Recognizing tribal advocacy and actions to protect the Great Lakes, the Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority (CORA) was awarded the 2020 Great Lakes Protector Award from Clean Water Action.
The five tribes that make up CORA – Bay Mills Indian Community, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Little Traverse Bay band of Odawa Indians and Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians – have been leaders in building awareness and fighting to prevent an oil spill from the 67-year-old Enbridge Line 5 pipeline across the Upper Peninsula and along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac.
Board member Bryan Newland accepted the award in recognition of the Indigenous Tribes of Michigan. The five CORA member tribes received extensive fishing rights in the Great Lakes as part of their Treaty of 1836 with the United States.
“We thank Clean Water Action for this recognition,” said Newland. “Michigan’s tribes have been stewards and protectors of the Great Lakes for the past 1,000 years. For generations, our culture has ensured that we protect the waters for ourselves and the people today, but for all future generations.” “Our work is also focused on protecting the rights our ancestors reserved in our 1836 Treaty with the United States that allowed the State of Michigan to form. As state and federal governments have benefited from the Treaty, we are fighting to ensure that our rights to hunt and fish are protected.”
Line 5 was installed in 1953 in the Straits of Mackinac, with an engineered lifespan of 50 years (2003). The line and its managing company, Enbridge, has caused controversy in Michigan over the lack of transparency, pipeline corrosion, dents, violations, broken supports and more. Many recently, just 10 years after Enbridge’s Line 6B ruptured in Marshall, Michigan, leading to the infamous Kalamazoo oil spill.
CORA tribes have long advocated for the decommissioning and removal of the pipeline with no replacement structure, as advancements in infrastructure and energy needs allow our state to rely less on the aging pipeline, where a pipeline rupture would compromise the regional environment, decimate several area industries, and destroy one of the core promises of the 1836 Treaty.
“We are grateful for the partnership of Senator Peters, Clean Water action, Oil and Water Don’t Mix, and all of Michigan’s citizens who are protecting our Great Lakes. We are also thankful for support from Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and Lac Vieux Desert Tribe,” Newland said. “We may come at this responsibility from different perspectives, but together, we are going to succeed at what matters: protecting the Great Lakes for future generations.”
Additional award recipients from the September 17 event include Senator Gary Peters, Rep. Laurie Pohutsky and Sylvia Orduño of the People’s Water Board Coalition. More information on the awards event can be found here.
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