An Equitable Transition is Possible: The Fight at Line 3 Can Get Us There

The air is thick with the heat and energy of Water Protectors gathering. Voices echo out across the road that is blocked off by cars to protect the Water Protectors on Anishinaabe land as thousands of people gather alongside Leech Lake and Fond du Lac Nations. The fight against Enbridge’s Line 3 hits a peak, one in a long line of building momentum.

This was the scene I saw in June as I joined the Treaty People Gathering, an event organized to stand up against Enbridge’s Line 3. This event was intended to gather in Northern Minnesota to put our bodies on the line, to stop construction, and to tell the world that the days of tar sands pipelines are over. It was organized by non-profit organizations wanting to support the Ojibwe bands that would be affected by the construction in what is now called Minnesota state.

While I joined the Treaty People Gathering at Coffee Pot Landing, there were also hundreds of activists who went to a blockade of the Line 3 Pump Station just miles away. I remember the scattered shouts across Coffee Pot Landing as news of the arrests at the Pump Station spread through the rally. The Gathering was just the latest in a long history of Indigenous voices and their allies standing up against these kinds of developments. The whole experience reminded me of my time at home, in Standing Rock, three years ago. It reminded me of the voice of my elders from the Toh Nizhoni Ani sharing teachings about the Black Mesa fight against coal. All of these fights are connected.