Red Lake Tribal Members Occupy Illegal Enbridge Pipeline on Their Land

Via Jenna Pope.

http://www.redlakenationnews.com/story/2013/03/05/news/red-lake-tribal-members-occupy-illegal-enbridge-pipeline-on-their-land/9620.html

What happens when you’ve had enough of oil companies illegally passing pipelines through your tribal land? You practice self-determination and your sovereign rights to occupy that land. That is exactly what a group of Red Lake Tribal members are doing.

In a small town called Leonard in northern Minnesota, a traditional camp has been set up by Red Lake tribal members, allies and supporters. Lodging is in a tipi and a sacred fire is burning 24/7. The occupation started Thursday afternoon, February 28th and is still going strong today, Sunday, March 3rd. There is a safety law concerning oil pipelines that states nothing or no one can be above a pipeline for 72 hours or the pipeline will have to be shut off. The occupation is seeking to stop the oil flowing through their pipeline, for good. The 72-hour mark passed today, but no pipelines were turned off.

In talking to a few of the Red Lake tribal members, they explained this occupation is purely against the Enbridge Company and its pipeline. There are no ulterior motives here except to stand in solidarity with the First Nations Cree who are facing blatant environmental destruction on their homelands caused by the Canadian Tar Sands.

Some of the oil running through the veins of this pipeline come from the tar sands region. Tar sands oil is sent to Minneapolis, MN, one of many cities refining the bitumen oil and is dispersed across the nation through several different pipelines,this Enbridge pipeline being one of them.

(More at the link. Follow Idle No More on Twitter and Facebook for First Nation news against the illegal pipeline and water grabs.)