Agrilled listeners. While we're on a brief hiatus working to finish up production on some new seasons for you, I would love it if you check out our new podcast Damages. Damages digs into the stories behind the hundreds of climate lawsuits currently making their way through the courts all over
the world. Our first season is focused on rights of nature cases, and I'm bringing you the first episode in that season today, a fascinating case filed in White Earth Tribal Court on behalf of wild Rice against the State of Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources. This suit was originally filed as an attempt to stop construction on the Line three pipeline in Minnesota. Pipeline's been built, but the case is still ongoing and it has some really interesting potential
implications for lots of different pipeline fights. Check it out, and if you like what you hear, go and subscribe to Damages. Thanks, and I'll see you again here in a few weeks.
Opponents of Enbridge Energies Line three oil pipeline that's being replaced across northern Minnesota are taking a unique legal approach to try to halt construction.
Dozens of people have been arrested for protesting the project. That includes Winona La Duke of Indigenous climate justice organization Honor the Earth and member of the White Earth Band of Ojibway and Minnesota.
You have women like myself, I'm a grandmother, you know, and we're standing out there. I have six charges against me for this pipeline, and there's a bunch of us that are facing charges for, you know, trying to be a water protector.
You might have heard over the past couple of years about the fight against the Line three pipeline in Minnesota. Folks were calling it the next Standing Rock, and even in the midst of a global pandemic, it drew water protectors from all over the country. Wanona La Duke is a long time indigenous rights activist and was one of the leaders of that resistance.
What is Line three? A lot of people want to know, and a lot of people don't know. So think of it this way. There are six really old pipelines so that they put through in northern Minnesota shipping diluted tarsands from Alberta to Superior wist Concipt. And one of those lines is called Line three. It has, according to Mbridge, about nine hundred structural anomalies in it. Structural anomalies are
things like small little pinhole lakes. Maybe it comes some cracks and some of those end up to be big problems like that Kalamazoo spill. Fixing these problems is very expensive, so Mbridge wants to abandon the pipeline walk away and build a brand new one in a brand new corridor. Mbridge calls this a replacement project. They're replacing line three. They are not replacing line B. They're putting in a whole new quarter and doubling.
The size of the line.
That was not a replacement. That's a brand new line.
Despite all the resistance to line three, the new pipeline was built. They finished construction at the end of twenty twenty one. But the fight isn't over just yet. There's one more legal battle.
The unique case names wild Rice, which is sacred in Jibweit culture, as the lead plane.
Of In fact, according to attorney Frank Bibo, the tribe was preparing to fight this battle years ago.
So Enbridge was trying to do Sandpiper pipeline through here on the same corridor.
Enbridge is the Canadian pipeline company responsible for Line three in Minnesota.
When they found out from the Minnesota Court of Appeals that they had to do an environmental impact statement, they said forget it. They took their money and invested in Dapple.
Dapple is the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota. It's the pipeline that was at the center of the stand Rock protests in twenty sixteen and twenty seventeen.
And then within a month they were running bulldozers or were all the water projectors. So we knew at that point that's what we were going to get here too. Because they were still running the Line three program.
They started preparing for a fight, and in twenty eighteen made a key change to an eighteen fifty five treaty that's the treaty that still today governs the relationship between Ojibwe tribes and the US government. They added the rights of wild rice or monomen in the Ajibwe language to that treaty. According to Bibo, the change just formalized something that had actually been in all of the treaties between the ojibwey and the US all along really.
Our jurisdiction liies over a broad area for hunting, fishing, and gatherings. Those words appear in the treaty wild Rice. We see ourselves as connected to wild rice, as connected to all the animals, and that we belong to nature doesn't belong to us, and so yeah, they are a person in that sense, there are equal And so because the way wild rice has protected us and made us stronger, and you have our territories and continue on, we have a covenant and an obligation to protect wild rice. And
so that's what that law is really about. It's protecting wild rice means you're protecting the environment because wild rice is an indicator species, and so if it's not doing very good, then everything else isn't doing very good.
Rights of monomen is an example of something called rights of nature. It's a legal concept that lawyers often talk about as a way to bring indigenous approaches into the Western legal system.
I think that rights of nature it can actually be protective of existing beings like river systems or wild rice, or something that is under attack from industry or displacement or removal or all the colonial patterns that have been going on for such a long time.
That's Ojibwe lawyer Tara Hauska. She's a member of the Bear clan of Kuchuching First Nation, and she's been one of the leaders of the resistance against Line three. Today, she's eagerly watching the last legal challenge to the pipeline, a suit brought on behalf of wild Rice against the State of Minnesota. The idea behind rights of major is that nature, trees and rivers and swamps and wild rice
could have rights and therefore legal standing. And if nature has rights, then humans can help to protect and defend those rights. On the surface, this strategy might seem like a radical idea, but it's been around for decades actually, and in recent years it's begun to have a real impact on how a lot of people understand nature and our relationship to it, not just culturally, but in powerful
legal ways too. I'm Amy Westervelt, and I've been reporting on a whole bunch of climate lawsuits over the past decade and especially in the last five years. I wanted to make a podcast documenting those cases, because to me, lawsuits aren't about formal arguments in a courtroom, or dry legalese or even giant binders full of documents. They're dramatic stories. A lot has to happen before someone goes to the
trouble of filing a lawsuit. It's often the last resort in a search for justice, which is exactly what it feels like on the climate front. In the face of unchecked greed and the total absence of political leadership, communities all over the world are turning to the courts to do what they're supposed to do, right wrongs. This is a podcast about justice and the people who are seeking it on behalf of people and planet. Welcome to damage it. In season one, the Forest for the Trees, We're taking
a look at rights of nature. Future seasons will get into all kinds of areas, from fraud cases in the US against the big oil companies, to constitutional cases in other countries including Ecuador, Guyana and Australia. Today, the epic saga of an unlikely plaintiff, wild Rice stay with us. I had heard about rights of nature for a while, but right when I was starting to dig into it a little bit more, this great documentary came out. It's
called Invisible Hand. It's the third film from directors Joshua Prabanik and Melissa Troutman and executive producer Mark Ruffalo. It's won seven Best documentary awards and received laurels from twenty to international film festivals. It's an excellent deep dive on the subject of rights of nature. If you want to dig into it even more after listening to this series,
I highly highly recommend it. It's a paradigm shifting documentary that does not leave viewers in total despair, but actually provides some inspirational solutions, strategies and stories that will move you to take action where you live. If you haven't seen Invisible Hand, you're missing out. Go to Invisible handfilm dot com for more on where to.
Watch and how to support this great work.
So you know, our linguistic stock extends far south into the what's now called the United States, up to Hudson Bay in as far as the Saskatchewan Plains, and we were all given instructions on our migration back here that we were going to find where we were meant to be, where the food grew.
On the water.
This is Dale Green, a member of the Leech Lake Band of a Jibway in Minnesota, met with me and one of our reporters, Karen Savage, on a cold November day in deLuce to tell us more about wild rice monomen. He fiddled with this bag of dried brown stuff in his hands for more than an hour. I didn't know what it was, and I hadn't actually seen wild rice before, so I wondered if maybe he'd brought some to show us.
Now, you know, you see me fiddling with this plastic bag. This this isn't some illegal substance or anything like that. This this is tobacco. In old Jibwe, it's called the same ah and the you know, if you've ever been around Indian people, specifically on a Shanabe.
People, Anishanabe is the Jibwe word for the tribe, so you'll hear them referred to as Chippewa, a Jibway and a Nishianabe kind of interchangeably, depending on who's speaking and in which context.
Just well, everything we do will put out too and ask, you know, for the spirits help. I'm doing it. Whether it's taking fish from a lake, whether it's harvesting maple sugar, whether it's harvesting berries, whether it's taking cedar off the trees for medicinal purposes, we would offer the sama to that living being. I will ask easier Goukwai to put everything in the proper order. On the spiritual side.
Green told us that he hoped his stories, the Ojibwei migration and creation stories, his own family story, had landed with us in a spiritual sense. That's my hope today too. For some listeners, the idea of wild rice having rights might be really hard to grasp. But I invite you to sit back, let go of whatever comes to mind when you hear that wild rice suit the state of Minnesota, and listen to this story.
Now when we are placed here, you know, our our ancient teachings say that we were like a wisp of smoke. You know, there was that that spirit essence that that looked like a wisp of smoke.
This is Dale Green again telling the Ojibwe creation story.
Uh.
And in the way the old man described it to me. He said, it's like a hot day and you get a downpouring of rain and on the pavement and you watch these spirals of of of the evaporation of the water. He says that that's how our essence is described. And you know, some people to this day talk about there's a bright light in all of us. That's our spiritual essence that comes from the universe.
Green interrupted this story with an important point.
There's stories teachings that I take to heart because they've been told to me over and over, so I would understand them and I would be able to share them. Because prior to nineteen seventy eight, you know, a lot of these pro social teachings or underground outlined.
For about a century, the US government forcibly separated Native families, first sending kids to boarding schools far away from their tribes, and then through the Indian Adoption Project, removing them from their homes and tribes and placing them with white Christian families. During that time, thousands of acres of rice beds were also destroyed by the government so that they could construct dams. The same thing happened in Canada, giving Indigenous people even
more reason to want to protect monomen today. Despite everything that was done to disrupt tribal traditions and knowledge, these important stories were passed down from generation to.
Generation understanding that our creation story were spiritual beings were without our mortal shell, we're out or without substance, and our creation stories say that we were placed here by get You want to do the great mystery? Some people say, you know God, the great spirit that you want to do. In the Ojibwei language, sent down these incorporeal beings, supernatural beings, and they were instructed with a great mystery to help
Nannishinabe exist here. And in the creation story, they've already created the flora and the fauna. So I was taught that these supernatural beings went around to the animals and petitioned them to give up their substance to give us substance. And substance, they went to the two legates, the four legates, the fish, the monoman birch, bark trees, the maple, sugar trees, the berries, the plants, everything that has a living spirit. But the covenant is is that forever remembering what they're
giving us, which is part of their life. You know hopefully you know, by bodies found in five hundred years, someone's going to say, this guy's full of monoma. So it's a different world concept. I was just seeing an article somewhere where the dominant culture sees resources as something to be utilized and becoming a commodity. The things that they did their best to weaken that influence from those that came before us to today. You know, we're part
of that creation. We're part of that, that thing that gives us something, that had to give us substance. Something have to give us substance. And the agreement was we would remember. And you know, I can look at water and see a spirit there. I can look at a rocky hillside and see us spirit there. Right now, there's probably a spirit right in this room with us, because we're talking about a living thing.
So in to this world concept which sees nature as a relative something we're part of, not just a resource for humans to use. Let's place water and the rice that grows on it, wild rice monomen. It grows in large green stocks only on these northern lakes. Every year in late August, Ojibwey harvesters hit the lakes in canoes carrying knockers, these traditional harvesting sticks that are used to gently knock the stocks, sending wild rice falling into the
belly of the canoe. The rice is roasted and dried or bagged and sold. For the rice to grow properly, the water has to be really clean.
It's part of who we are and I know it's one of those fundamental core pieces of our identity. For me, it's why it came down to this portion of the territory to try to protect the wild rice because the rice has a right to live and the future generations have a right to be in community with that rice.
This is Tara Hauska again, a member of the Bear clan of Ojibwe in what is today Canada and an attorney. She led one of the Line three resistance camps in Minnesota because she wanted to protect monomen.
It's something that's been passed down for generations and it's something that our people fought for and that sustained us, and that we sustained. You know, we have this mutuality based relationship of respects. It keeps us alive through the winters. You know, the winters up here are harsh, and your rice is how you make it. And it's also you know,
I mean for the economists in the world. It's a form of economic trade that's been going on since Minnesota began, before Minnesota began, you know, like we've read some old school pieces about outsider analysis, like the fur Trader's analysis of a Jibwe people, and they said that we were kind of like these people that kept to ourselves and didn't really need much because we had wild rice, Like they specifically mentioned wild rice as a way that they
couldn't like gain the upper hand. You know, it took like ripping the sturgeons out of the river and like trying to like, you know, cut us off from food. I mean that's like, that's the colonization strategy. That's very common.
The techniques used to harvest and prepare monomen are passed on from generation to generation.
I mean every bit of it is a ceremony. You know that you experienced. It's like it's the time of the year that I think a lot of us look forward to. And every part of it is so important, you know. I mean the knocking, the polling, the paddling, the parching, the drying, I mean the roasting and the smells and the tactile pieces where you're touching and feeling the sacredness of nature that it's gonna in turn take
care of you, keep you alive. Like all the different words and phrases that describe that process in our language, you know, they have a lot of meaning and depth, and it's more than just food. You know, it is a food obviously, and it's part of why we came here, right where the food grows on water. That's what we're told by Creator to come. That's why we came here, you know, from the East coast. But there's more than
just it being food. It is when you're out in the rice and you're knocking the rice, or you're pulling through the rice, or you're paddling through the rice. It's rhythmic and it's soothing and it's healing, and you can smell the water. It's like all around you and the rice, and it's just it's such a beautiful part of life.
The Monoman lawsuit, filed in Wide Earth Tribal Court in August twenty twenty one, alleges that the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, along with other state agencies, violated the right of wild rice to survive and thrive by handing out permits to Canadian pipeline Company and bridge that put the region's water at risk of contamination. Like I mentioned earlier, rights of Monomen were added to the eighteen fifty five Treaty.
That's that treaty document governing the ojibwas relationship with the United States and with the state of Minnesota. Back in twenty eighteen, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, or DNR filed an injunction almost immediately, basically a request to throw the case out entirely. They argued that White Earth Tribal Court had no jurisdiction over a state agency. In particular, they invoked the Eleventh Amendment, which bans any state from
suing another state. They filed that claim in federal court, though, so now the jurisdictional debate is proceeding in federal court while the rights of Minoman case proceeds in tribal court. Tara Housegas says the DNR's reaction to the wild Rice suit came as no surprise.
Minnesota's DNR was side by side by the police officers that were protecting Embridge's pipeline throughout the course of the
ground struggle. I think there are certain moments that really stand out when you see, like there's a sign behind that says protected wetland that has an Emberge symbol on it, There's a DNR officer standing in front of it, and then there's just this like gaping scar that's been placed into the earth right next to it, clearly destroying that wetland, you know, and there's the DNR right there and telling you to step back and so like, I was not
at all surprised to see them immediately in this oppositional to tribal sovereignty. They clearly have no respect.
Minnesota District Court ruled initially in favor of the tribe, meaning the case could be heard in tribal court and that Minnesota dn R would have to work out a solution with White Earth. That decision was appealed, and in December twenty twenty one, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals heard the case. While that whole jurisdictional argument plays out, White Earth Tribal Court has allowed a stay in the case there, which means they'll wait and see what happens
in federal court. Frank Biebo is the lead attorney on the case, and he's cautiously optimistic because Wild Rice those exact words were specifically mentioned in all of the original treaties between the Ojibwe and the US government.
The rights of anomen. For us, we're relying on treaty language. Wild Rise treaties are the supreme law the land and the Constitution, so it's hard to get around that not being a constitutionally protected treaty right. That's about as I as you can get And the DNR thought that primarily that the Eleventh Amendment applies to us. But if you read the Eleventh Amendment, it says that citizens of another
state can't sue another state. Well, we weren't citizens, we haven't been citizens, or Indians not taxed, we have treaties were separated out. So they've appealed it to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and they're going to argue there we shouldn't have to do this, but in actuality, you do have to do this.
If BBO is right and the case is allowed to proceed in tribal court, and if it actually succeeds in holding the Minnesota DNR accountable or requiring anything of Enbridge, the Minomuan case could set a pretty major precedent, especially when you consider that so many of the oil and gas pipelines in the United States cross either indigenous land or waterways that tribes have rights to.
And that's what scares the DNR because if we're successful with exercise our jurisdiction, and that probably means that a lot of other tribes can do the same thing in a lot of other states.
In fact, it could have a pretty immediate impact on another pending pipeline in Ojibwei territory one that would also threaten wild rice. Line five in Michigan. Likeline three, it's been positioned as a replacement pipeline for an older line running under the streets of Mackinaw that could potentially threaten the Great Lakes and several rivers.
I think our laws that we've created and we're using right now is a game changer, and that other Chipwa bands are going to look to do the same thing with Enbridge in particular, where Line three continues on through Wisconsin, it's Line five and goes over into Mackinaw with Michigan. This is all the same rights and the same arguments.
The other argument Bibo is making is that rights of menomen protect pipeline protesters too.
Monomen provides a defense for tribal members who are defending the wild rice. And right now, I'll say about thirty five cases they're not online, but all of the tribal water protectors who were charged on was one of my clients,
Terahuska is one of my clients. In the tribal court setting, there's probably about fifteen water protectors from White Earth and so what I've argued is that wide Earth now has off reservation jurisdiction, and that these people are protecting treaty resources which is provided for, and there are off reservation jurisdiction, and that those cases should be sent to the wider
tribal court. So when you look at what treaty rights really are under federal law, they're considered use refractory property rights, the rights to hunt fish and gather.
Who's a fructory is not a word we hear that often. It means the right to use or benefit from property while someone else owns the title to it. So in this case, the ojibwe have the right to hunt fish and gather on the lands that they ceded to the US government. That was the deal. We'll give you the land, but we want to retain the right to hunt fish
and gather on it. It was written into the original treaty, It's been written into all subsequent treaties, and is still part of the treaty governing the relationship between the Ojibwey and the US government today.
So we have a right to be in the public waters and the public plans because that's our primary place to exercise our rights and if we have a right to be there, we can't be trust passing, and we have a defense to trustpassing defense of monomen. The same thing for the other tribal members.
As they wait for the Eighth Circuit's decision on the Manoman case that jurisdictional question. Water protectors like Dale Green and Tarahauska are continuing to fight to protect both nature and their culture and traditions.
Apologize for people feeling the need to stand up for pristine water.
It is cultural genocide, right like this is the eradication of culture, but it's also ecocide, eradication of that living being that has you know, doesn't have a right to live.
Next time on damages.
And I was trying to think of what would a radically different consciousness that we all link look like, and I said it would be where nature had rights, trees warming to it, the rivers and the place broke. Is PANDEMONI not.
Really the rational Western mind that came up with these ideas, you know, it is actually those individuals and living harmony with environments. All around the world. One can find, you know, the same approach when it comes to indigenous peoples and.
Many Western societies we value things that we value by giving them rights.
Early Americans were afraid of the wilderness, and they said, if we.
Leave Indian people's in ownership, they will just waste it as wilderness.
Damages is an original Critical Frequency production. Our editor and senior producer is Sarah Ventry. Sound designed by Ray Pang, mixing and mastering by Mark Busch. Additional editing by Martha troyan citizen of Obi Shika Kong lack Sul First Nation. The show is written and reported by me Amy Westerveld, with additional reporting by Karen Savage, Meg Duff, and Lindall Rawlins. Our fact checker is woodan Yan. Our First Amendment attorney
is James Wheaton of the First Amendment Project. Our theme song this season is burd in the Hand by Forenown. Artwork is by Matthew Fleming. The show is supported in part by a generous grant from the File Foundation. If you'd like to support our work, please rate or review the podcast wherever you're listening and share it with friends. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.