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Earlier this month, thousands of people held banners on the Minnesota Highway near the source of the Mississippi River during a dry and hot day across the state. The river started 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) from there. Journey to the Gulf of Mexico.
This is also where the Canadian company Enbridge plans to bury Line 3 pipelines.
The project is the largest in Enbridge’s history and will replace a 1,700-kilometer (1,000-mile) oil pipeline from Edmonton, Alberta, to Superior, Wisconsin—for many years, due to fears that it will exacerbate climate change The project has always aroused indigenous opposition to changes and violations of treaty rights.
On June 7, the same day as the parade, about 200 people set up tents on the platform built by the company and let heavy machinery roll over the swamp to prevent construction.
The other group blocked the road to the Embridge pumping station and locked themselves to the equipment. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter hovered about 20 feet above the pumping station, raising a cloud of dust and trying to clear the demonstrators.
“They exercised their treaty rights in that camp,” explained Bineshi Albert, organizer of the Indigenous Environmental Network, who traveled from Oklahoma to participate in the parade.
In the 1800s, the Ojibwe people signed 44 treaties with the U.S. government to create Minnesota and guarantee tribal hunting, fishing and wild rice (a sensitive sacred plant) rights. Now they say these rights are threatened by pipeline construction, oil spills and climate change.
The police arrested a total of 179 people, accusing them of trespassing, obstructing the public and illegal gatherings. The police posted photos showing vehicle tires deflated at the pumping station. Enbridge stated that 44 workers had been evacuated from the pumping station. The company said in a statement: “We respect everyone’s right to peacefully and legally protest, but intrusion, intimidation and destruction are not acceptable.”
Construction restoration
In early June, the Ojibwe people called on allies to join them, postpone the construction, and asked the administration of US President Joe Biden to cancel the Line 3 permit.
Biden Canceled the Keystone XL pipeline In his first week as president, the demonstrators wanted him to do the same for Line 3. Government officials met with opponents of Line 3 in private, but his government did not publicly resolve the demonstrations on Line 3.
After construction was interrupted in the spring, the work of replacing corroded and leaking oil pipelines was resumed this month. In Minnesota, the project opened a new route south of the original route, submerged under an undamaged waterway.
If completed, it will restore the original capacity of the pipeline, delivering 760,000 barrels of oil per day. This line will carry bitumen, which is a heavy oil that sinks in water and is difficult to clean up. Enbridge said the project will be completed by the end of this year.
From the company’s perspective, Line 3 has “passed every test” and completed a six-year regulatory process, including 70 public meetings, 13,500-page environmental impact reports, four reviews by administrative law judges, and 320 responses to stakeholders’ route modification inputs. But the project faces multiple legal challenges in its licensing.
Protest signs displayed at a camp against the Line 3 pipeline in Solway, Minnesota, June 8 [Nicholas Pfosi/Reuters]Wider movement
The demonstrations in Minnesota are related to a larger campaign against pipeline and extractive projects in North America.Both Canada and the United States are trying to use the law and boarding school Aboriginal cultures are wiped out, but indigenous peoples stick to their traditions and are reclaiming land. In particular, indigenous women are leading this movement because their teachings show that they have a sacred connection with water.
With growth Canadian oil sandsFor many years, the company has been trying to win the support of the indigenous communities to build or expand pipelines on their land. Although they have reached agreements with many people, others have refused.
This lack of consensus results in We’tsuwet’en blocked Their traditional territories block coastal GasLink pipelines, little house warriors Fighting cross-mountain expansion, And most notably, thousands of people gathered in Standing stone Oppose Dakota’s access to the pipeline.
Citizen disobedience is only a strategy for pipeline deployment; indigenous communities have also filed suits in courts and pressured banks to withdraw fossil fuels.While they are defending their rights, indigenous peoples are subject to surveillance, arrests and is convicted.
‘A clean playground’
As the demonstrations continued on June 8, Tania Aubid, a member of the Mille Lacs band in Ojibwe, stayed away from the crowd.
Instead, she moved into the sacred hut she built with the help of Winona LaDuke, the executive director of the indigenous justice non-profit organization Honor Earth. The hotel is located between the No. 3 pipeline route and the Mississippi River, trying to stop construction peacefully.
After she arrived, a live broadcast showed several policemen surrounding the building. Obid stated that her cabin is protected by the American Indian Religious Freedom Act and holds a letter from the 1855 Treaty Administration, which, on behalf of the beneficiaries of the 1855 treaty, confirms that the space is protected. A police officer wearing an Atkin County badge told her that she was breaking in without permission and said: “You know what you are doing is wrong.”
“Nothing wrong!” Obid responded.
The video showed the police officer making a phone call, and then he told Obid that she could stay. Al Jazeera sent questions about the incident to the Atkin County Sheriff and the Northern Lights Task Force (a law enforcement coalition responsible for overseeing the protests on Line 3), but none of them responded in time for publication.
Obid told Al Jazeera that she built the hut because it was important for her to hold the ceremony: “This is what my family and other indigenous people from these lands have been doing for thousands of years.” She said that she opposed the No. 3 pipeline because having a healthy environment and a “clean playground” is important for future generations.
In a protest against the Line 3 pipeline in Solway, Minnesota, indigenous leaders and activists participated in prayer at the source of the Mississippi River [Nicholas Pfosi/Reuters]Connection to the land
After a year of coronavirus health measures, vaccines have made a large number of protesters safer, civil disobedience and mass arrests have resumed, and the Biden administration’s attention to climate change has all brought people’s attention to the “Line 3” struggle.Interviews from celebrities and politicians, including Jane Fonda and Ilhan Omar It also helps.
Albert said people from all over the world — Honduras, Bangladesh, East Cherokee in North Carolina, and Navajo and Apaches in Arizona — participated in the June 7 parade in Minnesota.
Albert said on the phone: “The local community is very happy to see and feel the support of people from all over the country and around the world,” she and another organizer of the Indigenous Environment Network, Simone Senogles ( Simone Senogles) drove to a resistance camp with 200 people in a tent near the source of the Mississippi this week.
“For those who can do water activities in the Mississippi camp, this is regaining contact with the land,” Senogles said.
“This is a cure for us. In my opinion, this strategy is a very long-term thinking. We occupy the land and reclaim our food system, our rituals, our language, our relationship with the land, because That’s environmental protection. When you empower culturally capable indigenous people, the land will be healthy.”
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