'This Is Our Ghost Dance.' Standing Rock Sioux Will Continue Their Dakota Access Pipeline Battle

Despite a freezing winter, hundreds of activists and Native Americans hunker down in a sustained effort to block an oil pipeline next to the Standing Rock reservation. As reported at Snopes.com.

From Flint, Michigan to Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Reservation, North Dakota -- Water Is Life!

Democracy Now! reports on "Flint: As Two Unelected Emergency Managers are Charged over Water Poisong, with Gov. Snyder be Next?"

Host Amy Goodman's guests included Curt Guyette of the ACLU of Michigan*, and Nayyirah Shariff, director of Flint Rising, a coalition of activists and advocates working to fix the Flint Water Crisis.

Shariff made the "Water Is Life" connection between Flint and Standing Rock:

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Nayyirah Shariff, you just went from Flint to Standing Rock in North Dakota. We just have a minute, but why? What do you see is the connection between what’s happening in North Dakota and Flint?

NAYYIRAH SHARIFF: Well, we’re in this nascent stage of these water wars. And hopefully, what’s happening at Standing Rock—we have the same corporations and the same ideology that is pushing for DAPL. It’s the same ideology that created the emergency manager law, this thing for austerity and privatization and resource extraction for short-term gain, without the impact—without humanity being in that equation. And I felt like I needed to have my body on the ground there as a show of support.

Watch the entire interview here. 

*Guyette helped bring the Flint lead poisoning debacle to national and even international attention through his reporting. He was awarded the Hillman Prize for Web Journalism in recognition, as well as being voted Michigan "Journalist of the Year" by the Michigan Press Association. Guyette previously reported at Detroit's Metro Times, including on Beyond Nuclear and other anti-nuclear efforts in Michigan. Guyette serves as investigative reporter for the ACLU of Michigan. His work focuses on emergency management and open government. His recent article for the ACLU of Michigan is titled "Charges Against Emergency Managers Underscore Folly of Shortsightedness That Created Flint Water Crisis."

Food & Water Watch: Who's banking on the Dakota Access pipeline?

Amanda Byrnes of Food & Water Watch has sent out the following action alert:

Who's Bankrolling the Dakota Access Pipeline?
Tell 17 Big Banks to Stop Funding This Dirty Project.

Despite recent good news about the Dakota Access pipeline from the Army Corps of Engineers, the battle to stop this pipeline isn't over — and there's a key way you can help take the next step.

Urge the banks funding the Dakota Access pipeline to pull their money out of this terrible investment!

Seventeen big banks are invested in the Dakota Access pipeline, and their money is what makes it financially possible for the oil and gas industry to build this dirty project.

The Standing Rock water protectors are not only up against the energy industry, they're also up against some of the most powerful financial interests on Wall Street. Is your bank one of them?

Banks on the Dakota Access project loan include:
Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, BayernLB, BBVA, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Crédit Agricole, DNB ASA, ICBC, ING, Intesa Sanpaolo, Mizuho Bank, Natixis, SMBC, Société Générale, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, TD Bank, and Wells Fargo. And even more banks provide funding to Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the project.*

The Army Corps' decision is a delay — a full Environmental Impact Statement is now underway, but it will be completed AFTER Trump takes office. And we're hearing that Energy Transfer Partners, the main corporation responsible for the pipeline, is considering moving forward anyway and then just paying a fine for the violation.

That's why we're standing with allies to call for defunding of the entire project. Even when corporations aren't fazed by laws, regulations, environmental protections or human rights, they tend to notice when the money dries up.

We're witnessing a powerful moment in the movement to protect people and our climate from corporate greed. We can't allow a private oil and gas corporation to build a dirty pipeline through sacred indigenous lands, put key waterways at risk and keep us addicted to climate-changing fossil fuels.

So it's time to speak loudly and clearly, and in a language all corporations understand.

Tell the banks: #NoDAPL.


Thanks for taking action,



Amanda Byrnes
Online Campaign Organizer
Food & Water Watch
act(at)fwwatch(dot)org

*Who's Banking on the Dakota Access Pipeline?, Food & Water Watch, September 6, 2016.

Water Protector Legal Collective: Water Protectors Headed to Court December 19, 2016

The Water Protector Legal Collective has put out the following press release:

Water Protector Legal Collective                                   

Contact: Angela Bibens

605-519-8180

www.waterprotectorlegal.org

 

Water Protectors Headed to Court Continue to Assert Indigenous Sovereignty 

Ten Defendants face first trial in spite of gross Constitutional violations

 

Mandan, ND: The first trial of those charged in the resistance to construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) begins on Monday, December 19 in Morton County, North Dakota. Monday's trial is the first of multiple jury trials scheduled to occur during the last two weeks of December; all of the accusations stem from police response to the global outpouring of support for the resistance based out of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe reservation and treaty territory. To date police have made more than 550 arrests during incidents of prayer and disruption of the DAPL construction, and trials are scheduled to continue through the spring.

 

The Water Protectors scheduled for trial remain firm in their defense of the Standing Rock Sioux tribal sovereignty and the tribe’s desire to prevent the construction of DAPL on sacred land set aside for the Sioux by the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. The Water Protectors’ actions arose in response to neglect by corporate, federal and state institutions of Standing Rock's right to self-determination.

 

To date the Morton County courts have denied requests made by Water Protectors that the courts recognize the Water Protectors’ actions as protected by the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of religion and religious practice, and right to free assembly. The Morton County court has engaged in potential violations of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel through a pattern and practice of delayed appointment of defense attorneys for the Water Protectors until the eve of trial.

 

Last week Assistant State’s Attorney Ladd Erikson asked the Morton County District Court enter an order to prevent the accused or their attorneys from talking to the jury about issues of indigenous sovereignty and land rights during trial. The resistance to DAPL has garnered worldwide attention and support. In a request about evidence allowed to be presented at the first trial Erikson writes, “There is no relevance to any testimony or evidence regarding: Historical treaties between the U.S. Government and the Sioux Nation; [or] tribal sovereignty…”

 

“Erikson’s invisiblization of the genocide of the Indigenous people of this land cuts to heart of why DAPL chose this site to build and why thousands of Indigenous people and their Allies from around the world have felt compelled to resist.” Said Paul Estate, a supporter of the Water Protectors.

 

Angela Bibens of The Water Protectors Legal Collective discusses North Dakota Prosecutor Ladd Erickson's Motions Against Water Protectors:                                   www.vimeo.com/196233250

The Water Protector Legal Collective is the on-the-ground legal support team at the encampment adjacent to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, formed in opposition to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

 

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First Group of Water Protectors Head to Trial in North Dakota Today

As reported by Democracy Now! in its news headlines:

In North Dakota, prosecutor Ladd Erickson is petitioning a judge in Morton County to exclude information about the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, as well as issues of Native American sovereignty, from the courtroom when the first group of water protectors goes on trial today on charges of disorderly conduct. The 10 water protectors are the first to go to trial amid the months-long resistance to the pipeline, led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and members of 200 other indigenous nations from across the Americas. About 500 people have been arrested in total.