Tribal nations are fighting a pipeline expansion putting livelihoods at risk. Why they say their voices were silenced.

• Enbridge, which owns the pipeline, says tribal surveys confirmed it's pathway through treaty areas.
• Indigenous activists say their choice was taken away and have protested it planned expansion.

Fasting, prayer, and rallies at water crossings is how Dawn Goodwin, a matriarch and member of the White Earth Nation recalls weathering through the first few days of demonstrations against the Line 3 pipeline expansion in Minnesota last November.

"One of our elders started a spiritual fire. Others went fasting so we knew we needed to be there," Goodwin told Insider.

Goodwin says it was very difficult to stand out there daily watching the drilling and digging take place. "I never liked the word 'raping' mother earth but there is no other word for it after going through everything we've been through."

It's no secret that tribal nations across the country have a long affinity for protecting the earth and living off the land without disturbing it, activists say.

And that's where the growing conflict between Indigenous communities and the building of corporate underground oil-pipelines threatening their way of life comes in.

Jim Doyle, a Macalester College professor, calculated in his report "A Giant Step Backward," that the Line 3 pipeline, which transports oil from from Canada's oil sands region to Minnesota's western edge of Lake Superior, would be equivalent to firing up 50 new coal-fired power plants or 38 million vehicles.

Over the last year, Indigenous activists have held countless demonstrations to get the pipeline shutdown.

They tell Insider that the pollution is too high of a cost for their family and communities future, and are vowing to put a stop to the Line 3 continued repairs and construction.

Enbridge says they had to replace the line because it was cracked

The Line 3 crude oil pipeline, owned by Canadian-based energy company Enbridge Inc., was first created in 1968.

By 2019, Enbridge reported the 1,097-mile pipeline was cracked and required extensive maintenance. Repair of the roughly 340-mile corridor was greenlit by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.

The new pathway avoids the Leech Lake band of Ojibwe reservation and was completed in October 2021, but that hasn't stopped Indigenous activists from protesting the pipeline's existence.

A report by The Guardian earlier this month uncovered that Enbridge had reimbursed local police nearly $2.5 million for arresting and surveilling protestors, part of the utility commission's agreement for the project permit.

Their protest throughout the summer drew hundreds daily.

Winona LaDuke, Executive Director at Honor the Earth, and member of the White Earth Nation, says this report is extremely concerning considering she was one of the more than 900 protestors arrested over the summer.

LaDuke is still advocating for the pipeline to be shut down.

"This is a very bad and dangerous threat to civil society and democratic governance," LaDuke told Insider.

Enbridge says Minnesota Court of Appeals said the route was in respect of tribal sovereignty

The Anishinaabe people, also referred to as Ojibwe and Chippewa peoples, signed numerous treaties with the US government, most notably relinquishing 10 million acres of Minnesota's northern lake country to the federal government in 1855.

But the tribe members reserved the right to hunt, fish, gather and hold ceremonies on the land.

The Justice Department did not respond to Insider's inquiries on activists' concerns about possible treaty violations.

Enbridge, however, told Insider that the Minnesota Court of Appeals says that the route selected was "reasonable" in respect to tribal sovereignty.

"Both [the Leech Lake and Fond du Lac tribes] have written in support of project permits," a spokesperson responded via email.

Indigenous activists say their choice was taken away

But, LaDuke and Goodwin say Enbridge's conduct throughout the process has been infuriating.

Activists say their community was robbed of the choice to say no to a new corridor when Enbridge reached an agreement with a different tribe - the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa - to run the pipeline directly through its reservation.

"The (tribal) commissioners publicly said that they felt like Enbridge had 'put a gun to their head,' this was certainly a gun to the head of the Anishinaabe," LaDuke said.

Enbridge, which already has five other pipelines that run through that reservation, maintains it did consult tribes via a resource survey.

Enbridge also received approval by the state of Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to pump out more than 5 billion gallons of water - more than 10 times the amount initially requested by the company.

LaDuke, Goodwin, and Moneen Nasmith, an attorney representing their tribal nation in a federal lawsuit said that decision will have lasting impacts on tribes ability to garner food and water for years to come.

Lawsuit against the federal government for violations of the Clean Water Act and Environmental Protection Act

When Enbridge expanded Line 3 it ruptured an aquifer, leaking at least 24 million gallons of groundwater.

The company did not clean it up before the October 15 deadline Minnesota National Resources reported this month. The MDNR is also investigating two other sites where the company may have caused additional groundwater damage.

Enbridge tells Insider they are fully cooperating with the investigation and are "diligently implementing the steps required."

The Clean Water Act fends off water pollution. Nasmith, who represents several tribes in similar federal lawsuits, says the Federal government did not do the analysis required under the Clean Water Act, Environmental Policy Act and treaty rights to protect the land and resources the tribes rely on.

"What the government actually did was say, 'oh some fish might die,' and then that's it," Nasmith said. "We say 'if fish die, what does that mean for the tribes who rely on those fish to survive as part of their cultural practices?'"

There have been many state and federal lawsuits brought against the government by the four impacted tribal nations. This case is being litigated while President Joe Biden continues to publicly pledge his support for an aggressive climate agenda.

In January, the president canceled the permit granting construction of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline, which would have transported crude oil from western Canada to Nebraska.

Since then, however, Biden has defended the expansion of Line 3. He also hasn't offered official comment on Michigan's legal battle to shut down Enbridge's leaking Line 5 pipeline, which flows from Superior, Wisconsin to Sarnia, Ontario.

Activists hope oil spills in affluent communities forces officials to see the urgency to act

LaDuke says she hopes that after the recent pipeline oil spills in places including Orange County California, where more white affluent communities were impacted, officials will understand the urgency of halting underground oil-pipeline construction.

Traditionally pipelines are built through minority communities, and spills are also more prone to happening in poor-marginalized communities.

LaDuke says that's why the spill in California is so unique because the primary impacted communities do not fit the standard demographic. She says affluent people elect and hold power so now that they are impacted this could be the catalyst to push them to act.

Either way, she says her tribe along with many others will continue to fight and hold demonstrations locally and in Washington to get to the pipeline shutdown because their livelihoods depend on it.

"Affluence speaks to -- and elects -- power," LaDuke said. "The planet's been issued a CODE RED in the latest UN climate report. Is there anything more severe than a CODE RED?!"