Happy Monday!
Here are some of the articles you may have missed this past weekend:
Michigan Supreme Court Overturns Line 5 Tunnel Permit, Delivering Major Victory for Tribal Nations
In a significant victory for Tribal Nations and environmental advocates, the Michigan Supreme Court has overturned a key permit authorizing Enbridge Energy’s proposed Line 5 tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac, sending the project back to the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) for a new review.
In its decision, the state’s highest court ruled that the MPSC violated the Michigan Environmental Protection Act (MEPA) and failed to fulfill its obligations under Michigan’s public trust doctrine when it approved Enbridge’s tunnel permit in 2023. The ruling requires the commission to reconsider the application using the legal standards outlined by the court.
The proposed project would relocate a four-mile segment of the Line 5 pipeline into a tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac. Enbridge has argued the tunnel would reduce the risk of an oil spill in the Straits, while Tribal Nations and environmental organizations contend the project would prolong the life of an aging pipeline and threaten one of North America’s most ecologically significant freshwater systems.
Forest County Potawatomi Passes Ceremonial Ashes to Citizen Potawatomi Nation
With the exception of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced its cancellation, Potawatomi tribes and First Nations from the United States and Canada have gathered every year since 1994 for the Potawatomi Gathering. The annual event concludes with one of its most meaningful traditions: the passing of a cedar box containing the ashes from the fire that burned at the first Potawatomi Gathering.
Early Saturday evening, Forest County Potawatomi Community Tribal Chairman Brooks Boyd Sr. made one final trip around the dance circle beneath the powwow arbor, surrounded by citizens of the host tribe. As he completed the circle, Boyd passed the cedar box and its ashes to Citizen Potawatomi Nation Chairman John “Rocky” Barrett, whose tribe will host the 2027 Potawatomi Gathering in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
The Citizen Potawatomi Nation safeguard the ashes for the next 12 months as they plan to host the some 5,000 attendees.
Food is Medicine, Native Mothers, Indian Health Service | Health Equity Round Up, July 31
The long-awaited memoir from Nephi Craig, “Our Knives Will Save Us: Dispatches from a White Mountain Apache Chef,” hit shelves earlier this month and is receiving rave reviews from critics and readers alike. Craig takes readers on a serpentine journey from the rez to the upper echelons of the culinary world to behind bars in an Arizona country jail and back to the rez, all the while asking what reclaiming Indigenous foodways means in a world that weaponized sustenance to destroy Native communities. Craig talked to Native News Online Senior Health Equity Reporter Elyse Wild about his new book, his work leading the nutritional recovery program at the White Mountain Apache tribe-owned Rainbow Treatment Center, and what culinary school and jail taught him about food.
