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The Niibi Center aims to protect and preserve Anishinaabe culture
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Canada’s National Observer: We can shut down Line 5 and still meet our energy needs
The band has been fighting a legal battle against Enbridge since 2019 to have the pipeline removed from its watershed. Enbridge has been found guilty of trespassing on Bad River Band territory since 2013.
Star Tribune: Every Step is a Prayer: An Ojibwe leader honors water by leading a walk around Lake Superior.
Tennis shoes brush the hem of a long ribbon skirt as a woman walks along a rural Wisconsin highway, carrying a copper pail of water. Step by millions of steps, the water makes its way around Lake Superior. Small metal cones — the same ones that adorn Ojibwe jingle dresses — dangle from the pail. They sway in sync with her stride, creating a rhythmic tinkle.
VIDEO: Rebecca Tsosie Keynote – First Annual Anishinaabe Law Conference
Rebecca Tsosie is a Yaqui tribal member, an attorney at law, an expert in Indigenous Law and a professor emeritus at Arizona State University. Professor Tsosie gives a passionate and informative keynote presentation on Indigenous Law at the first annual Anishinaabe Law Conference held in June of 2023 on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota.
VIDEO: Tom Goldtooth Keynote – First Annual Anishinaabe Law Conference
Tom Goldtooth is the Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, working for the rights of Indigenous Peoples, rights of Mother Earth and for environmental and economic justice. Tom has networked with Indigenous Peoples and spiritual/religious leaders globally helping humanity to re-evaluate their relationship to the sacredness of Grandmother Earth. His moving address at the first annual Anishinaabe Law Conference on White Earth in June 2023 touches on many issues of Indigenous sovereignty, both locally and globally.
VIDEO: Kekek Stark Keynote – First Annual Anishinaabe Law Conference
Kekek Stark is Turtle Mountain Ojibwe, member of the
Bizhiw (Lynx) Clan and a practitioner of Indigenous law. Kekek is an Associate Professor at the Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana where he serves as the Co-Director of the Indian Law Program, the Margery Hunter Brown Indian Law Clinic, and the American Indian Governance and Policy Institute. This is Kekek’s keynote address from the first annual Anishinaabe Law conference on White Earth in June, 2023.
Niibi Center holds healing space for Water Protectors at Water is Life Festival
Labor Day weekend was bustling in Petoskey, MI with the annual Water is Life festival on Saturday, as well an art build on Sunday and the Mackinaw Bridge Walk event on Monday that attracted around 20,000 people. Members of the Niibi Center’s staff, as well as a few of our collaborators, joined in on the festivities for the second year by hosting an informal Water Protector healing circle at the festival and supporting the art build and Bridge Walk.
Niibi Center’s Language Immersion Program continues to thrive
Ayaanikeshkaagewaad, the Niibi Center’s innovative, nature-based Ojibwe language immersion training program, is working to reclaim the Ojibwe language through a series of in-person and online Zoom sessions. The language reclamation work is led by our Language Program Director Biidaabanikwe (Kim Anderson), a White Earth enrolled member, Azhoobines (John Daniel), a Leech Lake enrolled member, and Waase (Monique Paulson), a White Earth descendant, all second language scholars. Funding from the Blandin Foundation, the Equation Foundation, Minnesota Indian Affairs Council (MIAC), and most recently the competitive NDN Collective grant program have supported our reclamation efforts over the past two years.
USA Today: Great Lakes tribes teach ‘water is life.’ But they’re forced to fight for its protection
LAC DU FLAMBEAU, Wis. – John Johnson, president of the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe Tribe in northern Wisconsin, is not one to hold back his frustrations with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources over management of the waterways in the Northwoods.
“We used to be able to drink water right out of this lake when we were kids,” he said while looking over Pokegama Lake from a balcony at the tribe’s hotel-casino. “We can’t now.”
While the tribe does what it can to keep the lake clean, it can’t control what happens outside the reservation to waters that eventually flow in.
The DNR “won’t listen to Native Americans,” Johnson said.
VIDEO: White Earth Rep Eugene Sommers – Second Annual Anishinaabe Law Conference
As the White Earth District II Representative, Eugene Sommers was voted in by and specifically serves the communities of Waubun, Naytahwaush and Mahnomen. He shares some of his thoughts on Tribal efforts to reclaim the traditional land base. Filmed in Mahnomen, MN on July 23, 2024 on the White Earth Indian Reseravation.
VIDEO: Frank Bibeau Opening Keynote – Second Annual Anishinaabe Law Conference
Frank Bibeau, White Earth Tribal Attorney – Director, Tribal Rights of Nature Program at Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER) gives a talk on local and large-scale efforts to utilize treaty law to protect sacred resources like nibi (water) and manoomin (wild rice). Filmed in Mahnomen, MN on July 23, 2024 on the White Earth Indian Reseravation.
VIDEO: Tribal Law and Policy Institute Panel Discussion – Second Annual Anishinaabe Law Conference
TLPI Panel Discussion – 2nd Annual Anishinaabe Law Conference. Facilitated by Judge Korey Wahwassuck and featuring Judge Abby Abinanti, Judge Megan Trueur, and Stephanie Autumn.
VIDEO: Steve Newcomb Keynote – Second Annual Anishinaabe Law Conference
Steven Newcomb is a Shawnee-Lenape scholar and author. He has been studying and writing about U.S. federal Indian law and policy since the early 1980s, particularly the application of international law to Indigenous nations and peoples. Mr. Newcomb is the Director of the Indigenous Law Institute, which he co-founded with Birgil Kills Straight, a Traditional Headman and Elder of the Oglala Lakota Nation. Together they have carried on a global campaign challenging imperial Vatican documents from the fifteenth century.