Above photos by Sarah LittleRedfeather, Keri Pickett, Marian Moore and Winona LaDuke.
Manidoo Giizisoons 7, 2020
Water Protector Chronicles, by Winona LaDuke
We are near Palisade. That’s our closest town- population l67. It’s the middle of a wetland of Labrador teas, medicines, wild rice in abundance. This is where people have lived for thousands of years, and this is also the place where Enbridge wants to put a 915,000 barrel a day tar sands pipeline.
December 7 was a day of many experiences. The Enbridge company has been going gangbusters munching through the north woods. The equipment is brutal, large bull dozers, excavators, feller bunchers, and a slew of equipment intended to destroy forests, and ecosystems.
“They can wipe out a forest in a very short amount of tie, cutting maybe ten trees a minute,” Grumbles, a Water Protector explains.
Indeed, the machines look like they are walking through the forest. A path of destruction, really. Enbridge is doing this throughout the north country, cutting a swath of land, but particularly towards waterways- the Crow Wing, the Shell, the Willow and the Mississippi.
Drone photo by Alex - CEO at NewEra4k
They intend to get through all their water crossings, as soon as possible. Enbridge wants to get things done before a court hearing.
There is a lodge. That’s to say, a Waaginoogan, a teaching lodge of Anishinaabe people on the west shore of the Mississippi River. Last week, we returned to our Waaginoogan, and found that a stake in the heart of it.. That stake was from Enbridge, and marked the pipeline. In the heart of the Lodge. We danced and had good ceremonies. It was clear that Enbridge had been back.
Then, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources came.
Manidoo Giizisoons 7, Little Spirit Moon.
A good day for the Rivers, Another day when they are protected.
On December 7, we were informed that the Army Corps of Engineers informed the White Earth Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, that a Stop Work Order was in place at this location where Waaginoogan, or Anishinaabe lodge on the banks of the Mississippi. Army Corps of Engineers will be working with the White Earth Tribal Historic Preservation Officer.
We were informed that construction would not occur on the site until a State Historic Preservation Officer and the White Earth Tribal Historic Preservation officer were able to come to the site.
It will be interesting to see how a discussion on what’s a significant cultural place occurs in place at this location of the l855 treaty - Chippewa of the Mississippi Band, the process of a potential discovery has begun.
Aitken County seems to be the place where much is happening on Line 3. It makes sense- some of the most pristine river crossings, the Willow, the Pine and the Mississippi.
It has been issued for the continuation of the pipeline on the west bank of the Mississippi River, “The process of potential discovery has begun.“
This means that, for the day, or a few days, at least, Enbridge would not be able to tear apart the forest limb for limb that is meant that a prayer lodge would stay on the banks of the Great River of the Mississippi.
Meanwhile on Julia Nerborne, Buff Grace, Allen Richardson, and a couple of others, six in total were cited for trespassing under the newly designated Exclusion Zone.
The exclusion zone prepared by the Department of Natural Resources was created on Friday, under ordinance 609.605, and is being used to arrest Water Protectors in Aitken County.
That’s the same ordinance that I was charged with the day before on Saturday, December 5th.
The River had moved from slow moving ice drifts to a jam of ice.
I’ve been told that the Enbridge Cultural Resources Monitor came to the lodge and called it an “Unanticipated Discovery”.
We are not sure that person was, they are a Tribal Cultural Monitor employed by the Fond du Lac band under a contract with Enbridge. Because two Ojibwe grand mothers built the lodge, they felt that a Cultural Resources person should actually speak with the people who made the lodge, and made the ceremonies in the lodge.
“We waited for Enbridge’s Cultural Resources Monitor to come for two days, and never saw them. We still haven’t seen them,” Tania Aubid one of the grandmothers said.
Meanwhile: Water Protectors are Everywhere
Meanwhile near Hill City, pipe liners have moved into the former Quadna resort where Texas and Utah plates are in abundance. Around thirty Water Protectors with banners and signs stood on the Enbridge Easement.
They are all ages, some elders some college aged students.
Some held signs, others banners. “Stop Line 3”, Water is Life, Stand with Indigenous People,” and had come from all over.
Those folks with Water Protector signs were met with about ten sheriffs from Aitken and Itasca County, DNR Law Enforcement and Highway Patrol. They had a rifle that shot rubber bullets, there were a few with riot gear, some tasers, and one had a big club. That was a State Highway patrolman, and he left early. The crowd dispersal order was given, citing the use of civil disturbance agents and crowd control conditions.
These tactics could include the use of rubber bullets, mace, teargas, flash grenades and other extremely militarized tactics on civilians. In this case, people who are protecting water from a Canadian corporation.
“One person locked down on an excavator,” to prevent it from further harming the water and destroying the planet. “
WATER IS LIFE
To be clear, Enbridge has received water permits to move 636,900,000 gallons out of Minnesota Lakes, rivers and wetlands in order to put in a pipeline with the dirtiest oil in the world through the wetlands and lakes of Minnesota.
We will not back down … #StopLine3
RECAP from the weekend of December, 4-6th
On Friday, Anishinaabekwewag Dawn Goodwin (Rice Lake, White Earth), Tania Aubid (East Lake Mille Lacs) and Winona LaDuke (White Earth, Round Lake) - all Mississippi Band Anishinaabe were at the Waaginoogan, located at the Mississippi River crossing of the Enbridge pipeline. We were joined by State Representative Mary Kunesh, Cloquet City Council Representative, Lyz Jakola ,and a number of prominent church, organizational and media representatives.
Dawn Goodwin was overcome with the violence of the clearcutting for the line, and began to weep and pray. She sat down, and the equipment stopped.
This meant non-construction workers. Asked if that also meant Anishinaabe women who had a lodge by the river, the answer was unclear. I also asked for a map of the exclusionary zone, and was told that could be forthcoming, but that the exclusion zone would be where the signs were placed .
Enbridge is required by the conditions of their permit to have a cultural resources person move ahead of the construction to insure that there is no cultural resources destroyed.That person is a tribal cultural monitor. There was no such person who appeared. Initially the Aitken County Sheriff was told that Tribal Cultural Monitor would appear within fifteen minutes then within a half hour, then not today. No such Tribal Cultural Monitor appeared.
Enbridge focused their research on archaeological sites, lacking any acknowledgement of present Anishinaabe people and the fact that Anishinaabe culture is a continuum, and did not stop 400 years ago.
The lodge before there were any markings of the easement as allocated by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to the Enbridge corporation.
The next morning, Saturday, December 5th Winona LaDuke and Tania Aubid returned to their Lodge. There was no posting of an exclusionary zone.
At around ll:00AM, the Department of Natural Resources posted an exclusionary zone. At that time there were a number of Anishinaabe in the exclusionary zone.
Seven or eight DNR officials with Aitken County law enforcement came and warned us, saying that we had to leave the exclusionary zone or face arrest. I remained in the Waaginoogan, and asked that Tania and I could continue praying. We were allowed to pray for about fifteen minutes (interrupted). All except Winona, left. Winona was told she would be charged, and walked up the right of way with the Aitken County deputies.
Come see the rivers, and the lands in the north where Enbridge is destroying the land for a pipeline that has been long opposed. Come and pray with us at the rivers.
Come prepared. Make sure you dress warm, and be COVID safety prepared.
There is a Welcome Water Protectors Map. Click below to check it out.