Volume 27, Issue 10 November 20, 2014

The Wellness and Violence Prevention Center is taking steps towards creat-ing a safer community by hosting

National It’s On Us Week. The week is part of the White House’s It’s On Us campaign to end sexual assault. So far, the campaign has gained pledges and supporters from various organizations and partnerships such as the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence and RAINN. Students taking the pledge were able to join a worldwide conversation on sexual assault and learn about creating a cultural shift towards making communities safer.

Throughout the week, student volunteers

stationed themselves in the Student Center with posters, boards, and resources regard-ing sexual assault and personal power-based violence. Their goal for the week was to get as many of their peers as possible to take a pledge to end sexual assault on the It’s On Us campaign website. Additionally, they provid-ed resources to help students recognize signs of an abusive relationship and learn how to commit to creating a safer campus environ-ment.

These student efforts are an extension of several violence prevention events provided by Green Dot, a new campus initiative dedi-cated to educating and training members of

the campus community to become proactive in the fight against sexual assault. The pledg-es may take only a few moments to complete but represent the important first steps to ending violence.

“It’s important to take time out of your day to take this pledge because it symbolizes an important step you can take towards end-ing violence,” said third-year student Mariah Peterson, a Green Dot-certified volunteer with the Wellness and Violence Prevention Center. “Taking this pledge is easy. Living by it will take effort.”

National It’s On Us Week will continue with a panel discussion on November 20 in

Humanities Fine Arts (HFA) 6 at 6 p.m. The panel will talk about the It’s On Us Cam-paign as well as feature a performance from the GiST student improve troupe. Organiz-ers of the event have stated that this event may contain trigger warnings. The week will conclude with a Green Dot Bystander Certi-fication Training on Saturday, November 22, in HF6 starting at 1 p.m.

For more information on the It’s On Us campaign as well as violence prevention pro-grams on campus, contact KiloMarie Granda at kmdunn or Kait Macheledt at mach0206. Students can also take the pledge by visiting itsonus.org.

Students Pledge to End Sexual Violence during National It’s On Us Week

Photo by Pengxeu ThaoThird-year Mariah Peterson, fourth-year Reed Larsen, and fifth-year Kait Macheledt table in the Student Center to provide resources for violence prevention and to encourage students to pledge against sexual assault.

Pengxeu Thao Editor-in-Chief

S tudents gathered this past Wednesday at an informative lecture sponsored by MPIRG and lead by Michael Dahl, who highlighted the

importance of tribal sovereignty and treaty rights in the face of expanding oil pipelines. Dahl is a com-munity organizer from Honor the Earth, an indig-enous environmental justice organization based out of the White Earth reservation in northern Min-nesota. As the oil booms in North Dakota and Can-ada continue, surrounding regions are now facing the possibility of oil pipeline expansions. Notable in Minnesota is the proposed Endbridge Sandpiper pipeline, which would carry oil from Clearbrook, Minn. to oil refineries in Superior, Wis.

Dahl, who has in the past described himself as “a protector, not a protestor,” started off by sharing how he became involved in the complex issue of oil pipeline expansions. Dahl was initially approached by Winona LaDuke, a notable Anishinaabe activist, two-time Green Party vice presidential candidate, and the founder of Honor the Earth. The pairing of LaDuke’s political connections and Dahl’s and oth-ers’ drive to preserve clean water and the spiritually and economically important wild rice beds on the reservation–and nearby ceded territory–have helped bring the issue of pipeline expansions and treaty rights to an audience beyond northern Minnesota.

Originally, the proposed Sandpiper pipeline was planned to cross much of northern Minnesota, but Dahl noted that this proposed route faced much re-sistance from the many indigenous communities in the region, who have strong concerns over pipeline leaks that may damage the integrity of the surround-ing environment. Instead, the pipeline was rerouted south, and the current proposed route crosses the northeastern corner of the White Earth reservation, in close proximity to the tribe’s major wild rice beds.

Additionally, much of the pipeline is also located on ceded territory, where tribes still retain the rights to hunt and gather. Dahl noted that, as a signatory to federal treaties, the federal government is legally ob-ligated to ensure these treaty-guaranteed rights are not infringed upon. Thus, treaty rights may be uti-

lized to protect ceded territories from environmen-tal risks that may interfere with traditional hunting and gathering. In addition to this, since tribes are regarded as sovereign nations, only the federal gov-ernment retains the right to negotiate directly with tribal governments, while corporations or states do not have any jurisdiction in this area.

Through his lecture, Dahl illustrated the impor-tance of this relationship with the federal govern-ment and how the use of treaty rights is an important tool that may be increasingly important to indige-

nous communities looking to prevent or delay pro-posed projects. Thus, White Earth may be setting an important precedent for similar environmental jus-tice struggles by continuing to exercise its sovereign-ty and treaty rights. Currently, the proposed Sand-piper pipeline has been delayed, with oil pumping set to begin in 2017, instead of the originally proposed timeline of winter 2015. Until then, indigenous ac-tivists in the region plan on continuing to strategize to delay the pipeline locally, before turning to the federal courts.

MPIRG hosts speaker covering the effects of oil pipelines in Northern/Central Minnesota Alayna Johnson Graphics Editor

Michael Dahl speaks about oil pipelines and their effects on wild rice harvests, precious freshwater resources and how treaty law can chal-lenge this. Photo by Pengxeu Thao