A judge has dismissed charges against three Native American women for their efforts to disrupt construction of the Line 3 pipeline, citing what the “dominant culture” did to “try to eradicate our indigenous neighbors.”
On Thursday, District Court Judge Leslie Metzen dismissed all charges against all three women.
“In the last 20 years I have come to a broader understanding of what we, the now dominant culture did to try to eradicate our indigenous neighbors. We moved them by force and power and violence off the land where they lived for thousands of years. To make peace, we signed treaties with them that promised many things they never received,” Metzen wrote in a memo accompanying her order.
“When they had been forced to live within reservation boundaries, we stole their children; forced them to attend boarding schools where their language, long hair, spiritual beliefs, and contact with their families were forbidden. Many of them died from disease, violence, and some probably from a broken heart. I know only enough of this history to wonder how those of us in the ‘dominant culture’ could ever have thought any of these actions were okay or justifiable,” she continued.
Metzen described the actions of the defendants as an “expression of their heartfelt belief that the waters of Minnesota need to be protected from damage that could result from the pipeline.”
I'm a Native dude (Lakota Tribe). Generally speaking I hate when either side of the political aisle bring us into conversation for reasons like this. It's a bad example of the original subject.
The above case you mentioned has a little bit more nuance involved. This wasn't so much woke as it was the US having to rapidly back-peddle their enforcement of laws because that pipeline crossed into territory protected by US treaty and thus by their own agreement the US had no claim to continue.
Not a jury trial, but I thought of this example from a few months ago: https://archive.ph/da835
I'm a Native dude (Lakota Tribe). Generally speaking I hate when either side of the political aisle bring us into conversation for reasons like this. It's a bad example of the original subject.
The above case you mentioned has a little bit more nuance involved. This wasn't so much woke as it was the US having to rapidly back-peddle their enforcement of laws because that pipeline crossed into territory protected by US treaty and thus by their own agreement the US had no claim to continue.