Protecting the Indigenous- Travelling to Line 3 for the Anishinaabe Tribe

(Art by Jackie Fawn)

As a Catholic Worker, we dedicate ourselves to practicing the Corporal Works of Mercy, one of which is to give water to the thirsty. We can also interpret this as to protect the water people drink. The Mississippi river is one of 200 bodies of water that will be effected by this disastrous pipeline. Enbridge proposes to drill under 22 rivers in Minnesota alone, trampling on longstanding treaty rights.

As I travel to Line 3 to take action against Enbridge, a Canadian oil company determined to help commit genocide against the Anishinaabe people, I think of my children. Why am I separating myself from my children to fight what feels like an unwinnable war against big oil, government, and industry? What can I do as a poor, brown woman and mother do to stop the continued colonization and destruction of the Indigenous peoples of this country? Isn’t this what this filthy, rotten system wants- black and brown people locked up, separated from their children?

I am confronted by my inner voice, my conscience, with these questions: What about my children's children? How will they think of their grandmother as they find out about the atrocities committed against the Indigenous, wondering what I did to stop this genocide? What about the children and grandchildren that will never be born due to disappearances and femicide surrounding oil company ‘man camps’? To date there are  506 missing Indigenous women and children in the USA and Canada. Many are from areas where there are residential ‘man camps’- places where men come to live while they work the oil fields and pipeline. These camps are creating prostitution and sexploitation rings where men are buying, selling, and killing Indigenous women and children.

I remember my direct ancestors, my grandmother America (Amy) and her sisters Louise and Blanca, who were stripped from their homeland of Puerto Rico. They were raised and abused in a Catholic orphanage, their native language beaten out of them in an attempt to assimilate and colonize them. Just like the many Indigenous children of this nation that we continue to find mass graves of. My people would appreciate my resolve and commitment to the protection of the Anishinaabe.

Even though my absence will be tough on my family, we are committed to protecting the voiceless. The Indigenous of this nation are often thought of as sad, helpless people, or a non-existent people killed off long ago. This is not the case! The Indigenous are alive and fighting for the future of their people and culture in this country! How dare we, as a people, be so distracted by our personal problems and limitations, that we allow the government to continue to break treaties with the Indigenous and choose industry over an endangered people and culture. Come to Line 3 to defend the sacred!