Hundreds march to Army Corps office in St. Paul, call on President Biden to revoke Line 3 permits

More than 500 Minnesotans who oppose Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 tar sands pipeline rallied Friday afternoon in downtown St. Paul. They gathered in Kellogg Park and marched to the nearby Army Corps of Engineers office to call on President Biden to rescind Line 3’s federal water crossing permits, which would stop construction on the pipeline in Northern Minnesota.

Speakers emphasized the dangers posed to the climate and Minnesota’s rivers and streams and the violation of tribal sovereignty and treaties signed with Minnesota native tribes in the 1850s.

Tania Aubid, water protector and member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe:

“Law enforcement has been doing some surveillance work on us. They’ve been flying helicopters over us today. That’s just the beginning. What are we going to expect next? Those of you who were over at Standing Rock, at the DAPL movement, know what comes next. Next comes the dogs, next comes the rubber bullets. Do we want that? Hell, no! Come up and visit us, come up and see what’s facing us. Stand with us up there. Show Gov. Walz that there are people who care. Show Gov. Walz that we don’t want this pipeline to come through our territories.”

Shenai Matteson, cultural organizer who lives at the Water Protector Welcome Center in Palisade, Minn.:

Are we going to continue those past patterns of extraction? No, we’re not. Are we going to believe like Pete Stauber says that this is the best we can do, that these are the jobs we need, that that’s the future? We need to not settle for that. We need to stand with Tania and other Anishinabe people who are saying that this is the 1855 treaty territory. We are all treaty people. It’s our responsibility to uphold those treaties and respect the water.”

Taysha Martineau, co-founder of the Gitchi Gumi Scouts and Camp Miigizi on Fond du Lac:

It’s been a long seven-year fight. Now is the time for action. They’re burying this pipe, and I can’t stop this alone. I need each and every one of you to join me on the front line. Because Enbridge has approached me and asked me to sit down with them. But I’ll never sit down at a table with my enemy. And if Enbridge wants to meet us, they will meet us on the front line, and I need you there with me. We’ll stop this pipeline together, all of us, because if we’re united, Enbridge doesn’t stand a chance.”

State Sen. Mary Kunesh of New Brighton:

“Being connected back to my ancestors brings me here today with hope and honor, but it makes me so worried about the future -- the future of this land that we stand on, the future of Turtle Island -- because we have people making decisions without us. And that’s the way it’s always been for our native folks. We need to make a movement toward a cleaner economy. We need to make sure we are taking care of this world, this land, for the next seven generations.”

State Sen. Jen McEwen of Duluth:

“Scientists are telling us that we only have 10 years to turn this ship around. We simply don’t have time for Line 3. We do not have time to go backwards like that. As elected officials they want to make us choose, to choose between workers and a future for our planet. They keep trying to divide us. The work of elected officials is easy compared to the work people are doing in Palisade, compared to the work that you all are doing. We will do this, we have to do this. We will not choose. We will respect worker’s rights. We will build a better future for ourselves and guarantee a good future for our children and our grandchildren and the generations to come.”

Sam Grant, Executive Director of MN350:

“In the first few days of this administration they have begun to do some things that are very constructive, but we need to go further. We have to go beyond saying no more fossil fuel infrastructure and pay attention to the fossil fuel infrastructure that our governor and state agencies have wrongly allowed to begin construction. We have to tell President Biden and say it loud: Stop Line 3.”