By Winona LaDuke
They say that the next big war will be about Water. I think the preamble is here. More aggressive corporations are coming after some of the remaining pristine places on Mother Earth – pretty much the land of Indigenous people. Nowadays it’s not just the Native people being targeted, it’s our allies. I’d like to thank our allies for standing with us.
This past month saw two separate court decisions which highlighted the repression being leveled at allies, in this case Water Protectors. On March 20, a Morton County North Dakota Jury leveled a blistering $670 million against the organization Greenpeace for its part in Standing Rock. Anyone who was at Standing Rock knows that Greenpeace was barely there, but they have a name, and Energy Transfer Partners just made an example out of them. It was sickening, I was in the courtroom when the verdict came in.
On the other hand, Marian Moore, an unlikely candidate to have a hard sentence as a Water Protector, had her charges reversed by a Minnesota Court of Appeals on March 6. The local girl’s story: Marian had been active in opposing Line 3, and caught three charges including, trespass on critical infrastructure (a gross misdemeanor), unlawful assembly and (a rather redundant) presence at an unlawful assembly (both misdemeanors). This all occurred on January 9, 2021, on State Highway 169. For being an ally, an Aitkin County Jury found her guilty of all charges in November, 2023 and gave her perhaps the harshest sentence for gross misdemeanor charges on Line 3.
“…In January, 2024 I was sentenced to six months in county jail, but with a stay of execution, for nine months. I had to not trespass on any Enbridge property and be law-abiding, or I would be in Aitkin County jail for six months,” she explained to me.
Six months seems like a long time for someone who stood on a state highway and looked at a construction site leaving once a dispersal order was given “…I think they targeted me because I was friends with Indigenous people and bringing money the movement against the pipeline,” Marian explained in an interview. And $670 million is a lot of money for some folks who were barely at Standing Rock. Aitkin County, Minnesota and Morton County, North Dakota are trying to teach a lesson, or more appropriately, the corporations are trying to stifle resistance and discourage allies.
How does it happen? Welcome to the New Order, the one where corporations are now considered natural people under the law, continue to extract and are protected by law enforcement and the judicial system. And with AI, people are less important.
“Greenpeace did not manipulate Standing Rock, but Energy Transfer has manipulated Morton County.’’ Janet Alkire, Chairwoman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, told reporters in a statement.
The entire trial was shameful. Here’s how it went; the law firm Gibson, Crutcher and Dunn carefully picked Morton County, where Judge James Gion denied most motions made by Greenpeace. Four motions to change the venue away from Mandan, were denied. Gion would not let Greenpeace tell the jury of Energy Transfer’s terrible safety record. (The Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has issued 106 safety violations to Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) since 2002, including failures to conduct corrosion inspections, to maintain pipeline integrity, and to repair unsafe pipelines in a timely manner (within five years).
Greenpeace was not allowed to tell the jury a nearly identical case was dismissed by a federal judge (a SLAPP suit). Gion would not allow live streaming, so if you wanted to “see justice” you had to go to Mandan. It’s said that Justice is blind, and I saw jurors asleep while on duty in the court room. Justice is blind and asleep in North Dakota literally.
Standing Rock Tribal Chairwoman Alkire was appalled. “I take offense to the jury verdict… We expect more from North Dakota judges and members of the jury from our neighboring communities…Energy Transfer’s false and self-serving narrative that Greenpeace manipulated Standing Rock into protesting DAPL is patronizing and disrespectful to our people,” adding, “we understand that many Morton County residents support the oil industry… But we are your neighbors, and you should not be fooled that easily….”
The lawsuit against Greenpeace is called a SLAPP suit, or Strategic Litigation against Public Participation, and is intended to silence opposition. SLAPP suits are illegal in 33 states including Minnesota. Fundamentally, this is a question of free speech. When Energy Transfer sues people for so-called defamation, they send a clear message: If you stand up, you will be punished in a lawsuit. “To me, this is a freedom of speech case and freedom of association case,” attorney Sarah Vogel, former ND assistant Attorney General and Agriculture Commissioner told a reporter. “As residents of a small state without a whole lot of power, we’d better be able to speak up. Who knows? I mean, this time, it’s Greenpeace, but who will it be next time?”
Aitkin County was a little different but had some of the same premises. The idea that “outside agitators” came and did not nice things, was a theme. Greenpeace fits that narrative for Energy Transfer Partners, and Marian Moore, who is a striking 6 feet two inches tall, and looks like she’s not a local gal.
Trey Cox, the lead attorney for Energy Transfer, kept referring to Water Protectors as outsiders, and paid protesters. One might wonder where Energy Transfer is from. Certainly not from Mandan. They are from Texas. Where was Tigerswan – the private security company who set dogs on Water protectors – from? North Carolina. Mercenaries.
In Minnesota, remember that Enbridge is a foreign corporation, who has two big swaths across our north country, some old pipes and the dirtiest oil in the world cutting through a fifth of the world’s water. Yet, Enbridge received priority policy protection in the north and was allowed to put in its pipeline as a part of “essential infrastructure” during a pandemic and bring in 4300 people.
Don’t mention that both of those companies have abysmal safety records- Energy Transfer has a multitude of fines for spills, and Enbridge has the two largest oil spills on the mainland to its name. In North Dakota, Greenpeace could not bring up Energy Transfer’s safety record and in Aitkin County, Marian was not allowed to say “treaty rights” or allude to the case where Anishinaabe water protectors’ charges were dismissed based on the treaty and cultural beliefs.
Standing Rock was violent, in comparison to the Northern Minnesota Line 3 battle, but there were a lot of arrests in both – Standing Rock about 800 and Line 3, l000. Those are not protesters; those are Water Protectors. The Trump Administration intends to further criminalize Water Protectors, and certainly protests, that’s clear.
A dangerous “doctrine of Qualified Immunity” is being hatched up, basically legalizing shooting at Water Protectors. In April of 2024, North Dakota Federal Judge Daniel Traynor dismissed Sophia Wilansky’s case against North Dakota law enforcement on the grounds that law enforcement had “qualified immunity.” A blast leveled at her on November 20, 2016, by Morton County Deputy Jonathon Moll, who had positioned himself on the turret of a Humvee with his 12-gauge shotgun. He hit her. The “blast destroyed almost all of the arteries, skin, tissue, muscles, nerves, tendons, and bone in her left forearm.”
“At 21-years old, I lost the use of my arm because a police officer shot me from a gun turret with an exploding grenade at a protest. My life will never be the same, but I will also not be scared away from fighting for what is right,” Wilansky said in a Civil Liberties Defense Center An additional statement read, “The doctrine of Qualified Immunity is repulsive in that it allows police officers to … shoot protestors with anything they want without repercussions.”
Appeals, yes, there will be appeals. Marian Moore won on appeal. But what’s so sad is that the North Dakota jury couldn’t even stand up for the water, the land and the people, instead the jury gave a Texas oil pipeline company everything it wanted and then some. That was shameful. And without that appeals court, an Aitkin County jury might have been content to let Marian Moore sit in the slammer.
What to do? Stand our ground. Make the solutions. That’s what I think. And keep working together. Weweg bi azhe giiwewag. The snow geese return. There is greatness in the flocks of birds returning to these lands of water. They return each year and remind us of the life which is here, a life which needs water. I am reminded that’s who I work for.
Greenpeace was inspired by a story called the Rainbow Warrior, where people of all colors would come together to protect Mother Earth. Critics say the story wasn’t a real prophecy, but I see it happening today. People of all colors coming together to protect Mother Earth is still a good story for epic times. Thank you allies.
