United States

On 1 July, Indigenous activists brought down the statue of Queen Victoria in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Queen Victoria was the head of the British Empire from 1837 until 1901. She is a figurehead of colonialism and genocide and was the sitting monarch for the British Commonwealth of Canada when residential schools began. Despite her legacy, some politicians, including the Premier of Manitoba, condemned the removal of her statue, stating it had no place in the process of reconciliation. (Although one might argue that maintaining a statue that celebrates colonialism is more apt to be a barrier to reconciliation than its removal). These critics failed to remember that since February 2020, when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided Unist’ot’en in Wet’suwet’en Territory, reconciliation is dead.

We quickly learned the extent of imminent environmental danger brought by the pipeline, above and beyond fueling the climate emergency. Enbridge plans to drill under twenty-two rivers and cross many miles of wetlands; the predictable leaks will threaten hunting, gathering, and wild rice cultivation upon which tribes rely for subsistence. Already, the company has desecrated sacred sites, and the man camps have threatened Indigenous women. Resistance is being met with a systematic corporate counter-insurgency, where Enbridge provides funds to local police to protect its interests, offers buy-outs to Indigenous Nations for waiving their rights, and wages a disinformation campaign to win the approval of Minnesota citizens.

There are many ways sacred land can be under fire.  For many years Chich’il Bildagoteel, sacred land also known as Oak Flat, has been threatened with destruction by being hollowed out and collapsed by a copper mine.  This season the threat of fire has also been literal.  During the first week of June 2021, the “telegraph fire” raged up Apache Leap and crested the ridge to the west of Oak Flat.  Firefighters told Wendsler Nosie that the firestorm was so fierce that they expected it to wipe Oak Flat out. The fire quickly raged down the slope towards an area where creation lines up in an ancient pictograph and marches across red stone, all living beings, including humans, headed somewhere together.  

Anishinaabe leadership of the movement to stop Line 3 has called for allies from around the continent to join them in Northern Minnesota from 5-8 June (and beyond) to participate in a large-scale, nonviolent uprising. Calling this the ‘Treaty People Gathering,’ organizers hope to propel this issue to the top of the nation’s consciousness and force Biden to act.  While some legal cases are still pending in the Minnesota Court of Appeals, the Biden administration could put a stop to the pipeline immediately by cancelling the permits it has issued.

Immediately following a powerful week of prayer and action, including runs from the four directions by Indigenous nations to Oak Flat and danced prayers in that sacred land, the United States Department of Agriculture instructed the Forest Service to withdraw the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) and Draft Record of Decision (DROD) related to Oak Flat. As per a recent Presidential Memorandum on tribal consultation and strengthening nation to nation relationships, “the Department is taking this step to provide an opportunity for the agency to conduct a thorough review based on significant input received from collaborators, partners, and the public since these documents were released,” according to a statement from Acting Forest Supervisor Tom Torres.