Protecting the Water. Mni Wiconi. Water is Life.
Over the last few weeks, thousands of Indigenous people, representing hundreds of tribes, have gathered together on the banks of the Cannonball River, on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, and in other places, to protect the lands, and the waters, and their sacred sites, against the $3.4 billion Dakota Access Pipeline. This pipeline project, charted by Energy Transfer Partners, and which the tribes call the black snake, would transfer about a half million barrels of crude oil per day across 1,134 miles starting at the Bakken oil fields in western North Dakota. The people camped out along the river are not protesters, but protectors. Their occupation on the front lines not only affects the people who live near, but affects several states, numerous communities. The protectors are fighting for all of us. My mother and grandparents were born in Fort Yates, the Standing Rock Reservation. We are Hunkpapa Lakota; my heart holds the protectors’ hearts. I thank them for their courage and diligence. Pilamaya to all who are on the front lines.
I have compiled a timeline of articles and links, from March through the present, to provide an overview. These stories represent only a small portion of events that have been playing out all these weeks and months. The great majority of the unfolding events have been published on social media because the larger media networks are not covering these stories. I encourage you to visit the “Dakota Pipeline” section on Indian Country Today Media Network, along with this Facebook page, which is providing practically up-to-the-minute coverage. Please share—support is needed!
March 19, 2016 (Indian Country Today Media Network) Dakota Access Pipeline Threat: What You Need to Know
There’s a new oil pipeline project waiting and ready to go—unless it can be stopped. Here’s what you need to know. If approved, the $3.4 billion Dakota Access Pipeline would transfer about a half million barrels of crude oil per day across 1,134 miles starting at the Bakken oil fields in western North Dakota, taking a southeast path through South Dakota and Iowa, and eventually reaching Illinois. From Illinois it would connect to another existing pipeline with access to the Gulf of Mexico… Read more.
May 23, 2016 (Indian Country Today Media Network) Dakota Access Pipeline Construction Begins Despite Standing Rock Sioux Objections
In the midst of an ongoing effort by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other entities to prevent construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, the company Dakota Access LLC has begun construction of the 1,150-mile project, which will carry crude oil from western North Dakota to Illinois… Read more.
May 2, 2016 (Indian Country Today Media Network) Running for Their Lives: 500-Mile Youth Spiritual Run Against Dakota Access Pipeline
The public outcry against the Dakota Access Pipeline has been joined by a group of youth, both Native and non-Native, who are running a 500-mile spiritual relay this week from Cannonball, North Dakota to the district office of the United States Army Corps of Engineers in Omaha, Nebraska… Read more.
July 27, 2016 (Indian Country Today Media Network) Breaking: Dakota Access Pipeline Approved
Despite the strong opposition of several tribes, the Army Corps of Engineers has approved nearly all permits to build the Dakota Access Pipeline project. Construction has already begun in all four states along its path… Read more.
August 12, 2016 (Indian Country Today Media Network) Rosario Dawson, Divergent Star Shailene Woodley Join Standing Rock Sioux Protest Against Dakota Access Pipeline Actresses Shailene Woodley, Rosario Dawson, and Riley Keough have joined other celeb voices in protesting against the Dakota Access pipeline, recently approved by the US Army Corps of Engineers without a full environmental assessment… Read more.
On August 16 (BBC) Native American Protestors Disrupt Work on Oil Pipeline A group of Native American protesters has halted work on a large oil pipeline in the US state of North Dakota… Read more.
August 24, 2016 (New York Times, article by David Archambault II, Chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe) Taking a Stand at Standing Rock Near Cannon Ball, ND—It is a spectacular sight: thousands of Indians camped on the banks of the Cannonball River, on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. Our elders of the Seven Council Fires, as the Oceti Sakowin, or Great Sioux Nation, is known, sit in deliberation and prayer, awaiting a federal court decision on whether construction of a $3.7 billion oil pipeline from the Bakken region to Southern Illinois will be halted… Read More.
August 26, 2016 (Indian Country Today Media Network) MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell on Dakota Access ‘This Nation Was Founded on Genocide’ From the start of colonial intrusion, the free and original peoples of this hemisphere “have been treated as enemies and dealt with more harshly than any other enemy in any other war.” Read more.
August 29, 2016 (Indian Country Today Media Network) Dakota Access: A Typical Day in Camp, in Pictures [14 Photos] Read more.
September 2, 2016 (BBC) Life in the Native American Oil Protest Camps An Indian reservation in North Dakota is the site of the largest gathering of Native Americans in more than 100 years. Indigenous people from across the US are living in camps on the Standing Rock reservation as they protest the construction of a new oil pipeline… Read more.
September 3, 2016 (Indian Country Today Media Network) Dogs, Pepper Spray, and Guards: Water Protectors Report Violent Encounter A group of nearly 100 people crossed onto private land to stop bulldozers that were clearing land for the Dakota Access pipeline on September 1… Read more.
September 6, 2016 (The Last Word, MSNBC) Lawrence O’Donnell Visits Standing Rock A federal judge has issued a temporary halt to SOME construction of an oil pipeline in North Dakota that Native American tribes have been protesting. Some of those protests turned violent over the weekend… Read more.
September 6, 2016 (the New Yorker) A Pipeline Fight and America’s Dark Past This week, thousands of Native Americans, from more than a hundred tribes, have camped out on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, which straddles the border between the Dakotas, along the Missouri River. What began as a slow trickle of people a month ago is now an increasingly angry flood. They’re there to protest plans for a proposed oil pipeline that they say would contaminate the reservation’s water; in fact, they’re calling themselves protectors, not protesters… Read more.
September 6, 2016 (Democracy Now) FULL Exclusive Report: Dakota Access Pipeline Co. Attacks Native Americans with Dogs & Pepper Spray On Saturday in North Dakota, security guards working for the Dakota Access pipeline company attacked Native Americans with dogs and pepper spray as they resisted the $3.8 billion pipeline’s construction… Read more.
September 7, 2016 (the Washington Post) Showdown over oil pipeline becomes a national movement for Native Americans CANNON BALL, ND—The simmering showdown here between the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the company building the Dakota Access crude oil pipeline began as a legal battle. It has turned into a movement. Over the past few weeks, thousands of Native Americans representing tribes from all over the country have traveled to this central North Dakota reservation to camp in a nearby meadow and show solidarity with a tribe they think is once again receiving a raw deal at the hands of commercial interests and the US government… Read more.
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From Dallas Goldtooth:”Here’s everything you need to know to help fight the Dakota Access Pipeline!”
1. Contribute to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s fundraiser.
2. Call or email your Congressional Representative or Senator.
3. Call or email Denis McDonough, Chief of Staff to the President, and Jo-Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of Army Corp of Engineers. Tell them to rescind the permits granted to Dakota Access:
Denis McDonough, Chief of Staff to the President
[email protected]
(202) 456-3182
Jo-Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of Army Corp of Engineers
[email protected]
(703)697-8986
4. Contribute to the Sacred Stone Camp Legal Defense Fund.
5. You can donate items from the Sacred Stone Camp Supply List.
6. Call the Army Corps of Engineers and demand that they reverse the permit: (202) 761-5903.
7. You can sign the petition to the White House to stop DAPL.
8. Call or email the executives of the companies that are building the pipeline:
Lee Hanse, Executive Vice President, Energy Transfer Partners, L.P.
800 E Sonterra Blvd #400
San Antonio, Texas 78258
Telephone: (210) 403-6455
[email protected]
Glenn Emery, Vice President, Energy Transfer Partners, L.P.
800 E. Sonterra Blvd. #400
San Antonio, Texas 78258
Telephone: (210) 403-6762
[email protected]
Michael (Cliff) Waters, Lead Analyst, Energy Transfer Partners, L.P.
1300 Main St.
Houston, Texas 77002
Telephone: (713) 989-2404
[email protected]
#HonorTheTreaties #NoBakken #SacredStoneCamp #STOPDAPL #MniWiconi #SacredWater #NoDAPL #RezpectOurWater #StandWithStandingRock
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Photograph © Dallas Goldtooth.
