WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:08.480 We went to look who to worry about a year ago this time and I know they do some good 00:08.480 --> 00:09.480 work. 00:09.480 --> 00:10.480 Yeah. 00:10.480 --> 00:11.480 Yeah. 00:11.480 --> 00:12.480 Very proud of them. 00:12.480 --> 00:13.480 That's... 00:13.480 --> 00:21.440 Yeah, I'm an alum there and it was also from a faculty member there too as well, so that's 00:21.440 --> 00:23.400 a special place. 00:23.400 --> 00:30.560 So when a gas leak of this magnitude or any magnitude happens, do your environmental specialists 00:30.560 --> 00:36.400 say it can seep into the ground and if it affects harvesting and crops? 00:36.400 --> 00:37.960 Absolutely. 00:37.960 --> 00:44.280 And that's one of the things that our environmental specialists did provide is just their expertise 00:44.280 --> 00:52.400 on their familiarity with the area just to let the tribes know the state, anyone else 00:52.400 --> 01:02.280 know of just like the possible environmental impact based on volume, on the resource. 01:02.280 --> 01:03.280 Yeah. 01:03.280 --> 01:07.440 And as of now, have they given you an estimate of how much volume or? 01:07.440 --> 01:16.800 Yeah, the last was the information that we received was about 31,000 barrels, which 01:16.800 --> 01:29.160 is equivalent to about over a million gallons of liquid gas was leaked onto the landscape. 01:29.160 --> 01:35.320 And technically the pipeline at that area is off the reservation but it can, that amount, 01:35.320 --> 01:39.400 did the potential for it to spread is great, is it? 01:39.400 --> 01:40.400 Absolutely. 01:41.400 --> 01:48.120 You know, there's no way you can control once it's out of there being contained within 01:48.120 --> 01:55.760 those, you know, those pipelines or whatever outside of that is, you know, it can go anywhere 01:55.760 --> 02:08.560 and it also went into the air too so it was multiple, you know, a dynamic impact had occurred. 02:08.560 --> 02:13.000 How is it tribal community in the area responding to this? 02:13.000 --> 02:23.040 The tribal community, I would say that they're not happy, that there was a lot of families 02:23.040 --> 02:27.680 that were concerned, there were some families that were, I don't know if there were tribal 02:27.680 --> 02:34.600 families but there were families in the area that were displaced momentarily as they were, 02:34.600 --> 02:38.040 as the cleanup was taking place, as it takes place now. 02:38.040 --> 02:43.280 I don't know if they're back in their homes now but that's the information that was shared 02:43.280 --> 02:53.800 that there was some evacuations that took place and for Bad River and in all tribes 02:53.800 --> 03:00.960 that are part of Glufic where there is, you know, there is the concern for, you know, 03:00.960 --> 03:06.360 impact the resource, impact our families, public safety, all those things are, you know, 03:06.360 --> 03:08.960 the matter of concern for us. 03:08.960 --> 03:11.120 And it's not the first leak? 03:11.120 --> 03:17.840 No, that's the unfortunate thing and that was part of my communication with the Secretary 03:17.840 --> 03:30.000 of the DNR and my urgency to have them do something to, you know, to stop the project, 03:30.000 --> 03:41.960 you know, so that this is how I was informed that this was like the third spill in a month 03:41.960 --> 03:43.880 and so that was raised a lot of flags. 03:43.880 --> 03:51.040 I mean, one spill is enough to raise, you know, to raise a flag but to have multiple spills 03:51.040 --> 03:58.640 within a month is truly concerning, you know, for us. 03:58.640 --> 04:04.960 Yeah, and in a short amount of time, like you said, one is one too many. 04:04.960 --> 04:07.800 From your perspective, have you been to the site at all? 04:07.800 --> 04:08.800 I've not. 04:08.800 --> 04:17.360 I've driven past it but there's a lot of vehicles there and it seems from my observation that 04:17.360 --> 04:22.800 it's blocked off, but I have not gone there to look at anything or to observe, I kind 04:22.800 --> 04:26.880 of just kind of keep my distance. 04:26.880 --> 04:36.200 In a huge truck of that size and understanding, you know, nature and ground, what any ideas 04:36.200 --> 04:40.880 of how could something that huge fall? 04:40.880 --> 04:42.560 I don't know that. 04:42.560 --> 04:48.160 I don't know what happened to the only thing that we were informed of was that there was 04:48.160 --> 04:58.320 a, you know, a vehicle had rolled over and I don't know the details. 04:58.320 --> 05:03.720 I don't know what led to that or I can't speak to that. 05:03.720 --> 05:16.680 And as we finish up a few more things, what else more are you waiting for from the DNR? 05:16.680 --> 05:22.400 Because any, I guess, you know, we appreciate them. 05:22.400 --> 05:30.360 They were able to, so Enbridge halted, you know, the project for, I think it was for 05:30.360 --> 05:32.040 48 hours or something like that. 05:32.040 --> 05:39.280 I'm not exactly sure, but so we appreciate that, but anything that they may share that 05:39.280 --> 05:46.080 is related to the work that we do, anything that we should be aware of, any concerns, 05:46.080 --> 05:55.120 or even anything positive as far as clean up and things like that, or maybe like a timeline 05:55.120 --> 06:06.720 for remediation or, you know, just an update on, you know, just the progress and just to 06:06.720 --> 06:14.080 keep that communication going, because that's, you know, those questions are, you know, 06:14.080 --> 06:15.840 are common and frequent. 06:15.840 --> 06:24.080 But you say, is there a lack of information coming from DNR and Enbridge? 06:24.080 --> 06:32.840 I'm satisfied with the information that we receive from the state, Enbridge has reached 06:32.840 --> 06:41.960 out to our environmental team just once as far as I know, so we've not, you know, not 06:41.960 --> 06:43.960 heard from them. 06:43.960 --> 06:52.080 How does that make you feel considering how the environment is a part of travel life? 06:52.080 --> 07:00.680 Well, I mean, it's kind of, it's a conflict because they don't necessarily have to communicate, 07:00.680 --> 07:06.680 Enbridge doesn't have to necessarily communicate with Glyphic, we look at that as a benefit. 07:06.680 --> 07:12.400 They should be really talking to the tribes, so they should be talking to Bad River. 07:12.400 --> 07:21.880 And so I don't know how, what their communication is, but I hope that they're in communication 07:21.880 --> 07:30.560 daily in multiple times so that they, you know, so that the tribe can stay informed 07:30.560 --> 07:34.840 of, you know, what's going on, too. 07:34.840 --> 07:43.040 But I would also think it's appropriate for us as well so that we can kind of stay involved 07:43.040 --> 07:45.280 and informed as well. 07:45.280 --> 07:50.680 And lastly, you know, with this, a federal judge gave Enbridge more time to complete 07:50.680 --> 07:51.680 line five. 07:51.680 --> 07:59.840 What are your short and long-term concerns about more time? 07:59.840 --> 08:07.400 Well I think it's evident that in this last month that they have been prone to, you know, 08:07.400 --> 08:16.520 to create, you know, to damage, you know, the resource. 08:16.520 --> 08:27.600 So the concern has been, is validated by, you know, leading up to the rewrote and these 08:27.600 --> 08:33.800 different things, the concerns that, you know, the tribes have had or even any constituent 08:33.800 --> 08:40.400 or any citizen of this state, you know, there is always just the environmental concern, 08:40.400 --> 08:48.200 the structural concern, you know, and it's come to, it's come to light now that they 08:48.200 --> 08:59.760 have made, you know, that they're susceptible to, you know, to really, really sloppy work. 08:59.760 --> 09:08.640 And so our hope, my hope from our organization's standpoint is that they take time to refocus 09:08.640 --> 09:16.640 maybe and maybe figure out some ways to reassess how they're going to go about their, you know, 09:16.640 --> 09:21.640 if it's tightening some things up on a work site or making sure that your vehicles are 09:21.640 --> 09:28.400 not abandoned and they take care of their vehicles or if it's the construction or, you 09:28.400 --> 09:35.280 know, things like that, that they, you know, that they are held to a high standard and, 09:35.280 --> 09:42.520 you know, and that's just probably, I would think as, you know, that you would want that 09:42.520 --> 09:48.440 from any organization that you're going to produce your best work, so we would expect 09:48.440 --> 09:57.800 them to do that so that there would be no more accidents like what we've experienced. 09:57.800 --> 10:06.160 So with an extension, giving, having them provided more time opens up the, opens up 10:06.160 --> 10:09.800 the possibility of more mistakes and more accidents happening. 10:09.800 --> 10:16.800 It's, from what I mentioned, wild rice season. Are any of the fields near this area? 10:16.800 --> 10:23.800 No, it's, you know, it's, it's kind of in an open, open area, more of kind of like farmland. 10:23.800 --> 10:31.240 So the more of that immediate concern is probably for more crops and more of that vegetation 10:31.240 --> 10:40.800 or in the forest area, but no a real immediate can impact any of our rice beds in the area. 10:40.800 --> 10:48.320 Okay, thank you for that. I want to switch gears and talk about the Apostle Islands and 10:48.320 --> 10:55.320 this proposal to re-designate it to the Federal National Park. 10:55.320 --> 11:02.320 From an environmental standpoint, can you tell us about Redcliffe tribe, the Redcliffe band, 11:02.320 --> 11:10.320 and their cultural connections to the Apostle Islands and the waters there? 11:10.320 --> 11:20.320 Well, how we look at it from, from, from the Glyphwix perspective is that for Redcliffe, 11:20.320 --> 11:29.320 they have a, a saying like their, their model, their slogan is that they're the hub of the Ojibwe nation. 11:29.320 --> 11:37.320 Madeleine Island, or how we say it in our languages, is, and then when a conning, menace, 11:37.320 --> 11:46.320 is, you know, the place of the golden-breasted flickers, Madeleine Island, and that's a central, 11:46.320 --> 11:56.320 spiritual homeland for, for, for our, for our, the Ojibwe people from this part of what 11:56.320 --> 12:01.320 do we now know as Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota. 12:01.320 --> 12:07.320 Essentially the tribes that are comprised of Glyphwix are all, many of our creation stories 12:07.320 --> 12:15.320 or our migration stories center around the island and those islands in that area. 12:15.320 --> 12:25.320 So it's, it has a strong cultural meaning to, to the Ojibwe people in the Great Lakes area 12:25.320 --> 12:29.320 for Redcliffe, they have been, they've never left. 12:29.320 --> 12:36.320 So there's a time when many of our people were centered on the island and we kind of had them, 12:36.320 --> 12:45.320 or kind of moved inland into a community like my, where I'm from as my, where I'm enrolled 12:45.320 --> 12:53.320 as far as the LeCudre, we, my ancestors just came from the island too. 12:53.320 --> 12:58.320 And so there's a connection, you know, there's a connection there. 12:58.320 --> 13:05.320 So it means a lot, you know, the culture, the cultural connection, environmental connection, 13:05.320 --> 13:13.320 economic connection means everything to the Ojibwe people, but even more so for Bad River 13:13.320 --> 13:21.320 and also Bad River too, because Redcliffe and Bad River at one time were just one, one band, 13:21.320 --> 13:25.320 the La Point Band, but they split. 13:25.320 --> 13:37.320 And so the, how I look at Redcliffe is there, kind of like the stewards of the caretakers 13:37.320 --> 13:43.320 of those, of those islands, because many of, many of the other different bands kind of moved away 13:43.320 --> 13:50.320 more inland into different areas, but, but we all have a common ancestor back to, back 13:50.320 --> 13:52.320 to those places. 13:52.320 --> 13:59.320 And earlier this year I covered the state of the tribe's address, and Chairwoman Nicole 13:59.320 --> 14:01.320 Boyd was the, the speaker. 14:01.320 --> 14:07.320 And I remember she spoke about strawberries and a connection to, to, to, to strawberries. 14:07.320 --> 14:14.320 Can you tell me about some of the, the natural products and crops and fruits and vegetables 14:14.320 --> 14:19.320 that are, that are grown there that Ojibwe people love and use? 14:20.320 --> 14:28.320 Well, in the, in the Bayfield area, in that Redcliffe Bayfield area there's a lot of orchards 14:28.320 --> 14:33.320 there, so there's apple orchards and then there's strawberries, blueberries, a lot of different 14:33.320 --> 14:40.320 peaches, and it's really unique in the way that the climate, where the climate is there 14:40.320 --> 14:48.320 specifically, so they have a unique opportunity to grow different fruits and vegetables. 14:49.320 --> 14:58.320 For, for us, for, and, and I don't want to, I'm not speaking for the, for the Chairwoman, 14:58.320 --> 15:03.320 the berries are, those berries are part of our sacred food. 15:03.320 --> 15:12.320 So, in addition to, we've already talked about wild rice so far, wild rice, corn, berries, 15:12.320 --> 15:20.320 and, and different meats are, are crucial for us that we, that we have to have. 15:20.320 --> 15:26.320 It's a cultural thing. It's a ceremonial spiritual thing for us. 15:26.320 --> 15:34.320 And strawberries are, you know, the, to us are called the heartberry. 15:34.320 --> 15:42.320 The, the word in our, in our languages, ode imin, ode imin, and ode means our heart, 15:42.320 --> 15:47.320 and min is the, is like the seed or the berry part of it, so the heartberry. 15:47.320 --> 15:53.320 So, those are the first ones that are, the first ones to, to ripen. 15:53.320 --> 16:01.320 So, those are like the first ones. So, they play a huge part in our seasonal progression 16:01.320 --> 16:05.320 of our harvest. So the, so the strawberries are first. 16:05.320 --> 16:12.320 But they're also used in a lot of our puberty rituals for our, for our young ladies. 16:12.320 --> 16:22.320 And so that's a huge part of that. So, one thing I'll add, and I don't know if this will get to the, 16:22.320 --> 16:27.320 the Madam Chair wore some beautiful beadwork. 16:27.320 --> 16:38.320 My wife made that, made that beadwork. So, I, it's, it's a, it's a, like an extra meaning to, you know, 16:38.320 --> 16:46.320 for a beadworker to put their work in, to put their vision, their time, their energy, their love into their work. 16:46.320 --> 16:54.320 And so to see that reflected is, is also a huge part of like our culture, the reflection of that. 16:54.320 --> 17:07.320 And for Ojibwe people, Ojibwe floral design is, is, is a huge part of how we express our, the artistic ideal. 17:07.320 --> 17:20.320 And so to see that, and to have the Chairwoman mention that, you know, I think is inspired by, you know, the, the beautiful beadwork that she had on display. 17:20.320 --> 17:29.320 So I just want to acknowledge my wife's work too. And, and that ties to my wife's understanding of that. 17:29.320 --> 17:40.320 Her artistic expression as a Anishinaabe woman, but also as a mother, and also tied to our daughter. 17:40.320 --> 17:48.320 So, those things, the, the strawberry was a key part of that, you know, raising our daughter together. 17:48.320 --> 17:55.320 When my daughter changed from a girl to a woman, there was a ceremony done that included the, the strawberry. 17:55.320 --> 17:58.320 So that's all linked together and tied together as well. 17:58.320 --> 18:00.320 That's beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. 18:00.320 --> 18:01.320 You're welcome. 18:01.320 --> 18:03.320 And I remember, it's a necklace that she, that she. 18:03.320 --> 18:07.320 Yeah. Yeah. Very, very beautiful work that was, that she does. 18:07.320 --> 18:15.320 It's the area, apostle islands affected by climate change at all and changing weather patterns. 18:15.320 --> 18:25.320 I think climate change impacts everything. And those are things we have to be concerned of and aware of. 18:25.320 --> 18:34.320 And so I would say absolutely, absolutely that climate change impacts, you know, those things. 18:34.320 --> 18:42.320 So we have to be informed to educate it on how to be, you know, how do we address those things? 18:42.320 --> 18:53.320 If it's warming waters, if it's altering, you know, habitat or structure, we have to be, we have to monitor that. 18:53.320 --> 19:12.320 I think that's a big part of our role is being able to monitor, monitor those different things that to assist Redcliffe and Bad River and those tribes that are kind of located on the big lake to assist them as far as being able to assess the health of the fishery, 19:12.320 --> 19:22.320 the health of water, and the resources, any impacts, the structure, you know, that's a, that's a huge part of what, what we do. 19:22.320 --> 19:26.320 So that your staff will go out and help and make changes. 19:26.320 --> 19:31.320 Yeah, there's, yeah, there's annual assessments that we, that we do on the, on the big lake. 19:31.320 --> 19:37.320 So Glyphric has multiple obligations. So we have an inland part. 19:37.320 --> 19:42.320 So there's part of the seated territory obligations to look at the inland side. 19:42.320 --> 19:45.320 That's doesn't, that doesn't include the big lake. 19:46.320 --> 19:51.320 So, and then we have the big lake responsibilities. 19:51.320 --> 20:12.320 So there's, you know, there's fall and spring assessments that our fisheries, our fisheries teams go out and assess the, you know, spawning areas and fishing areas and monitor the health of the fishery, quality of the water, impacts to, you know, structure and things like that. 20:12.320 --> 20:18.320 That's, you know, under constant monitoring and assessment by, by our teams. 20:18.320 --> 20:19.320 Mm-hmm. 20:19.320 --> 20:31.320 I know even at the State of the Tribe she mentioned and what's brought us here today is this proposal to turn nearby the, the Bayfield area into a national park. 20:31.320 --> 20:35.320 And Sherwin Boyd has said, there's concerns about that. 20:35.320 --> 20:40.320 And, and also we've interviewed Bayfield County officials who are not in favor of it. 20:40.320 --> 20:47.320 How do you support Redcliffe in their messaging that this is not something that they're in favor of? 20:47.320 --> 20:49.320 How do you support them in this? 20:51.320 --> 21:08.320 Well, from a technical perspective, our biologists and our teams and, you know, whether it's through our legal teams or our enforcement, things like that, on a technical side we support them on a technical side. 21:08.320 --> 21:17.320 So if they need anything in addition to what they may not have capacity for themselves, we assist them in that, in that way. 21:17.320 --> 21:19.320 Can you give an example of what that would look like? 21:19.320 --> 21:37.320 It could be biological assessments, it could be, you know, in that, in, in, or it could be legal analysis, you know, and, you know, if there is, you know, any assistance that may be, and it could be, you know, 21:37.320 --> 21:40.320 it could be analyzing any of the legislation. 21:40.320 --> 22:00.320 Because many, you know, the tribe possesses their, has in their capacity for their own legal, their own legal counsel, but they could reach out to us for many legal assistance that we may provide or just analysis if we're analyzing policy. 22:01.320 --> 22:23.320 But it could be on a, on a ground level too, if it, you know, if they need some additional resources for assessing water quality or it could be fishery health or, you know, structural integrity, you know, those are things that they, you know, they may need assistance with as well. 22:24.320 --> 22:36.320 And speaking of structural integrity, she's mentioned that if there is, if this, this designation comes to pass, it could bring too much tourism to the area. 22:36.320 --> 22:43.320 It's my first time here and what I notice is, in addition to how beautiful and serene it is, it's very clean. 22:44.320 --> 22:55.320 How, if this were to pass, how could that change the Radcliffe area reservation and what they can handle if more people start coming? 22:56.320 --> 23:16.320 Well, I think anytime you promote tourism and more traffic, it not only just foot traffic, but vehicle traffic or even boat traffic is not a positive, it's not going to have a positive impact on the resource. 23:16.320 --> 23:29.320 So if you have more boats in the area, that's going to, you know, that's going to put the potential for fuel contamination into the, you know, into the water body. 23:30.320 --> 23:55.320 Foot traffic will obviously, you know, could impact, will impact different areas of which may have not been really utilized or, you know, so it could impact, you know, structural integrity as far as maybe harvest areas and things like that, that may have been just kind of maybe just left alone. 23:56.320 --> 24:12.320 So that's, those are a number of different things and so for us as an organization, we receive a lot of our direction from our tribal leadership. 24:12.320 --> 24:18.320 So we listen to what they say and we carry out the things that they want done. 24:19.320 --> 24:25.320 So we listen to their tribal leadership, we listen to their biological experts that they have within their capacity. 24:25.320 --> 24:40.320 So there's a lot of communication, but we also listen to their harvesters and so there, if there has been a decline as far as what's been available to them, that's a concern for us. 24:41.320 --> 24:54.320 So we, you know, we monitor those things and advocate for their support and we will always support them in any way that they want. 24:54.320 --> 24:58.320 So that's our obligation, that's our role is to support them. 24:58.320 --> 25:05.320 Have they mentioned any specifics in regards to overtourism or even oil that you mentioned? 25:05.320 --> 25:09.320 Have they mentioned any concerns as it is now with more oil into the waterways? 25:10.320 --> 25:23.320 It's the same general, I think you think, when you think of increased traffic, you know, it's not a no-brainer as far as those general concerns. 25:23.320 --> 25:38.320 So those things I've already mentioned as far as increased boat traffic, if it's foot traffic to different areas and even increasing, you know, I don't know, it could be any economic perspective. 25:38.320 --> 25:51.320 The economic pursuit, you know, will alter the landscape and it will impact, you know, their harvesters ability to practice their treaty rights. 25:51.320 --> 26:05.320 If there's more people there, it's obviously going to be crowding, it's going to, you know, it could be a detriment to what's available for the harvesters to harvest. 26:05.320 --> 26:16.320 I think the hunting and fishing season, especially if outsiders are coming in and are not aware of treaty rights and can that just complicate matters? 26:16.320 --> 26:30.320 Yeah, because people that may want to go there on vacation may be just inadvertently in these areas of that where it could be historical harvest areas for tribal members. 26:30.320 --> 26:52.320 So that's kind of an undue burden on the tribes to, you know, and I don't know what, I would only be concerned that that would be once again proposed with the possibility of have to accommodate more people. 26:53.320 --> 27:11.320 You know, when it's already a struggle with things that are, as they are right now, you know, outside of any more traffic, there is those concerns that are just happening naturally. 27:11.320 --> 27:19.320 I've already talked about climate issues and, you know, the degradation of resources as it is. 27:19.320 --> 27:27.320 If you're just going to compound that, if you're inviting more traffic and people to the area. 27:27.320 --> 27:37.320 Yeah, yesterday when we were around Bayfield, people were saying like, Apple season, it can bring 30, 40,000 people and is there housing? 27:37.320 --> 27:41.320 And that's, you know, without a federal designation, that's just the season. 27:41.320 --> 27:47.320 Is there enough housing and motels and hotels and casinos are enough as it is already? 27:48.320 --> 28:05.320 So as we finish up this proposal, no one knows where it's going to go, but how will you continue to support what Redcliffe wants and what they want is not this to happen? 28:06.320 --> 28:17.320 Yeah, so what we'll do, we have the capacity to analyze those things that may be happening on a policy side, on a legislative side. 28:17.320 --> 28:28.320 So we'll, our experts will be, you know, continuing to monitor that and we'll be in communication with Redcliffe and their tribal leadership, especially with Chairwoman Boyd. 28:29.320 --> 28:34.320 But also looking at them for, to see if they're, you know, where they're at too. 28:34.320 --> 28:47.320 You know, it's not necessarily what Glufic wants, it's really what letting, you know, letting Redcliffe, letting, or having Redcliffe let us know what they want from us. 28:48.320 --> 28:59.320 So what we, what can we do to assist them in their effort to, you know, to, in which way, whatever way that they want to, whatever direction they want to do. 28:59.320 --> 29:04.320 So we're just available to them at any time. 29:04.320 --> 29:07.320 Perfect. Thank you. And I think we'll end on that. 29:07.320 --> 29:08.320 Thank you. 29:08.320 --> 29:10.320 All right. Perfect. Thank you.