Sparks Fly — Part one, the Anishinaabe pilgrimage
I AM A VISITOR ON A JOURNEY. My work is to learn from the Earth and the people living close to the Earth. I’m a visitor who arrived for the Peoples Treaty Gathering in northern MN. I listened to Jasper* welcome 30 of us on Saturday morning at the Manewog Camp. I was greeted by the bright eyes of Elvis, by Polkadot and by Copper. Most are young people. Many use the pronoun ‘they’. Most have renamed themselves a codename for their own security. I am old enough to be their grandmother. I’m a pilgrim at Manewog, the Ojibwe feminist and 2-Spirit camp. There is no address to this Ojibwe encampment. Leaves wave overhead, the roots curl underfoot. Predicted temperature is 95 degrees. My eyes inhale the sunshine darting around treetops.
I came as a visitor to a land of inky-blue lakes, wetlands with swabs of farms. Forests quilt the wet pastures. Fish, frogs and birds are everywhere. I left behind my computer, plates stacked in the dishwater, my clothes rammed into two closets. My friends in Boston stopped by on June 2nd for a hug and then to shoo me away.
We left on June 3, 2021 as the lavender gave its first bloom. I do tend a garden in Massachusetts land, and I don’t own one strawberry plant.
We beetled over the Berkshires, through barns and silos, industrial Rochester/Erie, the pollution of Cleveland, high-rises of Chicago. We paused in Columbia Park near St. Paul honoring George Floyd. The murderous racism in society’s fabric is an open wound. It’s the first anniversary of his heinous murder. The memorial park for Floyd was taken down a week before we blew through. Other engines in boxes zipped past us at 75 MPH on the river of pavement. The kaleidoscope mural of Floyd shines with love, a heartbeat in this suffocating police state.
I came as a guest on this trip I live in the industrial racial complex of the Western world. I am traveling to Anishinaabe lands west of the Great Lakes, breaking with my caste system. Hundreds of non-Native peoples were invited to the Peoples Treaty Gathering June 7th. Like a migration on the great flyways of Turtle Island we swans migrate through the lands of the Nipmuc, the Quononoquett watershed of the Pequots, the Nipmucs, Pocomtucs, Mohegan, Munsee, the Onondegas. These nations are still alive and teachers for us European settlers. We pass signs of Niagara Falls and the bounty of the Great Lakes hits me in my throat. I know the Holy one, or Great Spirit is alive in the churning waters. The waters cradle the Potawatomi, Mohawks, Cayuga, Hurons, Meskwaki, Dakotas and Ojibwe.
We come as pilgrims to Minnesota to protect the waters there, the Mississippi waters. The new Line 3 pipeline is stealing land from the Anishinaabe people. Line 3 is what Enbridge, a Canadian petrol company, calls a replacement pipeline. What deception! Line 3 which is only 30-50% completed includes 337 miles of new larger pipes. Enbridge is building through new fields and forests so that Tar Sands slop can reach US oil refineries. Pipelines leak greasy pollution. Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline expects to drill under 22 rivers in Minnesota alone, plus crossing over 200 bodies of water. I come to greet Lake Itasca, the Migizi (eagle) and Manoomin (wild rice). Water is sacred, oil is poison.
The Mississippi, arguably the longest river on the continent, drains 31 states in its watershed. Our history books paint the riverboats, the Southern enslavement and Baptist revivals at the skirts of the Mississippi. The Minnesota Ojibwe live with wetlands, the upper tendrils of the Great River. The babbling dark waters slip over rocks and ratta-tat-tat into strong stream. Water Protectors are reclaiming the land from the oil invaders. For hundreds of miles the headwaters are pure above St. Cloud. By the time the river reaches the Twin Cities the health is substandard. Algal blooms and nutrient levels are high. This river affects the health of us all. A song called All One Planet croons,
“And we won’t stand by watching her die, and deny, (breath)
We live as She lives, we die as She dies.”
I was raised on the Atlantic seaboard, as a settler. I, and my grandparents, took land rights and therefore took human rights. The US gov has been stealing land from Ojibwe, Crow, Sauk, and Cherokee since 1787. The government agencies like the public utilities, governors (like Tim Walz), the Homeland Securities, the courts, the sheriffs are pushing Ojibwe off of their land. The US totally supports Enbridge’s construction. The Minnesota courts have not asked Enbridge to explain the need of a new pipeline nor required an environmental impact statement. Winona LaDuke, leader of Honor the Earth says,
“Our ancestors made agreements to take care of this water and land forever together, and now is our time to honor that.”
I arrive in wonderment as I was invited to stay at the Manewog encampment led by the Giniw Collective. After helping with breakfast, I roll out the 7 foot banner made 2,000 miles away out of a window shade. This trip will be successful just knowing that we are cradled by the watershed of the Great Mississippi. The words from the people’s prophet Amos “let justice roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” The banner has rising waves and wild rice. I look up into the tree canopy and I see a bright butterfly. Ahhh. I feel amazement. I am no longer a visitor, I am a welcome guest. May I act honorably.
This is the first of three parts which describe before the action; the action; connecting back home.
Tell President Biden to honor the treaties and stop line 3.
I AM A VISITOR ON A JOURNEY. My work is to learn from the Earth and the people living close to the Earth. I’m a visitor who arrived for the Peoples Treaty Gathering in northern MN. I listened to Bambi welcome 30 of us on Saturday morning at the Manewog Camp. I was greeted by the bright eyes of Booger, by Polkadot and by Steele. These young people use the pronoun ‘they’ and have renamed themselves a codename for their own security. I am old enough to be their grandmother. I’m a pilgrim at Manewog, the Ojibwe feminist and 2-Spirit camp. There is no address to this Ojibwe encampment. Leaves wave overhead, the roots curl underfoot. Predicted temperature is 95 degrees. My eyes inhale the sunshine darting around treetops.
I came as a visitor to a land of inky-blue lakes, wetlands with swabs of farms. Forests quilt the wet pastures. Fish, frogs and birds are everywhere. I left behind my computer, plates stacked in the dishwater, my clothes rammed into two closets. My friends in Boston stopped by on June 2nd for a hug and then to shoo me away.
We left on June 3, 2021 as the lavender gave its first bloom. I do tend a garden in Massachusetts land, and I don’t own one strawberry plant.
We beetled over the Berkshires, through barns and silos, industrial Rochester/Erie, the pollution of Cleveland, high-rises of Chicago. We paused in Columbia Park near St. Paul honoring George Floyd. The murderous racism in society’s fabric is an open wound. It’s the first anniversary of his heinous murder. The memorial park for Floyd was taken down a week before we blew through. Other engines in boxes zipped past us at 75 MPH on the river of pavement. The kaleidoscope mural of Floyd shines with love, a heartbeat in this suffocating police state.
I came as a guest on this trip I live in the industrial racial complex of the Western world. I am traveling to Anishinaabe lands west of the Great Lakes, breaking with my caste system. Hundreds of non-Native peoples were invited to the Peoples Treaty Gathering June 7th. Like a migration on the great flyways of Turtle Island we swans migrate through the lands of the Nipmuc, the Quononoquett watershed of the Pequots, the Nipmucs, Pocomtucs, Mohegan, Munsee, the Onondegas. These nations are still alive and teachers for us European settlers. We pass signs of Niagara Falls and the bounty of the Great Lakes hits me in my throat. I know the Holy one, or Great Spirit is alive in the churning waters. The waters cradle the Potawatomi, Mohawks, Cayuga, Hurons, Meskwaki, Dakotas and Ojibwe.
We come as pilgrims to Minnesota to protect the waters there, the Mississippi waters. The new Line 3 pipeline is stealing land from the Anishinaabe people. Line 3 is what Enbridge, a Canadian petrol company, calls a replacement pipeline. What deception! Line 3 which is only 30-50% completed includes 337 miles of new larger pipes. Enbridge is building through new fields and forests so that Tar Sands slop can reach US oil refineries. Pipelines leak greasy pollution. Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline expects to drill under 22 rivers in Minnesota alone, plus crossing over 200 bodies of water. I come to greet Lake Itasca, the Migizi (eagle) and Manoomin (wild rice). Water is sacred, oil is poison.
The Mississippi, arguably the longest river on the continent, drains 31 states in its watershed. Our history books paint the riverboats, the Southern enslavement and Baptist revivals at the skirts of the Mississippi. The Minnesota Ojibwe live with wetlands, the upper tendrils of the Great River. The babbling dark waters slip over rocks and ratta-tat-tat into strong stream. Water Protectors are reclaiming the land from the oil invaders. For hundreds of miles the headwaters are pure above St. Cloud. By the time the river reaches the Twin Cities the health is substandard. Algal blooms and nutrient levels are high. This river affects the health of us all. A song called All One Planet croons,
“And we won’t stand by watching her die, and deny, (breath)
We live as She lives, we die as She dies.”
I was raised on the Atlantic seaboard, as a settler. I, and my grandparents, took land rights and therefore took human rights. The US gov has been stealing land from Ojibwe, Crow, Sauk, and Cherokee since 1787. The government agencies like the public utilities, governors (like Tim Walz), the Homeland Securities, the courts, the sheriffs are pushing Ojibwe off of their land. The US totally supports Enbridge’s construction. The Minnesota courts have not asked Enbridge to explain the need of a new pipeline nor required an environmental impact statement. Winona LaDuke, leader of Honor the Earth says,
“Our ancestors made agreements to take care of this water and land forever together, and now is our time to honor that.”
I arrive in wonderment as I was invited to stay at the Manewog encampment led by the Giniw Collective. After helping with breakfast, I roll out the 7 foot banner made 2,000 miles away out of a window shade. This trip will be successful just knowing that we are cradled by the watershed of the Great Mississippi. The words from the people’s prophet Amos “let justice roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” The banner has rising waves and wild rice. I look up into the tree canopy and I see a bright butterfly. Ahhh. I feel amazement. I am no longer a visitor, I am a welcome guest. May I act honorably.
This is the first of three parts which describe before the action; the action; connecting back home.
Tell President Biden to honor the treaties and stop line 3.
Minga, your description is poetic, visual, and inviting. Thank you.