Dakota Access Pipeline Protest
Federal judge denies tribe’s request for injunction, but federal agencies issue statement pausing pipeline construction
From an Article by Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams Blog, September 9, 2016
A series of “game-changing” developments impacting the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) battle on Friday afternoon were testament to the power of organizing.
Striking a blow to the vibrant, Indigenous-led resistance movement that has sprung up against the four-state oil pipeline, a federal judge on Friday denied the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s attempt to halt its construction.
Shortly afterward, however, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Army, and the Department of the Interior issued a joint statement indicating that “important issues raised by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other tribal nations and their members regarding [DAPL] specifically, and pipeline-related decision-making generally, remain.”
As a result, the statement read, construction on Army Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe—which straddles North and South Dakota—will be halted until the Corps “can determine whether it will need to reconsider any of its previous decisions regarding the Lake Oahe site under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or other federal laws.”
“In the interim,” the agencies continued, “we request that the pipeline company voluntarily pause all construction activity within 20 miles east or west of Lake Oahe.”
The statement continued:
Furthermore, this case has highlighted the need for a serious discussion on whether there should be nationwide reform with respect to considering tribes’ views on these types of infrastructure projects. Therefore, this fall, we will invite tribes to formal, government-to-government consultations on two questions: (1) within the existing statutory framework, what should the federal government do to better ensure meaningful tribal input into infrastructure-related reviews and decisions and the protection of tribal lands, resources, and treaty rights; and (2) should new legislation be proposed to Congress to alter that statutory framework and promote those goals.
As Common Dreams has reported extensively, the Standing Rock Sioux had challenged the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners’ $3.8 billion pipeline, saying that the project violates federal laws—including the Clean Water Act and National Historic Preservation Act—and would endanger both water supplies and ancient sacred sites.
But in his decision (pdf), U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., said “the Tribe has not carried its burden to demonstrate that the Court could prevent damage to important cultural resources by enjoining the Corps’ DAPL-related permitting.”
He ordered the parties to appear for a status conference on September 16th. Still, those who have voiced their opposition to the controversial project said they’d fight on.
In the lead-up to the ruling, tribal chairman David Archambault II declared: “Regardless of the court’s decision today, we will continue to be united and peaceful in our opposition to the pipeline. Our ultimate goal is permanent protection of our sacred sites and our water. We must continue to have faith and believe in the strength of our prayers and not do anything in violence. We must believe in the creator and good things will come.”
Earthjustice, who filed the lawsuit in July on behalf of the tribe, said in the days before the ruling that it would be challenged.
A press conference and protest will take place at the North Dakota Capitol starting at 3pm local time on Friday (today). Solidarity events are planned nationwide next week.
See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net
Point Your RSS Reader to FrackCheckWV.net/feed/
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Standing with Standing Rock Sioux Tribe protest is sacred mission, Oklahoma religious leaders say
By Carla Hinton, News OK, September 10, 2016
Leaders who expressed their solidarity and support for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe currently protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The Rev. David Wilson, superintendent of the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference of the United Methodist Church, poses for a photo beside a concrete barrier near the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe protests in North Dakota. [Photo provided]
The Rev. David Wilson said he didn’t hesitate when he heard the call for prayer and solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s opposition to an oil pipeline proposed to run through tribal land in North and South Dakota.
Wilson, superintendent of the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference of the United Methodist Church, said he and two other Oklahomans recently traveled to North Dakota to stay at the Red Warrior prayer camp in the city of Cannonball on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. He said the prayer camp brought together leaders of at least seven American Indian tribes for daily prayer and discussions about the Standing Rock Sioux tribal protests about 25 miles away.
The tribe’s protest is against a $3.8 billion, four-state oil pipeline that will cross the Missouri River nearby. The concern is that it will disturb sacred sites and impact drinking water for thousands of tribal members on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and millions farther downstream.
Friday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington denied the tribe’s request for a temporary injunction in a one-page ruling that included no explanation. It ordered the parties to appear for a status conference Sept. 16.
Attorney Jan Hasselman with the environmental group Earthjustice, who filed the lawsuit in July on behalf of the tribe, said before the ruling that it would be challenged.
Energy Transfer Partners officials didn’t return The Associated Press’ phone calls or emails seeking comment. In court documents filed asking the judge to reject the tribes’ request for a temporary work stoppage, the company denied that workers have destroyed any cultural sites. The company said it “has taken and continues to take every reasonable precaution” to protect cultural sites.
Respect for resources
Wilson, of Oklahoma City, said the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s resistance to the Dakota Access pipeline is rooted in the sacred.
“Native people historically understand what it means to relate to the Earth and the environment, to care for the Earth. That gets romanticized a lot, but for the most part, our people are very connected to the Earth,” Wilson said. “I think when it comes to water and how we protect the Earth, that is sacred.”
Other local faith leaders attending a recent news conference in Oklahoma City shared similar views.
“Only when we recognize that all of creation is connected in spirit and that what we do to the rest of creation, we do to ourselves, will we begin to treat our waters, land and air with the holy respect and care that they deserve. The Standing Rock Sioux have been teaching this truth for many generations,” said the Rev. Kayla Bonewell, pastor of Church of the Open Arms, 3131 N Pennsylvania, and Cathedral of Hope, where the news event was held Thursday.
The Rev. Glen Chebon Kernell Jr., executive secretary of Native American and Indigenous Ministries of the United Methodist Church in the U.S., said Standing Rock has found support within the United Methodist denomination, including from its Council of Bishops and United Methodist Bishop Bruce Ough of the Dakotas.
Kernell said the project is a threat to religious liberty because of the sacred sites it may destroy. The pipeline’s possible threat to the tribal community’s water is another concern.
“It has been well said throughout the hundreds of comments urrounding this standoff that water is life. But water is more than just something to drink,” Kernell said. “For many of our Native American communities, it is our medicine, it is a way of praying. It is a way that we communicate with what we consider the divine or the holy. It is everything to us. Today, we stand with the people of Standing Rock and the host of indigenous people around the world who are fighting to maintain their homes and all their resources.”
Social media helps
Wilson, a Choctaw Indian, said the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s protest movement has been growing since April. He said it has gained momentum largely due to social media, which is the way many Americans have learned about the tribal resistance to the pipeline proposal.
Wilson, 53, said, typically, only “native press” or American Indian media outlets cover such stories, but American Indian leaders were pleased to see more mainstream media outlets following and covering the story.
He said he became aware of the protest’s high visibility on social media when he saw portions streamed live on Facebook during the trip to North Dakota.
He said he thought it fitting that the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference be represented in the Standing Rock site because it is one of few American denominational entities made up exclusively of American Indian churches — 87 to be exact.
Wilson said he and his group visited several of the protest camps before making their way to the Red Warrior prayer camp. He said he saw a huge presence of law enforcement at the protest sites, but he saw nothing violent.
But the clergy leader said at one protest site, he saw a young man who had chained himself to a piece of equipment belonging to the company in charge of the pipeline project. Wilson said several tribal leaders at the prayer camp were unhappy with how the man carried out his protest, because they preferred protesters to exercise patience and remain peaceful.
Wilson said his group ordered canopy tents for the prayer camp. He said they picked the tent order up in Bismarck, N.D.,along with food, plates, pots and cooking utensils. The prayer camp is feeding about 3,000 people a day, and more on weekends, he said.
Wilson said he planned to return to the Red Warrior prayer camp Friday and hoped to take Bishop Ough of the Dakotas along with him.
He said he also will take a flag of the Choctaw Nation. “There must have been between 30 and 40 tribal flags all along the camp site. It was a beautiful sight to see,” he said.
“I’ll take the Choctaw flag to show our solidarity.
Source: http://newsok.com/more/nonprofits/standing-with-standing-rock-sioux-tribe-protest-is-sacred-mission-oklahoma-religious-leaders-say/article/5517431
See also: http://www.FrackCheckWV.net
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/12/aint-over-rallies-100-cities-demand-obama-cancel-dapl
This Ain’t Over: Rallies in 100 Cities to Demand Obama Cancel the Dakota Access Pipeline
((The Standing Rock Sioux won a temporary victory on Friday, but pipeline opponents say that the fight need not drag on))
By Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams, September 12, 2016
The fight is not over, is the word from the tribes gathered at the Sacred Stone camp, whose months-long resistance against the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) has captured national attention. Heeding that call, more than 100 #NoDAPL solidarity actions are being held on Tuesday to put national pressure on U.S. President Barack Obama to revoke the pipeline’s permits once and for all.
“To defeat a pipeline, it takes a movement of people from all corners of the nation,” reads the call to action.
“Right now, we’re witnessing one of the most courageous stands against a fossil fuel project this country has ever seen,” it continues. “Thousands of Indigenous activists have set up prayer camps along the pipeline route in a historic moment of nonviolent resistance. They’re fighting with everything they have to protect their water, the land, their history, and the climate—and we need to fight with them.”
In Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Square, former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is scheduled to speak alongside Tara Houska with Honor the Earth, Chase Iron Eyes with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Van Jones, Reverend Lennox Yearwood, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Youth member Jasilyn Charger, and other native leaders from North Dakota.
The Standing Rock Sioux won a temporary victory on Friday when the Obama administration suspended construction on Army Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe until further review. The statement further called on the pipeline company to halt construction within 20 miles of that site.
But pipeline opponents say that the fight need not drag on, and that Obama can revoke the permit granted by the U.S. Army Corps—just like he rejected Transcanada’s Keystone XL pipeline.
Further underscoring the dangers of the project, a new analysis on Monday by the fossil fuel industry watchdog Oil Change International found that the 1,172-mile crude oil pipeline would lock-in yearly emissions equivalent to 30 coal-fired power plants and would make it impossible to meet the targets set forth in the Paris climate agreement.
“The Dakota Access pipeline would be with us decades into the future,” wrote Lorne Stockman, research director with Oil Change International. “Once built and operating the economic incentives to keep it going will be hard to overcome. Every year it will be the source of carbon emissions equivalent to nearly 30 coal plants. Even though it may be the case that those emissions would anyway occur this year or next year, or five years from now, it cannot be the case that those emissions can occur in 20, 30 or 40 years from now. Building Dakota Access would be yet another barrier to the path to climate safety.”
Tuesday’s Day of Action follows similar events over the weekend—from Maine to Arizona to Massachusetts—during which local tribes came together with hundreds of supporters to “stand in unity and solidarity, to protect the protectors,” as articulated by Michael Rossi, a member of the Lakota Nation and the organizer of the Phoenix, Ariz. rally.
Source: http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/13/its-time-we-were-heard-another-day-court-climate-kids
See also: http://www.FrackCheckWV.net
Neil Young Protests Dakota Access Pipeline With ‘Indian Givers’ Video
>> Neil Young joins the protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline with his new song and video for “Indian Givers.”
By Daniel Kreps, Rolling Stone, September 16, 2016
Neil Young joins the protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline with his new song and video for “Indian Givers.” The video combines footage of the recent protests against the pipeline with footage of Young singing the track while driving in his car.
The rocker also refers to “Big Money” as “Indian Givers” for their determination to feed an oil pipeline through land given to the Native Americans.”There’s a battle raging on the sacred land / Our brothers and sisters have to take a stand,” Young sings on the track. “Against us now for what we all been doing / On the sacred land there’s a battle brewing.”
Young wrote the track in the past two weeks as it mentions Dale “Happy” American Horse Jr., a Native American protestor who was arrested August 31st after chaining himself to pipeline construction equipment for nearly six hours. “Saw Happy locked to the big machine / They had to cut him loose and you know what that means,” Young sings. “That’s when Happy went to jail / Behind big money justice always fails.”
Throughout the summer, the people of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and the organization ReZpect Our Water have protested the expansion of the Dakota Access Pipeline, leading to multiple arrests.
In early September, protesters clashed with the private security firm hired to protect the Dakota Access Pipeline, resulting in numerous injuries. The Obama administration stepped in to suspend the construction of the pipeline as of September 9th.
Young has long advocated against the construction of intrusive, environment-altering pipelines, previously penning the Storytone track “Who’s Gonna Stand Up?” as a protest against the Keystone XL pipeline in 2014. Young and Willie Nelson also staged a Nebraska concert in 2014 lobbying against the Keystone expansion.
Check out the lyrics to “Indian Givers” below, via Stereogum:
There’s a battle raging on the sacred land
Our brothers and sisters have to take a stand
Against us now for what we all been doing
On the sacred land there’s a battle brewing
I wish somebody would share the news
Now it’s been about 500 years
We keep taking what we gave away
Just like what we call Indian givers
It makes you sick and gives you shivers
I wish somebody would share the news
Big money going backwards and ripping the soil
Where graves are scattered and blood was boiled
When all who look can see the truth
But they just move on and keep their groove
I wish somebody would share the news
Saw Happy locked to the big machine
They had to cut him loose and you know what that means
That’s when Happy went to jail
Behind big money justice always fails
I wish somebody would share the news
Bring back the days when good was good
Lose these imposters in our neighborhood
Across our farms and through our waters
All at the cost of our sons and daughters
Our brave songs and daughters
We’re all here together fighting poison waters
Standing against the evil way
That’s what we have at the end of day
I wish somebody would share the news
See also: http://www.FrackCheckWV.net