Ashland, WI — The Indigenous Women’s Treaty Alliance, as facilitated by the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), stands in solidarity with Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and supporting allied organizations, including Midwest Environmental Advocates and Clean Wisconsin, as they challenge permitting decisions made by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in its approval of the proposed Line 5 pipeline reroute. Canadian crude oil and energy company, Enbridge proposes to build 41 miles of new pipeline around the borders of Bad River Band reservation, where a federal court has ruled that Enbridge is trespassing on tribal lands. Bad River Band is located along the southern shore of Lake Superior—part of the Great Lakes, which together hold 20 percent of the world’s surface freshwater.

The pipeline would involve blasting, horizontal drilling, or trenching across hundreds of wetlands and streams, destroying areas where Tribes have reserved rights to hunt, fish, and gather through treaties with the United States. This pipeline violates Indigenous rights and sovereignty, puts the Great Lakes’ clean drinking water at grave risk, and accelerates the climate crisis. This reroute will violate Tribal water quality standards, destroy critical wetlands that help guard against flash floods, and endanger the largest natural wild rice bed on the Great Lakes.

Enbridge’s project, which still requires federal permits from the US Army Corps of Engineers, received permits from Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources in November 2024. The DNR’s approval is being contested by Bad River Band, Clean Wisconsin, and by Midwest Environmental Advocates on behalf of the Sierra Club, League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, and 350 Wisconsin. By judicial order, no construction is permitted on the reroute while the case is ongoing.

This statement comes from Indigenous women advocating to stop Line 5, and is supported by the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN). To read quotes from members of the Indigenous Women’s Treaty Alliance, please see below:

Aurora Conley, Bad River Ojibwe, Anishinaabe Environmental Protection Alliance: “As a Bad River Anishinaabe woman and mother, I carry the sacred responsibility to protect the Ojibwe people here, on the lands of Bad River, with a spiritual and inherent duty to protect manoomin, our wild rice. We are talking about the destruction of the Great Lakes—our relatives that nourish us and provide drinking water, not only for our children, but for over 40 million people, and all of our future generations. Life 5 threatens all that we care for. I stand with Bad River in their courageous leadership to protect our homelands, lifeways, and sacred waters."

Rene Ann Goodrich, Bad River Ojibwe, Native Lives Matter Coalition and Wisconsin Department of Justice MMIW Task Force:  “The Line 5 pipeline is an existential threat to Tribal homelands, sovereignty, and our way of life. Enbridge’s proposed reroute would shift the trespassing section of the pipeline upstream, where it could cause even greater harm to cultural resources, wild rice, medicines, fisheries, and drinking water. It poses a direct threat not only to our sacred water and ecosystems, but to Indigenous rights and the safety of Indigenous women, who are disproportionately impacted by the violence linked to resource extraction and nearby man camps, as underscored by the MMIW crisis. Indigenous women stand with Bad River Band in their courageous leadership against this pipeline giant. Enbridge has a long and unapologetic record of safety violations, including the massive downstate oil spill just last fall. We stand in solidarity with Bad River Band and our allies in this monumental effort to protect our sacred waters and lands for present and future generations."

Gaagigeyaashiik - Dawn Goodwin, Gaawaabaabiganigaag, White Earth-Ojibwe, Co-founder of R.I.S.E. Coalition, Representative of Indigenous Environmental Network: “As a member of the Wolf Clan, it is my responsibility to protect the people and the environment, including our relatives—the plants, trees, the winged, the crawlers, the swimmers and the water that gives us life. I have seen firsthand the devastation Enbridge causes. I witnessed the destruction from pre and post construction of Line 3: broken promises, horizontal drilling frac-outs, aquifer breaches, and irreparable harm to our watersheds and ecosystems. The pain from stolen time, community division, and trauma induced by Enbridge lives within me and my people to this day. I stand in solidarity with all efforts to stop the Line 5 pipeline, as I already know how this story could end—unless we do something to change it, and we must! Let us look to our Treaties— the supreme law of the land, as it is long past time to honor them. We are Indigenous women rising together to PROTECT and LOVE ALL THAT IS SACRED. ”

Nookomis Debra Topping, Nagajiiwanong, 1854 Treaty Fond du Lac, Co-founder of R.I.S.E. Coalition:  “Bad River Band is not just defending their homelands — they are defending Nibi (water), Manoomin (wild rice), and the sacred balance of life that sustains us all. Our way of life goes well beyond what is considered “legal”; it is spiritual, cultural, and ancestral. Enbridge Line 5 is a direct threat to our Mama Aki (Mother Earth), to our sovereignty as Tribal Nations, and to the future of coming generations. Every day this pipeline remains in operation is another day we allow a Canadian corporation to gamble with our ecosystems, with Indigenous lives and lifeways. Tribes have spoken. Science has spoken. The consequences are undeniable. We stand in full support of Bad River Band’s demand to shut down Line 5 — not someday, but now. May the courts uphold this truth — and act with the courage this moment and our Earth demand.”

Since 2022, the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) has been honored to facilitate the Indigenous Women’s Treaty Alliance. In support of their bold leadership, Osprey Orielle Lake, Executive Director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), stated: “Bad River Band has been sounding the alarm — Line 5 is a ticking time bomb. As erosion accelerates along Bad River, the threat of rupture endangers cultural survival, Indigenous rights, and the Great Lakes, which hold 20 percent of the world’s surface freshwater. Protecting these sacred waters, these pristine and precious ecosystems, and respecting Tribal sovereignty, and the health and safety of our communities must be the court’s highest priority. Across Turtle Island and around the world, Indigenous women stand in unwavering solidarity with the call to defend their lands, waters, and futures. Alongside the women of the Indigenous Women’s Treaty Alliance, WECAN stands firm in our solidarity with Bad River Band. The Great Lakes are not expendable, communities are not expendable, and climate solutions are not just if they depend on broken treaties and sacrifice zones.”