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Longtime activist Winona LaDuke says powerful corporations and the Trump Administration are trying to eliminate dissent and disrupt Native American interests.
As Brian Bull reports, she visited the University of Oregon Monday, fresh from observing the start of a trial against Greenpeace.
LaDuke, an Anishinaabe tribal member from Minnesota’s White Earth Reservation, says the powerful Energy Transfer corporation has taken Greenpeace to a district court trial for multiple reasons:
“To diminish and squash any kind of civil disobedience or First Amendment rights, by criminalizing criticism of big energy corporations because they’re charging Greenpeace with defamation. It’s called a SLAP suit: Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation.”
LaDuke adds the case will be determined by jury in North Dakota’s Morton County, which she accuses of being racist and biased towards energy development companies.
It’s all part of a larger concern Native environmentalists have as President Donald Trump continues to slash federal agencies and revisit his environmental agenda.
In his first term, President Trump cut protections on certain areas deemed sacred or important to tribes.
“Widespread mayhem is what we’re seeing. I mean obviously things like Bears Ears, everything that we have had gains on to protect sacred sites, they’re going to try to roll them back, as well as just basically destabilize tribal governments and tribal communities by cuts in funding.”
LaDuke says it’s important for Native people to work together and protect their sovereignty, as well as food, water, and families.
“Hold on. Y’know, this is not our first bad rodeo.”
In a web statement, Energy Transfer says its lawsuit against Greenpeace is not about free speech, but activists not following the law. And the White House has explained that its actions are about eliminating waste at the federal level.
First Nations HealthSource CEO Linda Son-Stone.
Ahead of President Donald Trump’s address to Congress Tuesday night, a leader in urban Indian health, Linda Son-Stone, is advocating for urban clinics.
The CEO of First Nations HealthSource will be attending the speech in Washington, as a guest of U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM).
First Nations in Albuquerque is one of 41 urban Indian clinics in the country, which Son-Stone says is an important part of the Indian Health Service system.
Son-Stone is advocating for the protection of IHS funding and Medicaid. She’s also concerned about federal workforce reductions.
“We rely heavily on having a strong IHS infrastructure to administer and oversee a lot of the funding that we receive, as well as to advocate for both the tribes and the urban communities.”
The clinic provides, medical, dental, behavioral health services, and traditional healing.
Another effort to create Indigenous Peoples Day in Montana is underway in the state legislature.
Montana Public Radio’s Victoria Traxler has more.
State Sen. Shane Morigeau (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation/D-MT) brought a bill that would recognize the holiday statewide by sharing Columbus Day.
This is the sixth legislative session in a row raising the issue.
In 2021 and 2023, legislators attempted to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day. But this year Sen. Morigeau’s bill proposes the two coincide.
“For all the organizers and people I’ve worked with across the state, for them this was the best step moving forward recognizing that other efforts we brought to the legislative body have not passed”
Legislators who spoke in support of the bill said it struck a balance and recognized Columbus’s impacts on world history as well as Indigenous peoples’ impacts.
The senate gave the bill an initial vote of endorsement 48 to 2.
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