Fire at the White House

Indigenous-led protests in DC call on Biden to declare a national climate emergency

Photos by Julie Dermansky and Dayna Reggero

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Sierra Club president Ramón Cruz and director of energy campaigns Kelly Sheehan gather with Sierra Club staff and risk arrest on the White House fence. The protesters want the Biden administration to stop fracked gas exports, end fossil fuel subsidies, build back fossil free, and invest in local communities. | Photo by Dayna Reggero

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Casey Camp-Horinek of Ponca Nation leads the march to the White House to call for an end to the era of extraction and destruction on their lands and waters. | Photo by Dayna Reggero

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Handprints are visible at People vs. Fossil Fuels, shining a light on the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in communities with fossil fuel development and transient man camps. | Photo by Dayna Reggero

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An Indigenous activist replaces the flags in front of the US Army Corps of Engineers headquarters with his own sign in a protest against Line 3, on the fifth day of the protest. | Photo by Julie Dermansky

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Indigenous activists in front of the US Army Corps of Engineers, urging President Biden to stop fossil fuel projects. | Photo by Julie Dermansky

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Sharon Lavigne, founder of Rise St. James, in Washington, DC, on day three of the People vs. Fossil Fuels protest. | Photo by Julie Dermansky

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John Beard Jr., founder, chairman, and CEO of the Port Arthur Community Action Network in Washington, DC, taking part in the People vs. Fossil Fuel protest. | Photo by Julie Dermansky

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Sierra Club president Ramón Cruz marches to the White House with water protectors, pipeline fighters, scientists, faith leaders, and frontline communities to call for climate justice now. | Photo by Dayna Reggero

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Indigenous women being arrested by park police after they refused to leave a protest in front of the White House. | Photo by Julie Dermansky

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An Indigenous activist being carried away by park police in front of the White House. | Photo by Julie Dermansky

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People vs. Fossil Fuels kicks off on Indigenous Peoples Day before a week of action calling on President Biden to stop all fossil fuel projects now and honor the treaties. | Photo by Dayna Reggero

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A banner held by activists during the march to the White House. | Photo by Julie Dermansky

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Indigenous activists and supporters protest against the Line 3 Pipeline in front of the Army Corps. | Photo by Julie Dermansky

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“No justice, no peace!” and “Biden, are you listening?” can be heard from the crowd as people gather to stand together in solidarity and hope. | Photo by Dayna Reggero

This week, hundreds of people from across the United States converged on the White House to call on President Joe Biden to declare a national climate emergency and to use the full scope of his executive powers to halt the continued expansion of fossil fuels. On Monday—Indigenous Peoples Day—more than 130 people were arrested in front of the White House, followed by scores more Tuesday and Wednesday. Altogether, nearly 300 people have been arrested as they called on the president to ensure that his administration’s climate actions match up with its climate rhetoric. 

The protests—which mark the largest coordinated climate justice civil disobedience actions at the White House since the height of the campaign against the Keystone XL Pipeline—were organized by the Build Back Fossil Free, a coalition of Indigenous, Black, environmental, and social justice organizations. The coalition’s members have criticized the Biden administration for greenlighting extreme energy projects like the controversial Line 3 Pipeline even as climate-warping carbon pollution continues to rise. 

“With the power of a pen, President Biden could stop these pipeline projects,” Joye Braun of the Indigenous Environmental Network said in a statement. “He promised he would listen to us. He’s not listening. We’re coming every day of this week to tell Biden, 'Stop this madness.'”  

The protests have been led by frontline community members, who routinely suffer disproportionate harms from fossil-fuel-related pollution. “I want to tell our President Joe Biden, you campaigned on Cancer Alley. That's where I live,” Sharon Lavigne, a recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize for her work with Rise St. James, said. “People are dying rapidly. People are dying of cancer and other ailments.”

Interfaith leaders representing the Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, and Jewish traditions have also taken part in the civil disobedience at the White House. On Tuesday, Sierra Club president Ramón Cruz was among those who risked arrest. The hundreds of people who have been detained at the White House this week have been cited for obstructing traffic and then released. 

A report released this week by Oil Change International, one of the organizations coordinating the protests, found that if the Biden administration were to move forward with 21 major fossil fuel projects currently under federal review, the greenhouse gas pollution from those projects would be the equivalent of adding 316 new coal-fired power plants—more than are currently operating in the United States. 

Demonstrations have also occurred at the Washington offices of the Army Corp of Engineers, the federal agency often responsible for overseeing fossil fuel infrastructure projects. On Thursday morning, a group of Indigenous leaders occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters as they called on the US government to honor the treaties signed with Native nations and to respect international human rights laws requiring that Indigenous communities have free, prior, and informed consent over development projects in their territories.

As of midday Thursday, the White House still has not issued any formal, public response to the grassroots demands for the declaration of a national climate emergency.  

Graffiti on the Andrew Jackson sculpture. | Photo by Julie Dermansky