Great Lakes

MSU ILPC Conference — Treaty Waters at Risk: Tribal Sovereignty and the Line 5 Challenge in the Great Lakes — April 17, 2026

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Photo credit: Owen Singel-Fletcher

Registration here.

Join us at MSU Law for Treaty Waters at Risk: Tribal Sovereignty and the Line 5 Challenge in the Great Lakes, a one-day conference on Friday, April 17, 2026, examining the legal and environmental stakes of energy infrastructure in treaty-protected waters.

Featuring a keynote by Whitney Gravelle, MSU Law and ILPC alumna and President of the Bay Mills Indian Community, the program brings together leading voices to discuss treaty rights, co-management, and the ongoing Line 5 conflicts at Bad River and the Straits of Mackinac.

Michigan Public Service Commission Requests More Information re: Enbridge Line 5 Tunnel

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here:

U-20763_07-07-22 – Finalized.pdfDownload
Elizabeth LaPensée

Tribal brief here.

Keep the UP Wild: The Environmental Law and Policy Center (ELPC)

gabrielagendreau

Keep the UP Wild

The Environmental Law and Policy Center (ELPC) and their Michigan partners are currently working on a project to designate four areas in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula as federal Wilderness areas – three new areas and one addition to an existing Wilderness area.

View a brief project memo describing this effort as well as the current crop of Existing Michigan Wilderness Areas in the state. Please visit their project website which lists the more than 125 existing organizations already supporting this effort. Indigenous voices, tribes, and the broader business community have been two of their highest prioritizations on this project.

Bay Mills Indian Community Continues Fight Against Line 5-Petition to Intervene in MI Public Service Commission Proceedings

Kate Fort

BayMills_EnbridgeLine5_Release

2020-05-11 U-20763 Petition to Intevene by Bay Mills (Cover ltr+POS)

2020-05-13 U-20763 Comments of Bay Mills Indian Community + Attachments A-F (cover ltr +POS)

Save the Date: Coming Together of Peoples Conference, University of Wisconsin Law School, March 6 & 7, 2020

Andrew Adams III

ILSA.SavetheDate.2020

Click here for more information.

Bridge Magazine: “Before debates, Gretchen Whitmer urges Democrats to protect Great Lakes”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

Community Forum: 40 Years after the Fox Decision (June 3, 2019)

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here (fox-decision-flyer.pdf):

JoAnne Cook: “Water Is the Essence of Life”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here, on the FLOW site.

An excerpt:

The Anishinaabek, who are the Indigenous people from the Great Lakes area, are born with an innate sense of our connection to everything around us. We feel the connection between us and all things in creation, whether it’s people, plants, or animals. We feel it in everything that is part of our Mother, the Earth. There is knowledge about creation and how it fits together and in balance. It isn’t easily expressed into words, as it is a way of thinking and being. We, the Anishinaabek, understand that living in balance with all things is what we seek. As caretakers of the Earth, we use what we need and strive to ensure it is there for the next seven generations. 

News Profile on Line 5 and Tribal Treaty Rights

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is “‘We were here first’: Tribes say Line 5 pipeline tunnel ignores treaty rights.”

Michigan Radio Articles on Line 5

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is “Commenters oppose new Line 5 anchor supports, accuse state of ignoring concerns.”

And “Animation: Watch Line 5 accumulate 147 anchor supports in 16 years.“