Since 2014, Tara Houska, Nancy Beaulieu, Dawn Goodwin, Taysha Martineau, Winnona LaDuke and hundreds of others have been fighting against the construction of the Line 3 pipeline in northern Minnesota. Though L3 has been running through Minnesota for a few decades, this is a proposed pipeline expansion to bring nearly a million barrels of tar sands per day from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin. This expansion will take tar sands through untouched wetlands, the treaty territory of Anishinaabe peoples, and the Mississippi River headwaters. These women, two spirit leaders and their allies have opposed the Canadian energy company Endbridge in courtrooms, in city council meetings, and on the front lines.
It’s a fight over the pipeline, yes. It’s also a fight for missing and murdered indigenous women–four Line 3 pipeline contractors have been arrested in sex trafficking stings this year alone. It’s also about honoring treaty rights of the Anishinaabe peoples and the sacrality of wild rice, integral to the creation stories of the Anishinaabe peoples. Finally, it’s a fight for the right for people to tell their own stories—and that’s a struggle that resonates deeply with me, as a writer. In solidarity with Anishinaabe peoples’ resistant story-tellers, I’ve tried to make a space for them here. What follows below are accounts of the fight over Line 3 shared by those who are directly impacted and directly on the ground as it has been unfolding during the last month.
July 7th, 2021
Two Indigenous Water Protectors Ascend Trees and Stop Line 3 Construction
(Lake Washburn, MN) Today, 2 Indigenous water protectors blockaded an Enbridge Line 3 worksite in tree sits directly anchored to the pipeline, while 2 others crawled into a pipeline segment. The sits follow 14 lockdowns at another Line 3 worksite last week, including one Indigenous matriarch.
Enbridge has begun drilling rivers across northern Minnesota, including the Willow River, where it appears construction hit an aquifer while drilling yesterday. Drilling mud was documented spreading into the river as a “spill kit” sat ashore.
Police repression has dramatically escalated in recent weeks, as Hubbard County sheriffs blockaded Namewag camp and continue to randomly issue citations since the initial riot line. One vehicle was cited while attempting a water delivery to the private property encampment.
Over 500 people have been arrested to date fighting Line 3 destruction of Anishinaabe treaty territory and expansion of the fossil fuel industry as climate crisis rages across the planet.
JD, White Earth Anishinaabe, said, “At this point it should be obvious why anyone would take action against the fossil fuel industry. The ocean is on fire, heat waves are killing people by the hundreds. We are in the middle of an extreme drought, our wild rice beds, lakes and rivers are drying up. And while they dig up our Mother for Line 3, the bodies of our relatives are being dug up from the grounds of boarding schools. They are people who were taken from us as children, who never got to have children of their own, to live their lives. I am thinking of generations of relatives that are not here with us. My elders, aunties, uncles, cousins, and peers I will never know on this Earth. But my Grandma survived and that’s why I am still here, proud to be Anishinaabe. These colonial governments have done everything they can to kill our land, kill our culture, kill our people, but they will never kill our spirit. We will never go willingly to our own destruction. So today I sit in the path of this pipeline, tomorrow it could be you.”
From inside the pipe, Water Protector Magpie said, “As a descendant of settlers, it’s my job to stand up to white supremacy, and doing what I can to disrupt projects like Enbridge’s Line 3, which perpetuates climate chaos and brings destruction and violence to Anishinaabe territory is part of that. We must do everything we can. We are running out of time.”
Courtesy of Giniw Collective
https://www.facebook.com/giniwcollective/photos/2888302888165631
July 19th, 2021
40+ #WaterProtectors with tribal members of the 1855 including Winona LaDuke and Horse Nations youth risking arrest protecting the Shell River where the @mndnr suspended water surface construction meanwhile Enbridge continues taking water while drilling.
Enbridge doesn’t follow the rules, no agency is regulating their destruction and neither does Sheriff’s from Blue Earth County (they’re far away from home), who doesn’t know these lands, and what is public park areas for the public vs. Enbridge easement on public land.
This is our home, these rivers are our family … Protect the Water …
Come to the Rivers: stopline3.org/hub or write President Biden at stopline3.org/biden urging him to #StopLine3, request a full federal EIS; it’s their duty.
Photos by Sarah LittleRedfeather
Courtesy of Honor the Earth
https://www.facebook.com/WinonaLaDukeHonorTheEarth/photos/4098925973561154
July 20th, 2021
We woke up in camp this morning to the sound of heavy machinery and construction. A large police presence. Smoky skies and an air quality warning from wildfires across the northern U.S. and Canada that makes it hard to see and breathe.
RLTC is located on the Red Lake River, next to where Enbridge is planning to do the longest drill-based river crossing on the pipeline route. And as of this morning, the day we’ve been preparing for these last long months has arrived.
ENBRIDGE IS PREPARING TO DRILL NEXT TO RED LAKE TREATY CAMP RIGHT NOW.
They are bringing equipment and constructing the drill pad on the easement alongside camp. Noise is everywhere. The moment is now.
From Sasha, RLTC camp leader: “As a woman and indigenous leader who has been messed with by the police, I’m a target. They are going to try and get me out of the way. So we need allies to come and stand with us now. This is a battlefield.”
Courtesy of Red Lake Treaty Camp
https://www.facebook.com/redlaketreatycamp/photos/218025430206757
July 21st, 2021
“Today just a few miles from the headwaters of the Mississippi River, enbridge spilled drilling chemicals. This chemical cocktail-the public isn’t allowed to know exactly what’s in it- is a grey slime that can suffocate marine animals, coat the bottom of the River, destroying habitats, and killing our water. All the proline 3 Minnesotans- please think again. Our precious rivers our precious waters. This is a travesty, a crime against life.” – #StopLine3 President Joe Biden and where’s the MN DNR? They should be monitoring Enbridge not Water Protectors
Courtesy of Honor the Earth
https://www.facebook.com/WinonaLaDukeHonorTheEarth/photos/a.1848405328613241/4104029159717502/
July 23rd, 2021
This morning, Water Protectors blocked pullback of Line 3 pipeline under Crow Wing River by locking to drill!
Are you listening President Joe Biden U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Headquarters? Our wild rice, the Mississippi River headwaters call out. There have already been 9 spills of construction chemicals. We will not stop. The sacred is on the line.
Find your bravery, join us!
Courtesy of Giniw Collective
https://www.facebook.com/giniwcollective/photos/a.2083843265278268/2900167336979186/
July 23rd, 2021
Restraining order GRANTED against Hubbard County Sheriff — Hubbard County can no longer blockade our driveway or issue citations for us using our driveway. Turns out blocking people into their private home is illegal, even when you’re backed by a giant fossil fuel company like Enbridge.
Fuck state repression, fuck state violence
***The newly erected blockade at Red Lake Treaty Camp has ended, over 20 arrested today and multiple tribal members denied right of access to their treaty land.
Courtesy of Giniw Collective
https://www.facebook.com/giniwcollective/photos/a.2083843265278268/2900223263640260/
July 24th, 2021
Alex Rose Golden Wolf, Two Spirit Indigenous Leader of the White Earth Nation from Camp Migizi was violently arrested during ceremony on Treaty lands at The Red Lake Treaty camp, as a staff carrier they were unlawfully removed before the completion of ceremony, Law Enforcement tore open their shirt, and pulled them close by their waist band, Alex is a survivor of both, physical, sexual and domestic assault, the way they were arrested was intimately violent, and even sexually violent. Throwing them to the ground before the completion of ceremony, they violated their Treaty rights, as well as the American Indian Religious freedom act. We need people to come take a stand and protect our Women as they defend our Water #stopLine3
Courtesy of Camp Migizi
https://www.facebook.com/MigiziWillFly/photos/a.107172221348993/201322665267281/
July 25th, 2021
The oppressor at our throat, like dogs barking, Make way for the snake. They told us, “You are all under arrest, sit down now.” If I didn’t back down from members of my home community, who do you think you are to demand that I take a seat? Do you believe your L rads are anything compared to the sound of our Ancestors cheering everytime we take a stand? Do you think your less than lethals hold power against an Eagle Staff? Do you believe your zip ties stand level with the bonds we have built? You have no power here, you hold no jurisdiction, we are proof that they could not Kill the Indian. We are the prayers of our Ancestors made flesh, the Warrior will rise again, Migizi will fly.
Courtesy of Camp Migizi
https://www.facebook.com/MigiziWillFly/photos/a.107172221348993/201942491871965/
July 27th, 2021
White Earth Tribal Official orders Enbridge to Cease-and-Desist
Drilling for Line 3 Construction at the Mississippi River Headwaters
Construction stopped at Mississippi Headwaters for 48 hours
Ray Auginash, White Earth tribal official, issued a cease and desist letter to Enbridge construction workers at the Line 3 pipeline crossing near the Headwaters of the Mississippi River. The letter called on Enbridge to halt construction at the site for two days for Indigenous water protectors to exercise their treaty rights and hold a ceremony for the water. Indigenous water protectors and non-Native allies, led by the RISE coalition, then began that ceremony of healing and protection for the river, which was harmed by the recent spill at the site.
Ray Auginash, District I Representative for the White Earth Reservation Business Committee, spoke of their actions saying, “We are here as a peaceful people. We care about our water, we care about our rice.”
During their gathering at the headwaters, the assembled water protectors sent off a group of runners from the Standing Rock, Fort Peck, and Cheyenne River tribes who are running from Standing Rock along the Line 3 pipeline route in a healing prayer run. The runners were at the Red Lake Treaty Camp on Sunday and stopped at the headwaters before heading on to the next camp.
Last week, Enbridge’s new Line 3 pipeline was responsible for another spill into Minnesota’s waters. On Tuesday, water protectors discovered a “frac-out,” or an accidental release of drilling mud and chemicals, into the headwaters of the Mississippi. Striking photos show the harm the spill has already caused the fragile wetland ecosystem. A similar spill was discovered earlier this month at the Willow River.
Audrey Thayer, in attendance at the ceremony, said, “I am an enrolled member of White Earth Nation and sit on the Bemidji City Council. This isn’t about politics, it’s about water. We are all neighbors. Today is about the water and the wild rice and the sovereign rights of our tribal nations.”
The RISE coalition’s actions at the headwaters have also called attention to Anishinaabe treaty rights. In June, the group led an 8 day occupation of Enbridge’s easement at the headwaters called Camp Firelight. Although they were allegedly “trespassing” on Enbridge property, Indigenous water protectors continued to assert their treaty rights to be on their ancestral lands.
Justin Keezer, a White Earth community member said, “We want people to understand that we have agreements between our Government and the US Government. Those are treaties. We have rights that are guaranteed, to hunt, fish, gather, travel, and practice our religion.”
Courtesy of RISE Coalition
https://www.facebook.com/RISEandEngage/photos/a.466228284759285/585576559491123/
July 30th, 2021
Dozens of Water Protectors and Tribal Members Flow Into Line 3 Drilling Site Under Red Lake River met with “less-than-lethal” and chemical warfare
(Theif River Falls, MN) Yesterday, dozens of BIPOC water protectors and tribal members flowed into the drill pad on the Red River, where Enbridge is set to complete pullback against the will of Red Lake Nation. Half a dozen Indigenous and BIPOC water protectors scaled fences and others blockaded a gate into the site as allies helped hold space.
Water Protectors were maced, tear gassed, shot with rubber bullets, & pepper bullets.
The mass action comes as another spill was reported on the Mississippi River headwaters, where Enbridge has continued to drill despite a temporary halt buffer zone issued by White Earth Nation.
Last week, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, along with numerous representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers, met with two Anishinaabe nations, tribal representatives, and land defenders to tour portions of Line 3 construction, wild rice beds, and spill sites. The Army Corps and the White House remain silent.
“If those who can stop Line 3 will not take action, we will,” said Tara Houska, Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe land defender. “This is our land, our wild rice, our culture, our future we are defending.Human beings are literally destroying life with our addiction to the status quo of overconsumption. We have to be brave. We have to stand strong. We have to try. Actions, not words.”
“I’m standing in opposition of industrial development of my treaty territory by a foreign corporation,” said John Shimek, Red Lake Nation. “An estimated 20% of the freshwater supply left on the planet exists in my treaty territory, it’s my obligation to protect it for my children and all future generations.”
Twenty people were arrested and are currently being held in Pennington county till Monday.
Courtesy of Giniw Collective
https://www.facebook.com/giniwcollective/photos/a.2083843265278268/2905165216479398/