by Bob Morse
My recent experience in spirit-based climate activism was a window into the juxtaposition of strength and vulnerability.
For the Ojibwe people of Northern Minnesota, who call themselves Anishinaabe, the elements of life come under the domain of women. Within a woman, the gestating fetus lives in water, then gasps at birth taking in air, opens nascent eyes to the fire of the sun, and finally touches the earth. So women are the primary water-keepers. They know that the treaties that secured the land on which they live and where their ancestors walked mandate that they steward the region’s resources. It is heartwarming to witness the Indigenous men in their complete respect for the responsibilities that Indigenous women carry and their recognition of female leadership in these matters. Together these men and women are continually in touch with spirit, and prayer is interwoven into all aspects of life.
Yet as fierce and steadfast as these women present themselves to be, they’re cognizant that their voices have neither sufficient weight to be reflected in the mainstream media nor sufficient substance to influence the US government in DC. Living the intersection of being female and Native renders these strong women invisible, inaudible, and vulnerable to attack. In Minnesota, it is well known what is meant by the four letters MMIW: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, the most “disappeared” population in America. Despite the propaganda of oil-transporting companies that claim that they are providing employment for local Indigenous and other Minnesotans, a quick glance at the pipeline workers’ license plates convinces that most are out-of-state workers. Encampments of workers known as “man camps” are notorious for their raping and killing Native woman.
So, after a substantial period of time of standing up to the Canadian corporation Enbridge in resistance to the company’s erecting a replacement to their deteriorating and leaking Line 3 Pipeline that’s been in place in Northern Minnesota for decades, these Indian Mamas and Grandmas and Great-Grandmas put out a nationwide call for folks of faith and spirit to come witness and hold space and a larger call that was heard by climate activists to join them in nonviolent direct action that would amplify their voices.
The hope is that President Biden might stop the Line 3 pipeline as he had done with the Keystone XL Pipeline soon after entering office. The three worldwide organizations that broadcasted this invitation and orchestrated the Treaty People Gathering were GreenFaith, Interfaith Power and Light, and 350.org, especially the Twin-City-based Minnesota chapters of these organizations. The name of the gathering references that all of us alive today on Turtle Island have a piece of the responsibility for maintaining the integrity of the treaties that assigned to the Anishinaabe the roles of stewarding their land and being their lands’ water-keepers. Article Six of the US Constitution states that “all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the Supreme Law of the Land.”
The Anishinaabe people originally inhabited the East Coast but, according to stories I heard, were told by Spirit before the Tall Ships arrived that to survive the coming events they needed to move to where they could eat out of the water. Their current homeland is rich in waterways, and out of this fresh, clear water grow the Anishinaabe’s traditional livelihood—wild rice. Tar-sands oil is thick. When leaked, it sinks, polluting the water, and it is carcinogenic. Unlike on the Standing Rock Reservation where the Dakota Access Pipeline primarily threatened the Missouri River, the route of the new Line 3 Pipeline would cross 22 waterways 67 times, including four crossings near the headwaters of the Mississippi River whose source is Lake Itasca on the Anishinaabe’s White Earth Reservation So, it’s a threat near and far to health, livelihood, climate, and life itself.
The one day of action taken on June 7, 2021 began with an Indigenous-led prayer circle in which representatives of myriad religions added their acknowledgment to the collective sense of oneness. The subsequent nonviolent direct action resulted in hundreds of arrests among the thousands who gathered on the White Earth Reservation. News of this civil disobedience spread across the media and put Line 3 into the public eye. Organically, many activists stayed and many more continue to respond to the additional calls to maintain and sustain resistance camps while the pipes themselves are still resting on the earth, not yet submerged under the waterways.
It’s not everyone’s role to gather, but we can all honor non-indigenous people who gather as well as the original people of our nation whose lives and lands continue to be threatened as they have been historically. We can amplify voices by contacting those in governance, by donating to related causes and bail funds, and by raising awareness in our community and among friends and family members. We in faith communities can magnify the power of the Indigenous prayer circles through our own silent and verbal worship. As well, as I discovered was my calling, we can hold in the Light all the workers and police who are pawns of systemic dominance and not just hold a vision of the discontinuation of pipelines but also hold a vision of the world that we are calling in.
