David Greendeer is making an effort to preserve nature from destruction at the hands of humankind.

He is working to develop “The Rights of Nature,” as expressed in a resolution at the 2016 Ho-Chunk General Council meeting.

Greendeer spoke before Ho-Chunk members at the District I Area Meeting on March 8 to let everyone know what is being proposed.

The Legislature needs to amend the Election Code so that “The Rights of Nature” can be placed on a Secretarial Election. If the Legislature can amend the code, it is possible that it will be on a Secretarial Election sometime this summer, Greendeer said. If passed, the amendment to the Constitution will give waterways, air, soils, plants and animals the right to exist.

This right would provide backing to resist developing frac sand mines, pipelines, high voltage transmission lines.

Greendeer is the Official Tribal representative for the Indian Country Infrastructure and Energy Workgroup of the Department of Energy; the Negotiated Rule Making Team Representative for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); the BIA Roads Team and the Mairakara Workgroup.

In the past, the Ho-Chunk Nation made agreements with American Transmission Company for rights given to them when the Nation was constructing dwellings. Now those agreements are coming back to haunt the Nation in that it gives away certain rights now.

Greendeer cited that diabetes and cancer among Ho-Chunk people is on the rise.

“Food and water is being affected by power grids and pollution of our water because of industrialization,” he said.

As he is leaving office soon, having decided not to run for another term as legislator, he will be meeting with President Cleveland soon to establish how the effort will continue.

Greendeer said he recently walked along the “Line 66” pipeline route to view what is being done and how it will affect people.

Enbridge’s “Line 66” could be built parallel to Line 61 that runs from Superior to Pontiac, Ill. Enbridge surveyed land for the project starting in 2014, but aren’t saying how much land they would need outside the existing 80-foot corridor. The proposed Line 61 expansion project will carry around 1.2 million barrels of tar sands crude a day, more than Keystone XL, a proposed pipeline by TransCanada Corporation that had its application rejected by President Barack Obama last November.

Greendeer discovered that many mounds, including those newly discovered, are in danger of being damaged or destroyed and that the proposed pipeline is planned to go through those sacred sites.

“Do you think we have a chance?” one woman at the meeting asked.

“Absolutely,” Greendeer said. “We will always be here and as long as we are here, we have a chance. When we can no longer pray, that’s the end of our world.”

Speaking on the subject was Mari Margil, associate director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund of Mercersburg, Penn.

Margil said that she has worked with the Lac du Flambeau, so she does have some knowledge of tribal environmental rights in Wisconsin.
She is looking at the General Council resolution to include the Rights of Nature to be included in the Ho-Chunk constitution.

“If you are successful, you would be the first tribal nation in the world to do this – to ensure that the streams and trees and soil have rights, too. Other nations are watching you to see if they can follow.”

“This is like the Dr. Seuss story, ‘The Lorax.’ Who speaks for the trees? At present, we cannot speak for the rights of the forest or water because there are no written rights. At present, there is no right for a river to be a river,” she said.

There are mounds that have newly been cataloged mounds near Nekoosa and a pipeline is planned to go through that area, she said.

“Think about the struggle and the fight. You control your own destiny,” she said. It is important to join forces with other tribes to accomplish what needs to be done.

The Anishinaabe holds an annual meeting and, for the first time, Ho-Chunk representatives came to the meeting in Duluth.

“They are proposing to us to sign on to do environmental assessments so that, combined, class action lawsuits can be filed. Otherwise, we could be destroyed doing small lawsuits,” she said.

Marcus Lewis questioned if it is hypocrisy to be seeking rights of nature when the Ho-Chunk Nation does business with companies that are damaging the environment.

Greendeer said that the Nation currently is looking into that issue.

Greendeer was questioned if a committee could be started and if he would lead that committee. He said that a list of people’s names should be started, people who are willing to work on this bill.

“We can’t mimic state or federal law,” Greendeer said. “We have to create our own laws.”