Audrey Thayer has lived on or near the Leech Lake reservation since 1989, and her family has lived in Bemidji for three generations. For the past 10 years Thayer has been a college instructor at Leech Lake Tribal College. Before that she taught at Bemidji State University, worked for the U.S. Indian Health Service in the Bemidji area, organized and coordinated the Greater Minnesota Racial Justice Project (ACLU-MN), and served as an In-Home Family Therapist through Beltrami County Health and Human Services. She has sat on numerous city committees, and believes strongly in giving back to her community through public service.
She will prioritize initiatives to improve the quality of life for all of Bemidji’s residents, focusing on creating safe communities, protecting clean water, ensuring community oversight of law enforcement, and practicing good fiscal management by city government.
Audrey M. Thayer on fossil fuel infrastructure and the Enbridge Line 3 tar sands pipeline:
“If elected, I will vote no. Councils do not dance with corporations that support Line 3. Just this week I was heading over to my home reservation to be with family. I traveled through Clearwater County. This is the hub of white nationalists for northern Minnesota and supporters of Line 3. My mind raced with the thought of how we can generate the change of heart so everyone knows that the land they stick their signs in will be destroyed if we continue with projects such as Line 3.
“It is imperative that those, like me, that believe that we do not need corporations in our communities that destroy our earth mother say so. It is a hard road. You are asking people to stop thinking about consumerism vs the sacredness of our land. It is all our land. For us, it is existing in an area of the state that is filled with poverty, the lack of good education, and resistance to change. I support all indigenous and landowner opposition to any pipeline. I will support and encourage constituents’ concerns and needs over corporations.”
