Cory Aukes, Sheriff Hubbard County Sheriff's Office 30 Court Avenue Park Rapids, MN 56470 218-732-2331 Fax: 218-732-2550 To protect and serve citizens of Hubbard County {As this Line 3 project proceeds, as your Sheriff l know one thing is for sure... the resources that | have been forced to use shouldn't have been necessary. The amount spent for the equipment used to extract water protectors from the apparatus they use to lock themselves to pipeline equipment. The overtime spent on your Deputies time needed to make arrests and to process crime scenes. The extensive Jail staff’ time needed to process the nearly 300 people that have been arrested, If these water protectors were truly peaceful and law-abiding as they claimed, we wouldn't have had to do any of this. But they haven't been: Your Sheriff's Office is either going to enforce existing state and county laws or we aren't. I made the decision early on that | was not going to tolerate illegal activity. What | am finding out however, is that the Native Americans that are protesting feel that the laws should not apply to them. They cite the 1855 treaty claiming that this gives the Chippewa Indians the right to do what they are doing. | gree. Nowhere in the 1855 treaty is language that permits the Chippewa Indians to commit felonies, It does not allow for the destruction of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment. It doesn’t allow it's members to assault people. And it does not specify that its Native ‘American members are allowed to drive a vehicle in closed trails on Hubbard County. I do not take race into consideration when | enforce the laws in this county. With that said, if non-Native Americans are not allowed to drive vehicles on closed trails, | won't allow the Native Americans to either. ! have no reason not to enforce the law equally with everyone. The property on Hinds Lake in question is where the Namewag camp is located. Once owned by Winona Laduke, the property is now owned by the Switchboard Trainers Network. They are based out of Texas and if you look at their website, you will see that they are a “Network of Direct Action Trainers” that teach “non-cooperation with police” and are part of an anarchist movement. The people claiming to be water protectors, the ones being arrested and charged with a multitude of crimes including felonies, are ‘coming and going from this camp on Hinds Lake. Most of them are from other states and the property owners are not even present. In 2018 Winona Laduke did it right and did get an easement from Hubbard County to access her property. This easement is different than the typical easement and no longer existed once the property transferred to the new owner. The new owners could have done things right and applied for an easement. For whatever reason, they chose not to, As the numbers continued to grow in that camp and as more and more protesters got arrested, | made the decision to enforce an existing Hubbard County ordinance. | gave notice that | was going to stop vehicles from driving on the county trail and | stand by that decision. Even though the leader of the camp feels that Native Americans should be able to continue to drive on that closed trail | chose to treat people of all races the same. Because this isn’t about race. This is about public safety. This is also not a land locked Av Cqual Opportaaty Employerpiece of property as the camp leader wants you to think. The Township Rd, “Big Buck Dr” borders it as well. Access can also be made to the 80-acre parcel from that public roadway. ‘As your Sheriff's Office continue to arrest those that are committing crimes at various pipeline sites, we are finding ourselves arresting 20, 30, and up to 180 at a time. These water protectors typically spend the night in jail and are treated just like anyone else that gets arrested. The camp leader complained at having to be strip searched at the jail after she was arrested. Standard procedure is that we do require inmates to remove their own clothing and put on clothing from the jail. Again, felt it best to treat ‘everyone the same rather than according to their race. What is amazing to me is the process after an arrest is made. The Judge ultimately sets bail for those that are charged with a crime. Time and time ‘again, a protester makes a phone call and someone shows up with a duffle bag full of cash to bail them ‘out. A bag full of one hundred dollar bills infact. $52,000 on one occasion. That is a lot of cash to be carrying around in a duffle bag. Recently we had eighteen people that each had $5,000 to $10,000 bail placed on them. Again, someone came in, again with cash, and bailed everyone out. They are obviously well funded. ‘Ona final note, your Sheriff's Office does not receive direct payments from Enbridge. We are not their “private security” as the water protectors want you to think. We respond to incidents reported at Enbridge sites, yes. Just like we would for anyone in Hubbard County, The State of MN required Enbridge to deposit money into an escrow account to then be managed by the Public Utilities Commission. The money was to reimburse pipeline related expenses to local jurisdictions. Asan elected official, ! want everyone to know that | will be requesting reimbursement for our expenses. I'm not ashamed of that. Why should our taxpayers be saddled with hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses? I don’t expect them to be, which is why we will be submitting for reimbursement. Enbridge should be responsible for these costs and they are. They agreed to them in fact. So, the criticism of this by the water protectors actually turns out to be fiscal responsibility on your Sheriff's part. And | stand behind that decision as well, Sheriff Cory Aukes