Michigan Approves Line 5 Tunnel Permits as Tribes Cite Decade of Treaty-Rights Violations
Updated
Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Jul 30
Michigan Approves Line 5 Tunnel Permits as Tribes Cite Decade of Treaty-Rights Violations
3 articles · Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Jul 30
Summary
Michigan recently approved permits letting Enbridge move ahead with a tunnel to house a replacement section of the aging Line 5 pipeline beneath the Straits of Mackinac.
More than a decade of tribal opposition failed to stop the approval, with Bay Mills Indian Community President Whitney Gravelle saying consultation was fundamentally broken and agencies assessed the project in isolated pieces.
Archaeological surveys in the Straits area confirmed ancestral villages, burial grounds and other cultural sites that Tribal Nations say are inseparable from treaty rights and Great Lakes protection.
The approval sets up the next phase of a legal fight over Line 5, with tribes framing the dispute as broader than pipeline safety and centered on environmental stewardship and Indigenous history.