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never happen again.
>> The latest hearing

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challenging the Enbridge
Line five oil and gas

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pipeline in northern
Wisconsin unfolded late

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this week. The bad River
Band of Lake Superior,

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Chippewa and environmental
groups want state permits

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already approved to be
reversed and to halt any

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pipeline construction. The
circuit court judge in the

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case isn't expected to rule
until the end of this month

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at the earliest, even
though line five

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construction is being
rerouted around the

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reservation, the band
worries about damage to

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Upstream and Lake Superior
water. For more on this, we

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turn to Band River Band
Chairwoman Elizabeth

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Arbuckle. And thanks very
much for being here.

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>> Thanks for having me.
>> So fundamentally, I've

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had people ask why the
concerns, if the pipeline

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has been rerouted to skirt
reservation lands?

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>> There's lots of reasons
to be worried or concerned,

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and one of them is when
they do the construction,

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they are going to be
stirring up mercury

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deposits of from acid rain
from decades past, and

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those have settled. So when
they come through to do

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that, that's going to stir
up these deposits, which

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are then going to go
directly into our waterways.

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You know, they are just
hugging our reservation.

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It's not like they went
miles and miles away. It's

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literally a stone's throw
from from our land

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reservation boundaries. And
that is going to stir up

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these mercury deposits that
have been in our wetlands

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and go into our water and
go into Lake Superior. You

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know, we've already got we
already have mercury

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deposit warnings and can
only eat one walleye a week

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or a month, depending on on
your age and gender. And,

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and that's, that's
problematic. So if we get

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more mercury, that's going
to affect our fishing

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industry. It's certainly
affecting our Ojibwe

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culture because like
walleye, for example, is a

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major part of our culture.
So that's what we worry

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about the mercury upsets.
We also worry about the

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blasting they're going to
do in the reroute, which is

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in the mountains, just off
the reservation. That's

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another thing that we don't
know what we don't know.

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They say, oh, it's safe,
it's fine. The other one is

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our treaty rights. And this
is key because the way they

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want to do the reroute is
so we'll say this is the

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reservation. And they're
going to go like that with

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this being Lake Superior.
So on all three sides

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they're going to surround
us and encircle us. And

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that's problematic because
they're still in our ceded

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territory, right? That's
still we still have rights

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to hunt, fish and gather in
this land. And we're not

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going to be able to cross
into our reservation

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without asking their
permission. You know,

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that's that's not what we
signed up for. That's not

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the spirit of the law.
That's not been the

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interpretations in the and
the understanding of our

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treaty rights. So cutting
that off, cutting us off

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from from our land, from
our own homeland, from

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accessing the, the, our
treaty rights that we're

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allowed to use, which have
been upheld. That's

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problematic.
>> What is your response to

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the DNR and Enbridge saying
that environmental issues

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have been exhaustively
researched and addressed?

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>> I say I don't think so,
right? I mean, everyone

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like I said, everyone's
been ignoring this Mercury

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problem. And the problem
with the heavy metals that

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are going to be released by
the land. So I don't think

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they have been exhaustively
researched. And yet there

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seems to be no concern
about this sleeping mercury

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that we have in the
wetlands area on and near

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our reservation.
>> Why the protracted fight?

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>> I don't think anybody
wants a protracted fight,

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but it's the outcome that's
important, not not the

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battle. So we have to
protect our homeland. We

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have to protect Lake
Superior. We have to

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protect our treaty rights.
And those that you know

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that that our fellow other
Ojibwe bands in northern

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Wisconsin exercise and hold
with us as well.

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>> Do you feel as though
you will prevail?

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>> Yes. I have to believe
we will prevail in the end.

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We have to. The stakes are
too high, right? I can't, I

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can't imagine not. We need
to. We need to preserve

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Wisconsin, Northern
Wisconsin, Lake Superior.

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And we're on the front
lines for that. And so

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we're willing to do that.
It's like I said, it's it's

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it's even bigger than our
reservation, right? It's

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even bigger than that
because those waterways

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lead right to Lake Superior.
So it's really important we

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00:05:03,837 --> 00:05:07,708
all think and study and,
and look and see what

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they're saying and work
toward, you know, stopping

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it.
>> All right. Chairwoman

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Elizabeth Arbuckle, we
leave it there. Thank you