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Amber Morning Star Byars (Choctaw and Chickasaw) shares her sense of a deeper relationship with Nature than "civilization," from the Line3 resistance frontlines in Northern Minnesota.
"This article is dedicated to all the brave land defenders and water protectors holding space on frontlines around the world. May the Ancestors bless and hold you."
"Line 3 is an oil pipeline expansion constructed by Enbridge, a corporate pipeline giant responsible for the largest inland oil spill in the United States. Enbridge proposed this pipeline to carry almost a million barrels of tar sands oil per day from Canada to Wisconsin, crossing under the headwaters of the Mississippi and endangering the wild rice beds of the Anishinaabe, a violation of Anishinaabe treaty rights."
"To come to the frontlines, I left behind my elderly mother whom I care for, my animals, my work as a full-time law student, and my job as a legal research assistant. Like many others, I dropped everything."
"Yesterday morning I watched as a bald eagle circled over the river, diving to catch a fish."
"I am constantly reminded that in this place and all places, I am not separate from nature. I am the Earth, and the Earth is me. Camp is a reminder of the way we should all be living. We are not meant to sit in an office eight hours a day, staring at a screen... We should be out on the river and sleeping on the earth. We should be working with the land, preparing food for one another, telling stories, and singing songs around a fire. White culture would have us embarrassed at this notion... But I don’t care because to me, it’s the only real way to live. The rivers, lakes, land, animals, plants, stars, wind, and rain are all very real to me... All the best teachers exist in the natural realm."
"To restore balance, we must remember that we are the river... We are all related."
AllCreation.org: Faith • Spirit • Biodiversity • Connections