New details emerge on Enbridge’s escrow account that paid police to crack down on Line 3 resistance

The Enbridge Line 3 Public Safety Escrow Account reimbursed Minnesota law enforcement agencies $12,500 for handcuffs and zip ties to detain Water Protectors resisting Line 3.

It paid $120,000 for a public safety liaison who worked for a year and a half to coordinate among Enbridge, local officials, and the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC).

It funded the equivalent of more than 10 percent of the Cass County Sheriff’s Office’s budget in 2021.

These are among the new details in the remarkable story Documents show how a pipeline company paid Minnesota millions to police protests, published jointly by Grist and the Center for Media and Democracy.

Standing Rock to Challenge DAPL in Court Based on Water Rights; Trump Honors President Jackson, aka Indian Killer

The Standing Rock Nation will challenge the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) in court  based in part on its federal water rights, according to Chairman David Archambault II. Archambault made his comments in an interview with MSNBC, posted online by Indian Country Today.

Archambault cited the “Winters Doctrine” as one reason that DAPL should be denied. According to a summary of the Winters Doctrine by the Congressional Resource Services:

Although the federal government has authority to regulate water, it typically defers to the states to allocate water resources within the state. The federal government maintains certain federal water rights, though, which exist separate from state law. In particular, federal reserved water rights often arise in questions of water allocation related to federal lands, including Indian reservations. Indian reserved water rights were first recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court in Winters v. United States in 1908. Under the Winters doctrine, when Congress reserves land (i.e., for an Indian reservation), Congress also reserves water sufficient to fulfill the purpose of the reservation.