Water protectors

Water protectors are activists, organizers, and cultural workers focused on the defense of the world's water and water systems. The water protector name, analysis and style of activism arose from Indigenous communities in North America during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at the Standing Rock Reservation, which began with an encampment on LaDonna Brave Bull Allard's land in April, 2016.^[1][2]

Water protectors are similar to land defenders, but are distinguished from other environmental activists by this philosophy and approach that is rooted in an indigenous cultural perspective that sees water and the land as sacred.^[3][4] This relationship with water moves beyond simply having access to clean drinking water, and comes from the beliefs that water is necessary for life and that water is a relative and therefore it must be treated with respect.^[5] As such, the reasons for protection of water are older, more holistic, and integrated into a larger cultural and spiritual whole than in most modern forms of environmental activism, which may be more based in seeing water and other extractive resources as commodities.^[6][7]

Historically, water protectors have been led by or composed of women;^[8] in this way, it is comparable to the ecofeminist movement.^[9]

"Water is life" is an expression that is connected to water protectors.^[5] The expression arises from the relationships that Indigenous communities have with water and other forms of life that they view as vital for their survival.^[10] "Water is Life" reflects the long lasting relationships that Indigenous communities have with water and what water protectors are fighting for. "Water is Life" does not just represent the need for Indigenous peoples access to clean water, but represents how water is used in ceremony and the important role water plays in their belief systems.^[11] As Potawatomi philosopher Kyle Powys Whyte explains, the idea that "water is life" is based in "Indigenous governance systems that support cultural integrity, economic vitality, and political self-determination and the capacity to shift and adjust to the dynamics of ecosystems."^[10]

Thus, in many Indigenous communities water is seen as something that brings life to other beings around it, and it is seen as a member of society that must be protected. Since water is held in such high regard, people offer gifts to the water, pray and sing to water in order to create a relationship with water and protect it.^[5] Since women are seen as life-givers in Indigenous communities, they are often the ones who are responsible for protecting the water.^[5] Oceti Sakowin historian Nick Estes  provides context to the “Water Is Life” movement, framing it in the context of Indigenous resistance from perpetual colonialist destruction.^[12]

Water protectors have been involved in actions against construction of multiple pipelines, as well as other projects by the fossil fuel industries, and resource extraction activities such as fracking that can lead to the contamination of water.^[13]

Actions have involved traditional direct actions like blockades on reserve lands and traditional territories to block corporations from engaging in resource extraction.^[3] Water and land protectors have also created resistance camps as a way to re-occupy and refuse to give away their traditional territories. Usually part of these encampments, when led by Indigenous people, is a strengthening of cultural ties and traditions, with inclusion of activities like language revitalization.^[14][15] They also take actions outside of protesting that are rooted in ceremony. These actions include singing songs to water, offering tobacco to water, and praying to the water.^[5] Such actions reflect the importance that water holds to these communities.^[16]

Many water protectors are women.^[17][18] In many Native American and FNIM cultures, women are seen to have a strong connection to water, the moon, and the cycles of the tide as they are able to become pregnant and give birth.^[19] Because they give life, Indigenous women hold important roles and are highly valued in their communities. Thus, women are also responsible for taking care of water, and the water will return the favor by giving life to the surrounding environment.^[8] In Anishinaabe culture, for example, women perform ceremonies to honour water and water is considered to be alive and have a spirit.^[20]

Josephine Mandamin was an Anishinaabe elder and activist who initiated Mother Earth Walks, also known as Mother Earth Water Walks (MEWW).^[8] She and other women began to walk, carrying copper buckets of water, around the Great Lakes. As the women walked, they sang and prayed, strengthening the deep ties between their communities and the Great Lakes, along with their personal connections to the water and the land. These walks and related events raised awareness and brought many Native women into a stronger relationship with the water.^[21] Although Mandamin died in February 2019, her water walks have inspired many other water walks to continue in her memory.^[8]

Other well-known water protectors include Autumn Peltier (of the Wikwemikong First Nation);^[20][22][23] Marjorie Flowers (Inuit), LaDonna Brave Bull Allard (Dakota, Lakota), and Faith Spotted Eagle (Yankton Sioux).^[24][25]

In 2016, Native communities protested the 1,172 mile long Dakota Access Pipeline.^[26] The protest was due to the fact that the pipeline was supposed to be built on the land of Indigenous communities, and was putting water sources that those communities depend on in danger. Water protectors were the frontline of this protest, dedicating their time to protecting the water source and upholding their treaties.^[16] As Potawatomi ecologist and botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer and environmental philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore explain, "it is possible to love land and water so fiercely you will live in a tent in a North Dakota winter to protect them."^[27]

The movement gained media attention quickly, and is viewed as one of the biggest Native led resistance movements in decades. However, during this protest, some media outlets such as The Blaze ran a misinformation campaign against Water Protectors. This false information created a narrative that was harmful to water protectors and Native communities as a whole.^[16]

Citizen Potawatomi philosopher Kyle Powys Whyte's analysis of the Water Protectors' campaign against the Dakota Access Pipeline offers complexities of the movement and further explains how Water Protectors’ goals  were misconstrued by the media.^[28] Whyte shows that critics' emphasis on the pipeline's safety precautions reflects a broader misunderstanding of Indigenous peoples' relationships with their lands and waters.Within the NoDAPL movement, the Water Protectors were not only opposing a construction project, but were also defending their ancestral lands, cultural heritage, and the water sources essential to their livelihoods. However, the media's portrayal often reduced the movement to a dispute over land ownership and economic interests, overlooking the spiritual and cultural significance of the land and water to Indigenous communities. Anticolonial scholar Jaskiran Dhillon elaborates on the community building efforts at Standing Rock, noting that they focused on meeting everyone’s needs, including food, water, warmth, rest, and spiritual community, recognizing that only if these needs were met would people be able to participate in the resistance.^[29] She explains that Water Protectors value youth leadership building within their resistance, especially leadership building for female youth, as young Native women face intersectional gendered and racialized violence and oppression.

In May 2018 Mi'kmaq peoples in Nova Scotia blocked the Alton Gas company from extracting water from the Shubenacadie River for a natural gas project; the project was disrupting the natural balance between freshwater and seawater in the tidal region, and threatening the drinking water, fish and other water life of the region.^[13]

Scholar Ingrid Waldron has shown that the Alton Gas resistance in Nova Scotia is emblematic of broader issues concerning environmental racism, health inequality, and the impacts of climate change on water quality and Indigenous land. Waldron notes that the community had access to clean water until 2012, “when the community’s water table was contaminated by digging at the nearby Nova Scotia Sand and Gravel pit."^[30] This contamination not only disrupted the daily lives of the affected communities but also posed significant health risks, emphasizing the connection between environmental degradation, water health, and public health.

The resistance against Alton Gas has manifested through various forms of activism, including protests, legal challenges, and community mobilization efforts. Water protectors have been at the forefront of these actions, raising awareness about the environmental and health risks associated with the contamination of the water supply. They have organized community meetings, engaged in peaceful demonstrations, and collaborated with environmental organizations to amplify their concerns and push for stricter regulations and oversight of industrial activities.^[31]

Action has also been taken across Canada, including Muskrat Falls hydro dam project in Labrador.^[32][33] The Innu people have been at the forefront of resistance against the Newfoundland government-sponsored Lower Churchill hydroelectric project, particularly the Muskrat Falls megadam. Sociologist Colin Samson notes, "As the dam, the new infrastructure, and the subsequent flooding completely altered the entire local ecology and even reversed the flow of some rivers, Innu hunting families noted the drowning of wildlife, losses of caribou calving grounds and waterfowl, and methylmercury poisoning triggered from decomposing trees and organic matter," (Samson 12).^[34] The project has had  profound environmental and cultural impacts on the Innu community, emphasizing the prioritization of industrial development and commodification of land at the expense of Indigenous rights and ecological sustainability.

The resistance to the Lower Churchill hydroelectric project by the Innu people is rooted in a broader context of historical and ongoing colonization, dispossession, and marginalization of Indigenous communities in Canada. Innu activists and community members engaged in various forms of protest and advocacy to challenge the Muskrat Falls megadam, demanding meaningful consultation, consent, and recognition of their inherent rights to land and resources. Water and Land Protectors blockaded the dam site’s entrance, which caused a temporary shutdown of all dam construction.^[35] Their resistance underscores the connections between economic development, environmental justice, and Indigenous sovereignty. They highlighted the need for more inclusive and equitable approaches to resource management and energy production in Canada.

In Burnaby Mountain, thousands have staged demonstrations opposing the Trans Mountain pipeline.^[36][37] Estes provides critical insights into the Trans Mountain Pipeline and the Indigenous and water protector resistance.^[12] The Trans Mountain Pipeline, owned by the Canadian government, is an existing pipeline system that transports oil from Alberta's tar sands to the British Columbia coast for export. The proposed expansion of the pipeline aims to nearly triple its capacity, allowing for a significant increase in the transportation of oil. This expansion poses large environmental risks, including the potential for oil spills that could contaminate land and waterways, as well as contributing to global climate change by facilitating the extraction and export of vast quantities of carbon-filled oil. Scholar Michael e. Jonasson and his colleagues  elaborate on the potential dangers of pipeline expansion: “With the proposed sevenfold increase in tanker traffic through TWN (and other Indigenous territories), the failure of the EIA process to seriously investigate the impact of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion on the subsistence and spiritual practices of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation (or other Indigenous nations along the pipeline), along with the many health concerns, is consistent with this observation.”^[38]

Indigenous communities, particularly those along the pipeline route, have been vocal opponents of the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion, asserting that it violates their inherent rights to land, water, and self-determination. Estes emphasizes that the resistance to the pipeline is deeply rooted in Indigenous peoples' connections to their ancestral lands and waters, which are threatened by the project's potential environmental impacts. Water protectors and land defenders have engaged in a variety of tactics to challenge the pipeline, from direct actions and blockades to legal challenges and advocacy campaigns. Estes writes, “Indigenous resistance is not a one-time event. It continually asks: What proliferates in the absence of empire? Thus, it defines freedom not as the absence of settler colonialism, but as the amplified presence of Indigenous life and just relations with human and nonhuman relatives, and with the earth.”^[12]

The Wetʼsuwetʼen peoples have ongoing of resistance camps, including Unistʼotʼen Camp and action against the construction of a Coastal GasLink pipeline and the heavily militarized RCMP, in Northern British Columbia.^[39]

The resistance of the Wet’suwet’en Nation to the Coastal GasLink pipeline is emblematic of broader struggles faced by Indigenous peoples against state-sanctioned resource extraction projects. Rooted in a deep-seated connection to their ancestral lands, the Wet’suwet’en people have resisted the encroachment of the pipeline, which threatens their physical territories, and spiritual and cultural ties to the land. This disruption is not only environmental but extends to the economic and social fabric of Indigenous communities. Scholar Paarth Mittal underscores this point, stating, “Such economic transformations, pursued by the state and corporations for accumulating resource wealth, have disrupted Indigenous peoples’ physical and spiritual connections to their land and natural environment, while also subjugating Indigenous ways of economic organization to those favored by the settler-colonial state” (Mittal 123).^[40]

The resistance at Wet’suwet’en also reflects a broader Indigenous critique of colonial land dispossession and state power. The struggle against the Coastal GasLink pipeline is part of a long history of Indigenous resistance to forced displacement and resource extraction, echoing similar movements such as the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Wet’suwet’en resistance highlights the ongoing challenges faced by Indigenous communities in asserting their rights to self-determination and sovereignty over their lands. Despite facing legal challenges, police interventions, and corporate pressures, the Wet’suwet’en people continue to resist, drawing strength from their deep-rooted connection to the land and a shared commitment to protecting their cultural heritage for future generations.^[29]

The Stop Line 3 protests are an ongoing series of demonstrations in the U.S. state of Minnesota against the expansion of Enbridge's Line 3 oil pipeline along a new route. Over 800 water protectors were arrested between August 2020 and September 2021.^[41]

Water protectors at L'eau Est La Vie (Water is Life) camp resisted the Bayou Bridge Pipeline from 2017 until its completion in 2019 through direct action and legal battles causing significant delays and added cost to the project. The L’eau Est La Vie Camp's resistance against the construction of the Bayou Bridge Pipeline in Louisiana serves as an example of grassroots activism aimed at protecting water resources and Indigenous rights. Public defender Sebastien Jongbloets explains that critical infrastructure statutes often serve to suppress speech and dissent, making it challenging for communities to voice their concerns about the environmental and social impacts of such projects.^[42] Despite these legal constraints, the activists at L’eau Est La Vie have consistently challenged the Bayou Bridge Pipeline, drawing attention to its potential to harm local waterways, wetlands, and communities. Their resistance underscores the broader Indigenous-led water protective movements across North America that advocate for environmental justice and the protection of sacred lands and waters.

L’eau Est La Vie advocates for a transition towards renewable energy sources as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. The camp's activism is reactive and proactive, envisioning a future where energy production aligns with ecological sustainability and respects Indigenous sovereignty. By combining resistance against destructive infrastructure projects with advocacy for renewable energy solutions, L’eau Est La Vie presents a holistic approach to environmental activism that addresses both the immediate threats posed by fossil fuel projects and the long-term need for a just transition to a renewable energy economy. Their advocacy resonates with a growing global movement that recognizes the interconnectedness of environmental protection, Indigenous rights, and climate justice, shifting the dominant perspective of resource extraction, and promoting alternative pathways towards a more equitable and sustainable future. Scholar Mariya Strauss explains Water Protectors' use of direct action–echoing Standing Rock resistance–including community organizing and solidarity building, unifying under Indigenous self-determination and the rights of land and water.^[43]

Several children's books have been published about water protectors. The Water Walker is a picture book written and illustrated by Joanne Robertson and tells the story or Josephine Mandamin and her love of nibi (water), her water walks, and the importance of protecting water.^[44] We Are Water Protectors, written by Carole Lindstrom and illustrated by Michaela Goad, was the winner of the 2021 Caldecott Medal, as well as a Kirkus prize finalist and Kirkus best book of 2020.^[45] The story is "inspired by the many Indigenous-led movements across North America."^[46] The story gives information about the role of water protectors in communities and the importance of water protection.^[45]

Films and documentaries have been produced featuring the roles and actions of water protectors. Awake: A Dream from Standing Rock was released by Bullfrog films in 2017.^[47] It documents the water protectors efforts near the Standing Rock reservation to stop the development of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). It has been called the most acclaimed of the documentaries produced in the wake of the Standing Rock action.^[47]

The National Film Board of Canada featured a story and curated set of films on water protectors on their blog in 2016.^[48] The post traces the history of pipeline resistance against the backdrop of the Standing Rock resistance, and features photos and the film selection Citizens vs. oil giants.^[48] The Water Protectors' Journey Along the Sipekne'katik River was produced and directed by Eliza Knockwood and premiered in May 2018. The film documents the work of the Mi'kmaq Water Protectors to protect the Sipekne'katik River from the brine being dumped into it by Alton Gas.^[49]

One of the most iconic images of water protection and other environmental protests is the "Water is Life" screen print created by Anishinaabe artist and activist Isaac Murdoch. Artist Christi Belcourt notes the image of "Thunderbird woman" is "an iconic image that has been seen at Standing Rock and all around the world. People have embraced that image as a symbol of strength and resiliency."^[50] On November 6, 2017, a large version of "Thunderbird woman" was painted by Murdoch in collaboration with other groups such as Idle No More, on the street outside the Wells Fargo and Co. headquarters in San Francisco to protest the DAPL development in what the SFWeekly termed a "guerrilla mural project."^[51] Murdoch and Belcourt have made the images produced through their Onaman Collective, including Thunderbird Woman and other images of water protectors, free for download for use at protests.^[52]

The podcast episode from UC Berkeley School of Law titled "Defending Water Protectors and Indigenous Rights," explains the misrepresentation of water protectors in the media and underscores their legal standing in defending Indigenous rights and environmental justice.^[53] The episode highlights that mainstream media often portrays water protectors as protesters or troublemakers, overlooking the depth of their legal and moral claims to protect water resources and Indigenous territories. Such misrepresentations distort the public's understanding of the issues at hand, and undermine the legitimacy of Indigenous-led movements.

Water protectors operate within a robust legal framework that recognizes Indigenous rights to land, water, and self-determination. The podcast emphasizes that Indigenous peoples have legal standing based on treaties, land rights, and international law to challenge projects that threaten their ancestral lands and waterways. Water protectors leverage these legal avenues to advocate for their communities and the environment, utilizing both domestic and international legal mechanisms to hold corporations and governments accountable for their actions.