Nahko Bear of Nahko and Medicine for the People.
The sacred fires at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation have been extinguished, but the fight against oil pipelines is far from over. Indigenous activist Winona LaDuke is riding horseback across the Midwest this summer to raise awareness about the proposed expansion of the Enbridge Energy oil pipeline.
Her campaign kicks off with a musical tour featuring Native American artists Nahko and Medicine for the People, Annie Humphrey and Indian-American musician Gingger Shankar, which stops at the Majestic Theatre on July 9. The concert benefits Honor the Earth, an indigenous environmental justice organization that was founded by LaDuke along with Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers in 1993.
Frontman Nahko Bear and his musical collective have championed environmental causes for years while playing the music festival circuit. The five-piece group has a fusion style, combining world music influences with alt-rock instrumentation. Humphrey, an Ojibwe singer-songwriter from Minnesota, was nominated for a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for her 2016 album Uncombed Hair. Shankar, who has composed music for major films and recently appeared on Katy Perry’s album Prism, is a vocalist and virtuoso violinist who plays the highly unusual 10-string violin.
Funds raised from the “Love Water Not Oil” tour will help fund the resistance to Enbridge Energy’s “Line 3” replacement program, a $7.5 billion project that would replace an existing 1,097-mile crude oil pipeline that extends from Edmonton, Alberta, to Superior, Wisconsin. Line 3 connects to other Enbridge pipelines that run through Wisconsin, including Dane County.
“All the data in the [environmental impact study] shows that this is going to be a huge ecological problem,” LaDuke tells Isthmus. Rather than removing the original Line 3, which was built in the 1960s, Enbridge Energy’s plan leaves the abandoned line in the ground, prompting concerns about “legacy contamination” from spills and leaks. “That’s a huge problem for the citizens of Minnesota, and that will be a problem for other states.”
Michael Barnes, a spokesman for Enbridge Energy, says the Line 3 replacement project was approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice. Reacting to the Honor the Earth pipeline opposition tour, he says: “As with all groups, we respect their right to voice their opinions.”
The “Love Water Not Oil” tour has stops in Madeline Island, Hayward and Duluth over the coming weeks. On July 14, LaDuke will launch a concurrent initiative, an environmental horseback prayer ride along the pipeline route, starting in Nekoosa and traveling through Hayward, Superior and on to Madeline Island. It’s the first time LaDuke will ride in Wisconsin, but she’s been riding along pipeline routes in Minnesota for the past four years. “One day after our fourth ride, [Enbridge] canceled [the Sandpiper pipeline project],” says LaDuke.
LaDuke predicts that the momentum from the Standing Rock movement will carry over to resistance to the Enbridge project, which she sees as “the next big fight” against oil pipelines and the fossil fuel industry.
“Every tribe has intervened to oppose [Enbridge], and a lot of landowners are very concerned,” she says. “People are already preparing camps.”