Kathleen Brosemer has been the Environmental Program Manager for the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians since 2010. She began working there just two months before Enbridge Line 6B spilled 1.2 million gallons of tar sands oil into Talmadge Creek in southern Michigan, evacuating members of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Odawa Indians and startling everyone in Michigan into paying attention to pipelines.

Her work fighting alongside tribal leadership to shut down Enbridge Line 5, a 66-year-old line that carries 23 million gallons per day along the shore of Lake Michigan and across the Straits of Mackinac, has led her into protests, governor’s offices, kayak flotillas, media scrums, water ceremonies, and most recently into Michigan Tech, where she’s working towards her PhD in Energy and Environmental Policy, anticipated in 2022. Her dissertation is on energy justice for the Anishnabek, a people that straddle the international border that was imposed during treaty times.

Her spirit name is Azhede-kwe, White Pelican Woman, after an elder who accompanied her to Standing Rock had a dream. In the dream, Kathie turned into a pelican to rescue a drowning child and return her to the people.