Indigenous community leaders will be in New York addressing the United Nations.

They'll be speaking at the UN's Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues - about the Line 5 oil pipeline running through the Great Lakes region and Ontario, Canada.

Since 1968, it's had 33 spills leak more than one million gallons of oil. Ships' anchors also struck it in 2018 and 2020.

Whitney Gravelle, president of the Bay Mills Indian Community, said the permanent forum has called for the U.S. and Canada to decommission the pipeline.

"The permanent forum also stated it jeopardizes the Great Lakes in the United States," said Gravelle, "that the pipeline was a real and credible threat to the treaty-protected resources of indigenous peoples in both the United States and Canada."

Critics are taking legal action to stop the pipeline. One lawsuit stems from Bad River Band not renewing permits for Line 5 to cross through their land.

The other is from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, in which a state court ruled the pipeline should be shutdown.

But Enbridge has brought the case to a Federal Appeals Court, leading to further delay of the state court's ruling.

Gravelle said a ruling for Enbridge in either case could set precedents for pipelines to operate on Indigenous lands without any recourse.

Misinformation has dogged efforts to shut down the pipeline - ranging from saying there are no alternatives to Line 5, to claims that it's an important regional energy source.

One particular point Enbridge stands behinds the safety of Line 5, despite the leaks.

Gravelle called the pipeline an environmental threat.

"When it was first designed, it had seven layers of protective coating around the pipeline," said Gravelle, "and in independent reviews, we have found that protective coating has either worn away or is down to the last layer in some places along the pipeline."

She added that keeping this pipeline operating could lead to a much larger oil spill in the Great Lakes.

A University of Michigan study finds the pipeline's location leaves it vulnerable to unpredictable currents that would make oil recovery almost impossible in the event of a spill.

Gravelle said the region's Indigenous communities wouldn't be able to survive an oil spill in the Great Lakes.

A team of educators and supporters recently proposed changes to South Dakota's framework for Indigenous education, making the lessons more accessible for teachers across the state.

The Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings and Standards, in the works since 2008, were approved by the state in 2018 for education about the region's Indigenous cultures and ways of knowing. Some of the core understandings are built on themes including environment, identity, kinship, traditions and sovereignty.

According to the document, the framework offers not just an opportunity to learn about Indigenous people but also from them.

Roberta Bizardie, Sicangu Lakota, superintendent of the Todd County School District, sits on the 2024 Revisioning and Reaffirming Team and said it is meant to be imbued throughout an entire school day, rather than restricted to just social studies or history class.

"We want kids to understand when you walk in the door, we're incorporating them throughout your whole day," Bizardie explained. "And just to really help build up that identity side of who our kids are."

According to a 2023 state survey, 62% of South Dakota educators reported using the standards, a 17% increase from 2021, though the response rate dropped. There are no state requirements to implement the standards, though Bizardie pointed out Todd County has a policy to ensure they are used.

Bizardie noted while the current accepted standards focus on younger kids, her goal is to create grade-level expectations for K-12 students in Todd County. The 2024 proposal does not change the core understandings themselves but includes a deeper integration of Native language and will make lessons more accessible to both students and teachers.

"It was just kind of cleaning things up," Bizardie added. "When a teacher, whether you are Indigenous, non-Indigenous, you could look at this document and say, 'Oh, I can do this.'"

The 2024 proposal is open to public comment through Sept. 16.


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Historic inequities have left many tribal nations behind the rest of the country but a new Arizona State University program is designed to launch them into the digital future.

The university's Center for Tribal Digital Sovereignty is designed to help Native Americans plan and develop their digital footprint. The project is a joint effort between The American Indian Policy Institute at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law and the National Congress of American Indians.

Tracy Morris, executive director of the institute, said it is all about providing full access to the digital universe.

"Tribal digital sovereignty is the exercise of self-determination of all digital aspects in a tribe, that the tribe itself controls," Morris outlined. "That could be the infrastructure, it could be the data, it could be the physical networks, it could be their cloud or whatever."

Morris argued developing a platform for digital information is critical to tribal autonomy. The program will support tribes in Arizona and across the U.S. in achieving equal access to the governance, social and economic advantages of broadband and other technologies.

Morris pointed out digital sovereignty encompasses all aspects of a tribal nation's digital plan and footprint, such as tribal codes, managing data protection, digital equity, network infrastructure, development of funding sources and capacity building.

"The point is for tribes to be able to implement the best thing that they can and exercise their digital sovereignty so that they can serve their members," Morris explained. "For the end user, they should be able to have the same access as, theoretically, you or I have in a city."

Morris added broadband and other communications technologies are a necessary 21st-century platform for tribal independence. She believes establishment of the Center is a significant turning point for Native Americans.

"If you look at Indian law and Indian history, it's usually something imposed on us in the past or it's taken away from us," Morris observed. "We have a level playing field here. We're all competing. We're all competing. We're all the same resources, the same capacity, the same people to do the work. And it's exciting."


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Indigenous leaders are asking California Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill that would allow federally recognized tribes to sign agreements with the state to co-manage and co-govern ancestral lands and waters. Assembly Bill 1284 unanimously passed both houses of the state Legislature this week.

Scott Sullivan is vice chairman of the Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation.

"This is going to allow us to deepen our relationship on a government-to-government level, it'll give us better access to our traditional ancestral territories to improve the environment and to reconnect our people to the land," he said.

Tribes hope the bill will strengthen shared decision-making around the new Yurok-Tolowa Dee-ni' Indigenous Marine Stewardship Area - which covers the coastline three miles out - from the mouth of the Little River in Humboldt County up to the California-Oregon border.

Fawn Murphy, chair of the Pulikla Tribe of Yurok People, said the tribes want to promote biodiversity and reverse erosion and environmental degradation.

"As these devastating climate impacts are coming and things are changing so rapidly, we need to bring it back to what works. California tribal people have been practicing traditional ecological knowledge since time immemorial," Murphy explained.

The tribes also seek input into future offshore wind projects in the area. The bill is also intended to help California meet its goal of preserving 30 percent of the state's land and waters by 2030.


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