Native women dressed in jingle dresses and men in their regalia from the Three Fires Confederacy were among about 1,000 Native Americans and 33,000 non-Natives who walked the Mackinac Bridge on Labor Day.
The walk across the Mackinac Bridge, which connects Michigan’s two peninsulas, has been an annual event since 1958, with the exception of 2020, when it was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year marks the first time the Three Fires Confederacy has participated in the walk.
Among the Native walkers were some tribal leaders.
The Native Americans were there to bring attention to the need to shut down Enbridge Line 5. Organizers say the walk was not a demonstration, but rather a ceremony.
Many of the Native Americans from Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Ontario who were not in regalia wore white T-shirts with the message, “Stop Line 5, Oil Tunnel.”
“We gathered at sunrise on both sides of the Straits, walked across the Mackinac Bridge behind our water protectors and met in the middle to raise our voices together. It was positive and peaceful, and so many people we met expressed their support,” Newland said.
Newland doesn’t want people to forget that Enbridge has a history of oil spills.
“Enbridge is perhaps the worst possible company to trust to keep our waters and lands safe. They are responsible for the largest oil spill in Michigan’s history. And just last week, their shoddy practices led to a rupture of Line 5 itself — releasing more than 1.3 [million gallons] of petroleum and vaporized gas,” Newland said in a post to his Facebook page.
“While we walked today, others living near Line 5 were evacuated from their homes. While we gathered, Enbridge continues to stonewall agencies on the cause and risks of its second major oil spill in the Great Lakes.”
“Today was a beautiful and powerful reminder of what it means to come together as relatives and as the Three Fires Confederacy. Anishinaabek people and allies traveled from across the Great Lakes to stand together, pray together, and remind folks that this is Anishinaabek land,” Teresa Magunson Melendez (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians), principal consultant with the Three Fires Confederacy, said to Native News Online.
“Together, we are committed to defending our homelands from Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline and from companies and governments that place profit above the rights of nature, treaty rights, and the public good. We call on leaders to decommission Line 5 and protect the Great Lakes from the irreversible harm a pipeline rupture would cause,” she said.
For Dr. Nichole Keway Biber (Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians), one of the organizers of the walk, the day was special because she and other traditional Native women performed a water ceremony during the walk.
“As we carried the water blessed by all who gathered at the sunrise ceremony, helping hold the copper vessel reminded me of holding the weight of my children when they were babies. For this to be my first time walking on the bridge, knowing that the sounds of jingle dress sisters and drums and singers also accompanied the Anishinaabek and allies traveling from the north side, felt very much like a powerful presence of unity,” Biber said.
“Unity as the Three Fires Confederacy, among the many other walkers who thanked and greeted us, and unity with our past and future ancestors and more-than-human relatives who require us to raise our voices on their behalf,” Biber continued.
