From Columbus Day to Enbridge: Indigenous Resistance in the Great Lakes Continues
Early in 2016 the Standing Rock uprising against the Dakota Access Pipeline erupted. It was the largest Indigenous uprising in North America in recent memory. The Water Protectors, as they called themselves, vowed to defend the treaties and to stop the trespass of the pipeline through their territory. This momentous event announced to the world the deep connection between Indigenous liberation and decolonization and the protection of the Earth from the ravages of climate change and corporate greed. More than three hundred Native nations and countless allied movements planted their flags in solidarity at Standing Rock.
Enbridge, one of the largest oil- and gas-pipeline companies in North America, is using the present COVID-19 crisis as a cover to continue its environmental destruction. The U.S. government is facilitating the company’s plans, allowing it to build infrastructure and to bring in worksite materials for expanding Enbridge’s Line 3 during the pandemic. This pipeline already exists but Enbridge is making “upgrades” so it can bring tar sands oil from Alberta to the American market. Line 3 snakes its way through Minnesota, terminating in Lake Superior in Superior, Wisconsin. Enbridge plans to cut down forests in Anishinaabe territory, thus threatening fragile wild rice fields and causing irreparable damage to Anishinaabe lifeways in the region, all in violation of treaties signed with the United States.
Indigenous people in the United States have been under constant assault by the settler-colonial state since its inception. Capitalist logic paired with its ideological companion, manifest destiny, are foundational to the existence of the United States, and woven into this logic is the erasure of non-capitalist ways of life practiced by indigenous nations. Indigenous liberation and decolonization are thus intimately and inseparably linked to the struggle against capitalism.
From 2002 to the present, Enbridge and its joint ventures and subsidiaries have reported 307 hazardous liquids incidents. These spills have already released a total of 2.8 million gallons of hazardous liquids, contaminating waterways and lands where Anishinaabe fish and live. In July 2010, Line 6B, a pipeline operated by Enbridge, burst and flowed into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River, resulting in one of the largest inland oil spills in U.S. history.
Native nations have been leading the struggle for environmental protection. When Line 3 construction got underway in Minnesota, protesters stalled the pipeline’s progress by locking themselves to equipment and by using disabled cars to erect a blockade. The Couchiching Ojibwe First Nation was deeply involved in organizing against Line 3. Meanwhile, the capitalist state has been working hand in glove with Enbridge to protect their corporate interests. Security firms have kept tabs on protesters and reported their activities to the police. There has been a multistate coordination of the government’s repressive apparatus in support of corporate interests. Minnesota’s “fusion center” receives information on Line 3 opponents from police departments in at least three states and coordinates their anti-people activities. These “fusion centers” were established under the guise of facilitating “counterterrorism intelligence-sharing” and have played a role in monitoring, interpreting, and criminalizing political anti-corporate activity.
“There have been several demonstrations in Michigan’s upper peninsula and northern Wisconsin against the construction of Enbridge pipelines, with Indigenous people leading the way. The Bad River Ojibwe Nation in Wisconsin has asked Enbridge to remove Line 5 from their lands; currently, the pipeline goes straight through their reservation.”
Many see the potential success of Line 3 being the lynchpin to demand more “upgrades” of surrounding pipelines to potentially carry tar sands. There have been several demonstrations in Michigan’s upper peninsula and northern Wisconsin against the construction of Enbridge pipelines, with Indigenous people leading the way. The Bad River Ojibwe Nation in Wisconsin has asked Enbridge to remove Line 5 from their lands; currently, the pipeline goes straight through their reservation. Line 5 also passes under the Mackinac Bridge in an area also known as the Straits of Mackinac, which is where Lake Michigan meets Lake Huron between Michigan’s lower and upper peninsulas. Every day, nearly 23 million gallons of oil flow through two aging pipelines in the heart of the Great Lakes, threatening to contaminate their waters and violating treaty rights. These actions against Enbridge have received wide support from the local Indigenous community.
While tribal governments and citizens have been sheltering in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Enbridge has not delayed its operations. On April 22nd, 2020, also known as Earth Day, Enbridge held a “public” hearing to move forward with their Line 5 project, which is not only slated to be a decade long project, but as its goal seeks to keep a 67-year-old pipeline operational. Some tribal leaders mentioned that they weren’t even notified of the hearing and weren’t aware of it until tagged in social media posts. Michigan state agencies and its officials haven’t responded to requests from multiple tribal nations and organizations to halt or slow the process down because they do not have the capacity to fight a pandemic and fight the projects of extractive industries at the same time. A failure of the deeply corroded Line 5 in the Straits of Mackinac, in one of the largest bodies of freshwater on the planet, would be catastrophic to Anishinaabe waterways and fisheries.
Capitalist economies interrupt cooperation and association and force people instead into social relations based on profit. The colonial state introduces violent forms of social control and invasion that extract life from Native people and other oppressed peoples in order to increase profit margins and consolidate power in the hands of the wealthy. The whole system depends on the suppression of non-capitalist ways and forcing people, specifically Indigenous and other oppressed people, into wage labor.
Recently we have seen the movement to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day (IPD) gain steam throughout the country. As of 2019 there are 11 states and 129 cities that have made the change. Efforts to establish IPD in Michigan’s upper peninsula have played a role in raising awareness among the non-native population about these issues. These efforts began in 2015, with a focus towards educating the public about the devastating effects of colonialism in North America and the world, and to advance the cause of decolonization. Our intention was also to promote the idea that settler colonialism is an international issue and that support for the decolonization struggles of the Palestinian people and people in the Global South are part and parcel of this work. Members of the IPD campaign joined with others in the local area and with friends in Marquette to support the Water Protectors at Standing Rock, and some made the trip to the Oceti Sakowin Camp while the uprising was still unfolding.
Indigenous liberation and decolonization are intimately linked to the protection of the Earth and against the ravages of climate change. In Michigan’s upper peninsula activists have continued to hold activities and to develop ties with other forces working to advance the cause of decolonization and to counter the environmental devastation inflicted by corporate interests. Some of its members have initiated joint work with the Keweenaw Youth for Climate Action (KYCA), a local group in the Houghton-Hancock area, formed by Michigan Tech students and climate activists. This is part of a strategy to advance the struggle and build power in an organized manner to fight climate change and corporate-profit-caused environmental destruction. Several KYCA members have also participated in the study of The Red Nation’s The Red Deal program, which is a program for decolonization and Native liberation.
The fossil fuel industry in general, and Enbridge’s devastating history of environmental and Indigenous livelihood destruction, shows that the settler colonial-capitalist economy is based on violence to facilitate the accumulation of wealth and power in the hands of a few. It seeks to suppress non-capitalist ways of life that might challenge dominant modes of power. As pointed out in The Red Deal, “political possibilities for Native liberation therefore cannot emerge from forms of economic or institutional development, even if these are tribally controlled under the guise of ‘self-determination’ or ‘culture.’ They can only emerge from directly challenging the capitalist-colonial system of power through collective struggle and resistance. Capitalism-colonialism means death for Native peoples. For Native peoples to live, capitalism and colonialism must die.”
