Local activists oppose pipeline

A small group of local protestors are joining a national movement to oppose the Enbridge Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline, which is being constructed through northern Minnesota and wetland treaty territory that provide water and wild rice for Native Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) people.

Although the pipeline doesn’t come close to North Idaho, Helen Yost with Wild Idaho Rising Tide said she believes citizens who care about the Constitution should also care about the threat to Native American treaty rights.

The pipeline, Yost said, would threaten drinking water and food sovereignty for the Anishinaabe should a spill ever occur.

“[Treaties are] a pact between our U.S. government, and another sovereign nation, which is the individual tribes,” Yost said. “It's not only up to the tribes to uphold their end of the deal, but it's up to you as citizens to force our government to uphold its end of the deal as well.”

On Friday, Yost and other protestors gathered at Farmin Park to protest the pipeline. A few protestors also wrote letters to President Joe Biden asking him to terminate Enbridge’s agreement.

According to the Enbridge website, the primary environmental impact of the pipeline would be temporary disturbance to land, wetlands and waterbodies, with the operational impacts related to maintenance repairs and mowing activities.

However, many activists say they believe an oil spill is inevitable. Should that happen, it would have significant environmental impacts on the surrounding wetlands.

Among other things, Enbridge also touts the estimated 8,600 jobs and $2 million economic boost the line would create. Still, protestors say it trades short-term benefits for environmental harm and damage to Native communities.

Carrie Clayton, a Sandpoint activist who traveled to Minnesota to protest the pipeline, said although it is considered a replacement, the pipeline would impact a total of 389 acres of wild rice in 17 different wild rice water bodies — none of which have had a pipeline before.

“Tribal nations and Indigenous people in the path of the project oppose it, the proposal to build a new Line 3 is a violation of the fundamental principles of sovereignty,” Clayton said. “The right to self-determination and self-government [is] guaranteed to tribal nations by the US Constitution and affirmed repeatedly by the US Supreme Court.”