Dakota Access: A Familiar Story.

Kim Ryu.

Kim Ryu.

David Archambault II, tribal chairman of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has a column up at the NYT, Taking A Stand at Standing Rock. Read, share, light those signal fires, get the word everywhere. Some mainstream media is finally starting to pay attention, but we need more. We need people to join us, to help us, because this issue affects every single one of us. People outside Indian country, and even a whole lot of them smack in the middle of it need to learn, need to educate themselves about the reality of this situation right now, and the workings of the past, because most people only know the white-washed “history” fed to them in school. We stand, not only for ourselves, but for all people. Please, don’t lapse back into resignation, don’t let weariness win. We have been fighting for hundreds of years. The camps in this one resistance have been standing for 5 months now, since April, and we are not going to stop now, so please, don’t you stop either. We must endure, and every voice, every signal boost, every supply, every donation, every person who comes to the camps, you hold us up, you brace the foundation of our obligation to and protection of our earth, our water.

Near Cannon Ball, N.D. — 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.

The Sioux tribes have come together to oppose this project, which was approved by the State of North Dakota and the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The nearly 1,200-mile pipeline, owned by a Texas oil company named Energy Transfer Partners, would snake across our treaty lands and through our ancestral burial grounds. Just a half-mile from our reservation boundary, the proposed route crosses the Missouri River, which provides drinking water for millions of Americans and irrigation water for thousands of acres of farming and ranching lands.

Our tribe has opposed the Dakota Access pipeline since we first learned about it in 2014. Although federal law requires the Corps of Engineers to consult with the tribe about its sovereign interests, permits for the project were approved and construction began without meaningful consultation. The Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior and the National Advisory Council on Historic Preservation supported more protection of the tribe’s cultural heritage, but the Corps of Engineers and Energy Transfer Partners turned a blind eye to our rights. The first draft of the company’s assessment of the planned route through our treaty and ancestral lands did not even mention our tribe.

The Dakota Access pipeline was fast-tracked from Day 1 using the Nationwide Permit No. 12 process, which grants exemption from environmental reviews required by the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act by treating the pipeline as a series of small construction sites. And unlike the better-known Keystone XL project, which was finally canceled by the Obama administration last year, the Dakota Access project does not cross an international border — the condition that mandated the more rigorous federal assessment of the Keystone pipeline’s economic justification and environmental impacts.

The Dakota Access route is only a few miles shorter than what was proposed for the Keystone project, yet the government’s environmental assessment addressed only the portion of the pipeline route that traverses federal land. Domestic projects of this magnitude should clearly be evaluated in their totality — but without closer scrutiny, the proposal breezed through the four state processes.

Perhaps only in North Dakota, where oil tycoons wine and dine elected officials, and where the governor, Jack Dalrymple, serves as an adviser to the Trump campaign, would state and county governments act as the armed enforcement for corporate interests. In recent weeks, the state has militarized my reservation, with road blocks and license-plate checks, low-flying aircraft and racial profiling of Indians. The local sheriff and the pipeline company have both called our protest “unlawful,” and Gov. Dalrymple has declared a state of emergency.

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The Last Word.

MSNBC. Via #NoDAPL.

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Transcript, copied from Daily Kos:

Dakota means friend…friendly. The people who gave that name to the Dakotas have, sadly, never been treated as friends. The people whose language was used to name the Dakotas and Minnesota, Iowa, Oklahoma, Ohio, Connecticut, Massachusetts and other states, the Native American tribes, the people who were here before us… long before us, have never been treated as friends. They have been treated as enemies.. and dealt with more harshly than any other enemy. In any of this countrys’ wars.

After all of our major wars we signed peace treaties and live by those treaties. After world war II when we made peace with Germany we then did everything we possibly could to rebuild Germany. No Native American tribe has ever been treated as well as we treated Germans after World War II.

Donald Trump and his supporters now fear the country being invaded by foreigners who want to change our way of life.  A fear that Native Americans have lived with, every day,… for over five hundred years.

The original sin of this country is that we invaders shot and murdered our way across the land killing every Native American that we could, and making treaties with the rest. This country was founded on genocide before the word genocide was invented. Before there was a War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague.

When we finally stopped actively killing Native Americans for the crime of living here before us, we then proceeded to violate every treaty we made with the Tribes. Every. Single. Treaty.

We piled crime on top of crime against a people whose offense against us was simply that they lived where we wanted to live.

We don’t feel the guilt of the crimes because we pretend they happened a very long time ago, in ancient history. And we actively suppress the memories of those crimes.. but there are people alive today whose grandparents were in the business of killing the Native Americans. That’s how recent these crimes are.

Every once in a while there is a painful and morally embarrassing reminder, as there is this week in North Dakota near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation where hundreds of people have gathered and camped out in opposition to an interstate pipeline being built from North Dakota to Illinois.

The protest being led by this countrys’ original environmentalists. Native Americans.

For hundreds of years they were our only environmentalists. The only people who thought that land and rivers should be preserved in their natural state. The only people who thought a mountain or a prairie or a river could be a sacred place.

Yesterday a federal judge heard arguments from the tribes against the federal governments approval of the pipeline and said he will deliver his decision on whether the pipeline can proceed next month.

There are now over ninety tribes gathered in protest of that pipeline. That protest will surely continue even if the judge allows construction to proceed.

And so we face the prospect next month of the descendants of the first people to ever set foot on that land,.. being arrested by the descendants of the invaders who seized that land.

Arrested for trespassing.

That we still have Native Americans left in this country to be arrested for trespassing on their own land is testament, not to the mercy of the genocidal invaders who seized and occupied their land, but to the stunning strength and the five hundred years of endurance and the undying dignity of the people who were here long before us. The people who have always known; what is truly sacred in this world.

Oh, That Evil Anti-White Agenda.

Richard Spencer (Facebook).

Richard Spencer (Facebook).

Poor, poor Richard Spencer. His um, appeal to Ms. Clinton didn’t work at all. Neither did his frothy demands. Ms. Clinton went right ahead with her speech, the full text of which can be read here. Back to Mr. Spencer’s wish life:

Right Wing Watch notices that Richard Spencer, who last year hosted a conference on white racial identity that proposed the creation of whites-only states in the U.S., has issued a preemptive strike against Clinton’s speech that attacks her for allegedly hating white people.

“Over the past few months, Hillary Clinton has engaged, rhetorically and directly, with an array of groups that support an anti-White agenda,” Spencer wrote. “Whether that’s endorsing the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, which is directly responsible for a rise in violence throughout America, or her surrogates chastising European-Americans for their background and heritage.”

Spencer then called on Clinton to apologize for hating white people so much, despite the fact that Clinton herself is white.

“We call on her and her allies to issue an apology to European-Americans everywhere and confront her own troubling links to extremism and the civil unrest she has stoked for months,” he wrote.

Spencer attended a pro-Trump party at this year’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland, where he was quoted as saying he and his movement have “taken over the right” by nominating a presidential candidate who addresses the alt-right’s major concerns.

Goodness. You’d think treating people like people was genocide of white folks or something. Is it wrong of me to hope that Mr. Spencer gets stuck some place where Ms. Clinton’s speech is on a loop?

Via Raw Story.

Camp Story.

Mother and child at the frontlines on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota on August 16, 2016. Courtesy John Heminger.

Mother and child at the frontlines on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota on August 16, 2016. Courtesy John Heminger.

Sarah Sunshine Manning (Shoshone-Paiute, Chippewa-Cree) has a wonderful story up at ICTMN. I agree that in many ways, we have already won. This is a historical time, this is history in the making, and the tribes have not been this united since Victory Day (that would be the Battle at the Greasy Grass, aka Custer’s final fuck up). That is also the foundation of the government’s fear, and all the intimidation games they keep playing, not that many would admit to that, but the grudge runs deep. When we are together, we are strong. When all people unite, we are strong, and our voices are powerful enough to be heard.

We woke up to sounds of joy- laughter, conversation, and warm greetings of “Good Morning.” We woke up to lingering fragrances of camp fires, coffee, and smoldering sage and cedar. Near our camp was the central gathering place, where early risers were already congregating over coffee, while others were making huge amounts of breakfast over open fire.

People of all tribes and many ethnicities gathered. I admit, that I was a little giddy just at the site of a blond gentleman there with his family — a wife and two young children. I admit, that I have been conditioned if not traumatized while living in the Dakotas for the last decade to expect much less than warmth from the majority of non-Natives in the area. But what I immediately saw in the camps at Standing Rock was pure unity of humanity. Unity for Earth, and solidarity for life. And it was beautiful. There were several non-Natives present, standing with the Lakota and Dakota people of Standing Rock as fellow human beings.

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Support Native Youth.

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The Oceti Sakowin youth are asking for help, as we continue in our fight for healthy land, clean water, and healthy people.

Construction for the Dakota Access Pipeline has begun in spite of thousands and thousands of people demanding a stop to the project and the 1,800-mile run we made across the country to deliver your signatures to the Army Corps.

Now we’re going to the front lines of the fight against this pipeline and we want to bring other youth leaders with us to join the struggle!

What we’re doing is risky, but we’re willing to do it for our future. Will you help us bring youth leaders from surrounding reservations to the Sacred Stone Camp where we are staying? Your donation will go towards renting buses and buying food and camping gear for young activists.

We’ve already helped to disrupt construction of the pipeline by peacefully using our bodies to block roads – but we need more support!

We believe that young people should be on the front lines of the movement to protect our water and our future. Donate $5 today to invest in youth leadership and the protection of our planet!

If you can kick in, please do. I don’t have much myself, but I kicked in because this is so very important.  If you can’t, please signal boost, can’t stop the signal!

https://www.change.org/f/send-native-youth-leaders-to-block-the-pipeline

Dakota Access: A Disaster Waiting to Happen.

The Dakota Access Pipeline. Photo by criminalintent on Flickr.

The Dakota Access Pipeline. Photo by criminalintent on Flickr.

ShadowProof has given us some much needed coverage. Still asking mainstream media, where the hell are you all? There are a thousand stories to be told, at least. So many stories. And there is one hell of a big story, if you can manage to pull your heads out of oil’s backside.

The Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota will not only impact the environment but also lead to an influx of out-of-state workers and increase crime, drug use, and sex trafficking, according to an indigenous columnist.

If completed, the pipeline, also known as the Bakken Pipeline, would travel from North Dakota to Illinois through 50 counties in the United States and transport crude oil. A data sheet published by Dakota Access, LLC, indicates it is a $3.7 billion “investment” intended to run some 1,172 miles, or 1,886 kilometers. It is expected to “transport approximately 470,000 barrels [of crude oil] with a capacity as high as 570,000 barrels per day or more.”

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe launched a protest encampment called the Sacred Stone Spirit Camp back in April, but in recent weeks, demonstrations against the pipeline have intensified, as thousands have traveled to the camp to support the struggle of indigenous people against Dakota Access.

Ruth Hopkins, a Lakota and Dakota of the Oceti Sakowin, or Great Sioux Nation, and an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota Nation, told Shadowproof oil development tends to bring in a lot of non-Native men from out of state who do the work, often on a temporary basis. This influx of transient workers “brings an increase in crime, drug use, and sex trafficking. The Bakken is a perfect example of that.”

As the oil boom began, North Dakota saw a major population spike, and the state’s law enforcement, particularly on reservations, wasn’t prepared.

“We don’t have the kind of funding necessary to combat crimes waves, and there are special concerns regarding jurisdiction on tribal lands,” Hopkins said. “As a tribal judge on a nearby reservation, I witnessed the effects of this oil boom. It pushed the tribe to the point of declaring a State of Emergency due to rampant drug use.”

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BREAKING: Federal Courts Won’t Rule.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – No decision has been made today in federal court regarding the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline near Cannon Ball, N.D.

Judge James E. Boarsberg says the main legal issue is the consultation factor between the Tribes & Army Corps of Engineers.

Boarsberg said he will issue his opinion by September 9 and an appeal hearing has been set for September 14 if the Tribes or Corps of Engineers is unhappy with the decision.

Via KFYR. There was noise a couple of days ago that the judge thinks we need more time to just talk things over with the AC of Engineers. Apparently, he’s decided to be utterly oblivious to the months of talks that did go on, when the AC of Engineers assured the people of Standing Rock that they understood the issues, and were sensitive to them. Well, we’ve seen that so-called sensitivity, and we’ve seen the lies. No, Judge Boarsberg, this is not something we can settle over tea. And this is really important to remember:

This is the truth, I see it every day. Dakota Access swore on their black heart they would stop until the court hearing, but they have not stopped. The only thing they stopped was drilling under the Missouri River. Everything else is going ahead, in spite of the thousands of people at the camps and everywhere else. The interstate from where I live is lined with massive pipe, holes and ditches being dug everywhere. They have no intention of stopping, because all they ever do is lie. Please, if you can, get this news out if you can, please. I’m begging. Mainstream Media is still busy pretending we don’t exist, and they aren’t about to cover Dakota Access lying their asses off about stopping work.

WE ARE NOT GIVING UP. WE ARE NOT GOING AWAY. THIS IS NOT GOING TO BLOW OVER. RISE, STAND WITH US. We should not have to fight for healthy earth, clean water, and clean air. We should not have to fight for these things for all the generations to come. We must protect our earth, we must protect our people. All of us, every single one of us, let us raise our voices in unity and strength. We have the right to say no. Join the resistance, come to the camps if you can. If you can’t, donate money, supplies, a few moments of your wireless to get the the word out, whatever you can do. It matters. Every action matters. Every word matters. You matter. Make a difference.

Support Sacred Stone Camp. Legal Fund Help. Rezpect Our Water.  Sign the Petition. Sign urgent petition. And please, please, signal boost as much as you can, spread the word – mainstream media is still acting like nothing is going on, and I saw one new MSM article today, and it was covering the 3rd day in August! This has been going on since April, and even now, media can’t manage to be remotely current. Help them out by doing their job for them, since they can’t seem to handle it. Thank you!

Dakota Access Pipeline Standoff. – Feds Grant TRO Against Standing Rock Members. – Dakota Access Protest: We’re being sued – help us fight it! – Dakota Access Standoff Calls on Obama. – Among Those Arrested… – Sacred Stone Camp: Calling Water Warriors! – Dakota Access: About That Oil… – Dakota Access Purchaser Looking Like Enron. – Standing Rock and IITC File Urgent Communication to UN. – Sacred Stone Camp. – North Dakota: State of Emergency Declared. – Solidarity Sings! – Settling into Camp – Washington DC: Action Alert – Solidarity Sings Along. – WE ARE… – URGENT Petition Call and Solidarity Sings III – A Tale of Two Standoffs. – Lakota No Access. – Coping With Cops. – Dakota Access and The Mindset of Christendom. – Adding Insult to Injury. – Tanka’s Mark Tilsen Speaks. – Los Angeles: Action Alert. – Sadness. – Reno Nevada: Action Alert. – Never Broken. – Resistance: Photo Essay. – Washington, DC –

Washington, DC.

Photos and videos are flowing in from Washington DC, and the protests at the hearing there today. You can see much more at https://twitter.com/RedRoadWoman.

Support Sacred Stone Camp. Legal Fund Help. Rezpect Our Water.  Sign the Petition. Sign urgent petition. And please, please, signal boost as much as you can, spread the word – mainstream media is still acting like nothing is going on, and I saw one new MSM article today, and it was covering the 3rd day in August! This has been going on since April, and even now, media can’t manage to be remotely current. Help them out by doing their job for them, since they can’t seem to handle it. Thank you!

Resistance: Photo Essay.

San Carlos Apache Tribe council member Wendsler Nosie Sr. embraces Standing Rock Sioux Tribe David Archambault II at the Camp of the Sacred Stones near the Standing Rock reservation, where Nosie came to offer support and prayers to those taking a stand against the Dakota Access oil pipeline. The Apache Stronghold has been fighting for more than a decade to stop the takeover of sacred Oak Flat for copper mining by Rio Tinto. Apache Stronghold is one of nearly 90 tribes that have expressed support.

San Carlos Apache Tribe council member Wendsler Nosie Sr. embraces Standing Rock Sioux Tribe David Archambault II at the Camp of the Sacred Stones near the Standing Rock reservation, where Nosie came to offer support and prayers to those taking a stand against the Dakota Access oil pipeline. The Apache Stronghold has been fighting for more than a decade to stop the takeover of sacred Oak Flat for copper mining by Rio Tinto. Apache Stronghold is one of nearly 90 tribes that have expressed support.

Riders on horseback exit the campsite and keep a watchful eye to ensure that folks stay safe and protected. Some paint their hoses in traditional designs. Thosh Collins.

Riders on horseback exit the campsite and keep a watchful eye to ensure that folks stay safe and protected. Some paint their hoses in traditional designs. Thosh Collins.

Each morning at the Cannon Ball prayer camps, participants walk and ride horse from the campsite to the construction site, about a half-mile away. Songs are sung and prayers are offered by all. (Photo: Thosh Collins)

Each morning at the Cannon Ball prayer camps, participants walk and ride horse from the campsite to the construction site, about a half-mile away. Songs are sung and prayers are offered by all. (Photo: Thosh Collins)

Veterans from tribal nations, including several bands of Lakota and Ojibwe people, carry staffs to lead the crowd toward the pipe ceremony just outside the gate of the construction site. (Photo: Thosh Collins)

Veterans from tribal nations, including several bands of Lakota and Ojibwe people, carry staffs to lead the crowd toward the pipe ceremony just outside the gate of the construction site. (Photo: Thosh Collins)

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Never Broken.

Truth.

Support Sacred Stone Camp. Legal Fund Help. Rezpect Our Water.  Sign the Petition. Sign urgent petition.

Reno Nevada: Action Alert.

Support Sacred Stone Camp. Legal Fund Help. Rezpect Our Water.  Sign the Petition. Sign urgent petition.

Trigger Happy Cops? Yes.

Indianapolis police shoot homeowner (Vic Ryckaert/Twitter).

Indianapolis police shoot homeowner (Vic Ryckaert/Twitter).

Officers were called shortly after 4:30 a.m. to a robbery call at a home in the Warren Woods neighborhood, reported the Indianapolis Star.

The homeowner opened his garage door when officers arrived, and they found him standing inside armed with a gun.

Police shot the man at least once in the midsection, believing he was the robbery suspect.

They soon realized their error, after initially reporting the suspect had been shot, and the man remains in serious condition at an area hospital.

Police learned the homeowner’s wife had arrived home from a work a short time earlier and was held up at gunpoint by a robber who then took her car keys.

The robber was unable to start the car and then fled on foot, but not before the couple reported the attempted carjacking.

The suspect remains at large.

Other residents of the neighborhood, which is 59 percent black according to U.S. Census records, said the shooting was outrageous.

“I think that’s really crazy,” said resident Angela Parrott, who has lived in the neighborhood for about a year. “What do we have, trigger-happy police officers out here now?”

The homeowner’s name has not yet been released, and police said the shooting remains under investigation and will be presented before a grand jury.

“Our prayers and thoughts are with him and the rest of the family,” said Randal Taylor, the assistant chief of investigations for Indianapolis police. “Just an unfortunate occurrence.”

No. No Mr. Taylor, this was not an unfortunate occurrence. An unfortunate occurrence is something like dropping your keys in a deep puddle of mud, when you’re running late and dressed up. Shooting someone in the abdomen? That’s intentional. It’s also bloody stupid, because the way cops are trained to act is bloody stupid too. You cops know damn well that just about every person in uStates is armed, you know that very well, given the sheer amount of cops who are against gun control, so cops going on autoshoot is especially stupid. Stupid isn’t strong enough. Words, need better, newer words for the depth of this ongoing malicious paranoia. What happened to “drop your weapon” before opening fire? Is that passé now? What about all that chemical spray, tasers, all that stuff? It would seem that every cop out there has decided to go full on scaredy pants and just open fire on anything and anyone.

Oh, I know the answer, pick me! The answer is 59 percent black.

Via Raw Story.

Sadness.

Support Sacred Stone Camp. Legal Fund Help. Rezpect Our Water.  Sign the Petition. Sign urgent petition.