Bay Mills Indian Community President Whitney Gravelle joins Native Bidaské to discuss Michigan’s approval of the Line 5 tunnel project, the failure of tribal consultation, treaty rights, and what’s next in the legal fight to protect the Great Lakes.
For more than a decade, Tribal Nations across Michigan have fought to stop the Line 5 pipeline from operating beneath the Straits of Mackinac. Despite years of opposition, the State of Michigan recently approved permits allowing Enbridge to move forward with construction of a tunnel designed to house a replacement section of the aging pipeline.
This week on Native Bidaské, host Levi Rickert sits down with Bay Mills Indian Community President Whitney Gravelle, one of the leading voices in the effort to protect the Great Lakes and uphold tribal treaty rights.
Drawing on nearly a decade of advocacy, Gravelle explains why she believes tribal consultation remains fundamentally broken.
Throughout the conversation, Gravelle discusses how state and federal agencies often evaluate projects in isolated pieces rather than considering their cumulative impacts on Tribal Nations, treaty rights and future generations.
She also addresses the cultural significance of the Straits of Mackinac, describing how archaeological surveys ultimately confirmed what Tribal Nations had long known: that ancestral villages, burial grounds and cultural sites exist in the area. For Gravelle, protecting those places is inseparable from protecting Indigenous history and identity.
Watch this timely conversation to better understand why Tribal Nations say the fight over Line 5 is about far more than a pipeline; it’s about treaty rights, environmental stewardship and protecting one of the world’s largest freshwater ecosystems for generations to come.
Watch this episode of Native Bidaské on Friday, July 31st, at 12 p.m. ET on Native News Online’s Facebook, YouTube, NativeNewsOnline.net, and TikTok.
Watch past episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@NativeNewsOnline/streams
