This week for our Strong Women series we had the chance to talk with 2 women from Bemidji. Dawn Goodwin is cofounder of RISE coalition; she is a Representative of the Indigenous Environmental Network and Simone Senogles is the Food Sovereignty Program Coordinator for the Indigenous Environmental Network. They tell us why they continue to work to stop the construction of pipelines (specifically Enbridge Line 3) through 1855 treaty lands and wetlands. Simone also tells us what it was like to be part of the 22 people arrested for trespassing and spending a night in Aitkin County Jail. This is just an excerpt from a longer conversation - look for more in 2021.
Enbridge Energy has begun construction of Line 3 on a new route in Palisade. From Red Lake Nation News:
MN350, Honor the Earth and other pipeline opponents have fought for six years to stop Canadian oil giant Enbridge Energy from building the massive Line 3 pipeline in Northern Minnesota, from Canada’s tar sands region to Superior, Wis. The pipeline violates several treaties with the Ojibwe people that establish their right to hunt, fish, and gather along the proposed route.
Honor the Earth, two tribal nations, Minnesota’s own Department of Commerce and other pipeline opponents have asked the Minnesota Court of Appeals to overturn the Public Utilities Commission’s approval of the pipeline as illegal. They’ve also filed a request for a stay of construction while the appeal is heard.
The pipeline would cross 200 bodies of water, including the Mississippi River twice. If built, Line 3 would carry hundreds of thousands of barrels a day of tar sands crude oil -- some of the dirtiest oil in the world -- and would contribute the equivalent of 50 coal plants worth of carbon pollution to the atmosphere. Its carbon footprint would exceed the entire state of Minnesota’s.
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