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https://www.stopline3.org/#intro
This website in general, stopline3.org, is a super useful and broad resource about the issue created by indigenous activists This page in particular, however, has multiple maps that visually display the pipeline and all of the waterways that it crosses. Personally, it was a super useful resource just in terms of wrapping my head around ths size and impact of Line 3.

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DROP THE CHARGES

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DROP THE CHARGES

What is line 3

Line 3 is a proposed pipeline expansion to bring nearly a million barrels of tar sands per day from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin. It was proposed in 2014 by Enbridge, a Canadian pipeline company responsible for the largest inland oil spill in the US. Enbridge seeks to build a new pipeline corridor through untouched wetlands and the treaty territory of Anishinaabe peoples, through the Mississippi River headwaters to the shore of Lake Superior.

Why the opposition

All pipelines spill. Line 3 isn't about safe transportation of a necessary product, it's about expansion of a dying tar sands industry. Line 3 would contribute more to climate change than Minnesota's entire economy. Minnesota's own Department of Commerce found our local market does not need Line 3 oil. We need to decommission the old Line 3 and justly transition to a renewable, sustainable economy. Line 3 would violate the treaty rights of Anishinaabe peoples and nations in its path - wild rice is a centerpiece of Anishinaabe culture, it grows in numerous watersheds Line 3 seeks to cross. It's well-past time to end the legacy of theft from and destruction of indigenous peoples and territories.

What we can do

We can keep organizing, educating, and advocating to stop Line 3 and build the future we want. Legal and grassroots efforts have kept Enbridge's Line 3 destruction at bay - it was supposed to be complete in 2017. We are holding events in our homes, community centers, churches, schools, and online. We are talking to our politicians, speaking up at hearings, marching in protests, taking nonviolent direct action together, and reporting Enbridge's activity along the proposed route. We are teaching and learning from each other. We are growing food and investing in renewable energy. Wherever you are and whatever your skill set, there is a place for you in the movement to stop Line 3.

HERE IS THE MAP THAT SHOWS CAMPING PLACES ALONG THE NEW LINE 3 ROUTE + CANOE RIVER ACCESS POINTS WITH HDD RIVER CROSSINGS.

FOR Below MAP (click to enlarge)

RESIST LINE 3 WEEKLY UPDATES

with Lorenzo Serna
Get the latest on actions held to Stop Line 3, legal updates, watchdog content, upcoming events, & solidarity news from other movements we stand with

May 31: Helpful context for the Treaty People Gathering
for past weeks visit the weekly update archive

Save the Great Lakes: Shut down Line 5

Two 62-year old oil pipelines are threatening the Great Lakes. Called Line 5, owned by Enbridge, a Canadian energy company, they carry 23-million gallons of crude oil daily. It passes between the state's upper and lower peninsulas along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinaw. Oil and water don't mix, and if they were to rupture, they would spill oil across the Great Lakes. Please act now and make Enbridge shut the pipeline down. Please do whatever you can. Thank you

Why is this important?

Pipe up, pipe out! Shut down Line 5. This is a Great Lakes call to action.

Banner photo by Keri Pickett

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Join us to #StopLine3 from desecrating our lakes, wild rice, and Anishinaabeg treaty territories.

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"Line 3 Replacement Project" Section of Enbridge's Website 

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"Line 3 Replacement Project" Section of Enbridge's Website 

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This page, created by Enbridge, has a ton of propaganda and persuasive writing that aims to convince you that Line 3 is a good idea all around. There are many testimony's such as "I'm a Native American proud to be working on Line 3," and "Line 3 has been a saving grace" (literally in what world is a tar sands pipeline a saving grace by any means), and it's genuinely quite interesting to look at the issue from this perspective. Also, even though it's a really long page and they touch on all sorts of issues, there is no mention of wild rice which I thought was telling.

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Learn about the Line 3 Replacement Project in the U.S.

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Rise Up With the Grassroots: Voices From the Frontlines 

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Rise Up With the Grassroots: Voices From the Frontlines 

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"We're at the front lines of climate change, so therefore we need to be on the frontline of climate solutions." This 1-minute intro video created by ICA (Indigenous Climate Action) gives a brief overview of how and why indigenous peoples are on the frontlines of climate change. It's a great introduction to understanding the intersection of environmental and indigenous activism and highlights a couple of voices of grassroots indigenous peoples.

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Rise up with the Grassroots: Voices from the Frontlines

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Indigenous Activists Fight to Stop Line 3 Pipeline

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Indigenous Activists Fight to Stop Line 3 Pipeline

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"This is a 60 year old Canadian corporation. I've been here thousands of years." This video follows two Indigenous activists who are on the front lines fighting to stop the pipeline. Winona Laduke, the executive director of Honor the Earth, and Dawn Goodwin, co-founder of the RISE (Resilient Indigenous Sisters Engaging) coalition, speak about the existing and potential impacts the pipeline has had on their communities.

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Indigenous Activists Fight to Stop Line 3 Pipeline | One Small Step

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This short video follows Fred Ackley Jr. from the Sokaogon Chippewa Community of Mole Lake as he harvests and processes manoomin, or wild rice. He explores the importance of prayer and tradition for cultural survival. This video gives important context to how important and complex the relationship between the Objiwe people and manoomin is, and personally gave me a more thorough understanding of how deeply harmful Line 3 would be to their culture and livelihood.

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Manoomin: Food That Grows on the Water | The Ways

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Why Enbridge's Line 3 Pipeline Project Is Bad for Everyone

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Why Enbridge's Line 3 Pipeline Project Is Bad for Everyone

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This short, 3 minute youtube video by The YEARS Project is a good introduction to the harmful affects of Line 3. They discuss how the pipeline would devastate human health, indigenous sovereignty, and our planet. They discuss all of the banks, corporations and different pieces of the puzzle that make it so difficult for activists to successfully push for Line 3's dissolution.

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Why Enbridge's Line 3 Pipeline Project Is Bad for Everyone

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Tribal Court Case Against Line 3 Pipeline Is First to Invoke "Rights of Nature"

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Tribal Court Case Against Line 3 Pipeline Is First to Invoke "Rights of Nature"

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This article covers the details of a tribal court case filed in August of 2021 by the White Earth Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota on behalf of maoomin (wild rice) to stop billions of gallons of water from being diverted for Line 3's construction. This is the first time a suit has been filed on the basis of "the rights of nature," and the article discusses what that means and how it is playing out.

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Editor's Note: This article was originally published by Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts.

In what is believed to be the first tribal court case brought under the ​"rights of nature" legal doctrine, the White Earth Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota has filed an action in its court system on behalf of manoomin (wild rice) to stop billions of gallons of water from being diverted for an oil pipeline.

In 2018, the tribe enshrined in its law the right of manoomin to ​"exist, flourish, regenerate and evolve" - part of a growing movement led by Indigenous people to give legal rights to nature and to change its status as property. The tribe argues that the diversion of 5 billion gallons of groundwater for the construction of Enbridge's Line 3 oil pipeline would violate manoomin's rights.

"This is a daring move," said tribal attorney Frank Bibeau. ​"We're doing something that hasn't been done."

Critics have argued that recognizing rights of nature would make businesses and governments vulnerable to lawsuits over almost any action with an impact on the environment.

Meanwhile, the tribal leaders say the oil company's permit also violates their treaty rights, which promise tribal members can gather wild rice. In recent years, tribes have increasingly used their treaty-guaranteed rights to hunt, fish and gather as a legal tool to protect the ecosystems on which those customs rely

"Wild rice is the center of our culture," Bibeau said. ​"Wild rice is what brought us to the Great Lakes. We cannot allow the state of Minnesota to continue to undercut and sell us out."

According to Bibeau, the state is seeking to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction, but he believes treaty rights give tribal members the ability to press the case.

"A lot of the territory that's being crossed [by the pipeline] is public forest and public waters, and those are the primary places where we exercise our rights to hunt, fish and gather," he said. ​"Our treaty foods are dependent on abundant, high-quality water."

The lawsuit asks the tribal court to issue an injunction against the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to void the water permit issued by the agency. Bibeau said that state officials would be unlikely to follow a decision issued by a tribal court, but starting the case there could help fast-track a decision in federal court.

If the tribe succeeds, Bibeau said it could be a landmark case that further strengthens tribal claims to protect ecosystems and resources.

"This is going to have a profound effect on what our rights are and how they can be used in the future for other tribes," he said. ​"How do we make them have to get our consent? We need to understand how to assert our rights, and we just haven't played these cards the right way yet."

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Tribal Court Case Against Line 3 Pipeline Is First to Invoke "Rights of Nature"

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Editor's Note: This article was originally published by Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts. In what is believed to be the first tribal court case brought under the ​"rights of nature" legal doctrine, the White Earth Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota has filed an action in its court system on behalf of manoomin (wild rice) to stop billions of gallons of water from being diverted for an oil pipeline.

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Anishinaabe Communities Fight Against the Line 3 Pipeline

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Anishinaabe Communities Fight Against the Line 3 Pipeline

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This article highlights water protectors who have braved harsh weather conditions and police violence in their lobbying and protesting efforts. It goes into how deeply involved these Native activists are, they are fighting not just for the environment but for the continuation of their culture and the sanctity of the land.

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Image courtesy of mn.gov.

On November 30, 2020, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota gave the greenlight to Enbridge, a Canadian energy company, to begin work on the Line 3 Replacement Pipeline which endangers Minnesota's wetlands and waterways. Walz's decision was heavily criticized as Enbridge was responsible for the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history in 2010, known as the Kalamazoo River diluted bitumen spill, which contaminated the lands of the Nottawaseppi people and has not been cleaned up to this day even after $1 billion was spent on the effort.

The Line 3 replacement pipeline was proposed by Enbridge in 2014 and is one of the largest projects of its kind in North America and the largest in the company's history, with a $C5.3 billion component in Canada and $US2.9 billion American component. It is expected to carry more than 750,000 barrels of tar sands oil a day from Hardisty, Alberta to Superior, Wisconsin. This is a distance covering over 1000 miles that will run through wetlands with wild rice beds that Anishinaabe people depend on for food. The pipeline has faced legal opposition from three Anishinaabe communities including the Red Lake Nation, White Earth Band of Ojibwe, and Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. These communities along with environmental organizations have launched direct action against the Walz administration. Activists have chained themselves to heavy equipment, locked themselves inside a section of a pipe, blockaded roads and sat in trees to prevent them from being cut down. A sit-in protest was organized in the path of the construction in December 2020.

In addition to harming wild rice beds, the Line 3 Replacement Pipeline will threaten 800 wetlands and 200 waterways, increase the spread of COVID-19 by bringing in thousands of out-of-state workers, and violate U.S. treaties signed from 1854-67. The pipeline continues to be challenged both in court and on the frontlines, even with subzero temperatures in Minnesota. Financial campaigns such as Stop the Money Pipeline are also encouraging banks to divest from the pipeline.

Tara Houska (Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe) is an attorney who has been fighting against Line 3 for seven years and has raised awareness about the environmental impact of the pipeline as well as the potential threat to her culture. She says "If built, Line 3, a massive toxic tar sands pipeline, would destroy the sacred wild rice beds my people depend on for food, our culture and our way of life." The pipeline would also contribute as much as 50 new coal-fired power plants to the ongoing global climate disaster. Since this plan is for a replacement pipeline, the old pipeline will be abandoned as-is. This means that Minnesota farms, homes, churches, and wild rice beds may be contaminated with oil, rust and chemicals from the old pipeline.

Enbridge is currently lobbying government agencies to allow them to avoid the responsibility of cleaning up the old pipe. The total CO2 emissions from the pipeline in one year will be equivalent to the emissions of 16-18 million cars and has an estimated cost to society of $287 billion in climate change related damage. Landowners and the general public in Minnesota are fighting against Line 3, but the most effective forms of lobbying against the pipeline so far have been from Anishinaabe communities.

The harsh weather conditions have not deterred Anishinaabe Water Protectors in northern Minnesota from taking direct action against the pipeline. In December 2020, two Water Protectors chained themselves to a truck carrying supplies to the Willow River crossing of the Line 3 pipeline. In January 2021, two protectors were arrested for obstructing construction after locking themselves inside a section of the pipe, facing charges of trespassing. The entrances to construction sites were blockaded. Activists have occupied trees, living in them while heavy machinery operated below. Twenty-two people were arrested in total near Palisade, Minnesota at a Line 3 construction site. Dawn Goodwin, a member of Indigenous Environmental Network, explains why so many are determined to stop Line 3, saying,"We are left with no choice but to put our bodies on the line to stop Line 3 and protect the water for our future generations." She also points out that the pipeline violates several treaties with Anishinaabe people, saying "Treaties are the supreme law of the land!"

Goodwin called attention to the treaty violations posed by the Line 3 replacement project as not many are aware of them. In Canada, Line 3 crosses territory of Treaty 1, 2, 4, 6 and 7 as well as the territories of many Nations who did not sign treaties. Over 90% of the project is being built on private land. Treaties protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples to hunt, fish, gather, travel and hold ceremony on their land. In the U.S, the government has a responsibility to honor these treaties, especially by protecting areas of wild rice as outlined in the 1855 treaty.

There is also a growing concern that the pipeline will increase the spread of COVID-19 as thousands of out-of-state workers will be brought in to construction sites, and Indigenous Peoples are already vulnerable to the virus because of lack of access to healthcare resources. Enbridge says it is testing its workers every two weeks and is closely monitoring the spread of COVID-19, but people in rural Manitoba are still concerned about the potential for spread if workers interact with anyone in surrounding communities.

Direct action is not the only way that Indigenous Peoples and environmental activists are fighting against Line 3. Divestment campaigns like Stop the Money pipeline are encouraging banks to avoid renewing their support of Enbridge. On March 31st, five banks (JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Bank of America, TD (Canada), and Union Bank/MUFG (US/Japan) will have to make the decision of whether or not to withdraw their support from Enbridge. Stop the Money Pipeline encourages people to call, email, leave negative reviews on bank sites or send calendar invites to bank CEOs to alert them of the consequences of their decision. Their goal is to get one bank to walk away, which would force Enbridge to look for someone else to sponsor them. The divestment campaign was inspired by a Norwegian pension fund which withdrew from the Dakota Access Pipeline, thanks to pressure from Saami activists.

The environmental risks of the Line 3 replacement project as well as the threat to Indigenous cultures is setting the state of Minnesota back when it comes to its promises and commitments towards Indigenous peoples. Earlier in the year, Governor Tim Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan attended a memorial for the Dakota 38 execution, during which they took the time to acknowledge how the state must respect Indigenous peoples and form a better relationship in the future. Flanagan said "While we can't undo over 150 years of trauma inflicted on Native people at the hands of the state government, we can work to do everything possible to ensure that Native people are seen, heard and valued today." Many Anishinaabe communities are struggling to have their concerns seen and heard by the state. Some have challenged Enbridge in court, through direct action, and through divestment campaigns as the pipeline violates several treaties and threatens wild rice beds.

Anishinaabe water protectors are fighting for the continuation of their culture, for future generations, as well as for the environment. They have also prepared many resources, such as a petition site to email bank CEOs and a fact sheet providing information on the pipeline designed to be shared widely, making it easy for anyone to get involved in the fight against Line 3. The movement started by Anishinaabe land defenders is relying on social media to gain public support, and the need for donations and spreading of awareness is urgent.

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Anishinaabe Communities Fight Against the Line 3 Pipeline

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Image courtesy of mn.gov. On November 30, 2020, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota gave the greenlight to Enbridge, a Canadian energy company, to begin work on the Line 3 Replacement Pipeline which endangers Minnesota's wetlands and waterways. Walz's decision was heavily criticized as Enbridge was responsible for the largest inland oil spill in U.S.

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Regular Citizens Left in the Dark About Line 3's Threats to Wild Rice

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Regular Citizens Left in the Dark About Line 3's Threats to Wild Rice

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This article talks about how Enbridge's Water Crossing Permit application was written so technically and verbosely that it's impossible to discern Line 3's ecological impact. It also mentions how the state of Minnesota has been systematically threatening and constricting the Anishinaabe people's access to wild rice for decades.

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Line 3 Impact on Wild Rice Fields in Northern Minnesota

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Line 3 Impact on Wild Rice Fields in Northern Minnesota

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This article starts by giving a brief overview of the treaty rights of the Anishinaabe (also known as the Ojibwe or Chippewa) people, and the cultural importance of wild rice. Then they go into Enbridge's history of oil spills, including the Kalamazoo Oil Spill, and explain the likelihood of Line 3 having an oil spill, and the ecological impact the tar sands would have on wild rice harvesting.

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By: Miranda Moulis, Elizabeth Curtiss, Nathaniel Moyes, Csanad Hegyi, and Alana Joseph.

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Line 3 Impact on Wild Rice Fields in Northern Minnesota

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The potential of an oil spill poses a threat to treaty lands of the Anishinaabe people.