Stop Line 3 protests
The Stop Line 3 protests are an ongoing series of demonstrations in the U.S. state of Minnesota against the expansion of Enbridge's Line 3 oil pipeline along a new route. The new route was completed in September 2021, and was operational on 1 October 2021. Indigenous people have led the resistance to the construction of the pipeline, which began following the project's approval in November 2020. Opponents of the pipeline expansion, called water protectors, have established ceremonial lodges and resistance camps along the route of the pipeline. Enbridge has funded an escrow account that law enforcement agencies may draw on for pipeline-related police work. Organizers have arranged marches and occupations of Enbridge construction sites. Following the blockade of an Enbridge pump station on June 7, 2021, nearly 250 people were arrested. Invoking treaty rights, organizers established an encampment at the headwaters of the Mississippi River at a site where Enbridge intends to bury the pipeline.
Background
Treaty rights
The Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution establishes treaties as the "supreme Law of the Land". Treaties between Anishinaabe bands and the United States government guaranteed certain treaty rights for their members, namely the rights to harvest wild rice, fish, hunt, and gather medicinal plants on ceded lands. These rights were upheld in the U.S. Supreme Court case Minnesota v. Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa Indians.Both the existing Line 3 pipeline and the proposed expansion cross lands ceded in treaties. In the 1854 Treaty of La Pointe, the Ojibwe Bands of Lake Superior and the Mississippi River ceded lands in the Arrowhead Region while retaining hunting, fishing and gathering rights. In the 1855 Treaty of Washington, two Ojibwa bands ceded land but retained their usufructuary rights. Additional tribal lands were ceded in the 1863 Treaty of Old Crossing, though the rights to hunt, fish and gather were retained.
Enbridge and Line 3
is a Canadian corporation that maintains vast pipeline networks in the United States. The Enbridge Line 5 pipeline, which was responsible for the 2010 Kalamazoo River oil spill, had its 1953 easement revoked by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in November 2020 due to concerns over the potential impact of a spill to the Great Lakes.The Line 3 pipeline was built by the Lakehead Pipeline Company in the 1960s. It was the source of the Line 3 oil spill in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, the worst inland oil spill in U.S. history, which spilled 1.7 million gallons of crude into a tributary of the Mississippi River. It was also the source of the second worst oil spill in Minnesota history, when 1.3 million gallons of crude spilled near Argyle, Minnesota.
Deterioration of the existing Line 3 pipeline has resulted in structural deformities that have rendered the pipeline prone to recurring leaks and oil spills. As a preventative measure in 2008, Enbridge halved the capacity of the pipeline to 390,000 barrels per day.
Anti-pipeline protests in the 2010s
During the 2010s in the United States, grassroots campaigns against proposed pipelines received widespread media attention. An Indigenous-led campaign against the Dakota Access Pipeline centered at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation evolved from a small protest camp to spark an international movement against pipeline projects. Following resistance to the proposed Sandpiper pipeline, which would have passed through Mississippi River headwaters and wild rice habitat in Minnesota, Enbridge cancelled the project, withdrawing its application in 2016.Following years of opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, the Biden administration revoked its permit in January 2021.
Proposed expansion
In 2015, Enbridge announced that it sought to increase the capacity of its pipeline network by rerouting Line 3 through a newly constructed, larger pipeline along a different, existing utility corridor. The new, 36" wide, 340-mile pipeline section is being constructed along a route through the watersheds and ancestral Anishinaabe tribal lands in northern Minnesota, passing between the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, the Red Lake Indian Reservation, and the White Earth Indian Reservation. Enbridge anticipates the completed $7.3 billion pipeline expansion will transport around 760,000 barrels of tar sands oil per day.Arguments against the pipeline
Environmental concerns
Principal among the environmental concerns over the pipeline is the possibility of an oil spill. The route of the new pipeline runs through "some of the most pristine woods and wetlands in North America", crossing over 200 bodies of water, including the headwaters of the Mississippi River, lakes, streams, and wetlands. The route proposed by Enbridge passes over of water in treaty-protected lands that support wild rice habitat.Tar sands oil, heavier than regular crude, is among the world's most carbon-intensive fossil fuels. Enbridge's environmental impact statement for Line 3 states that the environmental impact of the oil carried by the pipeline will be equivalent to the emissions of 45 coal-fired power stations when burned, with some 200 million tons of greenhouse gases released every year.
"Man camps" and sex trafficking
In the years before the approval of the project, pipeline opponents raised concerns that increased sex trafficking along the pipeline's new route would add to the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Minnesotans living in areas where Enbridge is constructing the pipeline expansion have voiced concerns about the effect of "man camps" that house temporary workers. The arrival of highly paid, out-of-state men employed by infrastructure companies such as Enbridge often precipitates rises in crime, particularly prostitution, human trafficking, and drug trafficking. Enbridge denied it was a problem, saying that the company "absolutely rejects the allegation that human trafficking will increase in Minnesota as a result of the Line 3 replacement project."Two contractors employed by Enbridge were arrested during a sex trafficking sting in Itasca County, Minnesota in February 2021. In March 2021 it was reported that a Thief River Falls nonprofit shelter had been providing services for multiple women who alleged they were assaulted by Enbridge employees. Staff of the shelter also reported instances of their daughters being sexually harassed near an Enbridge camp. Another two Enbridge employees were arrested in a sex trafficking sting in Bemidji in June 2021.
Treaty violations
Tribal representatives say the pipeline expansion, which passes through treaty-protected lands, is a violation of their tribal sovereignty. The new route for the expanded pipeline runs through watersheds that support traditional wild rice habitat, a food source important to Ojibwe culture.Protests
Resistance to the Line 3 pipeline expansion is led by Indigenous women and two-spirit people. Ojibwe-led groups including Giniw Collective, Camp Migizi, Red Lake Treaty Camp, RISE Coalition, and Honor the Earth among others have been at the center of resistance. Demonstrators and protesters organizing in opposition to the pipeline refer to themselves as "water protectors" and follow a campaign of non-violent civil disobedience that includes direct actions. Organizers aim to convince the Biden administration to revoke or suspend the pipeline project's federal clean water permit. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has not taken a firm stance on the pipeline expansion, which received federal approval under the Trump administration.Opposition to the pipeline persisted throughout the years-long permit process and continued as legal challenges to the project were mounted. Opponents of the pipeline organized protests, at one point making an encampment outside of the offices of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.
After the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave final approval for the project, it was granted a Minnesota Pollution Control Agency construction storm water permit on November 30, 2020. Construction of the pipeline immediately commenced.
Resistance camps and demonstrations
Community organizers have established ceremonial lodges and resistance camps along the length of pipeline. Among them is the Welcome Water Protectors Center which serves as an introduction to other camps.Protesters gathered at one of the first construction sites for the pipeline in Aitkin County, Minnesota on January 9, 2021. Eight people were arrested for trespassing. Weeks after the protest, the Aitkin County Sheriff's Office charged some movement leaders with misdemeanors, using video livestreamed on Facebook as evidence. Those charged included Winona LaDuke, Tara Houska, Shanai Matteson, and Tania Aubid.
Tania Aubid of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe engaged in a hunger strike in March 2021.
The single "No More Pipeline Blues ", written by Larry Long, was released on Earth Day in 2021. The track includes vocals from the Indigo Girls, Bonnie Raitt, Mumu Fresh, Pura Fé, and U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo. A June 2021 concert called Protect the Water featured several musicians performing on a pontoon floating on the Mississippi River including the Indigo Girls as well as singer-songwriters Keith Secola and Annie Humphrey.
Giniw Collective
Giniw Collective is an Indigenous-women, two-spirit led collective focused on reconnecting to and directly defending the earth founded by Tara Houska in June 2018. The group hosted thousands of water protectors at its camp, called Namewag Camp, located just off the Line 3 route over three years, and provided training in decolonization and non-violent direct action resistance. Tensions with law enforcement reached a breaking point when on June 28, 2021, two weeks after the blockade of the Two Inlets Pump Station located in Hubbard County, Hubbard County Sheriffs attempted to block Giniw Collective and their guests from entering Namewag Camp. The Center For Protest Law and Litigation later won an injunction against the Hubbard County Sheriff for illegally blocking the group's home.In addition to direct actions, Giniw Collective launched the #DefundLine3 campaign in February 2021, as a founding member of . The collective invited and hosted several members of "the Squad" to Namewag Camp and to meet with tribal leaders in early September to draw awareness to the Line 3 fight, including Representative Ilhan Omar, Representative Rashida Tlaib, Representative Cori Bush, and Representative Ayanna Pressley.