 Credit: G.Sabel, Oct 7, 2020, when the river level was low and you could walk on the river bottom The Project: The Upper Lock and the land around it is currently owned by the federal government via the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Upper Lock was constructed in 1959 to allow commercial barges to navigate over the Falls, upriver to Upper Harbor Terminal. The Lock closed to commercial navigation in 2015 to halt the upriver spread of invasive carp. For more than 60 years, this iconic site on Minneapolis’s Central Riverfront has been fenced off with limited public access. The site is a barrier, not a gateway, to the River. The vision for Owámniyomni is to transform five acres at the Upper Lock into a place of healing, restoration, education, and connection. The river will be made accessible to people from its bank, so all people can touch the water without impediment, and the area along the riverbanks will be transformed from hardscapes to tall grass prairie, lowland forest, oak savannah, and traditional plants. The project is now in Season Two, with work projected to be complete in this part of the transformation by the end of 2027. The Goal: Owámniyomni Okhódayapi's goal is to create a place where Native and non-Native people feel welcome; where Dakota history, language, and culture are visible and celebrated; and where communities can come together to heal. Done right, this process can provide a model for how non-profits, municipalities, and other entities can respectfully partner with Tribal Nations and honor their inherent sovereignty.
The Mississippi is a river and is ever changing as flood and drought shape the river and it's relationship to the land along it's banks. Owámniyomni Okhódayapi's website shows pictures of the river as it was when Europeans first arrived in what is now called Minneapolis, and how the area changed over the years to meet the demands of the growing industry there. Dams were built and rebuilt, with tunnels and raceways to harness the power of the river to run lumber and grain mills. To Native people, these activities were a desecration, incompatible with a world view in which the River is a spirit and a mother, and in which all living natural things are our relatives. The project being undertaken here will bring back Dakota values to this area and begin the process of healing.
 In LWV UMRR's December 4 meeting, Exploring the Idea of a Mississippi River Compact, one of the speakers – Minnesota Senator John Hoffman - brought in a surprise guest, Alexandra Campbell-Ferrari*. Alexandra is co-founder of the Center for Water Security and Cooperation, and is working with the MRCTI to lay the foundation for a Mississippi River Compact. In this interview, Alexandra shared her vision and plan for this work. Alexandra and her colleague, Luke Wilson, started the Center for Water Security and Cooperation in 2015. A non-profit organization, the CWSC works with governments and nonprofits to write laws to evaluate the effectiveness of laws, all focused around trying to achieve water security and universal access to water and sanitation. The CWSC’s mission is to advance water security and cultivate cooperation by building a unified body of laws, policies, practices, and standards that ensure the availability of water for current and future generations, and a peaceful, stable, and vibrant global society. In a recent meeting with LWV UMRR Board members, Alexandra talked about the work CWSC is undertaking with the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative. Here’s that story, in her own words: “About 8 years ago, the CWSC was invited to a meeting hosted by the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI). The Mayors wanted to explore unique approaches to managing the Mississippi River, and they were interested in the role that the law could play, particularly an interstate water compact. . At the time, I had just written a law review article that discussed how interstate water compacts are these underutilized legal mechanisms for protecting environmental resources. Our laws don't often recognize that water is fluid. It runs across multiple jurisdictions which requires a different approach to management, one which doesn’t stop at borders. To me, the interstate water compact is this phenomenal tool that we don’t use enough. Last September, MRCTI’s mayors voted to support pursuing this idea of an interstate water compact. So, with the help of MRCTI’s mayors, we came up with a game plan and developed an agreement that showcases the work local and tribal leaders are doing to protect the Mississippi River.” So what is the plan of action for actually getting to that interstate water compact? There are some existing compacts that can be a model. A compact for a river system as big as the Mississippi is a big lift, but the MRCTI was a great place to start. The Mayors are really interested in a compact – now is the time to use their collective capacity, interest and power to get something done. Back to Alexandra’s telling: “The Mississippi River Local and Tribal Leaders Agreement was drafted to do that, to give the Mayors, Tribal and other local leaders a foundation to think about: What are we doing to protect the Mississippi River? What more could we be doing? And what more could we be doing in collaboration with other communities? The mayors on MRCTI’s Executive Committee voted to join the agreement in December 2024, and since then more and more mayors and tribal leaders have joined on behalf of their individual communities. We’re planning a formal signing ceremony for March 2025 to coincide with MRCTI’s yearly meeting in Washington D.C.“ Work is now ongoing to get more Mayors interested in the agreement. Below is a copy of the agreement – the first two pages are a fact sheet and the remainder is the text of the agreement. The agreement asks signatories to commit to undertaking 3-5 commitments about what they can do to protect the Mississippi River, either on their own or in collaboration with other local leaders. Watch the LWV UMRR blog for updates as this progresses. *Alexandra is a graduate of Bucknell University. Read more about her in this Earth Day article in the Spring 2024 Bucknell Magazine. |
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