On Sept. 10, the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians along with sister tribes Bay Mills Indian Community, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, and Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians joined together to petition state regulators for a contested case to challenge a pair of permits that authorized Canadian company Enbridge to build its proposed Line 5 oil pipeline tunnel below the Straits of Mackinac.
The tribes, with over 60,000 collective enrolled citizens, seek to overturn the wetlands and bottomlands permits that Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) approved for Enbridge in July. The proposed project would require a massive disturbance of land and involve construction activities that will destroy recognized cultural and historic properties within the Straits area. This project would threaten the Anishinaabe way of life as well as treaty-protected interests and public trust resources.
On Sept. 9, the future of the permits issued by EGLE also came under question from Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the EGLE Director Phil Roos. The pair cited the Michigan Supreme Court’s decision overturning a separate permit for the tunnel later in July after EGLE issued its permits as a reason to revisit the initial EGLE permits.
“There is no way this tunnel project can or should move forward. It would disrupt our ancestors’ burial sites and cause irrevocable harm to this area,” said Sault Tribe Chairman Austin Lowes. “Getting to this point has taken tireless work from our sister tribes, tribal citizens, partners, and everyone who loves and values the Great Lakes. When the next seven generations ask what we did to protect the Great Lakes, I want them to know that our people stood together, spoke with one voice, and got that pipeline out of the Straits.”
The new challenge was filed on the heels of the annual Mackinac Bridge Walk. On Labor Day, around 1,000 people from all 12 Anishinaabe tribal nations in Michigan walked across the bridge to demonstrate opposition to the Line 5 tunnel in response to a unified call to action by the ancestral Three Fires Confederacy.
For more on the petition to state regulators please read Earthjustice’s press release available here.