Indigenous women from the Great Lakes tribes are advocating for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to review and reject the Line 5 project in northern Wisconsin. Indigenous women leaders wrote a letter, with endorsements from over 200 organizations, outlining how the Line 5 pipeline and its proposed expansion threaten treaty lands, as well as the drinking water, ecosystems, and manoomin (wild rice) that Indigenous Peoples on those lands depend on. Manoomin is a critical component of Anishinaabe cultural and spiritual identity and a major food source and economic staple for tribes. The letter also stresses that construction projects’ “man camps” may bring further danger to already vulnerable Indigenous women and girls in the area. Indigenous women explain that allowing Line 5 to proceed is cultural and environmental genocide. Photo credit: Laina G. Stebbins/Michigan Advance
