Minnesota Ojibwa take on the pipeline

[artislife]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ojibwe-treaty-rights-minnesota_55df426de4b029b3f1b1e5d6?utm_hp_ref=politics

The 1855 Treaty Authority argues that the state laws violate rights that the Ojibwe were guaranteed under treaties signed between the tribe and the U.S. government in the 1800s. Those treaties ceded Ojibwe lands to the United States, but protected the Natives' rights to hunt, fish and gather off the reservation, the group claims.

snip

The lawyer and others affiliated with the tribe want to push their case even further, however, asserting their treaty rights as a means of stopping oil and gas pipelines. The proposed route of the Sandpiper project, part of an aggressive expansion of pipelines in the region by Canadian oil company Enbridge, runs near the White Earth Nation, while the older Minnesota Pipe Line already crosses the area. Some Ojibwe worry that these pipelines could permanently pollute the land, water and food that has sustained their people for generations.

"What we want to do ultimately, beyond the rights to hunt, fish and gather, is really to protect our environment," said Bibeau. "We are facing four different kinds of pipeline projects right now through Northern Minnesota, through the lakes, rivers and even the headwaters of the Mississippi."

My grandfather was from the Redcliff Reservation of Ojibwas in Wisconsin. He is the one who ran away to the Navy and later married my Mexican grandmother.

[PatrickforO]

1. Good for the Ojibwe.

I was talking to a friend yesterday, and we spoke of the failure of the original northern European immigrants to this nation to understand the psychology/spirituality of this continent. So, we set up this cruel system run by bankers on basis of debt and scarcity that elevates the wants of the individual at the expense of the group rather than elevating the needs of the group and keeping individual greed in check.

It is good the Ojibwe are pushing back. They are not alone; there are many in this nation who see this issue and are pushing back in their own ways.

[artislife]

2. If we can all join them

that would be good.

This forum shows what we have done to the environment all for the sake of profit for the few. There is little left that has not been touched and some that will not come back anytime in the near or even far future.