then he said the team would keep the name through the 2021 season.

It’s one thing to be accused of doing something that people tell you is harmful and argue with them that they are not really being harmed. It’s another thing to admit you are doing something that’s harmful to people, yet keep doing it.

Maybe it was just too complicated to follow Washington’s example and go by the Cleveland Baseball Team for a year until they decided on a new name. Or maybe team owners just wanted to cash in on one more year of merchandise sales using the old team name.

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