North Dakota: Water Protector Opposing Pipeline Resists Grand Jury

As reported by Democracy Now! news headlines:

In North Dakota, a water protector opposing the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline says he’s willing to go to jail on contempt charges rather than give testimony to a federal grand jury. On Wednesday, a federal judge threw out a motion by Steve Martinez to quash a subpoena ordering him to testify about injuries to Sophia Wilansky, a water protector whose arm was severely wounded during a police crackdown on November 20. Martinez has been ordered to testify on February 1. He says he believes the grand jury is a fishing expedition aimed at forcing him to list the names of other activists opposing the Dakota Access pipeline.

Steve Martinez: "February 1st, I am looking at contempt, because I’m not going to cooperate with this. And I just think it’s just a way for them to bully me into giving names and helping them out. I don’t want to lose my freedom at all, but it’s a small price to pay."

See today's NoDAPL and related oil pipeline resistance coverage from Midwest Energy News

PIPELINES:
• State and regional businesses form the Great Lakes Business Network to lobby lawmakers to close Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac. (MLive)
• Enbridge may be set up for a “bruising legal battle” in Wisconsin after a Native American tribe voted against renewing land use agreements for the Line 5 pipeline there. (Reuters)
• Dakota Access activists are pushing for a patchwork of pipeline protests across the country. (Associated Press)
• A group of landowners file a federal lawsuit claiming the Dakota Access developer deceived them into accepting an unfair price for pipeline easements. (Forum News Service)
• Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is also President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for energy secretary, has resigned from the boards of two energy companies developing the Dakota Access pipeline. (Associated Press)

Energy Secretary pick Rick Perry resigns from Dakota Access pipeline boards

As reported by NY Daily News.

NoDAPL headlines from today's Midwest Energy News

PIPELINES:
• How the mood has changed at the Dakota Access Pipeline protest camp in North Dakota. (NPR)
• A federal grand jury is looking into a violent November clash between pipeline opponents and officers in North Dakota, in which protesters say a woman was injured by a grenade thrown by police. (Associated Press)
• North Dakota regulators fine a company $7,500 for being unable to locate underground pipelines. (Bismarck Tribune)

From Keystone XL Pipeline to #DAPL: Jasilyn Charger, Water Protector from Cheyenne River Reservation

As reported by Democracy Now!

AMY GOODMAN: Jasilyn, what was it like to grow up on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota?

JASILYN CHARGER: It wasn’t easy, especially for youth. It’s more about survival. And yeah, we go through all this poverty. We have suicides. We have infestation of meth, of alcoholism. But, for us, we are what grows after that. We are the life that grows after that nuke bomb exploded in the heart of our nation. We’re—we carry that within us, but it doesn’t define who we are. We really fight. We really say, yeah, all this bad stuff’s going on around us, but we don’t want that. We don’t want to hurt anymore. We don’t want to kill ourselves. We don’t want to make ourselves sick anymore. What we want is a better future for ourselves. The pain that we go through on the reservation, we don’t want our children to go through that pain, because that pain is hereditary. It passes—we pass it down to our children and so on and so forth. (emphasis added)

Watch the entire 33 minute interview.

(Democracy Now! has been doing regular reports on the Dakota Acess Pipeline water protector resistance for months. See links to its regular updates on its website, many of which are also reproduced daily, story by story, below in Beyond Nuclear's Human Rights website section.)

Update on January 4, 2017 by admin

Jasilyn Charger mentioned the case of Native American political prisoner Leonard Peliter. Democracy Now! reported this related news headline:

Leonard Peltier Prosecutor Joins Call for Obama to Grant Clemency:

Supporters of Leonard Peltier got a major boost this week in their campaign to win clemency for the 71-year-old Native American activist. U.S. Attorney James Reynolds, whose office prosecuted Peltier, added his voice to those calling on President Obama for a compassionate release. Speaking to The Guardian, Reynolds said, "There seems to be no point in taxpayers paying his room and board. It’s time to call it quits." Peltier is a former member of the American Indian Movement who was convicted of killing two FBI agents during a shootout on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1975. He has long maintained his innocence.

Democracy Now! also reported this related story: "American University Removes Leonard Peltier Statue After FBI Letter Amid Urgent Push for Clemency."