Pipeline protesters ‘shielding themselves with Native Americans,’ tribal business owner says

Vice President of Gordon Construction Matt Gordon said in a statement to Fox News that all of his "equipment on site was vandalized" at a recent protest where "most of the protesters were white."

Matt Gordon of Gordon Construction talks with Fox & Friends. (Fox News screenshot)

A Native American business owner recently condemned the Line 3 pipeline protests by environmental activists during which his company’s equipment was vandalized.

Hundreds gathered in northern Minnesota earlier this month as part of a four-day protest against Enbridge’s Line 3 replacement project in what organizers called the largest resistance to the pipeline yet.

Gordon Construction Vice President Matt Gordon said in a statement to Fox News that all of his “equipment on site was vandalized” and “most of the protesters were white.”

Gordon Construction is a Native-owned company contracting with Enbridge on the construction of the Line 3 pipeline. This pipeline construction has become the latest target for environmental activists, leading to hundreds of arrests and mass destruction of property.

According to a statement from Enbridge, one site experienced significant property damage and protesters trapped workers at the site after trespassing on the property. Enbridge also reported “extensive vandalism” of contractor equipment, which included Gordon Construction’s property.

Damaged construction equipment at the Enbridge Two Inlets pump station site (photo provided to Alpha News).

Gordon expressed his frustration as “the opponents [of the Line 3 pipeline construction] are shielding themselves with Native Americans. Most of the protesters were white. Line 3 has brought back millions of dollars to the reservations.”

“It’s very hypocritical to travel somewhere to protest oil when you’re using … gas and diesel-powered vehicles,” Gordon later told “Fox & Friends.”

“Then when you do get there, you end up destroying equipment, leaving debris and garbage all over, most of them plastic products from water bottles and packaging,” he said.

Gordon said the protesters claimed to be “looking out for the rights of Native-American people,” but “in the end [ended up] being mostly Caucasian people.”

Gordon was part of a letter earlier this month in which several Native American-owned local businesses condemned the destructive actions of the protesters and the false narrative that all Native Americans oppose Line 3.

This group of business owners is encouraging other tribal businesses to “renounce” the actions of the protesters and urge them to stop further protests that establish division in the “communities in which we work and live.”

 

Anna Miller

Anna Miller is a marketing intern at Alpha News and is majoring in entrepreneurship.