Enbridge building to become museum/cultural center for Natives
By Winona LaDuke It’s just been the month when Native people are remembered. That’s nice. Now we want more, like we want to protect that Native heritage lifeway and tell our stories to all. We also want to create a new history, one which is healing, restorative, and makes a better society and better world. […]
Line 3 drilling under more than 20 river crossings sees more protests
Photos/text by Chris Trinh / Environmental Indigenous Network Enbridge, a Canadian multinational company, is constructing its Line 3 oil pipeline across Anishinaabe land in northern Minnesota to carry tar sands from Alberta, Canada to Superior, WI. An indigenous-led movement has been ongoing for years, with protests ramping up this past summer as drilling under 20 […]
Honoring Manoomin and fighting for its survival
By Winona LaDuke “You can feel the wind talk to the rice.” – Lew Murray, Rice Lake Village. It’s Rice Lake Village on the White Earth reservation – the mother lode of wild rice – Lower Rice Lake. Lew Murray stood in front of the gathering of about two hundred or so people, to greet […]
Indigo Girls and Line 3 activists host Protect the Water concert
By Jim Walsh / MINNPost Amy Ray spoke for many of the 100 or so Indigo Girls fans and human rights activists gathered on the shore of the Haha Wakpa (Mississippi) river in northern Minnesota on June 28th when she said, “This is the coolest thing we’ve ever done.” Flanked by her fellow Indigo Girl […]
The Water Protector Spring is coming
By Winona LaDuke Are you going to shoot us for a Canadian pipeline company? Or put another way, if this pipeline is such a good idea, why are there so many cops up north? The Minneapolis Star Tribune just revealed that Enbridge has laid out $750,000 to northern police forces, not counting an undisclosed number […]
Tribal Nations in MN ask Walz to pause Line 3 work during legal appeal
By Dan Kraker/MPR The Minnesota Indian Affairs Council is asking Gov. Tim Walz to temporarily stop the ongoing construction of the Line 3 oil pipeline across northern Minnesota. In a letter dated Feb 25, the group, which serves as the official liaison between the state and the 11 Native nations within its borders, urged Walz […]
Last Tango at the Red River: Enbridge and pipelines
By Winona LaDuke It’s an amazing competition to be the last Tar Sands Pipeline. Enbridge wants to win. It already did. The last tar sands pipeline was Enbridge’s Alberta Clipper, completed across Leech Lake, Red Lake and Fond du Lac in northern Minnesota in 2015. On January 21, newly elected President Biden cancelled the besieged […]
Pipelines: How risky do you wanna be?
By Winona LaDuke Minnesota’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) continues to be an embarrassment to state regulatory authorities, slogging ahead with what we might call the last tar sands pipeline. On June 25, Little Big Horn Day, the PUC reaffirmed approvals of the Enbridge Line 3 project- route and need. The White Earth Nation, Red Lake […]
The long, exhausting battle against Enbridge for our lands and water
By Winona LaDuke Enbridge’s 7-year battle for a new pipe line has worn us all thin. We have poured out by the thousands, over 68,000 people went to testify against the Enbridge tar sands pipeline. We have driven thousands of miles. We have cried, talked about how much we love our water, and we have […]
Making deals with the Devil or with the Creator
By Winona LaDuke Last month’s 383,000 gallon oil spill of the Keystone Pipeline in Edinburgh, North Dakota is the deal with the devil. For those of us who live in the land of lakes, just imagine what 383,000 gallons of oil would do to the Hay Creek, Fishhook Lake watershed, and what “clean up” would […]
Enbridge encounters more setbacks
By Winona LaDuke On September 28, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency denied an essential permit to the Enbridge Line 3 Project, adding more setbacks for a highly controversial project. Continued setbacks are putting more at risk for the company, which is also being sued to get a forced removal of it’s aging Line 5 pipe […]
Water Protectors lock down to stop Line 3
On June 3rd, Water Protectors, supported by the Ginew Collective, Northfield Against Line 3 and other groups, halted work at an active construction site on the proposed Line 3 route near Park Rapids, Minn. Three Water Protectors locked themselves to logging equipment while over a dozen concerned citizens rallied in support. Great River Energy, Enbridge’s […]