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The latest hearing challenging the
Enbridge Line 5 oil and
gas pipeline in northern Wisconsin
unfolded late this week.
The Bad River Band of Lake Superior
Chippewa and environmental groups
want state permits already
approved to be reversed and
to halt any pipeline construction.
The Circuit Court judge in the case
isn't expected to rule until
the end of this month at the
earliest. Even though line 5
construction is being rerouted
around the reservation.
The band worries about damage to
upstream and Lake Superior
water.
For more on this, we turn to
Bad River Band chairwoman Elizabeth
Arbuckle.
And thanks very much for being here.
Thanks for having me.
So fundamentally, I've had people
ask why the
concerns if the pipeline has been
re-rooted to skirt reservation
lands.
I'm sorry, can you repeat that?
I've had people ask,
why are there concerns
if the pipeline
has been rerouted
to skirt reservation lands?
Got you.
Well, there's been lots
of reasons to be worried or
concerned and one of them
is when they do the construction,
they are going to be
stirring up mercury
deposits from acid
rain from decades past and
those have settled.
So when they come through to do
that, that's going to stir up
these deposits, which are
then going to go.
Directly into our waterways, you
know, they are just hugging our
reservation. It's not like they went
miles and miles away.
It's literally a stone's
throw from from our land
and reservation boundaries.
And that is going to stir up
these mercury deposits that have
been in our wetlands and
go into our water and go in the Lake
Superior.
You know, we've already got we
already have mercury deposit
warnings and can only one
walleye a week or a month, depending
on on your age
and gender.
And that's...
That's problematic.
So if we get more mercury, that's
gonna affect our fishing
industry.
It's certainly affecting our Ojibwe
culture because like walleye, for
example, is a major part of our
culture. So that's what we
worry about. The mercury upsets,
they also worry about the blasting
they're going to do in the reroute,
which is in the Pinokee Mountains
just off the reservation.
That's another thing that we
don't know what we don't know.
They say, oh, it's safe, it' fine.
And then they'll show you a blast of
a different...
But, you know, that's not apples
to apples.
Those are different rocks.
It's a different situation.
You know, what studies have they
done on these
mountains? And what can
we expect to be released?
We're very worried about heavy
metals coming into our waterways,
right? The other one is our
treaty rights.
And this is key.
Because the way they want to do the
reroute, and so we'll say this
is the reservation and they're gonna
go like that with this
being Lake Superior.
So on all three sides.
They're going to
surround us and
encircle us, and
that's problematic because they're
still in our ceded territory, right?
We still have rights to hunt,
fish, and gather in this land,
and we're not going to be able to
cross into our reservation without
asking their permission.
That's not what we signed
up for. That's the spirit of the
law. That's not been the
interpretations and
the understanding of our treaty
rights.
So cutting that off,
cutting us off from our
land, from our own homeland,
from accessing our
treaty rights that we're allowed
to use, which have
been upheld, that's problematic.
And that's something we're all
worried about. So those are just a
few examples of things we're
concerned about.
What is your response to the DNR
and Enbridge saying that
environmental issues have been
exhaustively researched and
addressed?
Uh, I say, I don't
think so, right?
I mean, everyone, like I said,
everyone's been ignoring this
mercury problem and the problem
of the heavy metals that are going
to be released by the land.
So I don't think they have been
exhaustively researched, you
know, I, you know for the amount of
research WDNR does.
They, like I said, they have fish
regulations.
We can't buy little thermometers
with mercury in them anymore because
they know how hazardous this is.
The state of Wisconsin knows how
hazardous it is.
And yet there seems to be
no concern about
the sleeping mercury that we
have in the wetlands area on
and near our reservation.
Well, that we had throughout
this area that they're going to
disturb.
This is quite the protracted
challenge to Line 5.
There are also intertwining federal
cases.
Why the protacted fight?
What do you mean, why the protracted
fight? What's at stake?
What's a stake?
For the Bad River Band.
Right. I mean, I don't think anybody
wants a protracted fight, but
it's the outcome that's
important, not the battle.
So we have to protect our homeland.
We have to protect Lake Superior.
We to protect
our treaty rights and those
that, you know, that our fellow
other Ojibwe bands in Northern
Wisconsin exercise
and hold with us as well.
So it's, it's
I mean.
We're definitely tired of it,
because
it's ripped apart our community,
Enbridge has done a massive PR
campaign just outside
the reservation and within our
reservation,
and that's all
calculated to win their PR
war.
So they've turned tribal
members against each other, which is
really unfortunate.
So nobody wants that, nobody
enjoys the fight.
Nobody enjoys the
rift.
But in the end,
we have to hold the line.
This is our homeland, this is what
we've got.
We signed a treaty back in 1854
that kept Bad River at
Bad River.
Our ancestors meant that.
They meant for that to never be
for sale and that would always be
used and it would always protected.
And so this isn't me.
This was a charge made
over
100 years ago.
And it was designed so that
it will always stay 100 years from
now.
So unfortunately it
is exhausting.
It is expensive.
It can be hurtful,
you know, and painful.
You know, we're not doing this to be
difficult. We're doing this because
this is our home.
We have to stand up with
each other and for our people.
You know and it's nice that we
had a case yesterday in Bayfield
County and so that
was important because we had,
are you gonna get to that later?
You're gonna edit this interview,
please tell me yes, right?
We may, but go ahead,
what did you experience in that
courtroom?
So the court case we
had in Bayfield County yesterday
was we had asked for
a stay, right?
We had asked them to throw
out the permits and for
Enbridge to not be able to
proceed.
Enbridge still does not have
access to all of
this land, so I don't know why
they're starting. There's still four
permits they don't have.
There's still lots of questions
about how they're going to get under
and around the 100 and.
Or at least the 70 plus
waterways, right?
We have over 180 waterways they're
going to be crossing.
So they haven't given
us these answers yet and
we're still waiting to
hear that. So while we were there,
I reached out to tribal leaders
across the state
and all the Chippewa nations
in Northern Minnesota
and Michigan
and the outpouring
of love and support was enormous.
Almost all the tribal leaders from
the tribes in Wisconsin showed up.
Lots of letters were sent.
We stand together,
right? We stand united.
We've gotten a lot of support from
our local neighbors and communities,
our non-tribal friends and neighbors
in local communities and towns,
environmental groups, local and
statewide and nationwide.
This is something we all care about,
right? This is preserving our
environment and protecting our
environments.
You've got tribal sovereignty
issues, you've got environment
issues.
There's a lot of angles and
parts of this, which people
identify with and
care about.
Do you feel as though you will
prevail?
Yes, I have to believe we
will prevail.
In the end, we have to.
The stakes are too high, right?
I can't imagine
not.
We need to preserve Wisconsin,
Northern Wisconsin, Lake Superior,
and we're on the front lines for
that. And so we're willing to
do that.
It's, like I said, it's even bigger
than our reservation, right.
It's even big than that because
those waterways lead right to Lake
Superior.
So it's really important we
all think,
and study, and look, and see
what they're saying, and
work toward stopping
it.
Chairwoman Elizabeth Arbuckle, we
leave it there. Thank you so much
for your time.
Thank you.
Appreciate you having me.
Well,
yes ma'am.
Well, they have other reroute
options, right?
They elected to not use them.
There are other options that go
further away from
their reservation,
outside of the mountains, kind of
skirting around the mountains on the
southern end there.
So they have a
plan C and D
that they can look at.
Probably, but it's
very expensive for us to think,
nobody's gonna be able to eat
walleye anymore,
or we could risk our treaty
rights. Those are priceless.
Those are invaluable.
So that to me is
absolutely worth fighting for and
something that we should think about
as being priceless
Thank you.
You were great.
Nice to speak with you.
I was told it was going to not be
live and you were going to be able
to edit it.
Well, we are certainly going
to have to edit it at
the top when I,
you couldn't hear my question or
whatever, so we will, yeah, there'll
be some edits. It was great.