Latest news with #StandingRock
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
North Dakota tribes push for more autonomy amid federal cuts
Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Chairman Jamie Azure delivers an address during the seventh annual Government-to-Government Conference for tribal and state leaders. (Mary Steurer/North Dakota Monitor) North Dakota tribal leaders highlighted uncertainty in federal funding, frustrations with the state Legislature and future economic development projects Wednesday during the state's seventh annual Government-to-Government Conference. The annual event brings leaders of the five tribal nations that share geography with North Dakota together with state officials to share updates, network and discuss common problems facing their communities. 'We're strong, strong people — and we're getting back to that mindset of pridefulness,' Jamie Azure, tribal chair for the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, said during his address. Azure said development projects in the pipeline for Turtle Mountain involve a retail center, movie theater, bowling alley and more. The conference was started by former Gov. Doug Burgum during his first term in office. Burgum is credited with improving relations between the tribes and the state government, which were at a low point when he took office in 2016. Gov. Kelly Armstrong, who succeeded Burgum in December, called continuing the conference a 'no brainer.' 'We need the collaboration of our tribal partners if we want North Dakota as a state to truly succeed,' Armstrong said. Like Turtle Mountain, officials from the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate celebrated several new business opportunities coming to the Lake Traverse Reservation. Economic development is not about money, said Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Tribal Secretary Curtis Bissonette. 'It's about freedom, dignity and the ability to care for one another across generations,' he said. 'We are not waiting on permission to act.' Tribal leaders on Wednesday each expressed a degree of anxiety about federal programs. Native tribes receive services from the U.S. government in areas as wide-ranging as law enforcement, healthcare and land management. Native officials are worried about the impact of President Donald Trump's sweeping cuts to federal spending. Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation Chairman Mark Fox said that if the federal government wants to stop funding tribes, it needs to help them maintain a 'financial infrastructure' that allows them to 'to survive and thrive economically.' 'If you take that away, then you're going to cause dependency to exist for the next 100 to 1,000 years,' he said. During her address, Standing Rock Chairwoman Janet Alkire shared some of her tribe's continuing efforts to collaborate with the federal government on land, energy and infrastructure issues. She said after several years of negotiating with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Standing Rock last year entered into a co-stewardship agreement for Dakota Prairie National Grasslands within the boundaries of the reservation, for example. 'These milestones may seem small, but it gives our people the opportunity to participate and have a voice, when once our voice was taken,' Alkire said. She said she is also serving on a tribal advisory committee for the U.S. Department of the Interior under Burgum's leadership. Standing Rock leaders also provided updates on a wind farm project to improve energy infrastructure in southern North Dakota. They hope to finance it in part from a loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, though they said federal staff cuts threaten the program. Alkire said she has asked Burgum if the program can be rehoused under the Department of the Interior. North Dakota tribal leaders see Burgum as an ally in Interior, energy role Tribal leaders also had much to say about the state government. Azure during his address played two video clips from this year's legislative session of state lawmakers questioning the integrity of Turtle Mountain's plans to build a casino and resort in Grand Forks. One was of Sen. Diane Larson, R-Bismarck, who during one floor session said the source of the tribe's financing was murky and might come from cartels. (Larson apologized for her remarks later that floor session.) Azure also played a clip of Rep. Lawrence Klemin, R-Bismarck, who dismissed the project and compared it to a Chinese company's failed plans to build a corn milling plant near the Air Force base in Grand Forks. Klemin said he no longer trusts economic development projects associated with Grand Forks. He later told The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead his comments weren't directed to the tribe. Azure said the comments were insulting to the tribe and called on the statehouse to do better. 'At the end of the day the mindset has to change, because we can't go back here every two years and show videos like this,' he said. Spirit Lake Nation Chairperson Lonna Jackson-Street urged the state to reinstate the motor vehicle excise tax exemption for tribal members living off reservation. Only tribal members who live on reservations receive the tax exemption under a law change adopted by the state Legislature in 2023. Jackson-Street said a large portion of Spirit Lake members live outside the Spirit Lake Reservation due in part to the federal government's illegal taking of tribal land under the Dawes Act of 1887, and now must pay thousands of dollars more in taxes on vehicle purchases. She also said the tribe has continued to take a hit because of North Dakota's burgeoning electronic pull tab industry, which has taken business away from the Spirit Lake Casino. 'We're trying to establish new businesses within our community to supplement what our casino lost because of e-tabs,' she said. During the North Dakota legislative session, Native lawmakers supported a bill that would have required the Legislature to consult tribes on policies that would affect their communities. Proponents of the bill, which failed in the Senate, noted that the statehouse passed laws that allowed for the proliferation of gambling without speaking with North Dakota tribes that rely on casino revenue. 'For the future, as a tribal leader and whoever may step into these shoes, it's important you know that our government works with tribes on consultation,' Jackson-Street told the audience on Wednesday. Armstrong in his speech Wednesday applauded the state Legislature for passing House Bill 1199, which requires the state to create a task force dedicated to reducing the number of missing or murdered Indigenous people in the state. Armstrong said while he was in Congress he worked on Savanna's Act, which seeks to improve the federal response to the same issue. Armstrong said he thinks the Savanna's Act is 'good legislation' but that he thinks House Bill 1199 will be more impactful. 'That's a perfect example of how you don't solve those problems in Washington, D.C.,' he said. 'This is solved on Main Street across rural North Dakota. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Standing Rock appeals dismissal of latest Dakota Access Pipeline lawsuit
Opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline gather Nov. 1, 2023, in Bismarck ahead of a public meeting on an environmental impact statement. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe opposes the pipeline, citing concerns for its water supply and sovereign rights. (Kyle Martin/For the North Dakota Monitor) The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is asking the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to review a federal judge's decision to dismiss its latest lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the Dakota Access Pipeline. Standing Rock filed the lawsuit in October, asking the court to find the pipeline must be shut down because it still lacks an easement authorizing it to pass under the Missouri River's Lake Oahe reservoir, which is regulated by the Army Corps. 'The Corps of Engineers has not earned the trust of our Tribe,' Standing Rock Chairwoman Janet Alkire said in a statement last week announcing the appeal. 'We cannot rely on the Corps to properly evaluate DAPL, so we are continuing our legal efforts to protect our water and our people from this dangerous pipeline.' Greenpeace seeks reversal of verdict, arguing jury wanted to 'punish' someone for pipeline protests The Army Corps originally granted the easement to the pipeline's developer in 2017, but Boasberg revoked it in 2020 after finding the agency had issued the permit without completing the full environmental review required by federal law. The matter was brought to him through a lawsuit the tribe filed against the Army Corps in 2016. Boasberg at the time directed the Corps to withhold making a decision on the easement until it completes a full environmental impact study. He also ordered the pipeline to be shut down, though that demand was later reversed by an appellate court. Five years later, the Army Corps still has not finished the environmental review. It published a draft in late 2023. Standing Rock in its latest suit argues that keeping the pipeline open without an easement is a violation of federal law. The tribe also alleges the Army Corps is at fault for a number of other regulatory violations related to the pipeline. In court filings, Standing Rock has said it intends to present new evidence related to the pipeline's safety. The pipeline company has indicated previously it does not consider that information credible. U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg tossed the suit in March, finding that the courts cannot intervene in the matter until the Army Corps wraps up its environmental study. 'No matter its frustration with Defendants' sluggish pace, it is not yet entitled to a second bite at the apple,' he wrote in his March order. Boasberg previously indicated that while the agency works on the study, it has the option of enforcing its property rights since the pipeline is operating on federal land without authorization. 'The Corps has conspicuously declined to adopt a conclusive position regarding the pipeline's continued operation, despite repeated prodding from this Court and the Court of Appeals to do so,' he wrote in a 2021 order. Standing Rock leaders say they hope the D.C. Circuit will overturn Boasberg's decision to dismiss the case. In her statement, Alkire said the tribe fears the Army Corps' study will 'whitewash' the pipeline's risk to the surrounding environment. The pipeline crosses Lake Oahe just north of the Standing Rock Reservation. The tribe opposes the Dakota Access Pipeline as a threat to its sovereignty, water supply and cultural heritage sites. Federal judge dismisses Standing Rock's latest lawsuit over Dakota Access Pipeline Alkire also underscored the tribe's dismay over a March jury verdict that found the environmental group Greenpeace at fault for damaging the pipeline developers property and business as part of its protests against Dakota Access Pipeline. The jury ordered Greenpeace to pay the company, Energy Transfer, roughly $667 million. Standing Rock has criticized the verdict as based on a false narrative that Greenpeace, and not Standing Rock and other tribes, led the protests. 'We saw Energy Transfer's efforts to re-write history as we know it and lived it in their lawsuit against Greenpeace,' she said. In April, another federal judge ordered the Army Corps to pay North Dakota $28 million in connection to the anti-pipeline protests, finding the agency's actions had wrongfully forced the state to pay millions policing the protests and cleaning up the aftermath. The Dakota Access Pipeline passes through unceded land previously recognized as belonging to the Sioux Nation in 19th century treaties with the U.S. government. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
E&E News
28-05-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Tribe appeals ruling on Dakota Access pipeline
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is launching the latest round of its legal fight to shut down the Dakota Access pipeline for continuing to operate without a valid easement. On Tuesday, the tribe told a federal judge it was appealing his ruling that their lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was premature. The agency has been in the process of conducting a supplemental environmental review of the oil conduit, which passes beneath Lake Oahe in the Dakotas, after a federal appeals court tossed out the existing National Environmental Policy Act analysis as inadequate. Advertisement In the meantime, the Army Corps has allowed the pipeline to continue to carry oil beneath the lake, which is located close to the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, provided pipeline operator Energy Transfer complies with set safety requirements.
Arab News
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Book Review: ‘Hope in the Dark' by Rebecca Solnit
In an era of climate collapse and political upheaval, Rebecca Solnit's 'Hope in the Dark,' first published in 2004 and later updated in 2016, redefines hope not as naivete, but as a radical act of defiance. Part manifesto, part historical corrective, the book resurrects forgotten victories to prove that progress is often invisible, nonlinear, and collective. Solnit, a historian and activist, dismantles the myth of powerlessness by spotlighting movements that reshaped history despite seeming futile in their moment. The Zapatista uprising of 1994, she argues, redefined revolution not as a single explosive event but as a 'slow conversation' across generations. The fall of the Berlin Wall — unforeseen by experts — she wrote exposes the fragility of oppressive systems when met with sustained dissent. Her 2016 update weaves in Black Lives Matter and the Standing Rock protests, framing them as modern iterations of this 'subversive hope.' Central to Solnit's thesis is the metaphor of darkness, rejecting apocalyptic fatalism: 'The future is dark … like the darkness of the womb.' Hope, for her, is the audacity to act without guarantees, a lesson drawn from anti-nuclear campaigns of the 1980s and post-Katrina mutual-aid efforts like the Common Ground Collective. Stylistically, Solnit merges lyrical prose with critical urgency. She chastises media narratives that equate activism with failure if immediate victories are not won, noting that the eight-hour workday and abolition of slavery were once deemed impossible. Her chapters unfold as interconnected essays, blending memoir (her 1980s anti-nuke protests) with global dispatches (Chile's democratic revival, Ukraine's Orange Revolution). Critics may crave more policy prescriptions, but Solnit's goal is philosophical: to reframe activism as a practice of storytelling, where every protest rewrites the dominant narrative. The book is not a roadmap but a compass, guiding readers through despair with historical proof that 'the impossible is inevitable.'
Gulf Today
19-05-2025
- General
- Gulf Today
‘Chicken lady' faces legal trouble as birds come flocking in
Kyeland Jackson, Tribune News Service Chicken owners from across the Twin Cities have been known to dump fowl on Miranda Meyer's St. Paul doorstep in the middle of the night. Outside her house on Hatch Avenue — yes, St. Paul's 'chicken lady' lives on Hatch Avenue — neighbours stop and watch the birds strut toward feed scattered near Meyer's black hearse. Hens like Sweet Pea, found half-frozen in a bush, ruffle their feathers in a white coop. Meyer's rooster, Jimothy Dean Scrambles, perches on a fence and crows. Minneapolis animal control officials call Meyer, 32, to rehome abandoned chickens. But in her home city, St. Paul animal control has issued citations against her flock, exposing her to legal trouble even as she pursues work she considers to be within her rights as a tribal member. Meyer is worried that the fowl troubles will worsen this year. 'We're taking hundreds of birds every summer, and it's only getting bigger and bigger,' Meyer said. 'There's so many people who are going into this blind thinking, 'I just want free eggs.'' Meyer started work in what she called the 'the death industry' at 15. After more than a decade of cleaning crime scenes and preparing burials, dealing with death and silence weighed on her. 'It makes you feel not human because then you can't connect with other people,' Meyer said. But Meyer always felt she could connect with animals, and she said the Standing Rock protests a few years ago inspired a change. Meyer is a member of the Ojibwe tribe whose name, Ikwe Niibawi Wiiji Migizi Miigwan, means 'woman who stands with eagle feather.' She said the protests made her think about sustainability, prompting her to adopt three chickens. She quickly found she had a knack for working with the birds. The goal of the operation she runs from her single-family house, the Balsam Lake Bachelor Flock and Poultry Rehab, is to rehabilitate and return chickens and roosters to owners who pay her what they can afford. The rehab runs through her properties in St. Paul and Balsam Lake, Wis., and she said the goal is to help chicken owners and people who cannot afford eggs, meat and high veterinary bills. When she can't rehabilitate roosters, Meyer drives them to Balsam Lake and releases them on her 40-acre property, or slaughters them to bring meat to neighbours and reservations. Hmong farmers give Meyer leftover vegetables as chicken feed in return for eggs, fertiliser and meat. She donates dozens of fertilised eggs to St. Paul school teachers, who hatch them in class and return the chicks to her. The Minneapolis Police Department and Minneapolis Animal Care and Control began phoning for help with chickens abandoned in cemeteries, parking garages and on the tarmac at Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport. Meyer said that up to 20 hens and two roosters now stay with her. But at a peak last year, she said she was accepting 30 roosters a week. That ran her afoul of St. Paul Animal Services, which ticketed Meyer last October and again in March for having a rooster and no permit to own chickens. Roosters are prohibited in St. Paul, and a rooster permit in Minneapolis costs $110. Meyer disputes the need for a permit, arguing that the work is within her rights as an Ojibwe tribal member with federal protections. For St. Paul resident Va Xiong and others, chickens are crucial for religious ceremonies addressing birth, life and death. Xiong, 42, started raising chickens for the first time this year to provide for his family and their ceremonies. Many Hmong people who emigrated to Minnesota brought cultural practices involving chickens. Xiong explined that the birds are considered guides for spirits of the deceased, wards against sickness and vital nutritional support for women giving birth. Many still believe in those customs but turned from tradition to adjust to city laws, returning chickens to farms after ceremonies instead of sacrificing them. But Xiong said St. Paul's restrictions forced him to raise fowl outside the city limits, and he believes residents are being ticketed while holding chickens for similar practices. 'That is why a lot of the Hmong community and Asian communities have these chickens in the city limits, and the city is making it tough for these Asian communities to hold chickens,' Xiong said. He said the permit process can take months. St. Paul Animal Services Manager Molly Lunaris said most applications are approved the same day, but the department is working to streamline the process through an online application that could be available within a year. Lunaris said rules considered burdensome by some exist for the city's health, safety and livability. 'We regularly seek staff and resident input to assess whether our ordinances are current, efficient, and effective, and work to implement changes when necessary,' Lunaris said in a statement. She said the agency is working to move away from criminal citations in favor of administrative actions. Lunaris added that the agency has not seized any birds claimed to be used for religious purposes and would consult with the City Attorney's Office before doing so. Scores of Minnesotans are turning to co-ops and community-supported agriculture shares to save money on eggs. Many more are turning to backyard chicken coops.
