Alert and update from Winona LaDuke at Honor the Earth:
As the situation at Standing Rock continues to escalate, we ask you to continue standing with us, and to take one step deeper into this movement. Our fight against the Dakota Access pipeline is a crossroads in the global battle for environmental and social justice.
Over 550 people have been arrested, and many face trumped up felony charges. Water protectors have been attacked, beaten, strip-searched, held in dog kennels, and tortured. On Sunday, November 20, hundreds were injured at the encampments when law enforcement blasted them with water cannons in freezing temperatures and attacked with less-lethal weapons. One person had a grand mal seizure, one elder went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated, and multiple people were evacuated unconscious and bleeding after rubber bullets struck them in the head. Many more suffered serious fractures, blunt traumas, hypothermia, and contamination from CS gas and mace. Twenty-one year old Sophia Wilansky was struck at close range with a concussion grenade and may face the amputation of her arm.
Honor the Earth continues to support the legal defense effort at the encampment and works closely with the jail support teams, the NLG Water Protectors Legal Collective, and other attorneys, on both criminal defense for those arrested and civil litigation in response to rampant human rights violations. Yesterday, the team filed a class action lawsuit against the Morton County Sheriff’s Department and other law enforcement agencies for excessive use of force on November 20. Other civil lawsuits are in progress and jury trials begin next month.
It is unclear what is going to happen with this pipeline. On Friday, November 25, after the last turkey had been pardoned, the Obama Administration issued an eviction notice to the Oceti Sakowin encampments. We issued a statement in response, as part of a coalition of grassroots groups on the ground: we will not be moved, and we do not recognize the US Army’s authority to evict us from territory never ceded to the US government and affirmed as sovereign land in the 1851 Treaty of Ft. Laramie. Last night, North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple issued an eviction notice as well, via Executive Order, cutting off emergency services to the camp. At no time during the past year has Governor Dalrymple shown concern for our well being. Instead, he has overstepped his authority and spent millions of public dollars on the militarization of his police forces and the brutalization of our people. All of this is for the benefit of Energy Transfer’s profits. We are here to say no. We stand united in defiance of the black snake and committed to defending our water, our Mother Earth, and our rights as Indigenous people. We call on all people of conscience, from all Nations, to join the encampments and stand with us as we put our bodies on the line.
While the US Army Corps continues its consultation with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe about the river crossing, the Dakota Access pipeline project is in financial jeopardy. It is likely impossible for the company to meet its January 1 deadline, and if it does not, producers and shippers who two years ago committed to use the pipeline will have the option to renegotiate or even terminate their contracts. A new report shows that they may well want to do that, because oil prices plummeted soon after the contracts were signed in 2014, and the economics of Bakken drilling are dismal now in comparison. Production has declined dramatically and there is no longer any economic need for the Dakota Access pipeline, as existing infrastructure is more than sufficient.
We ask you to take action today. Sign the petition, call the White House, and write to President Obama demanding that he immediately deny the last outstanding easement, revoke the permits, and order a full Environmental Impact Statement. As Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II noted in his response to the eviction notice, denying the easement is the only way to end the violence and protect public safety.
Also, join people all over the world this week in a push to cut off investment for the pipeline. Honor the Earth is one of many groups on the ground calling for an international day of action on December 1st against the banks financing the project. In fact, let’s make December a month of action, with bold and courageous actions every single day, all over the world. Join or host local actions to shut down banks. Close your accounts and move your money. If you live in a jurisdiction currently sending law enforcement to Standing Rock, use this contact info to demand their removal. More and more police forces are declining to come join North Dakota in the service of oil companies and the violation of civil and human rights. North Dakota, in fact, is becoming a political pariah.
Despite all this, water protectors continue to show incredible courage, resolve, principle, and determination. We are peaceful and standing in prayer, and even as winter arrives, our numbers keep growing. There are over 7000 people on the land now, and we intend to stay. On December 4, thousands of US veterans are coming to stand with us.
The winter will be relentless in Lakota territory, but our resolve is strong. As we face a desperate corporate push for more fossil fuels in the time of climate crisis, we ask you to join us. Join us through action, and through contributing financially to our work. We are here for the long haul, not only to oppose the pipeline and challenge the racism of North Dakota, but to make a renewable energy future with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, as we begin to install our solar projects on the reservation over the winter and spring.
We are very grateful for your ongoing support. We will continue to stand our ground for the water and the unborn generations. This fight is not just about a pipeline project. This is our moment, our chance to demand the future we all deserve.
Miigwech,
Winona LaDuke
http://www.honorearth.org/