Talk Aug. 6, 2021
Winona LaDuke Feels That President Biden Has Betrayed Native Americans
By David Marchese
Photo illustration by Bráulio Amado
Quoted (some) below is David Marchese’s interview of Winona LaDuke for the New York Times Magazine.
“Right now in northern Minnesota, the Canadian oil-and-gas-transport company Enbridge is building an expansion of a pipeline, Line 3, to carry oil through fragile parts of the state’s watersheds as well as treaty-protected tribal lands. Winona LaDuke, a member of the local Ojibwe tribe and a longtime Native rights activist, has been helping to lead protests and acts of civil disobedience against the controversial $9.3 billion project.”
“I spend a lot of time,” she says, “fighting stupid ideas that are messing with our land and our people.” So far the efforts of LaDuke, who is 61 and who ran alongside Ralph Nader as the Green Party’s vice-presidential nominee in 1996 and 2000, have been in vain. The Biden administration declined to withdraw federal permits for the project, a stance that Line 3 opponents see as hypocritical given the president’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline as well as his vocal support for climate action.
“I have had the highest hopes for the Biden administration,” LaDuke says, “only to have them crushed.”
“Not long after we spoke, LaDuke was arrested and jailed for violating the conditions of her release on earlier protest-related charges, which required her to avoid Enbridge’s worksites. She has since been released.”
How do you understand Biden’s decision to allow the construction of Line 3?
“He’s hellbent on destroying Ojibwe people with this pipeline. Why do we get the last tar-sands pipeline, Joe? It’s kind of like when John Kerry went and testified to Congress against the Vietnam War and said, Who’s going to tell that soldier that he’s the last one to die for a bad war? Who’s going to tell those Ojibwes that they’re the last ones to be destroyed for a bad tar-sands pipeline? What’s right about this? I organized people to vote for Biden. I drove people to the polls through seas of Trump signs. I drove Indian people to vote who hadn’t voted in 20 years. And what did we get from Joe? A pipeline shoved down our throats.”
Are you saying that you think Biden has some specific animosity toward the Ojibwe?
“No. He doesn’t have animosity, but he’s privileging a Canadian multinational. He knows that this pipeline runs right through our reservations. They know, and have a choice of what they’re going to support. I think it’s a trade-off for him: I canceled Keystone, and so we’ll just let this one go through, because it’s a replacement pipe. It’s not. It’s a new pipe.”
Line 3 is an expansion and rerouting of an outdated Enbridge pipeline.
“It’s horrendous. It’s a violation of not only the treaties but also every ounce of common sense. It’s a drought right now. But Enbridge put in an amendment: They get five billion gallons of water”
The Minnesota state government allowed Enbridge to move five billion gallons of water — up from an initial permit request of 510 million gallons — in order to aid in the construction of the pipeline’s trench. Critics argue that moving this much water, especially during a drought, endangers the local ecosystem.
“ … out of a region where rivers are 75 percent below normal. What’s with that? There was not a federal environmental impact statement on this pipeline, and the Biden administration just said we don’t need to do one. I mean, why?
When I’ve heard from people who work in the oil industry, people who are understandably anxious about keeping their jobs, they’ve said that the protesters are the hypocrites:
“They want us to stop drilling for oil, but what do they think is keeping their lights on?” Does that argument make sense to you?
That’s a stupid thing to say. Who wants to hang around in the fossil-fuels economy when you could go electric? I’m waiting for my electric F-150.
Ford announced earlier this year that it would begin selling an electric version of its signature pickup-truck model in spring 2022.
The next economy needs innovation. I like what Arundhati Roy, the novelist and activist, said.
“She talks about the pandemic as a portal between one world and the next. What do you want to bring through the portal? Your avarice? Your dirty rivers? Your dirty skies? Or do you want to walk through clean? Look, the world is changing. Those guys you mentioned got a playbook from the last economy, and it doesn’t work anymore. It didn’t work before. We told y’all that, but it’s time to move on.”
I think if you were to ask people to picture where the country’s big social and political arguments — about things like cultural identity and systemic racism — are taking place, they would picture cities. But what’s the view of those arguments from where you live?
“Well, we call this the Deep North, and there are seven Ojibwe reservations here. A lot of our land has been taken by non-Indians and the state. We should be the wealthiest people, and we’re the poorest. These guys built these towns off of us. I think about the myth of Paul Bunyan. You don’t actually believe Paul Bunyan was a real guy, do you?”
You’ve criticized Enbridge for “paying” the local police. But isn’t what’s happening that the company is reimbursing law enforcement for expenses that they wouldn’t have otherwise incurred? Maybe it’s just doublespeak, but that is a slightly different thing than funding them, right?
“They’ve incentivized oppression where cops can get extra money if they take more patrols. So a lot of people are stopped — no reason to stop them but to rack it up. And you know, a couple days ago I was on the river facing a bunch of cops, and I said the corporation violated the law. They had a spill. It’s called a frac-out.”
Often caused by a poor choice of drilling fluids or poor drilling practices, a frac-out occurs when drilling fluids either penetrate the bedrock or flow up through the rock and sand surrounding it. The fluids can then damage the adjacent areas.
“You’re here to arrest us, but they’re the ones who committed the crime”
What’s the outlook for the rest of the summer?
“Hell. They’re cutting, they’re grinding, they’re welding, they’re smashing, they’re laying pipe. They’re all around you, and they’re coming toward you. That’s pretty traumatic. A lot of cops, a lot of destructive equipment, a lot of people scared. They’re going to try to put this pipe in. They’re rolling over us. We’re going to do our best to stand in these places, but that’s the outlook. Hopefully a lawsuit stops them in their tracks after they brutalize us for another month. I’m not saying that Enbridge is beating me up, but they are.
They’re kicking my ass right now
Women led by Indigenous rights activist Winona LaDuke sat in lawn chairs blocking Enbridge’s Line 3 construction at Shell River in Minnesota on July 19th. Photo by Sarah LittleRedfeather
MORE NEWS
The Progressive Magazine: Indigenous People, Line 3 is a Battle Over the Future: Opposition is mounting to a project that threatens Native lands, and the planet.
The Pine Journal LaDuke: Letter from the Wadena County Jail Winona LaDuke and six other women were arrested July 19 during a protest at the Shell River in front of the pending Enbridge Line 3.
The Circle News Political Matters – August 2021 On July 19, seven Native women, including Winona LaDuke, founder and leader of the environmental group Honor the Earth, were arrested for trespassing by Wadena County sheriff’s deputies, while they were sitting together and praying on an easement near Park Rapids at the Shell River, which the pipeline will cross in five places, according to a report in Indian Country Today. LaDuke, who’s also a correspondent for The Circle, was released from the Aitkin County jail after being locked up for three days.
The Colorlines Indigenous Leader Says Biden Administration is Doing 'Nothing' to Stop Minnesota Pipeline Indigenous Leader Says Biden Administration is Doing ‘Nothing’ to Stop Minnesota Pipeline “Biden’s acting like he canceled one pipeline so he gets a gold star. But you don’t get a gold star from Mother Earth to let Line 3 go ahead,” Indigenous rights organizer Winona LaDuke told Slate.
The Waging Non-Violence: Everyone has a role to play in stopping the Line 3 pipeline. Indigenous water protectors and allies are effectively engaging all four roles of social change — just what's needed to beat a company as powerful as Enbridge.
The Turtle Island News: Minnesota hit with novel 'natural right' tribal lawsuit over Line 3. Manoomin v DNR
The White Earth Band of Ojibwe tribe in northwestern Minnesota has sued the state of Minnesota in tribal court over its issuance to Enbridge of a permit to divert water as part of its Line 3 oil pipeline project in the state's north. The suit on behalf of wild rice Winona LaDuke: White Earth Nation recognizes rights of wild rice here's why: Manoomin (“wild rice”) now has legal rights.
Line 3: White Earth argues DNR water permit violates wild rice rights: "The legal argument is that manoomin, in our culture and world, is a living entity, like everything else,” said Frank Bibeau, a tribal attorney representing the White Earth band. “It has rights just like us to exist and flourish and multiply. And it's not being watched out for.”
It has been a busy summer.
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