San Jose, CA – On August 4, around 70 people gathered to celebrate the removal of the Thomas Fallon statue that had stood at the corner of West Julian Street and Notre Dame Avenue in San Jose for over 20 years. Fallon was a captain of the U.S. military during the Mexican-American War and captured San Jose in 1846. In the 1850s, he returned to the area and began a political career, culminating in a one-year term as mayor of San Jose in 1859. His time in public office took place during a period of genocide against the indigenous peoples of California, as well as the oppression and disenfranchisement of Mexican people in California.

Minneapolis, MN – On Friday, March 17, over 50 students and community members gathered outside the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and braved the bitter winds to demand the University of Minnesota expand the Native American Promise Tuition Program and fund the American Indian Studies department. University of Minnesota Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) collaborated with the American Indian Student Cultural Center (AISCC) to organize this protest to fight for native students’ rights.

Minneapolis, MN – On Friday, December 9, over 50 students and community members gathered in front of the student union on the University of Minnesota Twin Cites campus to demand that the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) be protected and upheld in the face of efforts from reactionary, anti-native forces to undo it.

Milwaukee, WI – On the evening of December 10, more than 40 people packed into the community room at Zao MKE Church to listen to a lineup of speakers commemorating the 64th International Human Rights Day. A highlighted speaker was Sarah Wunderlich of the Oneida Nation who joined the program to talk about the current Supreme Court case trying to undermine the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), including some history about the system of boarding schools, the effects this still has on the present, and how these things relate to the broader struggle for indigenous rights.

Oeida, WI – On November 9, over 50 people gathered on the Oneida Indian Reservation in northeast Wisconsin to show solidarity with the Oneida people and all indigenous people as a Supreme Court decision regarding the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) looms. The crowd included members of the Oneida Tribal Nation, concerned community members and several organizations that helped facilitate the event. The gathered community members, both tribal and not, were met with hospitality from the Oneida hosts, with homemade corn soup and community-building conversation being shared before the speakers began.

Minneapolis, MN – On September 18 nearly 100 people rallied and marched to call for an end to the Line 3 oil pipeline. The Climate Justice Committee organized the rally to continue pressure on President Biden and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to end the permits for Line 3.

New Orleans, LA – On August 29, at 11:55 a.m., Hurricane Ida made landfall on the Louisiana coast. The storm arrived on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Like then, working class, Black, and indigenous Louisianans are least able to evacuate and suffer the most damages.

St. Paul, MN – Over 2000 people came to the Minnesota State Capitol building, Wednesday, August 25, occupying the capitol grounds in protest of the Line 3 oil pipeline. Over 40 people walked 256 miles from the headwaters of the Mississippi to the capitol building to demand that Governor Tim Walz stop the pipeline’s construction. Over 200 people met the water protectors about a mile and a half away to march through the streets for the final stretch with them towards the capitol grounds.

The Freedom Road Socialist Organization urges all progressive activists to take action to support the Ojibwe people in their fight against the Line 3 oil pipeline. Line 3, just like the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipeline projects before it, tramples on the sovereign rights of the indigenous peoples whose traditional lands and waters it crosses – in this case the Ojibwe, who are part of the broader Anishinaabe peoples. In FRSO, we see the struggle against pipelines not just as an environmental issue but also one of the most important and militant struggles for indigenous sovereignty.

Coffee Pot Landing Bridge, MN – More than 2000 people protested at the Treaty People Gathering on June 7 at Coffee Pot Landing, a metal bridge over the Mississippi River, near Itasca State Park and the headwaters of the Mississippi River. The protest was a part of a three day event to build public pressure to stop the construction of Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 pipeline. The pipeline expansion will bring nearly a million barrels of tar sands oil per day from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin.