News Release
Ikiya Collective
Today, water protector Shanai Matteson’s trial will begin and continue until July 15th. Matteson is charged with “conspiracy, aiding and abetting and alleged trespass” at an event where several Indigenous Line 3 camp matriarchs were arrested but Matteson was not in attendance. Matterson was speaking in support of treaty partnership and water protection on Facebook.
There are currently 300 or more open Line 3 cases after more than thousands of charges were assessed during Line 3 construction last year. Charges against three Indigenous Water Protectors were dismissed in White Earth tribal court last week. Enbridge — in tandem with the Public Utilities Commission, established a Public Safety Escrow Account — which has paid out $8.5 million to Minnesota law enforcement, including almost $2.2 million to the DNR (news releases available).
But this week in Aitkin County civil court, a non-Native cultural organizer, artist and mother of two young children, Shanai Matteson, goes forward with a jury trial for Gross Misdemeanor “conspiring, aiding, and abetting criminal trespass on critical public infrastructure pipeline.”
“As I face the prospect of leaving my young children to serve time in jail for making a speech in support of treaty partnership and water protection, I am reflecting on what participating in this movement means for me, a non-native person from one of the small communities the pipeline crosses,” Matteson says. “And I am reflecting on what Governor Walz and Lt. Governor Flanagan have said, from their hearts, about caring for Minnesota’s waters and for the rights of communities to advocate for their protection.”
“All of these charges were made to intimidate those who have or would speak up about the injustices they witness surrounding extraction, and they bring up a number of important issues, including the erosion of rights to free speech and protest, what it means to be a treaty partner, the influence of Enbridge and other corporate funding on law enforcement activities, and the role of social media and other surveillance in the prosecution of movement activists.”
Matteson’s charges were sent to her via mail after her Facebook was surveilled, the state is trying to use this case to vindicate the surveillance and profiling of Indigenous resistance. Enbridge has given Minnesota law enforcement over $2 million to crack down on Indigenous and environmental protesters at Line 3 pipeline construction sites.
In a recent open letter to Governor Walz, Matteson wrote,
“This use of social media to surveil and prosecute movement organizers, while not a new phenomenon, has both deep and wide political and constitutional implications, and does not look good for Minnesota. Especially when it was your state agencies who both permitted and then policed the Line 3 project with millions of dollars in financial support from Enbridge.”
The trial will take place:
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday – July 13, 14, 15
8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Aitkin County Courthouse
209 2nd St. N.
Aitkin, MN 56431
About Ikiya Collective
Ikiya Collective is a frontline direct action group of femme, queer, and two-spirit Black, Indigenous, and queer folks of the global majority.
Visit IkiyaCollective.org for more information.
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