Even the River Starts Small
A Collection of Stories from the Movement to Stop Line 3
Even the River Starts Small is a collection of stories from the movement to stop construction of the Line 3 pipeline through northern Minnesota.
The collection features anonymous writing, art, and photos spanning nearly a decade, and includes reflections on many of the diverse experiences that made up this grassroots resistance. There are hundreds of individual pieces of writing and visual art in the collection published in full color.
Line 3 is a tar sands oil pipeline that threatens communities, land, and water along its route, as well as the future of our climate. In 2021, despite fierce resistance, Enbridge completed construction of Line 3. Anishinaabe water protectors led the fight, asserting their sovereignty to oppose construction of this extractive project through their lands. For the better part of a decade thousands of people in Minnesota and around turtle island joined together to try and stop construction with a wide range of tactics.
After construction of the pipeline was complete, a group of young volunteer organizers from the movement set out to gather stories from the resistance to create a book that could be given to the movement as a gift. That team originally published Even the River Starts Small, the result of that project, in a limited distribution and gave away copies for free to people who were involved in resisting construction of Line 3. The book is now available for all through Haymarket Books.
The Line 3 Storytelling Anthology Team is a small group of young people who have resisted pipeline construction in Minnesota in various capacities for many years. In the fall of 2021, the volunteer team began to gather diverse stories from the movement to stop Line 3 and honor the years of resistance. They collaborated to independently publish the first edition of the book as a free gift to people who had been involved in the resistance.
During the movement to stop Line 3, members of the Anthology Team held numerous roles, from participating in the years-long public regulatory process to supporting dozens of direct actions to halt construction, from coordinating training and vetting infrastructure for the frontlines to screen-printing thousands of patches, shirts, and bandanas. Others participated in the legal support network, a grassroots media collective, and the global movement to defund Line 3 and the fossil fuel industry. Today they are librarians and booksellers, artists, journalists, childcare providers, and community organizers within the climate justice movement, the labor movement, mutual aid networks, and so much more, all based in South Minneapolis in a beautiful community of resistance.
