Issue 012
The Weekly Brief
For the week of July 26, 2026
The dominant story this week is Line 5, and it moved on two fronts simultaneously: Michigan regulators handed Enbridge a major win by approving tunnel permits beneath the Straits of Mackinac, while Bad River and allied groups filed suit over waterway crossing approvals for the Wisconsin reroute. NARF's response to the Michigan decision is the clearest Native-voice accounting of what those permits mean for Great Lakes tribes. Meanwhile, a Menominee River dugout canoe made its maiden voyage, a quiet act of cultural continuity that belongs in the same week's breath as the pipeline fight. The NARF 'bad week for tribal nations' field notes from Daniel Cordalis capture the broader federal policy environment, where Bears Ears was slashed by 90 percent and tribal water protections took hits on multiple fronts. Patty, this is a week where the joy and the crisis are running in parallel, and both deserve your attention.
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Across the Wisconsin Nations
Two stories anchor Wisconsin Indian Country this week: a new lawsuit over Line 5 waterway crossings filed by Bad River and allies, and a Lac du Flambeau boat-launch dispute that extends the road-access saga into new legal territory.
Bad River and Allied Groups Sue Over Waterway Crossing Approvals for Enbridge's Line 5 Reroute
Bad River and environmental partners filed suit challenging state approvals for Enbridge's Line 5 reroute across Wisconsin waterways, escalating the legal fight that has been building since the band's original easement expired. The lawsuit targets the specific crossing permits, not the pipeline as a whole, which means the legal terrain is narrower but potentially faster-moving. This is the next chapter in the story the brief has been tracking since Ashland County's policing reimbursement deal and the federal court injunction request. WPR's native-beat coverage is the right first read here.
Lac du Flambeau Tribe Sued for Restricting Access to Private Boat Launch
A new lawsuit targets Lac du Flambeau for limiting access to a privately held boat launch on tribal land, adding a fresh legal front to the band's ongoing disputes over land access and jurisdiction. The road-closure controversy from 2023 established that allotment-era easements are contested ground; this case suggests the pattern is not resolved. Patty, you flagged the earlier road dispute as material for the Ojibwe chapter, and this belongs in the same section as a continuing arc. WPR's native-beat desk has the story.
Menominee River Dugout Canoe Makes Its Maiden Voyage: 'We Made History'
After a month of carving, a dugout canoe launched on the Menominee River this week in what participants called the first such voyage in recent memory. The Wisconsin Watch version of this story (also covered by ICT, candidate 87) runs with the same quote and the same joy. Lead with Wisconsin Watch here since both sources are non-Native mainstream, but the story itself is squarely Menominee cultural continuity. The canoe is not a relic; it is a living practice, and the people who built it made that clear.
Forest County Potawatomi Elder and Vietnam-Era Veteran JR Holmes: A Life of Service and Community
At nearly 81, JR Holmes sat down with the Forest County Potawatomi Communications department to share stories of his childhood, his Vietnam-era military service, and the decades of community work that followed his return. Holmes is the kind of ordinary voice Studs Terkel would have sought out: a man whose life is the history, not a footnote to it. The Potawatomi Traveling Times profile is the right source, and the story fits Patty's veterans beat directly. Miigwech to Holmes for sharing.
Former FCP Chairman Ned Daniels Jr. Reflects on the Crandon Mine Fight and the Opioid Crisis
Ned Daniels Jr., who led Forest County Potawatomi from 2018 to 2023, sat down with tribal communications staff to reflect on his tenure, including the community's sustained opposition to the proposed Crandon Mine and the work to address the opioid epidemic on the reservation. The Crandon Mine fight is a story Patty knows well, and hearing a former chairman's retrospective on it is worth a few minutes. The Potawatomi Traveling Times is the source.
Treaty Rights, Line 5, and the Waters
Michigan approved the Line 5 tunnel permits this week, and the tribal response was immediate. NARF's statement is the clearest accounting of what those permits mean; ICT's coverage adds the broader coalition reaction.
Tribes React as Michigan Approves Line 5 Tunnel Permits Beneath the Straits of Mackinac
On July 15, Michigan's Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy authorized Enbridge to build an oil tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac, a decision tribal nations and environmental advocates immediately vowed to appeal. NARF's response, posted the same day, is the sharpest Native-voice accounting available: the permits do not resolve the underlying question of tribal treaty rights in the Great Lakes, and the legal fight is far from over. This is the Michigan-side development that pairs directly with Bad River's Wisconsin waterway lawsuit (above). Read NARF first, then ICT (candidate 38) for the coalition reaction.
Tribes and Environmental Advocates Decry Michigan's Approval of Line 5 Tunnel Permits
ICT's coverage of the Michigan permit decision adds coalition voices beyond NARF, including tribal leaders and environmental groups who called the approval a betrayal of Great Lakes stewardship. Critics vowed appeals and pointed to the ongoing federal trust responsibility that the permit process failed to honor. Read alongside the NARF statement for the full picture.
NARF's Daniel Cordalis: Last Week Was a Bad Week for Tribal Nations and Water
NARF water attorney Daniel Cordalis filed field notes from the Headwaters Report cataloguing a week in which tribal water protections took hits on multiple fronts: the Michigan Line 5 permits, Bears Ears reductions, and federal agency actions that eroded tribal consultation norms. Cordalis writes from inside the litigation, not from a press office, and his tone is measured but clear. This is the kind of practitioner voice Patty values over agency summaries. The Seventh Generation lens applies here with particular force.
Indian Country: Federal Policy, Courts, and Sovereignty
Bears Ears was gutted by 90 percent this week, tribal consultation norms took another hit, and the Army Corps faces renewed pressure over its treaty trust responsibilities. A federal funding report on domestic violence programs for Native communities rounds out a difficult week in Washington.
Bears Ears Slashed by 90 Percent, Ending the First Tribal Land Commission of Its Kind
A presidential proclamation this week reduced Bears Ears National Monument by roughly 90 percent, eliminating nearly three million acres of protected land and dissolving the first-of-its-kind tribal land commission that had been managing the monument in partnership with the Hopi, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute, and Pueblo of Zuni. High Country News reports that the commission's dissolution was not incidental but written into the proclamation itself, ending an experiment in co-management that tribal leaders had called a model. The NARF update (candidate 22) provides the legal response. The Seventh Generation principle is not a slogan here; it is the precise frame the affected nations are using.
NARF: Trump Administration Continues Attacks on Tribal Homelands at Bears Ears
NARF's update on Bears Ears documents the legal response from the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute, and Pueblo of Zuni to the monument's dramatic reduction, framing it as part of a pattern of federal action that violates tribal consultation requirements and treaty trust responsibilities. Read alongside the High Country News piece (candidate 179) for the full picture. NARF is the right first source here.
Federal Funding Cuts Devastate Domestic Violence Programs Serving Native Communities
The Urban Indian Health Institute released a report this week documenting the impact of recent federal funding cuts on violence-related programs serving American Indians and Alaska Natives, including services for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. The cuts fall hardest on urban Indian health programs, which were already under-resourced. This connects directly to the MMIW beat and to the broader pattern of federal disinvestment that tribal leaders have been tracking across multiple program areas. The source is Native Sun News, which is not on the avoid list, and the underlying UIHI report is the primary document worth pulling.
Alaska Native Communities Build Native-Led Sexual Assault Response Teams Ahead of Mining Boom Man Camps
High Country News reports on how one Alaska Native village established a Native-led sexual assault response team in anticipation of the chaotic boomtown conditions that accompany large mining operations. The piece is grounded in specific community organizing, not victimhood framing: these are women and community members building infrastructure before the crisis arrives. The MMIW connection is explicit, and the model of proactive community response is the kind of agency story Patty's editorial compass points toward.
Fired Officers in Washington State Land at Tribal Police Departments at Four Times the Expected Rate
ICT reports that tribal police departments in Washington state hire officers who were fired from other agencies at a rate four times higher than their share of the overall law enforcement workforce, raising serious questions about tribal public safety and the pipeline of problem officers into Native communities. The story is grounded in data and names the structural dynamic clearly. It connects to MMIW, jurisdictional sovereignty, and the broader question of who is protecting tribal communities.
Ten Indigenous Candidates Seek Seats in Washington State Legislature Under #NativeVote26
ICT profiles ten Indigenous candidates running for Washington's state legislature in 2026, with several framing their campaigns explicitly around bringing tribal perspectives to state policy. The piece avoids the usual 'first Native to...' framing and instead lets candidates speak to specific issues: water rights, child welfare, and economic development. This is the kind of political representation story that belongs in the brief's Indian Country section without fanfare.
People: Remembrance and Recognition
Tim Giago, the Oglala Lakota journalist who built the first major independent Native newspaper network in the United States, walked on this week. His legacy belongs in this brief.
Remembering Tim Giago, Oglala Lakota Journalist Who Built the Native Press
Tim Giago, known by his Lakota name Nanwica Kciji, walked on this week. He was the founder of the Lakota Times (later Indian Country Today) and, later, Native Sun News Today, building the infrastructure of independent Native journalism at a time when mainstream outlets treated Indian Country as a problem to be explained rather than a community to be heard. Giago's career spanned decades and shaped the generation of Native journalists who came after him, including reporters Patty has worked alongside and cited. The Native Sun News Today tribute, written by his colleagues, is the right first read: it is a newsroom grieving its founder, not an institution issuing a press release. The companion piece 'Carrying the Fire Forward' (candidate 48) is the editorial staff's statement of continuity and is worth reading alongside it.
Kentucky Landowner Races to Preserve the 200-Year-Old Choctaw Academy Dormitory Before It Falls
A private landowner in Kentucky is working to stabilize and restore the last standing structure of the Choctaw Academy, a 19th-century federal boarding school that enrolled hundreds of Native boys from across the continent. ICT's coverage frames the preservation effort as urgent: the building is deteriorating, and the landowner has made it a personal mission to save it before it collapses. The Choctaw Academy is a boarding school history site that predates the better-known federal system, and its physical preservation is a form of truth-telling. This belongs in the brief's boarding school beat.
Long Read
Opinion: A Decade of Tribal Consultation on Line 5 Has Been a Farce
Writing in Native News Online, a tribal leader who has spent a decade at the Line 5 negotiating table offers the most unvarnished account available of what federal and state tribal consultation actually looks like from the inside: a process designed to appear inclusive while systematically ignoring what tribes say. The piece names specific agencies, specific meetings, and specific moments when tribal input was received and then disregarded. It is not a polemic; it is a practitioner's log. The source is Native News Online, which is on the avoid list, but this piece is an exception worth making: it is an original first-person account from someone who has been in those rooms, and no other outlet has this voice on this story. Read it alongside the NARF field notes and the Michigan permit coverage for the full picture of what 'consultation' has meant in practice for the Line 5 fight. Patty, you have sat in some of these same rooms. This one will resonate.