March to Protect The Sacred on Indigenous People’s Day 2019

Clearbrook, MN – On Indigenous People’s Day 2019, a coalition of climate activists marched to the Enbridge tar sands pipeline terminal located in Clearbrook, Minnesota. The Ginew Collective of indigenous women organized the peaceful march down 470th Street to tell Enbridge, the owner of the pipeline network, thatLine 3 will not be built!

Indigenous People’s Day 2019 March To Protect the Sacred from Unicorn Riot on Vimeo.

MN350, Northfield Against Line 3, Rainforest Action Network, and Twin Cities DSA joined Stop Line 3 and Ginew Collective. Proponents of the pipeline have put up “Minnesotans For Line 3” signage all along the “March on Enbridge to Protect the Sacred” planned parade route.

Unicorn Riot covered the event.

Ever since the approval was granted for the proposed Line 3 tar sands pipeline replacement in MN, resistance to the project has been steadily increasing. The Minnesota Department of Commerce said two years ago that in light of the “serious risks” of the existing pipeline and “limited benefit,

Minnesota would be better off if Enbridge proposed to cease operations of the existing Line 3, without any new pipeline being built.” – Minnesota Department of Commerce, 2017

Opponents of the replacement project have criticisms ranging from the pipelines effects on climate change to indigenous rights violations.

The “March in Enbridge to Protect the Sacred” event page states that the event would honor the “resilience of Indigenous communities protecting the sacred here in what’s now Minnesota and across Turtle Island.” It continued,

We call attention to the vastly disproportionate impacts Line 3 has on Anishinaabe communities: imminent threats tar sands pose to water, violation of treaty rights, irrevocable impacts on our manoomin (sacred wild rice), and all life that depends on it, to the direct link between the fossil fuel industry and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives (MMIWR).

The MN Public Utilities Commission was ordered in June to submit a new Environmental Impact Statement after courts determined the previous EIS inadequate.  The project would be one of the largest infrastructure projects in the history of North America, and the largest-ever project undertaken by Enbridge, which is portraying its project as a $2.6 billion “private investment.” Pipeline has already been laid out in the neighboring state of Wisconsin.

Read about our past Enbridge Line 3 coverage here:

Unicorn Riot's Line 3 Oil Pipeline Coverage:


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