native americans

By Conor Mihell At dawn, I launch my kayak and paddle into a velvety expanse of turquoise water. Here, in northern Michigan’s Straits of Mackinac, Great Lakes Michigan and Huron meet like the middle of an hourglass. To the east, the rounded form of Mackinac Island is the centerpiece of an archipelago in Lake Huron. […]

On Wednesday, a federal judge ruled that the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) can continue operating pending an environmental review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe sued the Corps in July 2016, arguing that the pipeline destroyed sacred sites and threatens the water quality of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation […]

By Ron Johnson Last week, energy company TransCanada pulled the plug on its 2,800-mile Energy East Pipeline and Eastern Mainline projects, which would have shipped 1.1 million barrels of crude oil from the Athabasca tar sands to refineries in eastern Canada. The move was celebrated as a victory by environmentalists and Indigenous people pushing for […]

By Rosalyn R. LaPier The environmental group Deep Green Resistance recently filed a first-of-its-kind legal suit against the state of Colorado asking for personhood rights for the Colorado River. If successful, it would mean lawsuits can brought on behalf of the river for any harm done to it, as if it were a person. In […]

By Liz Blood A little over a year ago, Morgun Frejo, a member of the Pawnee, Otoe-Missouria, Navajo nations, began camping at Oceti Sakowin at Standing Rock. The Missouri River is sacred to both his Pawnee and Otoe-Missouria tribes and Frejo recalls elders in both tribes telling him stories of its importance as a child. […]

Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke‘s recommendation to reduce the size of the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah could spark a legal battle between the Navajo Nation and the Trump administration. “We are prepared to challenge immediately whatever official action is taken to modify the monument or restructure any aspect of that, such as the Bears […]

Federal lawyers have urged a federal judge not to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline while the Army Corps of Engineers conduct a fresh environmental review mandated by the court. The lawyers said there was a “serious possibility” that the new review by Army Corps will also find there is little risk of oil from […]

The Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes asked a federal judge Tuesday to shut down the Dakota Access pipeline. While the tribes insist that a June order instructing the Army Corps of Engineers to complete a more thorough analysis of the pipeline means that pipeline operations should be shut down in the meantime, […]