Written and designed by Emily Crebs Editor-In-Chief — grandmothers are a force, a real force. hree grandmothers sat in chairs We can be if we unite.” outside the gates of construction of Smucker, Sparks and Sheehan are all the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline, their arms environmental activists who have worked locked together and chained to the gate. with the Athens County Future Action They attached a banner to the gate that Network (ACFAN). Originally, ACFAN read “Grandmothers Stop Line 3.” stood for Athens County Fracking Action “People gonna rise like the water, Network. The group has fought against gonna shut this pipeline down. I hear the fracking and injection wells in Athens voice of my great granddaughter, saying County since 2011. ‘Keep it in the ground,’” they sang. In the summer of 2021, ACFAN asked Judy Smucker, Anne Sparks and for volunteers to travel to Minnesota Claudia Sheehan, all from the Athens to fight against Enbridge Line 3, a area, traveled to Minnesota in July replacement pipeline for the Canada2021 to take direct action against the based oil and gas company. The line construction of Line 3 by obstructing one extends from Alberta, Canada to of the roadways for pipeline construction. Wisconsin, with the replacement adding Their efforts granted them all felony 330 miles to the line, according to the theft charges. As of December 2021, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. women are still out on bail and awaiting Environmental and Indigenous rights trial. activists have prioritized Line 3 due to “This is my time, it’s my generation that the line crossing through land of multiple made the mess … We want to take care of Indigenous tribes, including Anishinaabe our children and our grandchildren, but territory, and through lakes and wild rice we did such a poor job of not cleaning up beds. Line 3 violates the sovereignty of the mess,” Smucker said. “I can do it now. tribal nations on the land and violates There’s nothing to stop me. We’re a force treaty rights to hunt, gather and fish on
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