Stand With Standing Rock: NO Dakota Access! [Winona LaDuke, Honor the Earth]

Following is the text from an emailed action alert/updated sent by Winona "No Nukes" LaDuke of Honor the Earth:

This is an epic moment and the path forward is clear. I am writing to share our Standing Rock campaign work with you, protecting Mother Earth from the Dakota Access pipeline, and to ask you to join us over the months ahead.  Now is the time.

For months now, Honor the Earth has been working with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and two grassroots groups, the Sacred Stones Camp and Red Warrior Camp.  While we fought off one fracked oil pipeline here in Minnesota, Enbridge’s Sandpiper, the companies moved west.  So we have followed them - because a pipeline that would harm Standing Rock’s water will also harm ours.  

We are here not only to stop the Dakota Access pipeline, but to make a future for our people.  This is the time to push for renewable energy and justice.  No more desecration of our lands.  No more poisoning of our people.  We have momentum.  We have the world’s attention.  And we are standing together and standing up.  Please join us.

There is more than just a $3.9 billion pipeline at stake here.  This is about constitutional rights, and human rights. This time, instead of the Seventh Cavalry, or Indian police dispatched to assassinate Sitting Bull, Governor Dalrymple seeks to spend over $7.8 million militarizing the state to put down the Lakota and their allies.  This is not going to happen.  We are a strong and principled people.  As of today, 69 people have been arrested, including Standing Rock Chairman Dave Archambault II and Councilmember Dana Yellowfat.  The people have physically stopped construction for weeks.  And the battle is just beginning.  I am watching history repeat itself, and wondering how badly Dalrymple really wants that pipeline.

This is our plan: 3 of Honor the Earth's primary staff have essentially moved to Standing Rock to support the frontlines and ensure a multi-dimensional campaign.  We continue to provide legal strategies and counsel, and campaign coordination.  And we continue to work on the future.  This tribe does not need a new pipeline, they need energy infrastructure that actually serves its people.  After all, three years ago Debbie Dogskin, a Standing Rock resident, froze to death because she could not pay her propane bill.  That is the reality here.

With an 85% drop in active oil rigs in the Bakken oil fields, there is no need for this pipeline.  It is a pipeline from nowhere.  Here’s what true energy independence would look like:   With $3.9 billion equally divided, we could install 65,000 typical 5kw residential rooftop PV systems, each supplying about half of the home's electricity needs; install 325 2MW utility scale wind towers that would generate over 3.5 billion kwh per year; and provide 160,000 homes with $8000 efficiency retrofit packages, saving $300/yr/home.  That would produce a whole lot of jobs, most of them local. 

We are supporting Standing Rock as they fight this pipeline, but we are also helping to create a new future.  We plan to install 20 solar thermal panels on tribal houses at Standing Rock, beginning to address fuel poverty on the reservation.

We are here to defend the water, the land and the people.   No new pipelines anywhere.  It is time to move on.  From October 8-13, Honor the Earth is proud to join forces with the Wounded Knee Memorial Riders, the Dakota 38 and Big Foot riders, and many horse nation societies, in a spiritual horse ride to protect our sacred waters from the Dakota Access pipeline and all the black snakes that threaten our lands.

At times like these, I often ask myself,  “What would Sitting Bull do?”  The answer is pretty clear.  A hundred years ago the great leader said, “Let us put our minds together to see what kind of life we can make for our children.”  The time for that is now.  Please join us today with a one-time donation or better yet, a commitment to stand with us each month.  Let us be the ancestors our future generations wish to thank.

Miigwech,

Winona LaDuke
http://www.honorearth.org/

PS:  We are just now bringing in our wild rice harvest from the White Earth Reservation. We are proud to say that this wild rice is still pipeline free.  We have fought hard for this beautiful rice, because it is everything to us.  Please consider ordering some today. 

[Please also see the relevant section of Honor the Earth's website, including links to what you can do/how you can help support the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe against the Dakota Access Pipeline.]

Dakota Access and other pipeline (including natural gas) related news from Midwest Energy News

Links to just a single day's news coverage from Midwest Energy News, of the Dakota Access Pipeline, other crude oil pipelines (as well as natural gas pipelines), and their impacts on Native Americans, the climate, etc.:

PIPELINES:
• A federal appeals court orders a halt to construction on another section of the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota. (Associated Press)
• A tribal leader in Wisconsin says the Dakota Access pipeline should be a concern for all, not just Native Americans. (LaCrosse Tribune)
• A federal judge drops a temporary restraining order against tribal leaders who were sued by the Dakota Access developer. (Associated Press)
• The Dakota Access protest site has created a new school for children and an increasingly organized system to deliver supplies there. (Associated Press)
• Enbridge performs maintenance on an oil pipeline in northern Minnesota after corrosion was discovered on the line’s exterior. (Forum News Service)

OIL AND GAS:
• North Dakota’s oil production outlook for the rest of the year looks poor, officials say. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
• An Ohio appeals court says the developer of a natural gas pipeline in Ohio and Michigan can enter private property and conduct land surveys. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)*

COMMENTARY:

• Federal agencies and courts should decide quickly on a framework for an agreement over the Dakota Access pipeline. (Bismarck Tribune)

[*Please note that the largely pro bono attorney for the groups and individuals fighting fracking in all its manifestations in Ohio and Michigan -- from pipelines, to drilling, to wastewater disposal -- is Terry Lodge, Esquire, based in Toledo, Ohio. Lodge also serves as Beyond Nuclear et al.'s largely pro bono attorney in many nuclear power and radioactive waste campaigns in that region, and beyond.]

Vermont demonstrators disrupt pipeline construction in solidarity

As reported by NBC 5 in Burlington, VT. (See also the links to the television report, as well as addition photos.)

Update:

On Oct. 5th, Margaret Harrington, host of Nuclear-Free Future at Ch. 17 (CCTV/Town Meeting Television) in Burlington, reported on this story, "Fracked Gas and Eminent Domain in Geparg's Park, Vermont."

Here is the description of her coverage:

Ch 17 Interviewer Margaret Harrington met with anti Vermont Gas fracked gas pipeline activists from Rising Tide and the citizen group Protect Geprag's Park. They met at Geprag's Park in Hinesburg to talk about the pipeline easement the Public Service Board PSB has granted Vermont Gas by enforcing eminent domain. Jane Palmer, Rachel Smolker, Theora Ward and Alex Prolman give compelling views of the legal and ethical reasons why they will continue to fight the fracked gas pipeline and appeal the PSB decision in a case to the Vermont Supreme Court. Despite the destruction of wetlands and other natural resources and always with the threat of eminent domain, the PSB continues to rule in favor of the extension of the Vermont Gas pipeline.

To contribute to the legal fund :  www.protectgeprags.org

National Call: Stopping the Dakota Access Pipeline [Wed., Sept. 14]

Allison Fisher at Public Citizen's Energy Program has put out the following action alert/invitation:

Dear Friends,

On Wednesday, September 14, at 3 pm Eastern / 2 pm Central / 1 pm Mountain / 12 noon Pacific time, the Climate Reality Check team will hold the latest in our series of national conference calls to help strengthen community organizing on climate, entitled:

From the Frontlines: Stopping the Dakota Access Pipeline

We will be joined by Cody Hall, spokesman for the Red Warrior Camp on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.  We’ve also invited speakers from Honor the Earth and the Indigenous Environmental Network.

Even if you can’t make it on the 14th, register to receive a recording of the call.

The Dakota Access pipeline would carry 450,000 barrels per day of fracked oil from North Dakota to Illinois - cutting through sovereign tribal land and crossing under the Missouri River.

In response, an inspiring opposition – led by the Standing Rock Sioux - has emerged.  This grassroots force is employing civil disobedience and a robust legal strategy to halt construction on this toxic tube.

Join us to learn more about:

• updates from the occupation
• strategies to stop the pipeline
• how this fight fits into the climate justice and anti-fracking movements
• solidarity events around the country and other ways to join the fight

RSVP for the call: https://goo.gl/forms/ElYixLpXAJYhgWwm1

Talk to you soon!

The CRC team* – Allison, Nancy, Jean and Ted

*The CRC team is Allison Fisher, Public Citizen, Nancy LaPlaca, NC WARN, Jean Su, the Center for Biological Diversity and Ted Glick, Beyond Extreme Energy and movement builder.

Have an idea or speaker for a call?  Email Allison at afisher@citizen.org

P.S. please see the note below from our friends at Honor the Earth, Indigenous Environmental Network, Sierra Club, 350.org, CREDO, and BOLD Alliance

We invite your organization and membership to join us on Tuesday, September 13th for a day of solidarity distributed actions to call on President Obama to take action to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline.

We are asking for folks to coordinate peaceful solidarity rallies in their cities and submit photos and tag on social media with #NoDAPL so that we can gather those photos and tell the story of all those standing with the Standing Rock Sioux and tribal allies against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Sign up to host an event here for this specific day of action targeting President Obama and hope that you will join us with actions across the country. Further messaging and materials will be provided to hosts.

What can your organization do to help?
1. Host an event
2. E-mail membership to attend events
3. Social media promotion
**If your organization would like to be listed on the website as a sponsor, please fill out this google form**

The message of these events is: President Obama must intervene now and stop the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline
The goals of a single day of solidarity action from the climate movement during a call for 2 weeks of action against DAPL are:
Get press that puts pressure on President Obama and the administration to step into the process.
Elevate frontline resistance to fossil fuel projects fueling the climate crisis.
Grow the climate movement and invite activists to be involved in this fight.
Types of suggested actions:

Rally in your city to call on Obama to stop DAPL

Rally at city hall to call on city council to send solidarity statement (Example from Twin Cities in Minnesota is here.)

Honk and wave event against the pipeline.

Update on September 18, 2016 by admin

Allison Fisher of Public Citizen and Climate Reality Check provided this follow up to the call:

Thank you for your interest in our call: From the frontlines of the Dakota Access Pipeline resistance.

Recording of the call: https://www.freeconferencecallhd.com/playback_rudd/?n=O3J5d/uwrmE

Playback # for iphones 641-715-3649 (passcode 615986#)

Speakers: 

Cody Hall -  South Dakota Cheyenne River Sioux tribal nation member and spokesman for Red Warrior Camp on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.

https://www.facebook.com/RedWarriorCamp/

Joye Braun, Indigenous Environmental Network

http://www.ienearth.org/stand-with-standing-rock-no-dapl/

Resources:  How You Can HELP

1) The protectors at Red Warrior and Sacred Stone Camp NEED supplies to get through the winter.  Pitch in here:

• http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaign-updates/supply-drive-for-dakota-red-warrior-camp/

• http://sacredstonecamp.org/supply-list/

• https://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/196PVIWRDX1M4

2) Donate to the legal defense fund for those risking arrest everyday: https://fundrazr.com/d19fAf

Contribute to the Red Warrior Camp legal defense fund: https://www.generosity.com/fundraising/red-warrior-camp-legal-fund-nodapl

3) Join the resistance @: Sacred Stone Camp, Fort Yates, ND 58538

4) Call the White House at (202) 456-1111 telling President Obama to rescind the Army Corps of Engineers' Permit for the Dakota Access Pipeline

5) Spread the word on social media using #NoDAPL

Four Things You Can Do To Stop The Dakota Access Pipeline [Rising Tide North America and #NoDAPL Solidarity action alert]

Rising Tide North America and #NoDAPL Solidarity have sent out the following action alert:

On Friday, a federal judge ruled against the Standing Rock Sioux’s case to stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Then, literally, 10 minutes later, the Departments of Justice, Interior and Army issued a joint statement temporarily halting construction under the Missouri River near the Sacred Stone Camp.

This is a true testament to the Indigenous-led people-powered resistance happening at Standing Rock. It is one success -- but there is still a lot of work to do. Land defenders on Standing Rock are preparing to be there until the Dakota Access Pipeline goes away once and for all, and until the colonial systems that allowing this pipeline to be built begin to be dismantled.

On Standing Rock, people are building structures to prepare for the winter, children are going to school everyday and brave Indigenous leaders are continuing to engage in direct action to stop construction of the pipeline.

Now more than ever, we’re asking people to go after the banks that are financing this pipeline: Citibank, TD Bank, Bank of Tokyo and Mizuho Bank. Without these banks’ $2.5 billion loan, this pipeline can never be constructed. The Camp of the Sacred Stone and the Red Warrior Camp have put out a call for solidarity direct action on these banks. Already, San Francisco, New Haven and other cities have taken action.

Here are four things you can do to help stop the Dakota Access Pipeline:

1. Host an action at a bank corporate office, investment office or branch.

2.  Join an action at a bank corporate office, investment office or branch.

3.  Donate to keep the action on the ground in North Dakota going.

4.  Invite your friends and share the Facebook event with your friends and comrades! And if you’ve been a part of solidarity actions let us know about them.

We must continue to support those at Standing Rock who fight back every day. We've got over 135 actions on the No DAPL action map -- and it’s growing everyday. The more we pressure these banks the more likely they are to pull out of this project once and for all. Thanks for all you do

In Solidarity, The NoDAPL Solidarity Team

P.S. -- Don’t forget to share the Facebook event and post pictures of solidarity actions you have attended!