- On this edition of native report, we attend stands against the Enbridge line three pipeline replacement project in Minnesota, as some natives partake in mother earth battles including Honor the Earth Winona La Duke of the White Earth Nation.

- We traveled to the Leech Lake nation of Minnesota and learn about the United States government returning nearly 12,000 acres of land back to the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe.

- We learned of The Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians effort for federal recognition, thereby granting them full access to sacred sites in California.

- We also learned that we can do to lead healthier lives and hear from our elders on this edition of native report.

- Production funding for Native report is provided in part by, The Blandin Foundation.

(native Indian music) - Welcome to native report.

Thanks for tuning in I'm Rita Aspenwall - And I'm Ernie Stevens.

On December 17th, 2020 native report was present at a stand against the line three pipeline replacement project along an Enbridge construction site in Palisade, Minnesota.

Of those in attendance was Honor the Earth Winona La Duke of the White Earth Nation.

She's an internationally renowned environmental and political activist who's been opposed to Enbridge's line three project since its infancy.

(guitar music) (reciting prayer in foreign language) - You know, they have 300 miles of pipe that hasn't been pulled.

So we're just getting started.

Standing rock was when they had put in almost all the pipe they got three more pipes that hasn't been put in.

(reciting continues) - My tribe, A white earth as well as Leech Lake has for seven years opposed this pipeline and we still stand strong.

(reciting continues) We'd often to come because water is life.

And this is our life here in this land.

And so we asked people to come up here to pray by the river and to see what is going on.

The level of destruction that Enbridge has brought to the North country.

(reciting prayer in a foreign language) I want the governor to do the right thing.

I don't want, I don't.

I, you know, I am 61 years old and I was already cited.

I don't feel that a bunch of older women need to go to jail because governor Walz won't take leadership.

I want governor Walz to do the right thing.

Allow us our day in court and put a stay on this project during the pandemic.

That's good enough.

I'm hoping to protect our river.

You know, our people are not healthy.

You know, that's the reality is that every health indicator in the state of Minnesota we're at the bottom.

We're getting to the most at risk for COVID and that they bring 4,200 workers in here.

We're the most at risk for almost every kind of major illness, you know and a lot of that, you know, increased significantly with the toxic contamination of our lands.

We don't need another mess.

I mean, the fact is that a lot of toxic infrastructure is on Indian reservations.

And here in Minnesota the Leech Lake reservation has six lines.

And the reason that we're down here is that they didn't want a seventh Enbridge line in the middle of their reservation.

They've already hosting all this dirty oil.

The single largest oil leak in the country was an Enbridge leak in grand Rapids.

Indian reservations have a higher level of toxic or Superfund sites than any other place in the country.

And that's our land.

So, you know, we got to live, we live off our land and we need our land to be clean.

- Line three has to go hehe!

Hoho!

line three has to go hehe!

Hoho!

- Honor the Earth joined with Wonder Fans and the Leech Lake band and other and Friends of the Headwaters has already filed appeals in the state court.

And along with the department of commerce appealed the decision, the certificate of need and the route permit, the Wonder band, the Red Lake band Friends of the Headwaters, Honor the Earth and the state of Minnesota department of commerce appealed all of Enbridge's decisions.

So we will continue to fight them.

We'd like our day in court.

The elders are opposed line three.

They're water protectors, way better to be a water Protector than a want to destroy.

(reciting prayer in foreign language) (uplift music) - With the pandemic, lots of people are afraid to come into contact with the Corona virus.

This makes some afraid to come into the clinic to follow chronic problems.

And even for new problems.

Diabetes is a progressive disease.

This means that even if someone is continuing to watch their diet, take their medicines and exercise their diabetes can still get worse and blood sugars can go up.

Poorly controlled diabetes has a risk factor for other disease.

The risk for strokes and heart attacks is higher with uncontrolled diabetes.

And it's also easier to get infections.

This can mean foot ulcers that don't heal.

Urinary tract infections, respiratory infections and skin infections.

It can also mean you're more susceptible to getting COVID-19 and at higher risk for more serious disease if you get it.

Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to kidney failure, blindness and amputations.

Some people have diabetes and don't know it.

And often people don't know if they have diabetes for several years.

Signs of high blood sugars can come on slowly and we are all good at ignoring things or putting them off until later.

Adults aged 40 to 70 who are overweight or obese should be screened for diabetes, and every three years, if the results are normal.

If you have a family, history of diabetes are overweight or obese or have symptoms you should be screened more often.

Signs and symptoms of diabetes include increased urination, excessive thirst, blurry vision, fatigue, slow healing wounds or sores, weight loss, and numbness or tingling.

Sometimes new onset diabetes can have very high blood sugars and people need to be in the hospital to bring them down.

There are several types of diabetes and testing will help tell them apart.

Type two diabetes is the most common type.

And the first treatments are weight loss, exercise and diet.

Often with these treatments, medicines can be avoided.

If medicines are needed, there are several oral medicines that are very good.

Sometimes people need to be on insulin and there are several different kinds of insulin.

Screening for diabetes starts with a random blood glucose.

Having a blood glucose of 200 or above, a fasting glucose of 126 or above or an abnormal glucose tolerance test all indicate diabetes.

The hemoglobin A1C is a test of blood glucose over the last three months and a level over 6.5% or greater indicates diabetes.

These tests should be repeated on a separate day, but if the readings are high with symptoms the diagnosis can be made.

Diabetes is a lifelong disease.

And once someone is diagnosed with it they need to stay dedicated to keeping it under control.

Taking care of diabetes means changes and your health care team will be there to guide you.

As always remember to call an elder.

They've been waiting for your call.

I'm Dr. Arnie Biennial and this is health matters.

- It is a big win for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe with the legal return of nearly 12,000 acres of land by the federal government back to the band.

I spoke with Leech Lake Tribal council member, Leroy Staples-Fairbanks about the band's future hopes for the land and what the land restoration means for their people and ultimately how this impacts the trust between Indian country and the federal government.

(guitar music) It's been a long time trying to get the land back.

How long has Leech Lake been working on getting this land returned?

Can you share the process that the band went through?

- So I think, you know, when you think of the reservation and the exterior boundaries, 850 plus thousand acres, and if you think about the mindset of returning a land base back to its people, it seems a little overwhelming.

And when I got into office when I was campaigning to get into office and identifying issues that I wanted to work on this wasn't on my radar.

I wasn't aware so much of this issue.

It wasn't really a hot topic prior to me getting an office in 2012.

But when you get into office and you get elected to positions, you really start to uncover all the work that has been done or things that people were working on.

And so that's what I really learned the nuts and bolts of the issue.

- [Rita] What will the band do with the land?

- So that's kind of the million dollar question.

And I think the only thing that says in the legislation is that there won't be a casino on the property, but immediate uses we don't have any immediate plans of use for any of the property right now.

We have our land use and our land planning that happens on our existing property.

And that is basically, you know it's an ongoing analysis of what's the needs of the people.

And that's all the same process will be utilized with this chunk of land as well.

- Can you share a little bit about the process that Leech Lake started out to get the land back?

- Well, it was identified through a court case that through statute of limitations, that it wasn't the only process of doing this was an act of Congress.

So that kind of gave us our direction on which way we needed to take us.

It really illustrated the need that we need to educate more and more and more external partners and external people outside of the reservation, governmental entities, industry folks about what tribal governments are and how legitimate they are, that they are legitimate forms of government that represent a population of people and what the jurisdictional rights and jurisdictional authorities that they do have.

- Can you give us any answer about where the land is located?

- I think it wouldn't be beneficial for us if it was small chunks of and small parcels sprinkled across the whole County area within Chipin National Forest.

I think it would benefit us if we were transferring bigger chunks of land that were more useful to us because it would be more difficult to really provide use of all this land if it was just scattered about everywhere.

- So the government illegally seized the land from the tribe more than 70 years ago.

Can you share how that happened?

- In its simplest form it was a gentleman's agreement.

It was a secretary to secretary transfer.

So its the secretary of interior to the secretary of agriculture saying they can transfer the title of this land without getting approval of the land owners, simple as that.

And so that's kind of what I tell people when they have questions, I was like, "well, are you a landowner?

Do you own land?"

Okay, well, if the County of Beltrami was gonna transfer it to the County of Cass without your approval and they just transferred title without your knowledge and without your approval, that's exactly what happened.

How does that feel?

Wow.

Yeah.

That's not right.

That's not cool.

And so you just try to like simplify it for folks.

So they understand, and we're not that far.

I mean, 70 years seems like a long time but 70 years is still within the lifespan of people that we have at Leech Lake today that that know and lived and seen this stuff happen.

And, you know, so they are being able to live through it happening on the front end of things.

And then there's, they're still here with us sharing when it's being corrected.

And so I think that's probably a, it's a tremendous feeling for those folks who've seen both sides of it.

- It would be interesting to hear the story of some of those elders that have lived through the beginning and now the end of this.

- I will find some for you.

- Yeah, I'm on my way.

Can you share how that illegal seizure has impacted the trust between the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and the government?

- I think generally, there's historical mistrust and not to say that all the trust will ever be restored but when you correct some things it helps, I'll say that it helps.

It would take a lot to restore a full trust because not just Leech Lakers indigenous folks across this, this country are they have a deep mistrust and there's their year in and year out there's still a lot of things that happened that contribute to that mistrust.

- Bringing back the conversation about the associated press article, one of your quotes said that land is culture.

That is so powerful.

That just that statement alone.

Can you share more about that with us?

- As Anishinaabe, there's a very close cultural connection to land.

And so as the land goes, we go and if the land isn't healthy, then we're not healthy.

And so everything that we are is about our land and our language and our culture.

And so a land-based is critical for us in identification.

It's who we are.

(slow melodic music) As we continue to reacquire more of our land base, we continue to reacquire more of our identity, and that's powerful.

One more thing in about future generations, when we have high school youth right now who are seeing this stuff happen.

So maybe when I was going, when I was growing up I was hearing about all the wrongs that were happening and then now the next generations are coming and they're starting to hear about some of those rights that are happening.

It can give hope, it can give hope and not just bitterness, reconnecting back with culture and the land is very, very powerful.

- Well, thank you.

I agree with you, especially in such a dark time this is one of those great stories to cover and also great stories to come across that associated press article did put a smile on my face.

So congratulations.

- [Leroy] Thank you very much.

- Los Angeles County is home to many natives but it has yet to have their federally recognized tribe.

The Gabrielino Band of Mission Indians Kizh Nation is jumping through the hoops of bureaucracy to change that.

(indistinct) of the band of Cahuilla Indians with videographer and editor Tony Revless bring us more on their battle for full access to their sacred sites in California.

(guitar music) - [Rita] The Gabrielino Band of mission Indians Kizh Nation is a tribe native to the Los Angeles basin.

The tribe of 250 has been struggling for federal recognition for nearly a century.

- Although these governments, the Spanish government the Mexican government, and in 1850, 1848 the American government, they arrived here.

They recognized us there it's documented.

My family, our tribe they were well-documented.

But yet today they failed to give us that recognition.

You know, during the dictates the Spanish, the Mexican the American, we just became a collateral to these prominent landowners that arrived here.

We weren't like the tribes, you know, today that are on reservations today, that didn't happen to us in 1848, in 1850.

And it was basically because of our land area, the resource.

- [Rita] In 1994, the tribe was recognized by the state of California.

However, their struggles didn't stop there.

- So we are state recognized, but not federally recognized.

And that brings a difference because on federal projects we are excluded because of our non-federal status.

And a specific example of this was with San Nicholas Island where a repatriation was to be done with human remains from that Island.

Those human remains are ancestrally connected to our tribe.

We were not a part of the process.

So even in those scenarios, our tribe is excluded from being able to bring back our family's remains and bury them with honor and respect.

- Tribal lawyer Cary Grant breaks down the three ways to gain federal recognition.

- One is the, by an act of Congress two is by a decision by the United States court and three by the administrative procedures under part 83 of the code of federal regulations which is the method that the Kizh are pursuing.

And it really is the most common most used method of obtaining federal recognition currently.

That process is arduous to say the least.

There are seven criteria that has to be met.

The review can take up to six to 10 years to complete.

There have been only a total of 18 tribes across the country that have received federal acknowledgement since 1980 through the administrative procedure.

- [Rita] In 2015, after decades of gathering records and documents the tribe flew to Washington DC to apply.

- And we took our information, our packet of information and then we hand delivered it to them.

And we recorded it that we were able, we made it just in time before the old regulations were gonna be changed.

They straight out told my father, you know we've we know you we've been waiting for you.

We wanted to meet with you.

They basically said, you know what?

Your petition wasn't able to make it for the old regs that we're gonna have to redo it.

You know, according to the new regs.

And we were like, "Oh man, so what does this mean?"

Basically, you got to start all over from step one.

Was a big setback but my dad said, "Don't worry about it.

It's gonna happen.

And if it doesn't happen in my lifetime kid it probably happened in your lifetime".

You know, federal recognition is the fight of our generation today.

- Here we are trying to find access to our own tribal land.

How do you like that?

This is part of the federal recognition.

They don't let us in no more.

- [Rita] Without being a federally recognized tribe, The Gabrielino Kizh have had a hard time accessing sacred lands for ceremony or visitation.

If they do get access to an area they often have to pay to get in or hike long distances around private land.

The ancient village of Savannah where the tribe has directly descended from is situated in what is now a recreational park between a golf course, unregulated homeless encampment and a gun range.

- This is the village of Simba or Savannah Which the Spanish later called (indistinct).

The Spanish gave us the name Kechereno, cause we were known as the Kizh people the people of the Willow houses.

But when the mission was built here in 1771 just a few years later, after a big flood, El Nino it washed that chapel away.

The Spanish, moved our people from here into the San Gabriel area to our other village site of Tongvascana where the mission is established today.

The criteria are set in a way, they're set in a way to make you fail.

The one of the questions is we need to know if you can show proof that you existed from 1900 up to 1934, any California mission Indians gonna know that, that's a struggle because during that time we were being hunted, you know because we don't have a document that shows that we're from 1900 to 1934 throwing a party as a tribe, they don't acknowledge us.

It's, you know, it's not our fault.

They don't understand.

During that time, our families were sent to schools Indian schools taken from our families.

The documents that we have as a tribe and that we carry as proof is here in the memories, in our oral history.

Well, with federal recognition, it means to us it means a whole lot.

We don't want the recognition because of money.

Back here there's a golf course, private property.

They didn't wanna allow us to come in and practice our ceremonies and they refused.

And this is one of the reasons why we would like to have at least that federal recognition so that we're acknowledged to hopefully would it help us to get access to some of these important sites that we need to share with our children.

These descendants that are still alive today are alive because of one reason.

And it's because of their ancestors who fought for survival to get their children to where they're at today, to help carry their legacy.

We owe it to them.

So today our struggles, our fight for federal recognition we do it for our ancestors and we do it for future generations so that our children could run off with that legacy and that history that important history that pertains to our culture our people, and to the foundation of the Los Angeles basin.

- [Rita] For more information about native report, look for us at nativereport.org, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

- Thank you for spending this time with your friends and neighbors from across Indian country.

I'm Ernie Stevens.

- And I'm Rita Aspenwall, we'll see you next time on native report.

(melodic tribal music)