WEBVTT - Drilled Presents: Damages 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:12.240 Agrilled listeners. While we're on a brief hiatus working to 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:15.880 finish up production on some new seasons for you, I 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:20.200 would love it if you check out our new podcast Damages. 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:24.759 Damages digs into the stories behind the hundreds of climate 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:28.319 lawsuits currently making their way through the courts all over 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:31.680 the world. Our first season is focused on rights of 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:34.879 nature cases, and I'm bringing you the first episode in 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:38.560 that season today, a fascinating case filed in White Earth 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:42.800 Tribal Court on behalf of wild Rice against the State 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:47.240 of Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources. This suit was originally 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:50.280 filed as an attempt to stop construction on the Line 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:53.760 three pipeline in Minnesota. Pipeline's been built, but the case 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:57.760 is still ongoing and it has some really interesting potential 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:02.560 implications for lots of different pipeline fights. Check it out, 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:05.480 and if you like what you hear, go and subscribe 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:09.720 to Damages. Thanks, and I'll see you again here in 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:13.959 a few weeks. 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:18.840 Opponents of Enbridge Energies Line three oil pipeline that's being 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:22.680 replaced across northern Minnesota are taking a unique legal approach 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:23.959 to try to halt construction. 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:27.880 Dozens of people have been arrested for protesting the project. 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:32.200 That includes Winona La Duke of Indigenous climate justice organization 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:35.520 Honor the Earth and member of the White Earth Band 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:37.160 of Ojibway and Minnesota. 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:40.800 You have women like myself, I'm a grandmother, you know, 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:43.760 and we're standing out there. I have six charges against 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:46.480 me for this pipeline, and there's a bunch of us 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:48.920 that are facing charges for, you know, trying to be 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:49.840 a water protector. 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:53.160 You might have heard over the past couple of years 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:57.120 about the fight against the Line three pipeline in Minnesota. 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:00.680 Folks were calling it the next Standing Rock, and even 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:03.960 in the midst of a global pandemic, it drew water 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:07.520 protectors from all over the country. Wanona La Duke is 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.239 a long time indigenous rights activist and was one of 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:12.119 the leaders of that resistance. 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:15.840 What is Line three? A lot of people want to know, 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:18.720 and a lot of people don't know. So think of 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:21.720 it this way. There are six really old pipelines so 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:26.000 that they put through in northern Minnesota shipping diluted tarsands 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:29.040 from Alberta to Superior wist Concipt. And one of those 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:32.360 lines is called Line three. It has, according to Mbridge, 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:37.720 about nine hundred structural anomalies in it. Structural anomalies are 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:40.480 things like small little pinhole lakes. Maybe it comes some 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:42.960 cracks and some of those end up to be big 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:47.399 problems like that Kalamazoo spill. Fixing these problems is very expensive, 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:51.240 so Mbridge wants to abandon the pipeline walk away and 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:53.880 build a brand new one in a brand new corridor. 0:02:55.520 --> 0:03:00.079 Mbridge calls this a replacement project. They're replacing line three. 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:02.240 They are not replacing line B. They're putting in a 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:05.040 whole new quarter and doubling. 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:05.960 The size of the line. 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:08.239 That was not a replacement. That's a brand new line. 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:12.040 Despite all the resistance to line three, the new pipeline 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:15.480 was built. They finished construction at the end of twenty 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:19.880 twenty one. But the fight isn't over just yet. There's 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:22.080 one more legal battle. 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:25.520 The unique case names wild Rice, which is sacred in 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:28.240 Jibweit culture, as the lead plane. 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:31.760 Of In fact, according to attorney Frank Bibo, the tribe 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:34.840 was preparing to fight this battle years ago. 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:38.360 So Enbridge was trying to do Sandpiper pipeline through here 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:39.400 on the same corridor. 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:43.880 Enbridge is the Canadian pipeline company responsible for Line three 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:45.000 in Minnesota. 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:47.440 When they found out from the Minnesota Court of Appeals 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:50.200 that they had to do an environmental impact statement, they 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:53.440 said forget it. They took their money and invested in Dapple. 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:57.800 Dapple is the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota. It's 0:03:57.840 --> 0:03:59.960 the pipeline that was at the center of the stand 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:03.480 Rock protests in twenty sixteen and twenty seventeen. 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:05.960 And then within a month they were running bulldozers or 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:08.920 were all the water projectors. So we knew at that 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:11.160 point that's what we were going to get here too. 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:13.240 Because they were still running the Line three program. 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:17.480 They started preparing for a fight, and in twenty eighteen 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:22.320 made a key change to an eighteen fifty five treaty 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:26.400 that's the treaty that still today governs the relationship between 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:30.960 Ojibwe tribes and the US government. They added the rights 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:35.200 of wild rice or monomen in the Ajibwe language to 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:39.520 that treaty. According to Bibo, the change just formalized something 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:42.840 that had actually been in all of the treaties between 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:46.200 the ojibwey and the US all along really. 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:50.280 Our jurisdiction liies over a broad area for hunting, fishing, 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:53.239 and gatherings. Those words appear in the treaty wild Rice. 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:57.480 We see ourselves as connected to wild rice, as connected 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:01.160 to all the animals, and that we belong to nature 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.200 doesn't belong to us, and so yeah, they are a 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:07.919 person in that sense, there are equal And so because 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:10.839 the way wild rice has protected us and made us stronger, 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:13.800 and you have our territories and continue on, we have 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:18.040 a covenant and an obligation to protect wild rice. And 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:21.480 so that's what that law is really about. It's protecting 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:24.680 wild rice means you're protecting the environment because wild rice 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:27.239 is an indicator species, and so if it's not doing 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:30.040 very good, then everything else isn't doing very good. 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:40.279 Rights of monomen is an example of something called rights 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:43.600 of nature. It's a legal concept that lawyers often talk 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:46.920 about as a way to bring indigenous approaches into the 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:48.440 Western legal system. 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:50.400 I think that rights of nature it can actually be 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:55.039 protective of existing beings like river systems or wild rice, 0:05:55.279 --> 0:06:00.640 or something that is under attack from industry or displacement 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.320 or removal or all the colonial patterns that have been 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:04.400 going on for such a long time. 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:08.920 That's Ojibwe lawyer Tara Hauska. She's a member of the 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:12.840 Bear clan of Kuchuching First Nation, and she's been one 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.960 of the leaders of the resistance against Line three. Today, 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:21.040 she's eagerly watching the last legal challenge to the pipeline, 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:25.760 a suit brought on behalf of wild Rice against the 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:33.880 State of Minnesota. The idea behind rights of major is 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:38.520 that nature, trees and rivers and swamps and wild rice 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:44.719 could have rights and therefore legal standing. And if nature 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:48.440 has rights, then humans can help to protect and defend 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:52.320 those rights. On the surface, this strategy might seem like 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:55.799 a radical idea, but it's been around for decades actually, 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:58.560 and in recent years it's begun to have a real 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:01.840 impact on how a lot of people understand nature and 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:05.479 our relationship to it, not just culturally, but in powerful 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:17.520 legal ways too. I'm Amy Westervelt, and I've been reporting 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:20.640 on a whole bunch of climate lawsuits over the past 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:24.520 decade and especially in the last five years. I wanted 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:27.680 to make a podcast documenting those cases, because to me, 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:32.480 lawsuits aren't about formal arguments in a courtroom, or dry 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:38.880 legalese or even giant binders full of documents. They're dramatic stories. 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:42.160 A lot has to happen before someone goes to the 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:45.600 trouble of filing a lawsuit. It's often the last resort 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:49.320 in a search for justice, which is exactly what it 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:52.120 feels like on the climate front. In the face of 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:57.440 unchecked greed and the total absence of political leadership, communities 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.280 all over the world are turning to the courts to 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:15.400 do what they're supposed to do, right wrongs. This is 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:19.040 a podcast about justice and the people who are seeking 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:24.200 it on behalf of people and planet. Welcome to damage it. 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:27.040 In season one, the Forest for the Trees, We're taking 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:30.520 a look at rights of nature. Future seasons will get 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:34.400 into all kinds of areas, from fraud cases in the 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:38.520 US against the big oil companies, to constitutional cases in 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:44.040 other countries including Ecuador, Guyana and Australia. Today, the epic 0:08:44.120 --> 0:09:04.319 saga of an unlikely plaintiff, wild Rice stay with us. 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:09.080 I had heard about rights of nature for a while, 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:11.480 but right when I was starting to dig into it 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:14.520 a little bit more, this great documentary came out. It's 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:19.120 called Invisible Hand. It's the third film from directors Joshua 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:23.520 Prabanik and Melissa Troutman and executive producer Mark Ruffalo. It's 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:27.760 won seven Best documentary awards and received laurels from twenty 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:32.360 to international film festivals. It's an excellent deep dive on 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:34.240 the subject of rights of nature. If you want to 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:37.560 dig into it even more after listening to this series, 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:41.920 I highly highly recommend it. It's a paradigm shifting documentary 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:46.000 that does not leave viewers in total despair, but actually 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:50.840 provides some inspirational solutions, strategies and stories that will move 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:53.840 you to take action where you live. If you haven't 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:58.359 seen Invisible Hand, you're missing out. Go to Invisible handfilm 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:01.199 dot com for more on where to. 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:17.200 Watch and how to support this great work. 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:24.120 So you know, our linguistic stock extends far south into 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:28.280 the what's now called the United States, up to Hudson 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:33.200 Bay in as far as the Saskatchewan Plains, and we 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:40.120 were all given instructions on our migration back here that 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.440 we were going to find where we were meant to be, 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:45.600 where the food grew. 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:46.080 On the water. 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:57.199 This is Dale Green, a member of the Leech Lake 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:00.840 Band of a Jibway in Minnesota, met with me and 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:03.840 one of our reporters, Karen Savage, on a cold November 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:08.000 day in deLuce to tell us more about wild rice monomen. 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:11.320 He fiddled with this bag of dried brown stuff in 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:14.200 his hands for more than an hour. I didn't know 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:17.240 what it was, and I hadn't actually seen wild rice before, 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:20.600 so I wondered if maybe he'd brought some to show us. 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:24.400 Now, you know, you see me fiddling with this plastic bag. 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:29.600 This this isn't some illegal substance or anything like that. 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:35.000 This this is tobacco. In old Jibwe, it's called the 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:39.040 same ah and the you know, if you've ever been 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:43.640 around Indian people, specifically on a Shanabe. 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:46.840 People, Anishanabe is the Jibwe word for the tribe, so 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:50.040 you'll hear them referred to as Chippewa, a Jibway and 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:54.240 a Nishianabe kind of interchangeably, depending on who's speaking and 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:55.280 in which context. 0:11:55.960 --> 0:12:00.840 Just well, everything we do will put out too and ask, 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:04.959 you know, for the spirits help. I'm doing it. Whether 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:10.720 it's taking fish from a lake, whether it's harvesting maple sugar, 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:17.120 whether it's harvesting berries, whether it's taking cedar off the 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:23.360 trees for medicinal purposes, we would offer the sama to 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:28.480 that living being. I will ask easier Goukwai to put 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:35.720 everything in the proper order. On the spiritual side. 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:42.400 Green told us that he hoped his stories, the Ojibwei 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:46.960 migration and creation stories, his own family story, had landed 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:51.200 with us in a spiritual sense. That's my hope today too. 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:55.000 For some listeners, the idea of wild rice having rights 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:58.440 might be really hard to grasp. But I invite you 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:01.720 to sit back, let go of whatever comes to mind 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:05.080 when you hear that wild rice suit the state of Minnesota, 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:07.200 and listen to this story. 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:21.160 Now when we are placed here, you know, our our 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:26.319 ancient teachings say that we were like a wisp of smoke. 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:32.240 You know, there was that that spirit essence that that 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:36.320 looked like a wisp of smoke. 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:40.640 This is Dale Green again telling the Ojibwe creation story. 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:41.600 Uh. 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:44.000 And in the way the old man described it to me. 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:47.520 He said, it's like a hot day and you get 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:52.840 a downpouring of rain and on the pavement and you 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:58.080 watch these spirals of of of the evaporation of the water. 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:03.240 He says that that's how our essence is described. And 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:09.440 you know, some people to this day talk about there's 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:13.160 a bright light in all of us. That's our spiritual 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:15.520 essence that comes from the universe. 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:21.360 Green interrupted this story with an important point. 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:29.520 There's stories teachings that I take to heart because they've 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:34.120 been told to me over and over, so I would 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:37.840 understand them and I would be able to share them. 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:42.800 Because prior to nineteen seventy eight, you know, a lot 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:48.800 of these pro social teachings or underground outlined. 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:54.040 For about a century, the US government forcibly separated Native families, 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:58.040 first sending kids to boarding schools far away from their tribes, 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.880 and then through the Indian Adoption Project, removing them from 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:06.000 their homes and tribes and placing them with white Christian families. 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:10.680 During that time, thousands of acres of rice beds were 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:15.120 also destroyed by the government so that they could construct dams. 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:19.720 The same thing happened in Canada, giving Indigenous people even 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:24.680 more reason to want to protect monomen today. Despite everything 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:28.600 that was done to disrupt tribal traditions and knowledge, these 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:32.440 important stories were passed down from generation to. 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:41.680 Generation understanding that our creation story were spiritual beings were 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:48.440 without our mortal shell, we're out or without substance, and 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:52.240 our creation stories say that we were placed here by 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:56.520 get You want to do the great mystery? Some people say, 0:15:56.800 --> 0:16:00.840 you know God, the great spirit that you want to do. 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:10.440 In the Ojibwei language, sent down these incorporeal beings, supernatural beings, 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:16.120 and they were instructed with a great mystery to help 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:23.400 Nannishinabe exist here. And in the creation story, they've already 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:37.280 created the flora and the fauna. So I was taught 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:43.080 that these supernatural beings went around to the animals and 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:51.440 petitioned them to give up their substance to give us substance. 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:58.440 And substance, they went to the two legates, the four legates, 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:08.560 the fish, the monoman birch, bark trees, the maple, sugar trees, 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:16.880 the berries, the plants, everything that has a living spirit. 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:23.720 But the covenant is is that forever remembering what they're 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:28.000 giving us, which is part of their life. You know 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:32.600 hopefully you know, by bodies found in five hundred years, 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:40.159 someone's going to say, this guy's full of monoma. So 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:45.520 it's a different world concept. I was just seeing an 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:53.360 article somewhere where the dominant culture sees resources as something 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:58.600 to be utilized and becoming a commodity. The things that 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:03.520 they did their best to weaken that influence from those 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:09.120 that came before us to today. You know, we're part 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:15.080 of that creation. We're part of that, that thing that 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:19.880 gives us something, that had to give us substance. Something 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:26.160 have to give us substance. And the agreement was we 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:31.679 would remember. And you know, I can look at water 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:35.359 and see a spirit there. I can look at a 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:42.520 rocky hillside and see us spirit there. Right now, there's 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:45.879 probably a spirit right in this room with us, because 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:48.720 we're talking about a living thing. 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:03.080 So in to this world concept which sees nature as 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:06.399 a relative something we're part of, not just a resource 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:09.920 for humans to use. Let's place water and the rice 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:14.399 that grows on it, wild rice monomen. It grows in 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:18.360 large green stocks only on these northern lakes. Every year 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:21.840 in late August, Ojibwey harvesters hit the lakes in canoes 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:26.240 carrying knockers, these traditional harvesting sticks that are used to 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:30.199 gently knock the stocks, sending wild rice falling into the 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:34.080 belly of the canoe. The rice is roasted and dried 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:37.280 or bagged and sold. For the rice to grow properly, 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:40.040 the water has to be really clean. 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:42.480 It's part of who we are and I know it's 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:47.679 one of those fundamental core pieces of our identity. For me, 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:50.359 it's why it came down to this portion of the 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:54.760 territory to try to protect the wild rice because the 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:58.040 rice has a right to live and the future generations 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:00.600 have a right to be in community with that rice. 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:03.840 This is Tara Hauska again, a member of the Bear 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:07.760 clan of Ojibwe in what is today Canada and an attorney. 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:11.000 She led one of the Line three resistance camps in 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:14.720 Minnesota because she wanted to protect monomen. 0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:18.200 It's something that's been passed down for generations and it's 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:22.720 something that our people fought for and that sustained us, 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:25.560 and that we sustained. You know, we have this mutuality 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:32.720 based relationship of respects. It keeps us alive through the winters. 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:36.000 You know, the winters up here are harsh, and your 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:38.760 rice is how you make it. And it's also you know, 0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:42.200 I mean for the economists in the world. It's a 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:49.440 form of economic trade that's been going on since Minnesota began, 0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:53.320 before Minnesota began, you know, like we've read some old 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:58.600 school pieces about outsider analysis, like the fur Trader's analysis 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:00.280 of a Jibwe people, and they said that we were 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:05.440 kind of like these people that kept to ourselves and 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:09.320 didn't really need much because we had wild rice, Like 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:12.680 they specifically mentioned wild rice as a way that they 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.560 couldn't like gain the upper hand. You know, it took 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:19.439 like ripping the sturgeons out of the river and like 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:21.080 trying to like, you know, cut us off from food. 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:25.879 I mean that's like, that's the colonization strategy. That's very common. 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:29.280 The techniques used to harvest and prepare monomen are passed 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:31.120 on from generation to generation. 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:34.439 I mean every bit of it is a ceremony. You 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:37.639 know that you experienced. It's like it's the time of 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:39.000 the year that I think a lot of us look 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:43.639 forward to. And every part of it is so important, 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:46.600 you know. I mean the knocking, the polling, the paddling, 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:51.960 the parching, the drying, I mean the roasting and the 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:57.640 smells and the tactile pieces where you're touching and feeling 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:02.600 the sacredness of nature that it's gonna in turn take 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:06.399 care of you, keep you alive. Like all the different 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:11.920 words and phrases that describe that process in our language, 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:13.840 you know, they have a lot of meaning and depth, 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:20.000 and it's more than just food. You know, it is 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:22.480 a food obviously, and it's part of why we came here, 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:24.239 right where the food grows on water. That's what we're 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:26.920 told by Creator to come. That's why we came here, 0:22:27.480 --> 0:22:30.760 you know, from the East coast. But there's more than 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:33.840 just it being food. It is when you're out in 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:37.040 the rice and you're knocking the rice, or you're pulling 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:39.359 through the rice, or you're paddling through the rice. It's 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:44.399 rhythmic and it's soothing and it's healing, and you can 0:22:44.600 --> 0:22:47.480 smell the water. It's like all around you and the rice, 0:22:47.560 --> 0:23:11.240 and it's just it's such a beautiful part of life. 0:23:11.280 --> 0:23:15.080 The Monoman lawsuit, filed in Wide Earth Tribal Court in 0:23:15.160 --> 0:23:18.680 August twenty twenty one, alleges that the Minnesota Department of 0:23:18.760 --> 0:23:23.560 Natural Resources, along with other state agencies, violated the right 0:23:23.640 --> 0:23:27.760 of wild rice to survive and thrive by handing out 0:23:27.760 --> 0:23:31.240 permits to Canadian pipeline Company and bridge that put the 0:23:31.280 --> 0:23:35.800 region's water at risk of contamination. Like I mentioned earlier, 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:39.560 rights of Monomen were added to the eighteen fifty five Treaty. 0:23:39.800 --> 0:23:43.040 That's that treaty document governing the ojibwas relationship with the 0:23:43.119 --> 0:23:46.480 United States and with the state of Minnesota. Back in 0:23:46.600 --> 0:23:51.240 twenty eighteen, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, or DNR 0:23:51.600 --> 0:23:55.920 filed an injunction almost immediately, basically a request to throw 0:23:55.960 --> 0:23:59.679 the case out entirely. They argued that White Earth Tribal 0:23:59.720 --> 0:24:03.879 Court had no jurisdiction over a state agency. In particular, 0:24:03.960 --> 0:24:08.080 they invoked the Eleventh Amendment, which bans any state from 0:24:08.160 --> 0:24:12.160 suing another state. They filed that claim in federal court, though, 0:24:12.280 --> 0:24:15.400 so now the jurisdictional debate is proceeding in federal court 0:24:15.480 --> 0:24:18.720 while the rights of Minoman case proceeds in tribal court. 0:24:19.160 --> 0:24:22.000 Tara Housegas says the DNR's reaction to the wild Rice 0:24:22.080 --> 0:24:23.760 suit came as no surprise. 0:24:24.080 --> 0:24:27.200 Minnesota's DNR was side by side by the police officers 0:24:27.240 --> 0:24:31.399 that were protecting Embridge's pipeline throughout the course of the 0:24:31.440 --> 0:24:34.080 ground struggle. I think there are certain moments that really 0:24:34.119 --> 0:24:36.560 stand out when you see, like there's a sign behind 0:24:36.600 --> 0:24:40.000 that says protected wetland that has an Emberge symbol on it, 0:24:40.560 --> 0:24:42.600 There's a DNR officer standing in front of it, and 0:24:42.600 --> 0:24:46.800 then there's just this like gaping scar that's been placed 0:24:46.840 --> 0:24:50.680 into the earth right next to it, clearly destroying that wetland, 0:24:50.840 --> 0:24:53.359 you know, and there's the DNR right there and telling 0:24:53.400 --> 0:24:56.280 you to step back and so like, I was not 0:24:56.320 --> 0:25:01.560 at all surprised to see them immediately in this oppositional 0:25:01.600 --> 0:25:03.680 to tribal sovereignty. They clearly have no respect. 0:25:04.440 --> 0:25:08.200 Minnesota District Court ruled initially in favor of the tribe, 0:25:08.600 --> 0:25:11.320 meaning the case could be heard in tribal court and 0:25:11.359 --> 0:25:13.639 that Minnesota dn R would have to work out a 0:25:13.640 --> 0:25:18.280 solution with White Earth. That decision was appealed, and in 0:25:18.400 --> 0:25:21.720 December twenty twenty one, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals 0:25:21.800 --> 0:25:25.760 heard the case. While that whole jurisdictional argument plays out, 0:25:25.840 --> 0:25:28.800 White Earth Tribal Court has allowed a stay in the 0:25:28.840 --> 0:25:31.640 case there, which means they'll wait and see what happens 0:25:31.680 --> 0:25:35.159 in federal court. Frank Biebo is the lead attorney on 0:25:35.200 --> 0:25:39.760 the case, and he's cautiously optimistic because Wild Rice those 0:25:39.880 --> 0:25:44.080 exact words were specifically mentioned in all of the original 0:25:44.080 --> 0:25:47.600 treaties between the Ojibwe and the US government. 0:25:51.119 --> 0:25:55.200 The rights of anomen. For us, we're relying on treaty language. 0:25:54.840 --> 0:25:58.520 Wild Rise treaties are the supreme law the land and 0:25:58.640 --> 0:26:01.720 the Constitution, so it's hard to get around that not 0:26:01.840 --> 0:26:06.280 being a constitutionally protected treaty right. That's about as I 0:26:06.359 --> 0:26:09.840 as you can get And the DNR thought that primarily 0:26:09.840 --> 0:26:12.080 that the Eleventh Amendment applies to us. But if you 0:26:12.119 --> 0:26:14.639 read the Eleventh Amendment, it says that citizens of another 0:26:14.680 --> 0:26:18.040 state can't sue another state. Well, we weren't citizens, we 0:26:18.080 --> 0:26:20.840 haven't been citizens, or Indians not taxed, we have treaties 0:26:20.840 --> 0:26:23.440 were separated out. So they've appealed it to the Eighth 0:26:23.480 --> 0:26:26.240 Circuit Court of Appeals and they're going to argue there 0:26:26.560 --> 0:26:29.679 we shouldn't have to do this, but in actuality, you 0:26:29.760 --> 0:26:30.760 do have to do this. 0:26:31.600 --> 0:26:34.879 If BBO is right and the case is allowed to 0:26:34.960 --> 0:26:38.399 proceed in tribal court, and if it actually succeeds in 0:26:38.480 --> 0:26:42.920 holding the Minnesota DNR accountable or requiring anything of Enbridge, 0:26:42.960 --> 0:26:46.520 the Minomuan case could set a pretty major precedent, especially 0:26:46.560 --> 0:26:48.800 when you consider that so many of the oil and 0:26:48.840 --> 0:26:52.520 gas pipelines in the United States cross either indigenous land 0:26:52.720 --> 0:26:54.879 or waterways that tribes have rights to. 0:26:55.400 --> 0:26:58.920 And that's what scares the DNR because if we're successful 0:26:59.160 --> 0:27:02.800 with exercise our jurisdiction, and that probably means that a 0:27:02.880 --> 0:27:04.919 lot of other tribes can do the same thing in 0:27:04.960 --> 0:27:06.040 a lot of other states. 0:27:06.400 --> 0:27:08.919 In fact, it could have a pretty immediate impact on 0:27:09.000 --> 0:27:12.639 another pending pipeline in Ojibwei territory one that would also 0:27:12.760 --> 0:27:17.800 threaten wild rice. Line five in Michigan. Likeline three, it's 0:27:17.800 --> 0:27:21.600 been positioned as a replacement pipeline for an older line 0:27:21.720 --> 0:27:24.919 running under the streets of Mackinaw that could potentially threaten 0:27:24.960 --> 0:27:27.360 the Great Lakes and several rivers. 0:27:27.760 --> 0:27:30.920 I think our laws that we've created and we're using 0:27:30.960 --> 0:27:34.960 right now is a game changer, and that other Chipwa 0:27:35.040 --> 0:27:36.680 bands are going to look to do the same thing 0:27:36.760 --> 0:27:40.840 with Enbridge in particular, where Line three continues on through Wisconsin, 0:27:41.560 --> 0:27:45.560 it's Line five and goes over into Mackinaw with Michigan. 0:27:45.760 --> 0:27:50.280 This is all the same rights and the same arguments. 0:27:51.359 --> 0:27:54.760 The other argument Bibo is making is that rights of 0:27:54.880 --> 0:27:58.600 menomen protect pipeline protesters too. 0:28:00.200 --> 0:28:04.960