Water is Still Life: Line 3 and the Ongoing Fight for Indigenous Land Rights
Original illustration by Emily Van Ryn
I was 18 the first time I heard the chant Water is Life. I was at a student-led protest the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration. It was warm for Minnesota in January. The protest was in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), an underground oil pipeline running southeastward from North Dakota to Illinois. Protests held at Standing Rock in North Dakota turned violent with the deployment of the United States army. This disgraceful act resulted in hundreds of arrests and numerous injuries.
Protestor Sophia Wilansky suffered one of the worst injuries, with her left arm nearly being blown off. It is unclear what exactly tore through Wilansky’s arm, likely metal shrapnel from an officer's concussion grenade. She was hit with three rubber bullets, which are designed to be shot at the ground, not directly at victims (there were numerous injuries, with multiple protestors losing entire eyes, during Black Lives Matter protests across the United States last summer after being hit with rubber bullets.) Wilansky's arm was salvaged at the hospital, but she is unable to use her left hand.
This is all to say that the construction and defense of these pipelines are egregious acts of violence. That includes environmental violence, anti-Indigenous violence, and violence against anyone standing in solidarity with the ongoing struggle for climate justice and land back. The Dakota Access Pipeline is still of urgent national concern as protests and court battles continue the fight to shut down the pipeline for good. President Joe Biden recently shut down the Canadian Keystone XL pipeline, and land defenders continue to urge him to end DAPL.
Just a few hundred miles away, and though the Dakota Access Pipeline misses the state, land defenders in Minnesota are fighting the same exhausting battle. Line 3 is an underground oil pipeline in Minnesota that has existed since the 1960s. Despite being responsible for the largest inland oil spill in United States history, it is scheduled for expansion. The newly proposed route cuts through over one-thousand water sources; this includes over 800 wetlands and 200 bodies of water, posing a serious risk to wildlife and essential Anishinaabe Indigenous farmland. It is impossible to overstate the danger of this pipeline.
In response to news of the pipeline expansion, peaceful protests have been held in St.Paul, Northfield, and other places in and around the Twin Cities. There are land defenders currently at the building site itself, called Camp Migizi (which you can keep up with here: @campmigizi ). Land defenders at the camp hope to delay construction for as long as possible by physically blocking roads and chaining themselves to construction equipment.
Most recently, eight land defenders were arrested at the camp. Ezra Waskey, one of the arrested land defenders, had this message to share: “What is happening here is colonization; what is happening here started in 1492 and it never stopped. We are here on the Enbridge destruction site, putting our bodies in the way of this horrendous act, to stop Line 3!”
At the time of publication, there is no news of overt displays of violence against land defenders as there were at Standing Rock, but it is not paranoid to say things could escalate as time goes on. You can keep up to date specifically with the land defenders at the Camp Migizi via their Instagram: @giniwcollective. If you can afford to donate to their cause, please consider doing so here: Stop Line 3: DONATE DIRECTLY TO THE FRONTLINES or through the link in their Instagram bio. Other Instagram accounts you can follow that post about the subject include @nfld.against.line.three and @resist_line_3.
Sources in order of linkage
https://nypost.com/2017/11/18/pipeline-protestor-recalls-horror-of-nearly-losing-her-arm-in-clash-with-police/
https://khn.org/news/rubber-bullets-protesters-police-often-violate-own-policies-crowd-control-less-lethal-weapons/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/21/dakota-access-pipeline-joe-biden-indigenous-environment
https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/020921-us-army-corps-asks-for-two-month-delay-to-decide-whether-to-shutter-dapl
https://www.grandrapidsmn.com/opinion/happy-anniversary-the-largest-inland-oil-spill-in-u-s-history-happened-in-minnesota/article_2ade2706-004f-11e7-9023-2b31a01741a6.html
https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkdweg/the-oil-pipeline-battle-no-one-is-talking-about
https://www.instagram.com/p/CLKcbEjloZ5/
https://www.instagram.com/giniwcollective/
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://secure.squarespace.com/checkout/donate?donatePageId%3D5b85950daa4a9905ff8c1e7a&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1613122607492000&usg=AOvVaw0nBm3I093zLHKDTdQ8DvV3
https://www.instagram.com/nfld.against.line.three/
https://www.instagram.com/resist_line_3/
