In this post:
- New reasons emerge to worry about DAPL’s safety
- New Enbridge Line 5 video and Stop Line 5 petition
- Sandra Day O’Connor’s legacy in Indian Country
- Huh? Native group argues for returning Reds*ins name to Washington football team
New reasons emerge to worry about DAPL’s safety
Energy Transfer, the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL), has neglected its Mid-Valley pipeline, “resulting in a cascade of troubling spills,” E&E News reported.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) recently issued a proposed safety order to Energy Transfer.
Mid-Valley “experienced three leaks within 10 days last summer, on top of two others earlier in the year,” E&E News wrote. “That prompted PHMSA to look into the pipeline’s record in the years since Energy Transfer bought it.”
According to PHMSA’s order:
The Mid-Valley Pipeline has experienced at least 34 failures since 2014 from various causes, including internal corrosion, pump failures, third-party damage, faulty equipment, hydrogen cracking, stress corrosion cracking, pipeline exposures, failed repairs, operator errors, and unidentified causes. Some of these failures do not appear to have had a complete investigation as to the causes and contributing factors and it is unclear to PHMSA the actions taken by the Energy Transfer to determine if similar integrity threats may exist elsewhere on the Mid-Valley Pipeline system.
PHMSA
The findings validate the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe concerns about DAPL’s safety. The issue around Energy Transfer’s commitment to inspections, maintenance, and safety is surfacing just as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is conducting DAPL’s long-overdue environmental impact statement.
Click here for the full story.
New Enbridge Line 5 video and Stop Line 5 petition
A newly released video shows how riverbank erosion is getting closer and closer to the current Enbridge Line 5 pipeline in Wisconsin, where it crosses the Bad River and the Reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.
The pipeline was built in 1953, or 70 years ago. As you can see from the photo, above, the ox bow had not begun to form. The pipeline was well clear of the riverbanks on both sides.
Today, the pipeline is only 11 feet away from the riverbank, the narrator says.
The meander has been eroding by about 13 feet per year.
In related news, the Michigan Public Service Commission approved a permit earlier this month allowing Enbridge to tunnel Line 5 under the Straits of Mackinac.
The decision will be challenged in the courts. Line 5 still needs other regulatory approvals.
The Sierra Club has organized a pair of petitions to oppose Line 5, one to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the other to the Wisconsin DNR. You can sign onto a letter, and add personal comments if you wish.
For more, click here.
Sandra Day O’Connor’s mixed legacy in Indian Country
The late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor voted against Indian interests in 48 out of 72 cases, or two-thirds of the time, Matthew L.M. Fletcher writes in Turtle Talk, a blog on court cases affecting Indian Country.
He characterized her legacy as: “(1) reflexive, often careless, deference to states’ rights, punctuated by two excellent decisions rejecting dumbass states’ rights positions; (2) personal conflicts of interest that had the potential to undermine western water law; (3) following [along] with the majority rather than engaging with those who led; and (4) casual, hateful ethnocentrism.”
O’Connor wrote only eight majority opinions on cases involving Indigenous and Treaty Rights. One was the landmark Minnesota v. Mille Lacs (1999) case. In a 5-4 decision, the court affirmed Indian Treaty Rights to fish on lands outside of the reservation boundaries that their ancestors ceded to the U.S government.
She also wrote the majority opinion in Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association, “quite possibly one of the most virulent anti-Indian decisions of the history of the Supreme Court,” Fletcher wrote.
The U.S. Forest Service “was considering building a paved roadway that would cut through the Chimney Rock area of the Six Rivers National Forest,” according to an Oyez summary. It was also considering timber harvesting in the area. “A study commissioned by the Forest Service reported that harvesting the Chimney Rock area would irreparably damage grounds that had historically been used by Native Americans [the Yurok, Karok, and Tolowa Indians] to conduct religious rituals.”
The case required the Court to consider whether the Tribes’ First Amendment Rights to Freedom of Religion prohibited the government from building roads or timber harvesting there , a Justia summary said.
The Court ruled the First Amendment didn’t apply. Citing a previous decision, it wrote: “The Free Exercise Clause simply cannot be understood to require the Government to conduct its own internal affairs in ways that comport with the religious beliefs of particular citizens.”
The passage of the California Wilderness Act prevented timber harvesting in some of the disputed areas, Justia said.
Huh? Native group argues for returning Reds*ins name to Washington football team
In the news biz, they call this a “Man bites Dog” story.
A group called the Native American Guardian’s Association (NAGA) wants the Washington Commanders to go back to its original name: The Reds*ins. It claims that changing the football team’s name is “erasing their history,” plus they are “huge” Reds*ins fans.
Their tagline is “Reclaim the Name.”
(NAGA sounds like MAGA, unclear if that is intentional.)
NAGA is suing the Washington Commanders and the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota for defamation and conspiracy.
On behalf of NCAI, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) filed a motion in court to dismiss the case.
“NCAI President Mark Macarro responded, saying “All the complaint shows is that NCAI exercised its right to free speech on an important issue that affects Native Americans across the country.”
The story seems like something out of The Onion. According to NAGA’s website: states and cities using Native American names and images on their official seals, are “symbols of ‘Pride, Honor, and Respect‘” for Native Americans, and a way “the earliest inhabitants of this land are fittingly recognized.”
NAGA included the Minnesota State Seal as a symbol of Native pride and honor. Minnesota is in the process of changing it seal because many people find it derogatory.
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