The Shell River 7
JACKSON BROWNE’S VERSION OF “I AM A PATRIOT” FRAMES NEW ANTI-LINE 3 SHORT MUSIC VIDEO THE “SHELL RIVER SEVEN,” URGES OFFICIALS TO DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST WATER PROTECTORS AND THE PUBLIC TO CONTINUE SUPPORTING EFFORTS TO STOP LINE 3.
The Enbridge Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline may be operational in northern Minnesota, but efforts to raise more awareness, funds and efforts to stop it continue to inspire. Now the singer-songwriter Jackson Browne’s impassioned version of “I Am A Patriot” (written by Steven Van Zandt, actor, songwriter and legendary E Street band member of Bruce Springsteen’s group) serves as the musical frame to tell part of the Line 3 resistance story in a new documentary short music video by Honor the Earth media makers and award-winning director Keri Pickett.
The new music video -- “Shell River Seven #StopLine3” -- features seven courageous women* (including one journalist) who refused on a hot 2021 summer of drought day, in northern Minnesota, to get off the Line 3 construction easement on the Shell River near Park Rapids, Minnesota. All were eventually arrested.
Directed and edited for Honor the Earth by veteran photographer and filmmaker Keri Pickett, it was filmed by Honor the Earth’s River Akemann and Sarah LittleRedfeather and others. The fast-paced film captures the stand-off at the river’s edge, told with moving documentary footage and short descriptive captions. Driven by Browne’s repeated proclamations about how “the river opens for the righteous,” pairs beautifully with the video’s poignant view of Water Protectors peacefully facing off with police, resulting in another moving chapter in the Line 3 saga. It also encourages viewers to urge public officials to "Drop the Charges" and to donate to a legal defense fund.
Last spring, Pickett, Akemann, LittleRedfeather and songwriter and activist Larry Long teamed up with a host of Indigenous artists, like Pura Fe, Soni Moreno, plus Bonnie Raitt, Mumu Fresh, The Indigo Girls and U.S. National Poet Laureate, Joy Haro, to create the Rock the Cause single and documentary short music video, “No More Pipeline Blues” (On This Land Where We Belong)." To date, that work has been championed and shown at more than 10 film festivals around the world.
“’I Am A Patriot’ is one of Winona’s favorite songs so this cool Jackson Browne and Steven Van Zandt partnership opportunity seemed the perfect way to show how her ‘grannie sit-in’ and arrest on the Shell River which to me, makes her a patriot, especially since she had a Treaty Camp there for months.” notes Pickett. “Even though I wasn’t there on the day of her arrest, I was moved by the documentation of the brave actions of the Water Protectors and so honored to be able to share the story of the ‘Shell River Seven’ thanks to all the media makers present that day. As a visual artist, Winona’s response to Enbridge Energy’s bad ideas has been the center of my focus for eight years now, and each year my respect and honor grows for Water Protectors actively working to protect the water. I hope hearts will be changed by this new film.”
“We’re so honored and grateful to Jackson Browne for allowing us to use his powerful song about freedom and love of country to help tell the story of how a Canadian pipeline company, Enbridge, has corrupted our lands and waters with a polluting tar sands pipeline that is the equivalent of 50 coal-fired power plants,” adds LaDuke, who spent three days in jail after being cuffed with a zip-tie at the Shell River.
“More than 1,000 people were arrested as they sought to Stop Line 3 as it runs under 22 rivers and more than 200 water bodies, including the Mississippi River twice!” she added. “During the construction, Enbridge breached an aquifer in January 2021 but covered it up. Since then there have been 28 frac-outs and two other aquifer breaches, the locations of which have yet to be identified by state authorities. This emboldened new music video is a testament to Water Protectors who regularly put their lives on the line at time when climate crisis is here and the planet is under a Code Red.”
*”The Shell River Seven” include:
•Winona LaDuke
•Mary Katherine Klein
•Patrisha Jean Weber
•Cheryl Lynn Barnds
•Kelly R. Maracle
•Barbara Lee With
•K. Flo Razowsky (journalist/photographer)
Press Release for I am a Patriot video
"We put our bodies on the line because ALL lives are on the line. I have grandsons and I would like them to be grandparents. That can’t happen without clean water because nothing lives without water." — Kelly Maracle, Seneca/Mohawk Water Protector, “New York”
“We stand for the water and all our relatives. We stand against fossil fuels and corporate greed.” — Mary Klein, Water Protector, daughter, sister, auntie, gardener and seasonal worker, California
"After fighting the regulatory capture taking place in Wisconsin for the past ten years, what I saw happening in my home state of Minnesota was heartbreaking. Who will protect our water if all the regulatory agencies are controlled by the corporations? What else could we do but stand up?" — Barbara With, independent journalist, author and Water Protector, Wisconsin
"All I want is for the fossil fuel industry to have to play by the same rules as everyone else. But because they can't compete economically in the free market, they've used the corrupting influence of money in politics to break the system to serve their ends." — Trish Weber, Water Protector, electrical engineer, Oregon
” Being in jail with Winona LaDuke is not a hardship. But living without safe water is. We the People who drink Water, breathe Air, and live on Earth can stand up – or sit in lawn chairs – and say yes to honoring our treaties and no to deathly corporate domination." — Cheryl Barnds, Water Protector, homeschooling mother of three, Maryland
For more information – and or interview requests please contact Martin Keller, Media Savant Communications, 612-220-6515, mkeller@mediasavantcom.com
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Tell Attorney General Ellison & Gov. Walz: Drop the Charges Against Water Protectors!
Hundreds of water protectors are currently facing criminal charges in Minnesota for standing in defense of the water, the climate, and the treaty rights of the Anishinaabeg people.
These individuals put their bodies on the line to stop Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline, a massive tar sands project that threatens the state’s lakes, rivers, aquifers and wild rice beds. Police forces - directly funded by Enbridge - have responded to this massive movement with surveillance, harassment, physical torture ("pain compliance"), and trumped-up charges, including felonies. In this time of climate catastrophe, governments must listen to water protectors instead of criminalizing and prosecuting them.
Water protectors have been doing the work that the State of Minnesota should be doing. Drop the charges!
Water Protectors Arrested Resisting Line 3 Pipeline Call on State Officials to "Drop the Charges"
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PRESS RELEASE
(Anishinaabe Akiing, Minnesota) -- 11-17-2021 -- Today, defendants arrested while opposing the construction of Enbridge’s Line 3 tar sands pipeline launched a campaign calling on Minnesota’s elected leadership to drop all criminal charges against over 700 water protectors. A Drop the Charges petition to MN Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison has already garnered over 13,000 signatures. Organizers of the campaign describe the charges as unjust based on the brutal policing tactics that the Enbridge corporation directly funded, the violation of Anishinaabe treaty rights, and the project’s contribution to catastrophic climate change.
Winona LaDuke, executive director of Honor the Earth, said about the campaign launch, “It's entirely wrong that Enbridge—a foreign oil corporation— has committed egregious crimes against the water and people, yet it’s us who are being prosecuted. Every day that pipeline is in operation, Minnesotans are in danger. It must be shut down, and all charges against Water Protectors must be dropped. ”
Over 1,000 arrests were made during the nine months of construction, and over 100 water protectors have been charged with trumped up felonies, with most of the felonies being bogus “theft” charges. The Canadian energy transportation corporation, Enbridge, funded and collaborated with the police force in northern Minnesota, and has so far paid police nearly $3 million for costs associated with arresting and surveilling water protectors, including recent news of Aitkin County Sheriff billing 4,800 hours to Enbridge.
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