Neue Infos des Lakota Peoples Law Project u.a. zur LINE 3 Pipeline und dem Widerstand (16.7. – 27.8.2021)

Wie angekündigt informieren wir euch weiterhin mit uns erreichenden Infos des LPLP: anbei die nächsten Meldungen, die uns erreichten:

1.) 16.7.2021

Right now, Lakota Law is doing all we can to help build the movement to stop the Line 3 pipeline. As you may recall, I made my first visit to the protest camps last month, and we have since sent two more delegations — including a media team who produced this video from the frontlines. We are far from done. At month’s end, we’ll send a more permanent presence to assist our Anishnaabe relatives in their fight to protect sacred lands and rivers. 

Watch: Line 3 camp leaders spoke to us about the need for participation, prayer, and action to stop this dangerous pipeline.

Our world continues to move toward the brink of climate catastrophe. If we don’t fight new, poisonous pipelines, we risk the death of Unci Maka — our Grandmother Earth — and all our relatives: the waters, the animals, and the people. That’s why I hope you’ll continue to empower this movement. We must show up and give of ourselves so the next seven generations can live and flourish.

To protect the homelands of the Anishinaabe People, Native water protectors and allies have been standing against this toxic pipeline for years now. At the Line 3 frontlines, I met with many relatives called to defend the sacred. They’re sacrificing every day and doing amazing work, but they also need our help. For this movement to succeed, more people, more resistance, more media coverage, and more action from our elected leaders must happen — and soon.

We’re creating a support plan inclusive of you, my relatives, because it is going to take all of us to stop this. There are many ways to help. The resistance highway has several lanes, and they’re all valid — whether you are chained to a bulldozer, or making art, or signing petitions. 

This fight has multiple frontlines, not just one. And camps are spread hours apart, separated by distance and complicated by the lack of cell service. Our media team felt the drills boring into the ground and under the Mississippi while they slept. Even as the pipeline experienced a “frac-out,” or release of drilling fluids into the river, the camps — including Red Lake Treaty Camp, Manoomin Camp, Shell River Camp, Welcome Water Protector Center, and Camp Migizi — are all urgently in need of people.

If you can show up in person as a water protector, you will be in good company — and we will happily provide resources for you to participate in a good way. Regardless, please do what you can to stand with the Anishnaabe by amplifying this struggle.

Wopila tanka — thank you for your dedication to safeguarding sacred land and water.
Madonna Thunder Hawk,
Cheyenne River Organizer
The Lakota People’s Law Project

2.) 6.8.2021

My name is Taysha Martineau, and I’m a two-spirit member of the Fond Du Lac band of the Anishinaabe, from the eastern portion of what is now called Minnesota. Since January, I have led a diverse direct action community called Camp Migizi, and dozens of us have been arrested trying to stop the Line 3 pipeline from crossing our treaty lands. We’re doing our best, but we’re small in number. Please let anyone who can come to the frontlines know that they are needed. Together, we must stop this desecration.

Here’s me, leading our Line 3 resistance at Camp Migizi. Photo by Tim Evans for Atmos.

Two hundred years ago, the region my people now occupy was also populated by the Dakota, who are part of the modern-day Great Sioux Nation. With our shared history and homelands, it is only natural that Madonna Thunder Hawk, Chase Iron Eyes, and other members of the Lakota People’s Law Project have come to join us in this fight. We are working together — alongside several other resistance camps here at Line 3 — to make a difference while we still have time. We hope to soon bring out a busload of Standing Rock members to join the frontlines.
 
Anyone who can come will be welcomed with open arms. Just two days ago, 16 allies were arrested near the Red Lake Treaty Camp here in Minnesota. Tragically, construction of a massive portion of pipe near that camp will be complete within the next 12 hours. Meanwhile, we’re supporting the potential creation of a second Red Lake Treaty encampment — on a large open field, on tribal land — where movement leaders hope to amass a legion of supporters in the coming weeks. 

This new camp would be protected by the Red Lake Nation, and Minnesota state police would be unable to encroach without permission from tribal officials. We all remember Standing Rock. We need that same energy now. If we hope to win this fight, our movement must grow to encompass thousands. We’ve got to send the same powerful message of resistance heard across the world from the Oceti Sakowin in 2016 and ‘17.
 
This fight is personal for me. In addition to invading Mother Earth, the Line 3 pipeline threatens Indigenous women and children within our homelands. Every time fossil fuel construction happens on treaty land, sex trafficking and violence against Indigenous people increases. On this topic, please read this article, in which I discuss our epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) in the context of our battle against the fossil fuel industry. I’ll send more updates your way and give you other ways to help soon. In the meantime, stay tuned, and please spread the word about our need for allies at the frontlines. 

Miigwech — thank you for all your support!
Taysha Martineau
Camp Migizi 

3.) 13.8.2021

Boozhoo, 

I and all my fellow frontline resisters here at Line 3 in Minnesota wish you the very best. Last week I introduced myself, and today I hope you’ll watch Lakota Law’s new video, in which I tell my personal story of coming to this movement and forming Camp Migizi, a community of frontline resisters I founded earlier this year. Thanks to all of you for standing with us — in whatever way you can — against Line 3.
 
Right now, we’re in a precarious moment. Even as drilling across major waterways is near complete, several more crossings remain — and it’s no stretch to say this has been a messy, disturbing process. Two days ago, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency announced an investigation into 28 separate releases of toxic drilling fluid at 12 river crossings along Line 3. Of course, we water protectors are well aware of these “frac-outs” — and we’re also aware that Enbridge has unsuccessfully attempted to underreport them. 

I sat down for an interview a couple weeks back with Lakota Law. Please watch.

Sadly, the U.S. government is letting a Canadian tar sands company perpetrate these evils on our homelands at the very same time that the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued its first major report in nearly a decade. This devastating critique of humanity’s responsibility for the climate emergency means we can and we must do better. That’s why we’re here. In addition to defending our own homelands, we’re trying to protect the Earth for generations to come.

We’re not going to slow down. Just yesterday, water protectors halted two work sites for long stretches, and at Shell River, a side boom and two excavators were put on hold by protesters. Next, water protectors are organizing a live streamed benefit concert — headlined by Bon Iver — at Bayfront Festival Park in Duluth, MN on Wednesday, Aug. 18. People inspired by the concert and this movement will join a Camp Migizi-led march the following day to the Army Corps of Engineers offices in Duluth. 
 
We hope you can join us, either on the ground or online, for any of these actions. We need to stay strong and vigilant. Police protecting Line 3 are guilty of gross human rights violations, including the use of gas and rubber bullets, and Enbridge is hoping everyone will keep looking the other way as its construction crews spill toxic chemicals around the headwaters of the Mississippi. The stakes are high, and time is short, but we can still make a difference!

Miigwech —thank you for standing with us against Line 3.
Taysha Martineau
Camp Migizi
Via the Lakota People’s Law Project

4.) 27.7.2021 kleine Erfolge gegen Polizeieinsätze – Quelle: The Center for Protest Law and Litigation
A Project of The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund

Court Orders Police to Cease Illegal Blockade of Indigenous-led Water Protectors Camp at Line 3 Issues Restraining Order Against Sheriff Aukes and Hubbard County  TRO Issued in Emergency Lawsuit filed by the Center for Protest Law and Litigation and EarthRights International to defend the rights of communities to protest construction of the Line 3 pipelineSHARE NOW: TWITTER | FACEBOOKThis morning, a Minnesota court granted a temporary restraining order sought by Indigenous water protectors including Tara Houska and Winona LaDuke against Hubbard County, Sheriff Cory Aukes, and the local land commissioner in northern Minnesota. The Court has ordered cessation of the blockade and obstruction of the Giniw Collective’s camp and barred the Sheriff from continuing to issue citations and threatening to arrest persons for coming to and from the camp.The ruling comes less than a week after the plaintiffs, activists opposing the expansion of Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline, filed for a temporary restraining order against the Hubbard County Sheriff who unlawfully blockaded access to a camp serving as a convergence space and home for Indigenous-led organizing, decolonization and treaty rights trainings, and religious activities by water protectors seeking to defend the untouched wetlands and the treaty territory of Anishinaabe peoples. The Center for Protest Law and Litigation, a project of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, EarthRights International and local counsel Jason Steck represent the plaintiffs.“The Hubbard County Sheriff has been served notice that his illegal campaign of militarized harassment and obstruction against our clients must end now. Any ongoing effort by him to blockade the camp, turn it into an open-air prison or criminalize people for coming to and from the property will subject him to a contempt action.” stated Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, legal counsel to water protectors and director of the Center for Protest Law and Litigation at the PCJF. “This has been an outrageous abuse of law enforcement authority serving the interests of the Enbridge corporation against its environmental opponents. We will be moving for a permanent injunction to protect land defenders and water protectors from these abuses.””Although much of the state appears to have forgotten who their duty is owed to, I’m glad to see some refusing to bend to Enbridge and instead choosing to uphold Constitutional rights and basic tenets of law,” stated plaintiff Tara Houska. “Just because the Hubbard County Sheriff and Hubbard County Attorney are opposed to Native people protecting our homelands should not mean they can engage in violent, unlawful repression without consequence. Giniw Collective is glad to have rightful access to our home back.”“We want to thank the court for informing Hubbard County about the rights of property owners, and hope that the Sheriff’s continued preoccupation with the repression of water protectors can be focused on real criminals,” stated plaintiff Winona LaDuke.“This ruling is a decisive victory for our clients, Indigenous water protectors exercising their constitutional rights to oppose the expansion of the Line 3 pipeline,” said Marco Simons, General Counsel of EarthRights. “The sheriff admitted that this unprecedented interference with access to private property was intended to target water protectors protesting the Line 3 pipeline, and it follows a global pattern of harassing environmental protectors. This order is an important step toward listening to these communities and respecting their property rights.”Photo courtesy of the Giniw Collective. On June 28, the Sheriff’s department, with no notice, arrived with squad cars, riot lines of police and blockaded the only means of entry and exit to the camp, a driveway that has been in existence for 90 years. They have issued numerous citations and violently arrested persons seeking to travel on the driveway to bring food and water to the camp. This blockade is an escalation of a months-long unlawful campaign of harassment, arrests, disruption, surveillance and baseless pullovers of Indigenous water protectors and land defenders and their allies who oppose the Line 3 pipeline expansion.The Sheriffs’ departments in the region are being paid by funds from the Enbridge pipeline corporation for their time spent acting against the pipeline’s opponents through a “Public Safety Escrow Fund.” Enbridge has paid more than $1 million to “reimburse” local sheriffs’ departments, effectively privatizing Minnesota’s public police forces in service to efforts to repress opposition to the pipeline.Under the pretext that the small portion of the driveway extending from the Camp’s private property onto Hubbard County property is now suddenly a “trail” and not designated for vehicular traffic local sheriffs have either physically blocked access, at times by forming a line of over twenty officers, several armed with clubs, or issued citations to water protectors who have driven vehicles on the driveway, even when delivering food, water, or other necessary supplies. We cannot do this without your support – please consider donating to The Center for Protest Law and Litigation to support this lawsuit as we move for a permanent injunction.BACKGROUNDThe proposed new Line 3 pipeline would extend approximately 338 miles through northern Minnesota, carrying a projected 760,000 barrels of tar sands oil each day across 227 lakes and rivers (including the Mississippi River), over 800 protected wetlands and ceded lands where the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians and White Earth Band of Ojibwe exercise hunting, fishing, and gathering rights pursuant to treaties recognized by federal law. The pipeline would destroy culturally important wild rice beds, risk catastrophic spills, and significantly contribute to climate change, representing the equivalent of 50 coal plants worth of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere.Enbridge, which is already responsible for the largest inland oil spill in the United States, also holds a 27.6 percent equity stake in the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline. Tar sands are a particularly destructive form of fossil fuels. Their extraction and production is significantly more expensive and energy-intensive than that of oil. On a lifetime basis, a gallon of gasoline made from tar sands produces about 15 percent more carbon dioxide emissions than one made from conventional oil, according to The Union of Concerned Scientists.THE PLAINTIFFSTara Houska is an environmental and Indigenous rights attorney and advocate, land defender, founder of the Giniw Collective and a leader of the efforts to stop Line 3. She is a citizen of Couchiching First Nation.Winona LaDuke is a renowned activist working on issues of sustainable development, renewable energy, and food systems. She is the co-founder and executive director of Honor the Earth. She lives and works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, and is a member of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabeg.

The Center for Protest Law and Litigation A Project of The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund 617 Florida Avenue NW | Washington, District of Columbia 20001

5.) 10.8.2021 u.a. Interview mit Winona LaDuke

We wanted to share with you the recent New York Times Magazine interview with Winona LaDuke that was just launched on Aug. 6th.

Talk Aug. 6, 2021Winona LaDuke Feels That President Biden Has Betrayed Native AmericansBy David MarchesePhoto illustration by Bráulio Amado

Quoted (some) below is David Marchese’s interview of Winona LaDuke for the New York Times Magazine.“Right now in northern Minnesota, the Canadian oil-and-gas-transport company Enbridge is building an expansion of a pipeline, Line 3, to carry oil through fragile parts of the state’s watersheds as well as treaty-protected tribal lands. Winona LaDuke, a member of the local Ojibwe tribe and a longtime Native rights activist, has been helping to lead protests and acts of civil disobedience against the controversial $9.3 billion project.”“I spend a lot of time,” she says, “fighting stupid ideas that are messing with our land and our people.” So far the efforts of LaDuke, who is 61 and who ran alongside Ralph Nader as the Green Party’s vice-presidential nominee in 1996 and 2000, have been in vain. The Biden administration declined to withdraw federal permits for the project, a stance that Line 3 opponents see as hypocritical given the president’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline as well as his vocal support for climate action.“I have had the highest hopes for the Biden administration,” LaDuke says, “only to have them crushed.”“Not long after we spoke, LaDuke was arrested and jailed for violating the conditions of her release on earlier protest-related charges, which required her to avoid Enbridge’s worksites. She has since been released.”How do you understand Biden’s decision to allow the construction of Line 3? “He’s hellbent on destroying Ojibwe people with this pipeline. Why do we get the last tar-sands pipeline, Joe? It’s kind of like when John Kerry went and testified to Congress against the Vietnam War and said, Who’s going to tell that soldier that he’s the last one to die for a bad war? Who’s going to tell those Ojibwes that they’re the last ones to be destroyed for a bad tar-sands pipeline? What’s right about this? I organized people to vote for Biden. I drove people to the polls through seas of Trump signs. I drove Indian people to vote who hadn’t voted in 20 years. And what did we get from Joe? A pipeline shoved down our throats.”Are you saying that you think Biden has some specific animosity toward the Ojibwe? “No. He doesn’t have animosity, but he’s privileging a Canadian multinational. He knows that this pipeline runs right through our reservations. They know, and have a choice of what they’re going to support. I think it’s a trade-off for him: I canceled Keystone, and so we’ll just let this one go through, because it’s a replacement pipe. It’s not. It’s a new pipe.”Line 3 is an expansion and rerouting of an outdated Enbridge pipeline.“It’s horrendous. It’s a violation of not only the treaties but also every ounce of common sense. It’s a drought right now. But Enbridge put in an amendment: They get five billion gallons of water”The Minnesota state government allowed Enbridge to move five billion gallons of water — up from an initial permit request of 510 million gallons — in order to aid in the construction of the pipeline’s trench. Critics argue that moving this much water, especially during a drought, endangers the local ecosystem.“ … out of a region where rivers are 75 percent below normal. What’s with that? There was not a federal environmental impact statement on this pipeline, and the Biden administration just said we don’t need to do one. I mean, why?When I’ve heard from people who work in the oil industry, people who are understandably anxious about keeping their jobs, they’ve said that the protesters are the hypocrites:“They want us to stop drilling for oil, but what do they think is keeping their lights on?” Does that argument make sense to you? That’s a stupid thing to say. Who wants to hang around in the fossil-fuels economy when you could go electric? I’m waiting for my electric F-150.Ford announced earlier this year that it would begin selling an electric version of its signature pickup-truck model in spring 2022.The next economy needs innovation. I like what Arundhati Roy, the novelist and activist, said.“She talks about the pandemic as a portal between one world and the next. What do you want to bring through the portal? Your avarice? Your dirty rivers? Your dirty skies? Or do you want to walk through clean? Look, the world is changing. Those guys you mentioned got a playbook from the last economy, and it doesn’t work anymore. It didn’t work before. We told y’all that, but it’s time to move on.”I think if you were to ask people to picture where the country’s big social and political arguments — about things like cultural identity and systemic racism — are taking place, they would picture cities. But what’s the view of those arguments from where you live? “Well, we call this the Deep North, and there are seven Ojibwe reservations here. A lot of our land has been taken by non-Indians and the state. We should be the wealthiest people, and we’re the poorest. These guys built these towns off of us. I think about the myth of Paul Bunyan. You don’t actually believe Paul Bunyan was a real guy, do you?”You’ve criticized Enbridge for “paying” the local police. But isn’t what’s happening that the company is reimbursing law enforcement for expenses that they wouldn’t have otherwise incurred? Maybe it’s just doublespeak, but that is a slightly different thing than funding them, right? “They’ve incentivized oppression where cops can get extra money if they take more patrols. So a lot of people are stopped — no reason to stop them but to rack it up. And you know, a couple days ago I was on the river facing a bunch of cops, and I said the corporation violated the law. They had a spill. It’s called a frac-out.”Often caused by a poor choice of drilling fluids or poor drilling practices, a frac-out occurs when drilling fluids either penetrate the bedrock or flow up through the rock and sand surrounding it. The fluids can then damage the adjacent areas.

What’s the outlook for the rest of the summer? “Hell. They’re cutting, they’re grinding, they’re welding, they’re smashing, they’re laying pipe. They’re all around you, and they’re coming toward you. That’s pretty traumatic. A lot of cops, a lot of destructive equipment, a lot of people scared. They’re going to try to put this pipe in. They’re rolling over us. We’re going to do our best to stand in these places, but that’s the outlook. Hopefully a lawsuit stops them in their tracks after they brutalize us for another month. I’m not saying that Enbridge is beating me up, but they are.They’re kicking my ass right now

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL INTERVIEW OF WINONA LADUKE

MORE NEWS

Aug. 5th 2021WATER PROTECTORS URGE PRESIDENT BIDEN AND ARMY CORPS LEADER JAIME PINKHAM TO STOP THE ENBRIDGE LINE 3 PIPELINEAds in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Minneapolis Star Tribune Feature Anishinaabe Water Protectors:“Honor the treaties. Honor your commitments to climate action. Stop the Line 3 tar sands pipeline”Click here to read more

Women led by Indigenous rights activist Winona LaDuke sat in lawn chairs blocking Enbridge’s Line 3 construction at Shell River in Minnesota on July 19th. Youth horse riders as part of a Youth Horse Programjoined in prayer. Photo by Sarah LittleRedfeather

The Guardian Protectors against Line 3 tar sands pipeline face arrests and rubber bullets More than 600 people have now been arrested or received citations over protests amid growing opposition to the Line 3 oil sands pipeline currently under construction through Minnesota. Native American tribes including the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, the White Earth Band of Ojibwe and indigenous-led environmental organisations such as Honor the Earth are leading opposition efforts in court and on the ground, mobilizing ‘water protectors’ to try to halt the project.The Progressive Magazine: Indigenous People, Line 3 is a Battle Over the Future: Opposition is mounting to a project that threatens Native lands, and the planet.The Pine Journal LaDuke: Letter from the Wadena County Jail Winona LaDuke and six other women were arrested July 19 during a protest at the Shell River in front of the pending Enbridge Line 3.The Circle News Political Matters – August 2021 On July 19, seven Native women, including Winona LaDuke, founder and leader of the environmental group Honor the Earth, were arrested for trespassing by Wadena County sheriff’s deputies, while they were sitting together and praying on an easement near Park Rapids at the Shell River, which the pipeline will cross in five places, according to a report in Indian Country Today. LaDuke, who’s also a correspondent for The Circle, was released from the Aitkin County jail after being locked up for three days.The Colorlines Indigenous Leader Says Biden Administration is Doing ‘Nothing’ to Stop Minnesota Pipeline Indigenous Leader Says Biden Administration is Doing ‘Nothing’ to Stop Minnesota Pipeline “Biden’s acting like he canceled one pipeline so he gets a gold star. But you don’t get a gold star from Mother Earth to let Line 3 go ahead,” Indigenous rights organizer Winona LaDuke told Slate.The Waging Non-Violence: Everyone has a role to play in stopping the Line 3 pipeline. Indigenous water protectors and allies are effectively engaging all four roles of social change — just what’s needed to beat a company as powerful as Enbridge.The Turtle Island News: Minnesota hit with novel ‘natural right’ tribal lawsuit over Line 3. Manoomin v DNRThe White Earth Band of Ojibwe tribe in northwestern Minnesota has sued the state of Minnesota in tribal court over its issuance to Enbridge of a permit to divert water as part of its Line 3 oil pipeline project in the state’s north. The suit on behalf of wild rice Winona LaDuke: White Earth Nation recognizes rights of wild rice here’s why: Manoomin (“wild rice”) now has legal rights.Line 3: White Earth argues DNR water permit violates wild rice rights: “The legal argument is that manoomin, in our culture and world, is a living entity, like everything else,” said Frank Bibeau, a tribal attorney representing the White Earth band. “It has rights just like us to exist and flourish and multiply. And it’s not being watched out for.”It has been a busy summer.Please subscribe and see more news updates posted onto our website.

 6.) 17.8.2021

Greetings from the Cheyenne River Nation. As I’m sure you’re aware, the battle to protect sacred Anishinaabe lands and water in Minnesota has intensified over the past few weeks. Among the many people violently arrested was our friend River, a journalist and photographer covering the resistance. Watch our video, which features exclusive footage of his arrest and an interview in which he discusses the collusion between law enforcement and Big Oil to stamp out our Native-led resistance.

Watch: River shares exclusive, disturbing footage of his arrest, and talks about law enforcement’s collusion with Big Oil to put down protest. 

Last weekend, police also arrested our ally, the co-founder of Giniw Collective, attorney Tara Houska. They shot her with rubber bullets and gassed protestors, showing that Anishinaabe lives and culture just don’t matter enough to “the authorities.” They see themselves as tasked with protecting fossil fuel infrastructure, and that’s what they’re going to do — at any cost.

River explains in our video: “This Northern Lights Task Force is an alliance of counties. They are really conspiring with [pipeline parent company] Enbridge against the public, against the water protectors and our freedoms of speech and of the press.”

This is why we struggle, and this is why we protect. Our video and organizing teams are working with Tara this week to make sure we can help share her time-honored Indigenous perspective with you and a wider audience. 

For the past month, Lakota Law has maintained a steady presence at the frontlines, embedded with Camp Migizi. Our lead counsel and co-director, Chase Iron Eyes, is heading back this week, and we’re also working with the Indigenous People’s Movement to increase the organizing capacity and visibility of the camps. Please stay tuned for more updates soon from Camp Migizi and Camp Giniw.

Wopila tanka — thank you for helping to defend the defenders!
Madonna Thunder Hawk
Cheyenne River Organizer
The Lakota People’s Law Project

7.) 25.8.2021

Today, water protectors from Standing Rock are still being prosecuted, and — in the troubling cases of Ruby Montoya and Jessica Reznicek — they’re still being labeled as terrorists. Because we cannot allow this dangerous precedent to be used against more people who care for our Grandmother Earth, we’re going to help defend Ruby. Our struggle against the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) didn’t end at Standing Rock in 2017, and it won’t be over until every water protector in the crosshairs of the criminal justice system is liberated.

Watch: I interviewed Ruby about her stand against DAPL.

In 2017, Ruby and Jessica engaged in a direct action that damaged an empty section of DAPL’s pipe. Jessica was recently found guilty, given a “terrorism enhancement,” and sentenced to eight years in prison. Ruby’s fate now hangs in the balance as her trial approaches. With litigation support from Lakota Law and the National Lawyers Guild, Ruby is going to fight. Her next hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 1.

As Ruby says in this new video produced by our team, humanity is going through a reckoning. In the future, no one will fondly remember the names of corporations that represented the status quo; instead, many people will only wish they had fought harder to protect life on this planet. Nobody who takes a stand to stop extractive destruction should ever be charged with a felony, much less be labeled a terrorist.

Ruby told me that Jessica has never even held a weapon in her hands, and at one point she was considering entering a monastery. And Ruby is a Waldorf School teacher, who vividly remembers kids in her classes crying and losing sleep because Australia and the Amazon were on fire. Ruby’s resistance, like my own back in 2017 that earned me a felony charge, has been motivated only by a desire to give the next generations a destiny they can believe in.

Nothing any of us did comes close to a level of governmental coercion necessary to justify a terrorism enhancement. It’s fallacious to suggest we have that type of power. If the government is being coerced by anyone, it’s the fossil fuel barons who buy politicians to protect their profits. Ruby was invited by an Indigenous community to protect water and help safeguard sacred lands. She showed up. Now, we will have her back, just like she had ours. Please stay tuned as we continue to fight to prevent a grave miscarriage of justice.  

Wopila tanka — thank you for standing for justice!
Chase iron Eyes
Co-Director and Lead Counsel
via the Lakota People’s Law Project

8.) 27.8.2021

Boozhoo,

Yesterday, led by our grandmothers, we took the Line 3 pipeline resistance directly to the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul. Emblematic of the deepening solidarity among tribal nations, a caravan of 20 Standing Rock citizens, assisted by the Lakota People’s Law Project, joined us for our “Treaties not Tar Sands” rally.

Watch: I joined Anishinaabe, Lakota, and other mostly Native speakers yesterday in St. Paul, Minnesota.

An impressive lineup of BIPOC speakers and Minnesota state officials, headlined by White Earth Nation’s Winona LaDuke, addressed more than 2,000 people who showed up to call out Enbridge’s toxic tar sands oil pipeline. Toward the end of the day, we at Camp Migizi took our turn at the microphone. Five Lakota People came onstage with us to acknowledge the importance of resisting pipelines together — and they should know, since they were all at Standing Rock in 2016 and ‘17 during the NoDAPL movement.

Among the more heartfelt and timely messages imparted by our Lakota relatives was a call for unity from elder Sonny Wonase. I invite you to watch highlights from both my talk and his.

Police presence was as strong as ever, including a fence meant to wall state officials off from our prayerful ceremony and pleas for justice. As you can probably guess, that didn’t deter water protectors. At the end of the rally, my fellow organizers read a statement of demands criticizing Governor Tim Walz’s support of the pipeline and militarized response. We also continued to call on President Joe Biden to intervene.

Until we’re heard and acknowledged, we will not be silent. We will not stop taking direct action to end this invasion of our sacred lands and protect our water and manoomin (wild rice). We are carrying forward the tradition of Indigenous activism begun by the American Indian Movement in the 1960s and renewed at Standing Rock five years ago. I express my gratitude to Standing Rock for standing with us now — and to you for holding space with us and Mother Earth. If we come together across our traditional boundaries, if we act with a unified voice and spirit, we can win this fight.

Miigwech — thank you for your support!
Taysha Martinaeu
Camp Migizi 
Via the Lakota People’s Law Project