Line 5: Threatening Indigenous Lifeways

Abstract

Using theoretical frameworks from Indigenous scholars Dr. Anne Spice and Dr. Kyle Whyte, this paper seeks to demonstrate how Enbridge’s Line 5 dual oil pipeline and proposed tunnel project are forms of invasive infrastructure that enact environmental violence against Anishinaabe peoples, particularly in Michigan, by threatening their collective continuance. This environmental violence is justified and obfuscated by Enbridge and sanctioned by the settler colonial states of Canada and the United States by framing fossil fuel infrastructure as a critical public good that serves the national security, economic growth, and energy independence of the nation states. Despite this settler capitalist framing, the environmental violence of Line 5 and other fossil fuel infrastructure against tribal nations and Indigenous peoples occurs at each stage in the lifecycle of fossil fuel infrastructure, from siting to decommissioning. Situated within a long history of Indigenous resistance to invasive infrastructure, Anishinaabe tribal nations and communities have been asserting their right to a self-determined future free of oil snaking through the land and waters of Turtle Island. In collaboration with the Anishinaabek Caucus of the Democratic Party, the authors of this paper conducted several interviews at the 2022 Water is Life Festival to create a short documentary-style video centering visions for water protection and energy futures as told by Anishnaabe persons. Although not representative of the diverse tribes and peoples of the Anishinaabe, these voices illustrate some important perspectives, lived experiences, philosophies and cosmologies of the Anishinaabe. The visions for the future they shared align with concepts of collective continuance and assert a futurity that is sustainable for all–humans and non-humans, alike.