SOLWAY, Minn. – Tribes planned a last stand before the Canadian oil pipeline Enbridge begins final construction on its Line 3 project. Organizers say they expect hundreds of people Monday for what they call the Treaty People Gathering. The group will have a rally at 10 a.m. at Coffee Pot Landing in Solway, near Bemidji, and march to the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Their target: The site of one of the water crossings for the pipeline. Protest organizers said they are prepared for massive arrests. The Trump Administration was friendly to the project. The Biden and the state Walz administration have declined to weigh in. At stake, said Winona LaDuke, an organizer, are the human rights of Ojibwe people and the human rights of other people who are water protectors. Being a water protector is a virtue, she said: “To be a water protector is not to be a criminal.”
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Verbatim
LaDuke: “This is a 915,000 barrel a day tar pipeline project. This is the largest tar sand pipeline project in the world and the most expensive. Most of the river crossings are in this territory, and most of the new pipe goes right through the heart of the 1855 treaty territory. But more than that more than a giveaway of the land to the Enbridge corporation it’s giving away the water.”
Line 3 route
Built in the 1960s, Line 3 is an 1,100-mile crude oil pipeline extending from Edmonton, Alberta, to Superior, Wisconsin. It an integral part of Enbridge’s mainline system. Enbridge is proposing to replace Line 3 for Alberta tar sands to reach refineries in eastern Canada and the United States. At 60 years, the company says the line needs replacing. The hitch: The replacement route runs partly through treaty lands that previously were undisturbed.
LADUKE. An economist and environmentalist known for her work on tribal land claims and preservation.
New routing. Dots show shortcut for new path.