From the September-October 2019 issue of News & Letters

Oakland, Calif.—On Aug. 15, San Francisco Extinction Rebellion co-hosted a panel with Idle No More featuring Kanahus Manuel, who organized “tiny house warriors” to stop the Trans Mountain pipeline. The Secwepemc people built tiny houses in the path of the pipeline on territory that was never ceded to Canada or its province of British Columbia.

Kanahus Manuel speaking of Native Peoples’ oppression and
resistance in Canada. Photo: Ron Kelch for News & Letters.

Kanahus Manuel recounted the history of tar sands oil projects destroying water resources as well as the rape culture and unsolved disappearances of Native American women that comes with the “man camps” housing the pipeline builders. The added pipeline is projected to greatly increase oil pouring into super-tankers at British Columbia Pacific ports for export to the U.S.

Idle No More SF Bay, a local Native American group, is asking for help to stop the deep dredging of the San Francisco Bay, which will release an immense amount of industrial pollutants that have accumulated there. The poisonous dredging is to accommodate the British Columbia super-tankers bringing crude oil from the Trans Mountain pipeline to refineries that line miles of the East Bay coast. To protect the Bay, they are asking kayakers and others to stay out on the water to stop the dredging.

The native peoples’ movement is thoroughly international and aligned with the September 20 Global Climate Strike, which they were keen to support.

—R.K.