Native pipeline fighters jockey for Biden attention

After both federal and state courts rejected tribal government petitions to suspend Enbridge Line 3 construction, Native water protectors here pressed forward with direct action for treaty rights recognition to stop it. They drew fresh support from the climate justice movement during a Build Back Fossil-Free Week of Action, Feb. 8-14.

The proposed Canadian Line 3 tar-sands crude-oil conduit was not alone in sparking tumult during the second week of February. At the same time, the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline and Keystone XL Pipeline continued to draw attention in the courts and on the frontlines.

Pipeline fighters from Great Plains tribes, who ran a relay to raise awareness about the struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota, were on the international radar, as celebrities and environmental group leaders sent a letter Feb. 8 to President Joe Biden. They insisted he call a halt to its oil flow.

Keystone XL Pipeline opponents also broached the idea of clemency for the many tribal citizens and accomplices still facing charges for resisting it after Biden’s Inaugural Day cancellation of its construction permit. They watched the arraignment Feb. 10 of one of their own on charges stemming from police activity at a Native spirit camp along its route in South Dakota.

Palisade, a tiny town on the Mississippi River banks in Anishinaabe territory, is the site of the Water Protector Welcome Center, which facilitates daily morning prayer actions for the Line 3 Movement. Dozens have been arrested over the winter for non-violent civil disobedience actions.

“For the last seven years, I have been fighting Line 3 with everything I have. If built, Line 3, a massive toxic tar sands pipeline, would destroy the sacred wild rice beds my people depend on for our food, our culture and our way of life.”

– Tara Houska, an Ojibwe from Couchiching First Nation

Tara Houska, an Ojibwe from Couchiching First Nation, spoke here during a Feb. 10 digital rally to encourage signing a petition to Biden to halt Line 3.

She thanked religious leaders at Interfaith Power & Light for petitioning the president, too. They have requested a meeting with Gina McCarthy, head of the newly created White House domestic climate office, who once signed onto a letter urging Minnesota’s governor to stop the pipeline.

Houska was set to speak at the Feb. 16 launch of a Defund Line 3 campaign, which she announced, saying, “For the last seven years, I have been fighting Line 3 with everything I have. If built, Line 3, a massive toxic tar sands pipeline, would destroy the sacred wild rice beds my people depend on for our food, our culture and our way of life.”

The campaign is the initiative of a year-old Stop the Money Pipeline coalition, made up of more than 130 climate justice organizations, including the Indigenous Environmental Network.

Houska warned that Line 3 would “contribute as much to the climate crisis as 50 new coal-fired power plants. It would endanger 800 wetlands and 200 waterways.”

She helped start the 2016 Defund DAPL campaign, in which nearly a dozen city governments committed to breaking ties with the pipeline funders and almost $100 million in personal accounts were moved awayfrom them.

At present, no less than 18 banks have a $2.2 billion loan to Enbridge that is due for renewal on March 31. “Between now and then, we’re going to do everything in our power to make it loud and clear to the executives of those banks: They must walk away from Line 3 ― or there will be consequences,” she said.

On Feb. 7, District of Columbia U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly denied the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians and White Earth Band of Ojibwe their request for preliminary injunctions to stop the construction, pending legal proceedings.

The non-profits Sierra Club and Honor the Earth joined tribal plaintiffs in in the case to overturn the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit that allows Enbridge to discharge dredged and fill material into rivers and streams.

“The Red Lake Nation is very disappointed that the Minnesota courts place more weight on the employment of out of town pipeline workers than it does the irreparable harm that construction causes to our water, wild rice, and forests.”

– Joe Plumer, attorney for Red Lake Nation

The federal ruling followed a Feb. 2 Minnesota Court of Appeals’ refusal to grant the tribes’ request to stay the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission permit for the project. Presiding Judge Denise D. Reilly signed the decision.

“The Red Lake Nation is very disappointed that the Minnesota courts place more weight on the employment of out of town pipeline workers than it does the irreparable harm that construction causes to our water, wild rice, and forests,” said Joe Plumer, attorney for Red Lake Nation.

“It’s disappointing,” added Frank Bibeau, attorney for the White Earth reservation. “We will endeavor to persevere.

”The Standing Rock Youth Council led a 93-mile relay run in sub-zero temperatures Feb. 9 from the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation border to the Cannonball River mouth. The destination marks the site where the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s grassroots anti-DAPL camps held off militarized police operations in 2016-2017.

The event references a youth relay from the same points of origin to Washington, D.C. more than four years ago at the outset of the DAPL resistance that drew tens of thousands of backers worldwide.

“President Joe Biden wants to be seen as a climate president, but he cannot claim that title until he stops this pipeline and others like it, like Line 3,” the youth council said. The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Jan. 27 the pipeline is operating illegally. A lower court hearing is upcoming on the Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Yankton, and Oglala Sioux tribes’ lawsuit to stop it.

A host of celebrities reminded Biden in a letter saying: “As your Administration takes action to address the climate crisis and strengthen relationships with Indigenous communities, we respectfully urge you to … immediately shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline during its court-ordered environmental review.”

“President Joe Biden wants to be seen as a climate president, but he cannot claim that title until he stops this pipeline and others like it, like Line 3.”

– The Youth Council

Among prominent Hollywood and television signatories are Leonardo DiCaprio, Cher, Ava DuVernay, Jane Fonda, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Jason Momoa, Kerry Washington, Sarah Silverman, Amy Schumer, Chelsea Handler, Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany, Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara, Aaron Rodgers, and Shailene Woodley.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg granted defendant U.S. Army Corps of Engineers a two-month delay until April 9 to prepare for a hearing on the case in the District of Columbia. The date is set for Feb. 10.

Meanwhile, in the fallout from the 10-year-long Keystone XL Pipeline fight, Cheyenne River Sioux resister Oscar High Elk pled not guilty at his Feb. 10 arraignment in Philip, S.D. on 12 charges stemming from police activity at the two-month-old Rootz Prayer Camp near pipeline construction sites.

Haakon County Judge Kathleen Trandahl set a March 23 hearing for High Elk. He faces up to 23 years in prison and $48,000 in fines for non-violent participation in the camp’s vigilance of construction work near KXL’s proposed crossing of the Cheyenne River. The location is in unceded Lakota 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty territory.

Kirk Crow Sr., tracking the proceedings on social media, received support there for his comment referring to the White House withdrawal of the KXL Presidential Permit: “Petition President Biden for a full pardon” for High Elk and other opponents facing court proceedings, he said.

Talli Nauman is an editor at Buffalo’s Fire and the director of Journalism to Raise Environmental Awareness. Contact her at buffalo.gal@gmail.com.