An open letter and public comment from Idle No More SF Bay to the Army Corps

The following is an open letter and public comment to the Army Corps of Engineers from Idle No More SF Bay, a member of the Protect the Bay Coalition. It is regarding the San Francisco to Stockton Navigation Improvement Project that would likely allow more tar sands to come into San Francisco Bay.

Dear Army Corps of Engineers:

This is our public comment.

We are Indigenous women who reside in occupied Ohlone territory, also known as the Bay Area, and we are signatories on the Indigenous Women of the Americas Defending Mother Earth Treaty. We are connected with other Indigenous women signatories on the Treaty from the Arctic to the Amazon, all working to ensure a livable world for the generations to come. Everything we do is centered in love and in deep prayer. We work with many organizations locally to do everything we can to ensure clean air, healthy soil, clean water and a just transition to a sustainable world for the entire sacred web of life. 

We reach out to you because we believe you are decent, caring human beings who also have children and grandchildren and want a safe world for your families. We have met and prayed with some of you over these past years. We ask you to act with courage and integrity. 

If we were not in the midst of a public health crisis, our circle and hundreds of others we collaborate with would have been out in front of your building on March 19th. We would have delivered a letter to you in person, invited you to come out and meet with us, and shared our deep concern for our beautiful bay with you through our teachings, our art, and our deep caring. We would have let you know how much we love our Bay. We would have shown you that the people of the Bay Area, especially those of us living along the refinery corridor, insist that you act with courage and protect our Bay by refusing this dredging project that benefits the Fossil Fuel industry. 

We would have shared in person that stirring up toxins from the floor of the Bay endangers us all, including sea life which many people in the San Francisco Bay Area fish, collect and eat. We would have shared that we do not want huge tankers filled with Tar Sands bitumen coming into our Bay, putting at risk the entire web of life in our Bay with the inevitable occurrence of a spill of tar sands crude. 

In the midst of this COVID 19 crisis, please notice that over one hundred people sheltering in their homes spent time each making a letter, to contribute to this collective message. Many others wrote letters to the editor, submitted their individual public comments, and signed petitions urging a denial of the San Francisco to Stockton Navigation Improvement Project, which involved dredging the Bay. Despite shelter in place, people came together online to create this urgent message for you all, spelled out with the letters we created, with love in our hearts: 

DEAR ARMY CORPS,
WATER IS LIFE. 
PROTECT THE SACRED!
REFUSE TO DREDGE FOR BIG OIL.
NO TAR SANDS. 
NO REFINERY EXPANSION.
PROTECT OUR BAY! 

We also projected our message onto the Army Corps building in San Francisco the night of March 19th. We created an installation of our message at the building on March 20th with so many of us virtually present in the only safe way we could be. While remaining in our homes, many of our faces were present to bring you our message. We are sending these images to you so that you can see our presence and how strongly we feel about the proposed dredging. 

And now, we share this message to you, OUR COLLECTIVE PUBLIC COMMENT, from hundreds who love the Bay. 

We pray that our voices and love for our Bay will open your hearts and give you the courage to do the right thing for the generations to come by protecting our Bay and ensuring that the San Francisco to Stockton Navigation Improvement Project not be completed. And we pray that these sobering times will help us all collectively shift back into alignment with the sacred system of life that we all depend on. 

Signed: 
Bay Area Signatories on the Indigenous Women of the Americas Defending Mother Earth Treaty, Idle No More SF Bay, and hundreds of us who live in Refinery Corridor communities, and in the Bay Area