<
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/10/indigenous-nations-plan-tariff-free-trade-corridor-across-us-canada-border/>
"Just west of Fort Qu’Appelle in Saskatchewan, the Standing Buffalo Dakota
Nation is working across the US border to revive centuries-old trade routes as
part of a new Indigenous-governed trade corridor.
Trucks from the First Nation could soon be transporting food, furniture and
even critical minerals south of the border along ancestral pathways once used
to move buffalo hides and pemmican across the plains—without paying taxes or
tariffs.
For generations, Indigenous peoples freely exchanged goods, knowledge and
culture across the land that is now divided by the Canada–US border. Those
networks were disrupted by colonial laws that divided families and communities
but they are now being reimagined as a modern supply chain grounded in
Indigenous law and sovereignty.
“We’re operationalizing our old corridors—taking ancient trade routes our
elders told us about and articulating them in a modern context,” said Solomon
Cyr, spokesperson for Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation.
The First Nation plans to formalize its partnership with the Fort Peck Sioux
Tribes, in Montana, next week by signing a memorandum of understanding to
advance the trade corridor and its infrastructure development.
The corridor intends to use traditional routes traversing Dakota territories in
Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba and into the United States, reviving the
historic Oceti Sakowin trade network, a historic alliance of seven Dakota,
Lakota and Nakota Indigenous groups united by kinship, language and spiritual
beliefs. The shared trade routes historically facilitated economic and military
ties across their territories. “We have a lot of history, and even to this day,
ties linking us to our relatives,” said Rodger Redman, chief of the nation."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
