Mountain Mamas Resistance to MVP Continues; Two People Arrested & Denied Bail After Helicopter Protest

Action report from Appalachians Against Pipelines about continued resistance to the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP).

ELLISTON, VA — Early this morning Mama Julz, an Ogala Lakota land defender and water protector, locked herself to a Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) helicopter to prevent the transportation of pipeline workers onto a remote work site on Poor Mountain, where MVP is causing an immense amount of damage pushing the pipeline through rugged lands. Mama Julz prevented MVP’s use of the helicopter for multiple hours before she was extracted from her blockade and arrested, along with one other person who supported Mama Julz’ action this morning. Both Mama Julz and the supporter were charged with one misdemeanor; both were denied bond and are being held in jail unjustly.

“Without water there is no life,” stated Mama Julz. “Violence upon our Mother Earth is violence against our sisters.” As the founder of Mothers Against Meth Alliance and an active voice in the MMIWG2ST movement, she has fought meth dealers in her homelands and in particular the ways that pipeline workers prey upon women and other relatives. The red dress on the helicopter represents these missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit, and trans folks. “In my culture, the women are the backbone of our society, and right now its the women who are standing up in all these frontlines. I keep coming here because this land reminds me of my ancestral lands in the Black Hills, the rivers, the streams, the waterfalls.”

This morning’s action is another in a series of actions this week to fight the ongoing destruction of MVP. This site is just 2 miles from the site of the Yellow Finch tree sits, which prevented tree clearing in the path of the pipeline from 2018 – 2021.

Recently, Mountain Valley Pipeline again delayed the projected in-service date for their $7.2 billion pipeline to 2024. The pipeline is now $3.7 billion over budget and nearly 6 years behind schedule. The Mountain Valley Pipeline is a 42-inch diameter fracked gas pipeline that would cover 303 miles of Appalachia if completed. The project has a long record of hundreds of environmental violations and court battles about failures to hold on to key permits, and is emblematic of both the struggle to transition away from fossil fuels and the short-sighted destruction of local communities, water supplies, and ecosystems in the name of gas export and fossil fuel company profit. In June 2023, the pipeline was fast-tracked by Congress, despite local residents voicing their opposition and concerns.

Mountain Valley Pipeline has recently escalated its legal intimidation of pipeline fighters, filing numerous Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP suits) and collaborating with local law enforcement in multiple jurisdictions to charge protesters with erroneous felonies to discourage resistance. The pipeline resistance, including Mama Julz, refuses to be intimidated and continues to fight to protect Appalachia from this toxic and disastrous pipeline.