In Solidarity With Indigenous Peoples

Richard S. Dunn – October 8, 2021

Monday October 11, 2021 will be the observance of Indigenous Peoples Day, started in 1992 to coincide with the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus, to the Americas in 1492. His arrival with a band of thugs and cutthroats signaled the beginning of one of the worst holocaust in human history. Columbus’ annihilation and mass displacement of millions of indigenous peoples, the bribe and capture of millions of Africans for enslavement in the Americas; have left an indelible blot on the pages of human social history. Everywhere this gang of marauders and murderers went they conducted atrocities that goes beyond human comprehension. From the Bororo and Baniwa in Brazil; Taino and Ciboney in Cuba; the Chachi and Epera and afro-Ecuadorean in Ecuador; the Taino and Arawak in the Dominican Republic and the Miskitu and Mayangna of Nicaragua to name a few; all indigenous peoples have experienced the atrocities of Columbus and the continued legacy of exclusion and attempted erasure.

This years’ observance comes at a time when the legacy of Columbus regarding cultural erasure is most evident in the construction and subsequent operation of Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline. This pipeline passes through, sacred lands of the Anishinaabe people and other indigenous Nations. The Line 3 pipeline travels over 1,000 miles from Alberta, Canada through North Minnesota to Wisconsin; all this in violation of and ignoring the 1855 Treaty of Washington reports Latoya Abulu of  stopline3.org. The Treaty in part states that no action should be taken that will “endanger the primary areas of hunting, fishing, wild rice and cultural resources.” The construction of the pipeline does just that with the approval of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission and the Biden Administration.

Enbridge Inc. is a multinational crude oil and natural gas pipeline Company headquartered in Calgary, Canada, with earnings up to $39 Billion in 2020; the Line 3 pipeline is expected to deliver up to 760,000 barrels of oil per day. Despite being called by Enbridge a “replacement” pipeline, Line 3 travels a totally separate route from the one it is supposed to “replace.” The 1,000-mile route will transport diluted tar sands and take it through parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec in Canada and North Dakota, Minnesota, and Michigan in the United States. This route infringes on indigenous lands on both sides of the border and have been protested against by Native Nations and environmentally conscious supporters for years. According to Winona LaDuke, co-founder of Honor The Earth “people ask me if this is going to be like Standing Rock; At Standing Rock they had one river to cross, Enbridge has 22 rivers to cross, that’s a lot.” It is critical to know that part of the pipeline’s route takes it through Anishinaabe territory, which is the only place in the world where wild rice grows.

Enbridge does not have a history of environmentally safe and responsible construction as evidenced by mishaps and maintenance breakdowns over the years. Line 3 which is one of six 50-year-old pipelines has 900 structural anomalies by Enbridge’s own admission. In 1991 Line 3 was the source of the largest internal oil spill in US history; 1.7 Million gallons of oil was discharged into the Prairie River, Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Line 3 is obviously old, it is corroding and has a number of leaks; in 2002 a section of the pipeline ruptured in Cohasset, Minnesota. Latoya Abulu further reports that in 2010 Enbridge’s Line 6B spilled 20,000 barrels of oil into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan; “Enbridge is also responsible for 307 reported hazardous incidents from 2002 to 2018, amounting to a total of 66,059 barrels of oil” Abulu further reports.

Despite this history of environmental disasters that potentially will have consequences for years to come, the Minnesota Department of Public Utilities have not demanded that Enbridge remove the defective pipeline entirely. Included in such removal must be a plan to institute Soil Remediation measures to prevent expansion of the leaked oil and contamination of surrounding soil and seeping into groundwater. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has a $3.2 Million lawsuit against Enbridge for non-compliance of Environmental Laws during Line 3’s construction; there is also an investigation on spillage of 80 gallons of drilling fluid into the Willow River.

This environmental and social travesty was approved by the Canadian government, the Biden Administration by not intervening along with The Minnesota  Department of Public Utilities. The underlying intent was to satisfy capitalist greed through expansion and an example of governmental capitulation to capitalism’s insatiable greed and unrepentant arrogance, by ignoring and trampling on the Rights and cultural heritage of indigenous peoples. September 30th was hailed in Canada as National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, but this is just another tactic to pacify and stem the tide of public dissent in support and defense of Indigenous people. Further what ‘reconciliation’ is there when the Canadian government opposes the payment of Reparations to the Kamloops people, after the bodies of 215 children were found in a mass grave at the Indian Residential School in British Columbia?

Line 3 was schedule to open October 1st despite years of struggle by indigenous peoples and environmental activists; many have paid a high price during this struggle to preserve and protect their ancestral and sacred lands. According to Chase Iron Eyes, co-director, and lead counsel for the Lakota People’s Law Project “Our Treaties have been ignored, our children killed, and now our rivers are being poisoned and when we stand up to the forces of extractive greed, we pay a heavy price.” The Native people have a history of standing in solidarity with  people of African decent in this country; during slavery they protected us from the slave patrols, took us into their communities and treated us like family; including inter-marriage.

The struggle against corporate environmental and cultural destruction and attempt to erase a people from history must continue; Black people need to stand in solidarity with our Native brothers and sisters and all indigenous people globally. As Winona LaDuke says, “Line 3 is a crime against the environment and indigenous rights, waters and lands and it marks the end of the Tar Sands era, but not the end of the resistance to it.”

Send emails to Richard Dunn at: contact@makingitplain.net