The story of the Indigenous-led group resisting the Mountain Valley Pipeline
By Lexi Schaffer
Crystal (left) and Jason (right) Cavalier-Keck participating in a march. Image credit: 7DS
In December 2023, progressives in North Carolina celebrated an announcement by Equitrans Midstream. The corporation’s interstate fracked gas project, the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), would now end in Rockingham County, 30 miles into North Carolina, instead of Alamance County, 70 miles into the state [1].
The subject of a decade’s worth of controversy, the MVP runs 303 miles through Virginia and into northern North Carolina, carving through streams, rivers, forests, and backyards along the way. The proposed section of the MVP that originally planned to reach 70 miles into the state, now reaching only 30 miles, is called the Southgate extension.
Green line shows the route of the Southgate extension of the MVP. Image credit: NC Newsline [1]
The shortening of the Southgate extension brought joy into the hearts of thousands of North Carolinians who had feared for their land, water, and safety. But the activists behind the success aren’t done. The fight is only just beginning. Building on their partial victory, grassroots groups across North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia are organizing to stop the rest of the Southgate extension and the entire Mountain Valley Pipeline.
One of the groups working against the MVP is 7 Directions of Service (7DS), which works to combine Indigenous knowledge with the universal need for clean air and water — a united front for environmental justice. Sunrise Durham sat down for an interview with prominent 7DS leaders Jason Campos-Keck and Coda Cavalier-Keck. Jason co-founded the organization with his partner Crystal Cavalier, an award-winning Indigenous leader. Their child Coda, the Native Youth Organizer for 7DS, is also an influential environmental activist. Crystal, Jason and Coda have worked to turn 7DS into the capable organization that spearheaded Alamance County’s successful expulsion of the pipeline.
Jason recalled that the 7DS was “originally a nonprofit called Eastern Woodland Lacrosse” that “offered free stickball to the neighborhood.” Before stickball games, Jason’s players “would do water ceremonies to prepare for the game” in the Haw River, which is sacred to indigenous communities. The Haw flows through six North Carolina counties, including Rockingham and Alamance, providing natural beauty and vital resources such as fish and clean water [2].
MVP ditch behind a home in Virginia. Image credit: Bloomberg
In 2018, the Cavalier-Kecks learned that the proposed Southgate extension would cut straight through the Haw River and “cross many streams in the Haw River watershed” [3]. The family and much of the community were appalled.
As Crystal and Jason dug deeper into the issue, they were astounded by what they found. If built, the originally proposed Southgate extension “would have crossed 207 streams, three ponds and temporarily damaged 17,726 linear feet of streams, 6,538 square feet of open waters, and 14 acres of wetlands” in addition to cutting through private property [1,4].
The pipeline “threatens air, it threatens land, it threatens animals, it threatens people,” said Jason. It especially “threatens water, because there is no replenishing supply of fresh water once humans have damaged it,” and a proposed filtration system is expensive and “only helps the two legged people. It doesn’t help the fish swimming in it, doesn’t help the insects, doesn’t help the turtles, the birds eating those fish.” Coda added that “once the fish get poisoned, it’s only a matter of time before” people eat the fish, meaning that any water contamination from the pipeline could prove deadly, with or without a filtration system.
7DS leads a demonstration. Image credit: 7DS
Furthermore, Southgate would cut through vulnerable ecosystems previously shielded from extensive human contact by mountains and dangerous terrain. The pipeline also runs through an area that has been “a traditional indigenous trading path for hundreds of years,” explained Jason, making the project a threat to local heritage.
In addition to tearing through previously undisturbed land, the Mountain Valley Pipeline endangers local plants and animals that have lived alongside humans in the area for thousands of years. The project is predicted to drive local fish species such as the Roanoke Logperch and Candy Darter to near-extinction [5]. To protect these animals, activists have appealed to laws that protect endangered species to hinder the progress of Equitrans Midstream. “Hunting and fishing alone is not going to deplete the populations of these species,” said Jason. “Fossil fuel extraction certainly will.”
Roanoke Logperch. Image credit: Conservation Fisheries / Candy Darter. Image credit: National Park Service
The MVP deepens environmental injustices along its route. The Southgate extension “would require a massive, polluting compressor station in a predominately Black community near Chatham, VA” [6]. The pipeline would fuel climate change, emitting an astonishing 89 million metric tons of annual greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of 26 coal plants or 19 million passenger vehicles [7].
Jason remembered that Crystal “was an elected tribal official at the time” when they learned of the Southgate extension. When she brought the issue “to her council, . . . they basically told her that she could not speak out.” Frustrated, she resigned “so that she could advocate on the community’s behalf.” Crystal and Jason began organizing and mobilizing against the MVP full-time, gathering the support of their peers and the larger community through their roots in Eastern Woodland Lacrosse. They decided to give the organization a new name: 7 Directions of Service.
The seven directions are “children, women, men, elders, the earth, the sky (which is also symbolic of culture and the mind) and finally, the direction within” [6]. These values have guided the Cavalier-Kecks and other activists in their work against Southgate and the MVP. Drawing upon principles of inclusivity, 7DS brought together activist groups from around North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia “as one united front” against the pipeline, said Jason. People “have a responsibility and to show solidarity and support with our neighbors, no matter . . . where they are, whether they’re in North Carolina or up in West Virginia and Virginia.”
Protestors hold an anti-pipeline banner. Image credit: WSLS 10
Once united, the groups worked closely together to mobilize people against Southgate. Jason said “we go politically, we’ve gone to the Pentagon, we’ve gone to the United Nations, we’ve gone to the White House itself.” In February 2024, 7DS filed a Human Rights appeal to the United Nations claiming that the MVP violates Articles 11, 26, and 29 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples [8]. 7DS also encourages its members to contact local and national politicians, in order to spur widespread legislative progress.
Despite the group’s political persistence, Jason noted that the most challenging part has been “negotiating with elected officials, regulating people like the EPA, the FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission), and the Army Corps of Engineers, those people who are supposed to listen to our concerns and make changes.” In his experience, government officials are quick to find loopholes and develop new policies to get around hurdles created by activists, a heartbreaking cycle of progress and setbacks.
Jason pointed out an “incentive by government to enable these corporations, regardless if they’re a responsible corporation or a predatory one, like the MVP,’’ that uses “disingenuous and dishonest practices” to force communities into compliance. Fossil fuel companies running roughshod over indigenous land doesn’t just happen in North Carolina. Energy corporations across the nation have broken through activists’ defenses to build disruptive, greenhouse gas-emitting pipelines. For example, the infamous Dakota Access Pipeline threatens the land of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other indigenous populations in the Dakotas.
Demonstrators protest the Dakota Access Pipeline. Image credit: The Daily Northwestern
Instead of waiting for delayed government responses and gradual policy change, 7DS organizes public rallies and speeches to press for political change. Jason recalled, “we’ve done civil disobedience, which looks like marches, what they call protests in the media, but we call those protects, not protests.” Coda said that their most effective “community advocacy strategies” have been “art builds, sharing meals together . . . just showing up and gathering support from the community.”
They reflected that “support in strength of numbers” shows resilience and determination, two qualities that passionate North Carolinians have fully exhibited in their ongoing fight against the pipeline. Jason and Coda said that, just as the brave “Standing Rock . . folks have not given up,” the people of this state are already to resist Southgate through political and civil means to protect their land and safety, “no matter what happens or what the MVP announces.”
Image credit: Jan Burger of Paperhand Puppet Intervention
After their victory in reducing Southgate’s reach in December of 2023, 7DS is now mobilizing citizens in Rockingham County, the pipeline’s new ending location. Sunrise Durham asked how people living in North Carolina can help, and Jason and Coda emphasized that anyone, including non-activists, can join the campaign to push back against the pipeline and protect North Carolina’s land, water, plants, and living beings.
Coda suggested “following [7 Directions of Service] on social media”. That allows people to receive updates and get involved by coming to events. “There is always some way that you can help out,” they said, “whether it’s by donating or just showing up and supporting even for . . . an hour, a few minutes, just doing something to show solidarity.”
Additionally, they said that people can contribute by “calling your politicians, emailing them, reaching out, doing something that you can do within your power” and time, whatever that may be. Simply spreading awareness by speaking to loved ones about the issue will bring attention to injustices that are currently being swept under the rug. “We would love any support,” Jason said, “even if it’s sitting at home sending an email saying, we don’t like this. There’s got to be a better way.”
Protesters unite against the MVP. Image credit: In These Times
“Welcome to North Carolina,” Jason said when asked about newcomers to the state. “Not only have you moved to one of the largest populations of indigenous tribes in the country East of the Mississippi, you’ve moved to the home of the civil rights movement.” He commented that North Carolina is “the home of the first environmental justice movement, which was . . . near Halifax County, North Carolina, where corporations were trying to poison a small farming community and they rose up and resisted. I would invite you to do your homework on the local indigenous population.”
In this state of diverse social movements and sacred land, we can achieve change and protection if we all work together. Organizations like 7DS are leading the charge, acting as spokespeople for all living beings, human and nonhuman. “Environmental rights are rights for every living thing,” Jason said. “We all have to drink water and breathe air, so we might as well drink clean water and breathe clean air and fight to have the most basic human rights.”
Works Cited
1. Sorg, Lisa. “MVP Southgate Natural Gas Pipeline Will No Longer Cross Alamance County.” NC Newsline, 2 Jan. 2024, ncnewsline.com/2024/01/02/mvp-southgate-natural-gas-pipeline-will-no-longer-cross-alamance-county/.
2. “Haw River — Guilford/Rockingham/Alamance Counties.” Piedmont Land Conservancy, 5 Oct. 2015, https://www.piedmontland.org/protected-places/clean-water/upper-haw-river/.
3. “Mountain Valley Pipeline Proposal: Haw River Assembly.” Haw River Assembly | Defending the River since 1982, 6 June 2023, hawriver.org/river-issues/mvpsouthgate/ #:~:text =Effects%20on%20the%20Haw&text=The%20pipeline%20will%20cross%20many,stream%20crossings%20leave%20streams%20devastated.
4. “Letter From NC Department of Environmental Quality to US Army Corps of Engineers About Mountain Valley Pipeline.” NC DEQ, 23 Sept. 2019, edocs.deq.nc.gov/WaterResources/DocView.aspx?id=990879&dbid=0&repo=WaterResources&cr=1.
5. “Federal Court Stays Mountain Valley Pipeline’s Biological Opinion Again.” Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Biological Diversity, 11 July 2023, https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/federal-court-stays-mountain-valley-pipelines-biological-opinion-again-2023-07-11/
6. “Our Core Initiatives.” 7 Directions of Service, https://7directionsofservice.com/core-initiatives. Accessed 2 Mar. 2024.
7. “The Mountain Valley Pipeline: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Briefing” https://priceofoil.org/content/uploads/2017/02/mountain_valley_pipe_web_final_v1.pdf. Accessed 12 Mar. 2024.
8. “United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”. United Nations, 13 Sept. 2007, www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf.