In northern Minnesotaâs Aitkin County, just north of the tiny town of Palisade, construction workers are clear-cutting a wide path through the forest near the Mississippi River, heavy equipment rumbling, to make way for the new Line 3 oil pipeline replacement project.Â
And Tania Aubid, a member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, is there to try to stop them.
"They want to ship the tar sands, toxic oil. ⦠And when that pipeline breaches, it's going to go into the waterways here," she said.Â
Aubid has come to this place every day for more than a week, part of a group of people who call themselves water protectors â there to speak out against the pipeline and, in some cases, put their bodies in the way of construction.