DULUTH, Minn. – From August to
September, Honor the Earth will sponsor an organizing and outreach
tour in northern Minnesota, aimed at engaging communities and summer
residents along the Enbridge proposed Sandpiper pipeline, one of many
tar sands and fracked oil pipelines proposed to cross the North
Country.
The 610-mile Sandpiper pipeline,
projected at running 375,000 barrels per day, would cut through the
chain of lakes south of Park Rapids and Walker, towards Brainerd and
McGregor and snake back up to the Duluth and Superior area.
The company is proposing to transition
from the northern corridor along Highway 2, which presently has six
pipelines, to a new corridor, led by their proposal for the Sandpiper
Line, through important and sensitive territory. The Enbridge Company
is determined to move oil from places where there is no
infrastructure and is showing determination in ways which Northerners
may not like.
To support the mounting resistance to
the Enbridge proposals, Honor the Earth has a two week drive of
literature, events, press, music and action planned from Aug. 14 to
Sept. 5 through the Lakes region and then on to North Dakota.
Musical performances to begin on Aug.
14 at Tom’s Burned Down Café on Madeline Island. The event will
feature three Native musicians: Frank Waln, Sonny Johnson, Pura Fe
and Allison Warden. Their performances will launch the musical
portion of the tour, with the larger organizing component stretching
from East Lake/ Rice Lake Refuge on the Mille Lacs reservation to
Rice Lake on the White Earth reservation. The organizing campaign
will feature educational and outreach presentations on the Enbridge
pipeline proposals.
The music tour will be joined with
horse riders who will travel through northern communities in
Minnesota, drawing attention to the issues and engaging with
citizens. Michael Dahl, organizer with Honor the Earth said,
“Political and social participation will be the driving force that
protects the waters of the North Country from corporate greed.”
Honor the Earth’s organizing and
outreach will then move to North Dakota, the source of the Enbridge
proposed Sandpiper pipeline and focus on capacity building event in
the Northern Plains, at the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s
Association and the Fort Berthold reservation.
Honor the Earth is in the midst of a
major campaign to oppose the Enbridge expansions of the tar sands and
fracked oil pipelines in northern Minnesota. The organization, along
with First Nations, tribal communities, harvesters, local churches,
civic groups and organizations have joined together to form the
Sandpiper Alliance.
The project is opposed by all Ojibwe
tribes in Minnesota and the Coalition of Lake Associations. This tour
will increase local knowledge and political and social pressure on
the regulatory agencies and is combined with an extensive policy and
regulatory intervention strategy undertaken by Honor the Earth, with
allied organizations like Friends of the Headwaters.
The Sandpiper and Line 3 proposals
would pierce the heart of lake country, with a potential for one
million barrels of oil a day to be shipped through a line which is
inaccessible to service or protection. The company’s preferred
route will cut across the most substantial wild rice beds in northern
Minnesota, ending in Superior, Wisconsin.
There, the oil will sit on the shore
of Lake Superior with the immanent threat of tankers and port
terminal proposals for Lake Superior, which would put over one
hundred oil tankers or barges on Lake Superior annually.
Additional pipeline expansions are
proposed on the east side of the Superior refinery, to feed into the
Great Lakes, along with seventeen refinery expansion proposals. None
of this infrastructure is prepared for tar sands or Bakken oil. There
has not been an oil tanker on the lake since l950, and many groups
are advocating that there should not be one now.
Please see all community events,
information sessions, and music planned for the Protectors of the
environment in the attached “Love Water Not Oil Full Tour
Schedule.” For more information on the Sandpiper or how to make
contributions to help with legal efforts, please visit
Love Water Not Oil Tour
Aug. 13-15
Winona’s Birthday Bash on
Madeline Island, Wis.; Aug. 13, 8:30 p.m., screening of the film
“Wisconsin’s Mining Standoff.”
Aug. 14-15
Live Music, Thom’s Burned Down Cafe,
Madeline Island, Wis., two blocks from the Ferry Dock, 6 p.m.
Performances by Frank Waln, Pura Fe, Sonny Johnson, Allison Warden,
aka AKUMATU.
Aug. 16
Sandpiper Information Meeting, 6 p.m.,
Trepanier Hall, 202 W. 2nd St., Duluth, MN. Live music, 7
p.m., Frank Waln, Pura Fe and Sonny Johnson.
Aug. 18
Horse Ride for Mother Earth, Rice Lake
to East Lake Community Center, 20650 367th Lane, McGregor, MN.
Rally/Press Event, 3 p.m.; Community Potluck, 5 p.m., items
appreciated; Sandpiper Information Session with Winona LaDuke, 6
p.m.; Live music by Frank Waln, Pura Fe and Sonny Johnson, 7 p.m.
Aug. 19
Horse Ride for Mother Earth, East Lake
Community Center to Brainerd Northland Aboretum, 14250 Conservation
Drive, Brainerd, MN. Rally/Press Event, 3 p.m. (time is flexible to
accommodate horses); Community Potluck, 5 p.m., items appreciated;
Sandpiper Information Session with Winona LaDuke, 6 p.m.; Live music
by Frank Waln, Pura Fe and Sonny Johnson, 7 p.m.
Aug. 20
Ride from Gull Lake to Pine River.
Rally/Press Event, 1 p.m. (time is flexible to accommodate horses),
location TBD; Sandpiper Information Session with Winona LaDuke, 6
p.m., Backus High School, 810 First St. N., Pine River, MN. Live
music by Frank Waln, Sonny Johnson, 7 p.m.
Aug. 21
Ride from Pine River to Hackensack;
Rally/Press Event, 1 p.m. (time is flexible to accommodate horses),
Corner Store, 402 Wren Trl NW, Backus, MN; Live music by Annie
Humphrey, Sonny Johnson and special guests, 7 p.m., Northern Lights
Casino, 6800 Y Frontage Road NW, Walker, MN.
Aug. 25
Ride from Walker to Park Rapids.
Rally/press event, 5 p.m., location TBD.
Aug. 26
Ride from Park Rapids to Itasca State
Park East Entrance. Press Event/Community Potluck, 5 p.m. 36750 Main
Park Drive, Park Rapids, MN; Sandpiper Information Session with
Winona LaDuke, 6 p.m.
Aug. 27
Ride from Itasca State Park to
Mississippi Headwaters. Press Event, 11 a.m., 36750 Main Park Drive,
Park Rapids, MN; Ride from Big Bear Landing to Rice Lake, 2 p.m.;
Community Feast and Powwow, 6 p.m.
For more information, call 612-385-1557
or email hoppe.as@gmail.com.
