PIPELINES, MANCAMPS, AND MURDERED & MISSING INDIGENOUS WOMEN
Extractive Industries are Not only Violating Mother Nature - They Endanger Lives of Indigenous Women
Indigenous women are the embodiment of Mother Earth. There is a silent war going on against them in plain sight to stop the violence. Nobody in a position of "power" is doing much of anything, tribes have no authority to prosecute non-Native offenders, and there is hardly any funding for prevention or recovery - Most importantly for water protectors, resource extraction is not only endangering the land and water - But the lives of Indigenous women.
In the Canadian province of Alberta, Indigenous women are sent to the oil patch in Fort McMurray - To sell sex to the men working there. Calling the sexual exploitation of Indigenous women "transactional" is comparable to First Nations land cessions - "Selling" real estate for less than 1% of its value - And the sex trafficking of Native women at "man-camps" amounts to nothing more than slavery!
Fort McMurray #468 First Nation clings to cultural survival, as oil companies exploiting tarsands oil (bitumen) have replaced Indigenous people's traditional lands with mines - Stripping away forest, rerouting waterways, and covering an area larger than New York City with mines! Alberta's oil sands have the third-largest oil reserves in the world, after Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, spanning almost 55 thousand square miles in northern Alberta, running through the traditional territories of the Cree, Chipewyan, and Déné First Nations - Thousands of workers extract oil sands, and the "man-camps" house workers were built next to the processing plants - For an Indigenous woman to be sent there is terrifying.
Indigenous people have compassion for those working in the oil industry. They recognize there are those who lead good lives in the industry, but top-down in the tarsands business nearly everyone is culpable - Because virtually nobody is doing anything to hold perpetrators accountable nor stop the violence against Native women! "I sensed there were more violent people there than normal," said April Wiberg, who is from Mikisew Cree First Nation in northern Alberta and survivor of sexual violence in the "man-camps". To match the extractive tarsands mining, there is a concurrent industry of sex trafficking of Native women, with Indigenous women and girls working 23-hour shifts and "available" to be raped for weeks on end.
For the First Nations and Métis (people of mixed Indigenous and European heritage) women and under-age girls, the feeling of danger was heightened by the racism they'd encounter - If their customers knew they were Indigenous. "We identified as either Latina, Asian, or 'exotic' - Because if we self-identified as Indigenous, we would be devalued and our safety would be at risk," Wiberg explained. "They believe [Indigenous and Métis women and girls] are disposable and invisible."
This is what late Indigenous scholar Paula Gunn Allen, a descendant of Laguna Pueblo, described as the pathological white male settler subconscious: "As many a therapist knows, little is more frightening than being perceived as a fragment of the other's mind; interaction with someone who is fixated upon his or her disowned and misnamed fragments is devastating because it entails a loss of self at the deepest levels of the psyche," Allen wrote in the essay "'Indians', Solipsisms, and Archetypal Holocausts" from "Who We Are, Who We Are Not" in the anthology Genocide of the Mind. "Like all projection, white-think is almost entirely unconscious; nameless, formless, unacknowledged, it exists as a powerful barrier to authentic communication across cultures. While it works for the survival and expansion of white culture, it also results in the spiritual and psychic murder of those who exist outside its protection."
In her piece “She’s Nothing Like We Thought” also from Genocide of the Mind, Anishinaabe author Molly McGlennen describes a dehumanizing “pan-Indian” stereotype very similar to what Wiberg has experienced. “Now bar patrons ask me: ‘What are you?’ The room moves with iconic delineations of who I am supposed to be.” McGlennen fakes a Latina identity to survive, switching from prose to free-verse poetry: “I could simply respond with silent ignorance of an outsider / or say no, una mestiza [mixed], una indígena[...] here, in this moment, he finally says, oh, Indian / as he extends his finger on top of his head / an indication of a feather / and I / only nod my head / in recognition / of its ubiquity.” When white men especially learn a woman is Indigenous, she becomes sub-human - “In the bar, they tell me who I am, who I ought to be.”
Indigenous women who refuse to have sex with oil field "roughnecks" are fined by their "madams". Survivor April Wiberg explained how one time she was sent to the apartment of a man high on cocaine, who appeared to be a spitting image of the main character from a Bret Easton Elliss novel - American Psycho. "He was describing to me how he liked to torture women by hanging them in his bedroom." Wiberg recalled how she inched her way towards the door: "It felt like an eternity - My mind was racing - A little voice inside said: 'Get out of there!'"
Many of the Indigenous women enslaved by sex trafficking in "man-camps" originate from difficult backgrounds, coming from "broken, dysfunctional" homes, having experienced sexual, physical, emotional, and verbal abuse growing up. Many parents and grand-parents of Native children are survivors of the state-mandated boarding schools in the U.S. and Canada - The policy of "kill the Indian, save the man" according to U.S. General George Pratt - Which according to Article II(e) of the U.N. Convention on the Prevention of Punishment of the Crime of Genocide classified: "Forcibly transferring children of the [Indigenous] group to another [non-Native] group" as a form of genocide. The trauma of Indian residential schools follows survivors for the rest of their lives, such as Wiberg's mother, who succumbed to substance-abuse and abandoned Wiberg as a baby. Indigenous women often find themselves in abusive relationships, committing petty crimes, and eventually abusing drugs and alcohol. "I was learning how to numb my pain," said Wiberg, "and I was drifting further away from reality."
Vulnerable and homeless Indigenous girls such as Wiberg are frequently targeted for sexual exploitation, "groomed" by other Native women who've been brainwashed by the sex trafficking industry - The "madams" themselves are often Native women who've come from difficult backgrounds and were coerced into selling their bodies in order to survive. They work themselves up to becoming recruiters of young Indigenous women and girls, who are pressured into having sex with men for money and sent for weeks at a time to be raped by men working in Alberta's oil patch - A reality known to oil company executives, police, and local, provincial, and federal authorities. Despite a Canadian National Inquiry into MMIWG finding conclusive evidence linking extractive industries to MMIWG, which made 231 "calls-to-action" - No one in the government nor industry seems to be doing anything to stop the homicidal violence and sexual enslavement of Native women - Especially in tarsands "man-camps"!
"I was very broken - I was drinking every day and addicted to cocaine," said Wiberg, who decided to get off drugs and confront her past trauma. Wiberg liberated herself from sexual slavery over 16 years ago, she has become a mother of two, and has built a good life and career for herself. Wiberg has become an outspoken advocate for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG), founding the Stolen Brothers and Sisters Action Movement, a grassroots organization with an annual walk that draws hundreds of participants. In 2019 Wiberg received a Woman of Vision award for her advocacy work. "Because of my own pain and experience, it has given me the tools to be an advocate," she explained. "I have compassion and empathy for those who are suffering - And there are so many families grieving, seeking answers, seeking justice."
The infamous Highway of Ears, a thousand-kilometer stretch of road where hundreds of Indigenous women have gone missing or been found murdered since the 1970s, has become a site of mourning for Delee Nikal and relatives who've lost relatives to the MMIWG crisis. Nikal is a member of the Wiset Nation, a community belonging to the Wet'suwet'en confederacy, which is currently battling the Coastal Gaslink (CGL) pipeline. Delee Nikal's 15-year-old cousin Cecilia Nikal went missing from Vancouver in 1989 - Then another cousin Delphine Nikal vanished along the Highway of Tears near Smithers, BC in 1990 - She was also 15. Four years later, Delee Nikal's friend Romona Wilson disappeared from Smithers. Wilson was a member of the Gitanmaxx nation not far from Wet'suwet'en - Her body was later found in a wooded area west of the Smithers airport. More heartache came in 2002 when Delee's foster-sister Danielle Larue, a member of the Shuswap First Nation, disappeared from Vancouver, B.C.'s east side - Police believe she was also murdered.
As a First Nations woman in an area where so many have gone missing or been murdered, Delee Nikal has always known fear - And her "fears" have been elevated since "man-camps" and pipeline construction came to the area of Indigenous communities in northwestern British Columbia. Construction of TC Energy's $6.6 BILLION CGL pipeline, meant to transfer liquefied natural gas from northwestern B.C. to the north Pacific coast, began in late 2018. Soon after in June 2019, Canada released its Final Report on the National Inquiry into MMIWG, which identified a link between "boom-towns" and "man-camps" that emerged around resource extraction projects as well as pipeline construction - Increasing the sex trafficking industry, violence, harassment, disappearances, and murders of Indigenous women in those areas.
Wet'suwet'en First Nations Hereditary Chiefs have opposed the construction of the CGL pipeline on their traditional territories. For Delee Nikal, who grew up on the Yintah - "Land" in Wet'suwet'en - Seeing water protectors being arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) was traumatic to watch: "I was born into Gidumt'en," Nikal explained, Gidumt'en being a clan of the Wet'suwet'en whose territory part of the CGL pipeline will run through. "There used to be a massive huckleberry patch where they built one of the 'man-camps' near the Unist'ot'en healing camp," said Nikal. "It's an area where I and my ancestors harvested our medicines. It's an amazing terrain, close to the water - Now it's just decimated. This is really hard for people who have grown up there."
Delee Nikal has noticed an influx of pipeline workers not only filling up the "man-camps", but also overflowing into the hotels of the hotels of nearby Houston, BC. Nikal says she feels intimidated by their presence and worries that she and other local Indigenous women are at risk. "It's scary because they're transient workers, who have no connection to us, but they have the backing of the police," said Nikal, referring to how because of the Unist'ot'en blockades CGL now have police escorts to enter Wet'swuet'en territories. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, pipeline construction has continued: "[CGL] said they're slowing down work because of COVID-19, but I saw a hotel packed with about 50 trucks," said Nikal. "There were guys standing outside shirtless, drinking beer with each other, with Alberta plates on their trucks." No doubt many of the CGL workers "benefited" from the sex trafficking of Native women in Alberta and the City of Houston!
James Anaya, former U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, added to the National Inquiry into MMIWG that his research revealed a connection between the influx of transient workers and violence against Indigenous women. "Over the last several years, I have carried out a study and reported on extractive industries affecting Indigenous peoples," said Anaya. "It has become evident through information received within the context of the study that extractive industries many times have different and often disproportionately adverse effects on Indigenous peoples, and particularly on the heath conditions of women." Former Special Rapporteur Anaya continued: "In addition, Indigenous women have reported that the influx of workers into Indigenous communities as a result of extractive projects also led to increased incidents of sexual harassment and violence, including rape and assault."
Delee Nikal is certain there is a link between violence against Indigenous women and girls and the extractive industry. "[Wet'suwet'en] are taught the land is our life-giver, that water is like breast milk - We need it to survive," said Nikal. "It's a continuation of our mothers - The remains and cells of our ancestors are in it, so when our land is being ripped apart, it's a huge threat to us - They're out there killing the land - They're killing us."
During 2018 - The same year CGL began construction through We'suwet'en territory - Another one of Delee Nikal's relatives, cousin Frances Brown, went missing while harvesting wild mushrooms in a forested area outside of Smithers - The police have not even treated Brown's disappearance as "suspicious" let alone investigate beyond a basic search which was quickly called off - Delee Nikal does not buy for a second that her cousin Frances, who was experienced in the heavily wooded region, could have ever gotten lost. Friends and family searched for Frances Brown's body for weeks, after the "official" search had ended, but they never found her.
In late February 2020, an Alberta energy company X-Site came under scrutiny after an image produced using the company's logo appeared to depict the rape of teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, who is an Irish citizen - However the decal shows an image of a naked woman or girl with two long braids - Something often associated with Indigenous women - From behind with the name "Greta" written across her lower back. The X-Site Energy Services company issued an apology following a public outcry over the image. "We recognise that it is not enough to apologise for the image associated with our company logo on the decals that circulated last week." So X-Site know an "apology" isn't enough, yet still they do nothing to stop the internationally-known rape, sexual assault, and violence committed by some of their employees against Indigenous women - Then deny it!
"This does not reflect the values of this company or our employees, and we deeply regret the pain we may have caused," said X-Site. There is not even so much as an "internal investigation" - Which are ineffective shams under the guise of "self-regulation" and result in under-reporting of witnesses and cover-ups - But the majority of Native victims are also afraid to report assaults to the RCMP because of their history of mistreating Native women, fearing they might face charges of "prostitution", as well as retribution from their persecutors, who have the full backing of their employers and police! Despite the staggering rates of MMIWG in Canada, there has been no federal investigation by the RCMP into breaking up the "sex rings" internationally trafficking Indigenous women between the U.S. and Canada - Which is not investigated on either side of the border - Regardless of the findings of the National Inquiry into MMIWG, U.N. research, and the testimonies of survivors!
Melina Laboucan-Massimo of the Lubicon Lake Cree Nation felt the trauma deeply. Laboucan-Massimo's younger sister Bella Laboucan-Mclean fell 31 stories to her death from a downtown Toronto condo building, where she'd attended a party on July 20, 2013. The police have called Laboucan-Mclean's death "suspicious" and the investigation has ongoing for eight years - A cold case. The X-Site logo and the decal, which depicted sexual violence against a Native-looking woman, triggered traumatic memories for Melina Laboucan-Massimo, who thinks her sister was a victim of violence. "It was triggering because it made it very clear that women are still unsafe," she said. "I have the same views as Greta [Thunberg], so it doesn't feel safe to speak that same message on Indigenous rights and climate justice issues."
This was not the first time an Alberta company working in the oil and gas industry had received criticism for advertising violence against women. In 2015 BeDevil Enterprises, located in Killam, Alberta, took out a billboard ad along eastbound Highway 16. The ad portrayed a woman surrounded by flames, a track hoe with a scree pile over the woman along with the slogan - "SCREW PILES - WE DRILL THEM TO HELL AND BACK"! One of the owners of BeDevil and total a$$hole Dan McRae said: "We do screw pilings and a lot of people just don't understand it. The idea of the billboard is you can see the track hoe, the drivehead, and the screwpile on it, and the woman lying on her back is a 'demon' who's asleep in hell, and what we're doing is we're just showing everybody that we will work like 'b*tches' to get the job done - When we say we 'screw them to hell and back', that's just an example we're using - It has absolutely nothing to with violence against women, misogynistic stuff - It has nothing to do with that. I have as much respect for women as they have for me - I don't abuse women - I have had women working for me, and I have had nothing but good luck with that." McRae said the RCMP investigated the billboard and found no reason for it to be taken down - Displaying the institutional condoning of racial and gender-based violence of Indigenous women by the RCMP!
There was outrage among the oil and gas industry in 2018, when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at the G20 summit in Argentina: "Even big infrastructure projects[...] say: 'Well, what does a gender lens have to do with building this new highway or this new pipeline or something?'[...] There are gender impacts when you bring construction workers into a rural area. There are social impacts because they're mostly male construction workers. How are you adjusting and adapting to those? That's what the gender lens in gender-based analysis (GBA)-plus budgeting is all about" - Yet Trudeau supports four oil and gas pipelines through First Nations territories!
The deflection of criticism and denial of wrong-doing by the Canadian oil and gas industry was summarized by the insulting statement of former Canadian Conservative party leader Andrew Scheer, who was forced to resign in 2019 over corruption charges: "This is political correctness at its most ridiculous - The impacts of construction workers building things are prosperity and strong families - They should be celebrated, not demonized [like BeDevil]," Scheer posted on Twitter - "I guess when you [Trudeau] inherit family wealth you have the luxury to make such idiotic statements."
"The Canadian oil and natural gas industry recognises the significant concerns related to the health and welfare of Indigenous women and girls. Our industry prioritises the safety of the residents living in or near communities directly affected by operations, as well as our employees," said the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) in an official statement - Talk about covering their ass[ets]!
"For so many of us [First Nations women], we're living in a constant state of survival," said April Wiberg, commenting on the desperate situation Indigenous women find themselves in today in Canada. "And the systems are continually failing us time and time again, failing to address the systemic racism and misogyny that fuels the deaths, the violence, and exploitation [of Native women] - Even after a multi-million dollar national inquiry and the report that followed it with the 231 'calls to justice' - Not near enough action is being taken to stop these tragedies from occurring, and the murders and violence continue."
April Wiberg's greatest concern as both a survivor and mother is perpetrators are not being held accountable and brought to justice by authorities. "I think quite often the focus is on the victims and their families that need support, but I don't think there's enough focus on the perpetrators behind what is happening - There is no shortage of predators," said Wiberg. "Some of these predators could be you next-door neighbors - They could be members of your family - They could be members of my family - I’ve known violence my whole life.” Abandoned as a baby by her Native mother, left with a drug-addicted alcoholic white father, as a girl Wiberg grew up way too fast - Her innocence was stolen from her at a young age. “We kids experienced abuse of every kind. We also lived on an isolated farm, and it really felt like there was no escaping - No one to hear our cries - Nobody came to rescue us,” said Wiberg.
Wiberg fled to Edmonton at 16 and the rest is “history” - Going from one violent household to the next with her severely alcoholic mother - Finding herself homeless living on the streets of Edmonton by age 17. Wiberg went to a youth emergency shelter asking for help, but they told her that she was "old enough to work", then put their racism and inhumanity on display by giving a vulnerable under-age Indigenous girl nothing but a food voucher for Safeway grocery store - Then told her to “figure it out”. The country of Australia is currently giving refugees released from immigrant detention the same exact treatment - A food voucher for Safeway without any further support - Wiberg was a "refugee" in her Native homelands.
“A lot of bad things happened - I’ve seen some really ugly sh*t in my life," said Wiberg. "I’ve had my share of abusive ‘boyfriends’ - Or people posing as boyfriends - But really they were just there to exploit my vulnerabilities to feed their own demons - The red flags were always there, but I was so much longing for that love that I didn’t have growing up."
Wiberg recounted many times when knives were pulled on her, and realized she didn't have enough fingers to count. “I was really shocked by that - Because again I spent so many years trying to numb the pain - Trying to forget what happened.” The most ordinary household items can trigger Wiberg’s traumatic memories - Grey duct tape - One of Wiberg’s “boyfriends” attempted to duct-tape her mouth shut while he was strangling her. Sometimes a song can remind Wiberg of her past traumas, but the strongest memory-inducer is smell - In particular the smell of "baby oil" - A petroleum-based mineral oil. Even now more than twenty years after her first traumatizing encounter with a man twice her age at a “trick pad”, operating under the cover of a massage parlor in Edmonton, the scent of baby oil triggers her. “I will never forget the first guy,” Wiberg said to Al Jazeera. “I will never forget the smell of baby oil - His hair: parted - Middle-aged - Blue-collar type.” The man would not take his eyes off Wiberg. “That look in his eyes… He knew I was terrified - And he did it anyway.” There is a strong possibility this man was a worker at the tarsands oil mines north of Edmonton.
The Final Report of Canada's National Inquiry into MMIWG was clear about the link between resource extraction and spikes in violence against Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people - "Two-spirit" people identify as having both a masculine and feminine spirit, and the term is used by some Indigenous people to describe their sexual, gender, and/or spiritual identity. The report included 231 Calls to Action to help stem the crisis - The Canadian government has not acted on a single one of them!
Former MMIWG National Inquiry Commissioner Michele Audette has personal experience with the oil and gas industry. Audette worked in "man-camps" in northern Quebec teaching cultural protocols, when she was resident of the Native Women's Association of Canada. During evening meals in the mess hall, Audette said she would often overhear derogatory conversations about Indigenous women: "Every night [the workers] were making 'fun' of Indigenous women at the bar - It's a no-respect, fly-in, and fly-out culture." Audette traveled across Canada and heard the testimonies of thousands of survivors and loved ones of MMIWG before preparing the final report.
The commission also accepted evidence via a report by the Women's Earth Alliance and the Native Youth Sexual Health Network, which argued that the rise in alcohol and drug consumption is associated with extractive industries, and also contributes to domestic violence within Indigenous communities. Michele Audette said she knows at least three Indigenous women who have been raped in a "man-camp" in Quebec over the past decade, but that women were too traumatized and afraid to press charges - "There are attitudes in the [oil and gas] industry that are still there since colonisation: that Indigenous women are considered Indians, savages, and prostitutes - It's sad to see and unacceptable."
Audette hopes Canada and industrial development companies will take the recommendations in the report seriously and address the issue of violence against Indigenous women and girls: "We cannot keep doing this the way it has been done. If Canadians, politicians and industry want to include us, speak to us, create a safe space where we can have our say - Then we can bring back that balance," she said.
For Melina Laboucan-Massimo, there is a connection between abuse of the land and abuse of Indigenous women and girls - In 2011 a pipeline owned by Plains Midstream Canada ULC leaked almost 2 MILLION gallons of oil onto Cree traditional territories 19 miles from Lubicon Lake, where Laboucan-Massimo is from. The Lubicon Cree said fumes from the leaking oil made them sick with nausea, burning eyes, headaches - No doubt there will be long term consequences such as cancer! The leak was on a sacred area where the Lubicon harvested traditional medicines. "There are colonial values embedded with the patriarchy in resource development industries," explained Laboucan-Massimo. "We all come from the same source - The land - Our healing is connected to the healing and the protection of our land."
April Wiberg remembered telling her story when the National Inquiry visited Edmonton, Alberta in 2017. Wiberg was scared - That was the first time she'd shared her story in a public setting - But it helped her to shed any lingering shame she felt and helped strengthen her to keep fighting for other Indigenous women and girls - She will keep going for as long as it takes.
"I dream that we, along with our daughters, granddaughters can walk safely, with dignity wherever we go and be respected - I ask the Creator: 'Why did I survive this?'" Wiberg said. "I believe because as a survivor I can speak for my sisters, whose voices were silenced - They never had the opportunity to speak out."
Photo by Brandi Morin/Al Jazeera