This has some details of which you may be unaware.
Miriam
Ayers writes: "The Obama administration stepped in on Sunday to permanently
halt and reroute the construction of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline
in North Dakota, the site of a seven-month standoff with tribal water
protectors of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe."
Water Protectors protect each other on the front line from riot police on
Thanksgiving. (photo: Rob Wilson Photography/Facebook)
Dakota Access Pipeline Halted by Obama in 11th Hour
By Jane Ayers, Reader Supported News
05 December 16
The Obama administration stepped in on Sunday to permanently halt and
reroute the construction of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline in North
Dakota, the site of a seven-month standoff with tribal water protectors of
the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Jo-Ellen Darcy, the Army's Assistant
Secretary for Civil Works, announced that the Department of the Army "will
not approve an easement that would allow the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline
to cross under Lake Oahe in North Dakota."
Darcy stated in the official announcement that it was determined that the
best way to complete the project "responsibly and expeditiously is to
explore alternate routes for the pipeline crossing." She pointed to the need
for a thorough Environmental Impact Statement "with full public input and
analysis," so decisions could be reached where to reroute the pipeline.
Standing Rock Sioux tribal chairman Dave Archambault II stated, "Today, the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that it will not be granting the
easement to cross Lake Oahe for the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline.
Instead, the Corps will be undertaking an Environmental Impact Statement to
look at possible alternate routes."
He continued, "We wholeheartedly support the decision of the Obama
administration and commend with the utmost gratitude the courage it took on
the part of President Obama, the Army Corps, the Department of Justice, and
the Department of the Interior to take steps to correct the course of
history and to do the right thing."
Chief Arvol Looking Horse, spiritual leader of the Great Sioux Nation,
announced the news to the 15,000 gathered at the water protector camp for a
global day of prayer, and to thousands of Veterans Stand with Standing Rock
(organized by Wesley Clark Jr.) gathering for a nonviolent action as human
shields for the tribal water protectors.
He stated, "The prayer has been answered, and it is so beautiful. Great
Spirit will bless each and every one of you. People have said it was either
'make it or break it,' so I guess we made it. We thank people all over the
world who stood with us in prayer. It is not just our prayers that were
answered, but the prayers all over the world were answered, and I know it
will change everyone's lives. Water is life." The camp erupted in joy and
celebration, and the elders asked the veterans to stay for days to have
direct actions of celebration with the water protectors. Fireworks lit the
sky at dark. Drumming and singing expressed the victory for the tribal
people and their water.
Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who was on site with the veterans when the
announcement was made, stated, "Today we have shown the power of people's
voices standing together to protect our water. Water is life. We cannot live
without it. While we celebrate today's news, we cannot be complacent. We
must continue to protect our water and preserve our land."
Halting the Pipeline: Timing with Veterans Deployment and Evacuation Threat
The halting of the pipeline was announced today, one day before a December
5th evacuation date ordered by North Dakota governor Jack Dalrymple was to
begin unfolding, with the tribal people stating they would not budge from
their location. Last Monday, Chairman Archambault asserted the governor's
evacuation order was a "menacing action meant to cause fear" and noted that
the governor's order stated his concern for tribal campers' protection due
to winter weather, but was issued one week after police authorities had
doused tribal peoples in sub-freezing temperatures, endangering them with
hypothermia and bombarding them with tear gas, rubber bullets, and
concussion grenades.
Archambault stated, "The most dangerous thing we can do is force
well-situated campers from their shelters and into the cold. If the true
concern is for public safety then the governor should clear the blockade and
the county law enforcement should cease all use of flash grenades,
high-pressure water cannons in freezing temperatures, dog kennels for
temporary human jails, and any harmful weaponry against human beings. This
is a clear stretch of state emergency management authority and a further
attempt to abuse and humiliate the water protectors. The state has since
clarified that they won't be deploying law enforcement to forcibly remove
campers, but we are wary that this executive order will enable further human
rights violations."
A strong nationwide envoy of thousands of veterans called Veterans Stand
with Standing Rock, organized by Wesley Clark Jr., had committed to arriving
at Standing Rock tribal lands on Sunday, with peaceful actions planned for
Monday, December 5th. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) had also
arrived to join with the veterans in a non-armed show of force of their own
against the escalating police presence. Even though all actions were to be
nonviolent, Morton County police were stirring the pot with assertions at a
press conference "of INTEL" that tribal people were going to give guns to
veterans with PTSD to escalate tensions.
The stage was being set for possible conflict and/or chaos with the
veterans, even though they were "deploying" committed to nonviolence, so the
announcement to halt the pipeline construction couldn't have come at a
better time. Not only that, it was highly disrespectful for the county
police to insinuate that tribal people would ever use or harm veterans.
Native Americans comprise 1.7% of the military population, making it the
highest per capita commitment of any ethnic population to defend the United
States, and all tribes actively honor their veterans.
Yesterday, former congressman Dennis Kucinich addressed an open letter to
the thousands of veterans deploying to Standing Rock's front lines: "Thank
you once again for being willing to put yourself on the line. I have heard
from thousands of people across America about the hope that you represent.
Your presence at Standing Rock, coming to the defense of native peoples and
future generations, in the struggle to protect the water supply of 17
million people from the threat of the Dakota Access pipeline, represents the
potential for a historic turning point."
Because of the recent ongoing silence from President Obama (except for
stating he was waiting to see "how it all plays out"), there was beginning
to be a sense of abandonment being expressed by tribal members. This
morning, Dr. Cornel West, renowned civil rights movement leader,
participated in a prayer circle with tribal leaders and arriving veterans,
stating, "So much of this solidarity has to do with the fact that we are
expressing our genuine love for indigenous people. It is a deep love, and
when you have the love, you hate the fact that they are treated unfairly.
You loathe the fact that they are being treated unjustly, and if we don't do
something, the rocks are going to cry out." Congresswoman Gabbard had also
addressed Congress three days ago, pleading for the president to intercede
and halt the pipeline, so the accumulative efforts by so many across the
nation prompted the 11th hour reprieve for the tribe.
Earlier in the week, former vice president Al Gore also addressed The New
York Times Global Leaders' Collective Conference, saying, "The massive
investment in these pipeline infrastructure projects will be amortized over
50 to 75 years, and we need that capital to flow into renewables. This
Standing Rock project is an atrocity. It is an absolute atrocity, and I wish
that President Obama would step in before there is more violence out there
against those who call themselves 'water protectors.' This is an
embarrassment to our country. All those promises have been broken for so
long. Using water cannons in subfreezing temperatures? That's inhumane."
Three weeks ago, Gore had also stated, "I stand with the Standing Rock Sioux
Tribe in their opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline. We have witnessed
inspiring and brave acts by Native Americans and their allies who are
defending and trying to protect their sacred sites and the safety of their
sole source of water.. The courage and eloquence of the Standing Rock Sioux
in calling all of us to recognize that in their words 'Water is Life' should
be applauded, not silenced by those who are driven by their business model
to continue spewing harmful global warming pollution into our Earth's
atmosphere."
Attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. marched to the front lines in November to
show his support to the Standing Rock Tribe. He spoke about how the pipeline
will create more carbon pollution than "29 coal-burning power plants" and
how sad it was that the "police power" of the state had been deployed "on
behalf of a law-breaking corporation."
Today a full Environmental Impact Statement was mandated with the Army Corps
of Engineers' announcement of denying the easement. This week, Kennedy
stated in Ecowatch, "If Obama were to order an Environmental Impact
Statement, our incoming President, Donald Trump, would be powerless to
reverse that determination." Previously, an environmental impact assessment
had been conducted but was questionable and inadequate to address the many
threats to the water, environment, and wildlife (i.e. eagle nesting,
whooping crane migration zones, etc.).
Even though the Obama administration recently requested Energy Transfer
Partners to voluntarily halt the laying of pipeline until considering the
treaty rights and legitimate concerns of the Standing Rock Tribal Nation,
the oil company has rapidly moved forward to finish within "days," blatantly
disregarding all attempts by government agencies and tribal attorneys to
halt the prospect of immediate drilling under the Missouri River.
Dakota Access, LLC issued a statement on November 11th, stating they were
"left with no choice but to fulfill its responsibilities to its tens of
thousands of unit holders by continuing its efforts to complete the
project." However, documents show that a January 1st deadline has been
issued to the Energy Transfer Partners Company stipulating that if the
pipeline isn't up and running by then, all shipping contracts will be null
and void.
President Obama stated a few weeks ago that he wanted the pipeline
controversy "to play out," but time had rapidly been running out in this
false temporary "voluntary halting." Over a week ago, Native media drone
footage documented the oil company barreling ahead in the night, while
transporting parts of the horizontal drilling equipment to the drilling pad,
now close to the banks of the Missouri River. All this movement, documented
by Digital Smoke Signals media drones, caused the tribes to be on high
alert.
The night before the most recent clash with police, the drone footage showed
DAPL drilling equipment being transported into the drilling pad area in the
night, prompting tribal "water protectors" to begin more direct actions.
These passionate tribal people once again tried to gain access to one of
their ancestral burial grounds, since others had been previously desecrated
by pipeline construction. But more importantly, they were also trying to
gain any access to the area of the drilling pad so water protectors could
stop the horizontal drilling from immediately beginning to drill without an
easement permit and/or a full Environmental Impact Statement.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's concern was the pipeline's horizontal
drilling equipment being rapidly transported to the drilling pad, and
dangerously becoming a possible threat to their water source and sacred
sites. They stated that the immediate non-complying plans by Energy Transfer
Partners for drilling under the Missouri River could endanger the tribe's
main source of drinking water, and the water source for millions of the U.S.
population downstream. Two hundred eighty tribes support the Standing Rock
Sioux Tribe's assertion that international treaty laws are also being
violated by the government allowing the Dakota Access Pipeline to endanger
their water rights.
Myron Dewey, a Native journalist who operates the Digital Smoke Signals
drones, stated via livestream during the November 20th protest, "Energy
Transfer Partners is an international oil company being allowed to use the
domestic resources of our National Guard, county police, and mercenaries,
and invoking eminent domain of farmland and Indian country to possibly
contaminate our water." The Standing Rock Tribe has documented 86 sacred
sites that the Dakota Access Pipeline has desecrated. Dewey added, "While
the big drill was being moved in the night, this recent show of force was
the distraction to militarize the area."
Rev. Jesse Jackson also visited the front lines and encouraged the water
protectors with empowerment messages to continue to stay strong during the
tense standoffs. He noted "environmental racism" and immediately sent a
letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, stating, "I plead with you
to intervene in the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe pipeline protest in North
Dakota and ask the state authorities to stand down immediately." He cited
the tribe's water source and added, "One leak in the pipeline could cause a
catastrophic environmental disaster."
Robert Redford, who recently was honored with the Presidential Medal of
Freedom by President Obama, appeared in a Redford Center video urging the
public to contact Obama to halt the pipeline, and urging Americans to
question the laws of the land, stating, "There are laws that prioritize the
profits of energy companies over the rights of people who actually live on
the land, drink its water, and eat its food."
Human Rights Violations: United Nations and Amnesty International Step In
Two weeks ago, the National Guard and riot police arrived with a brutalizing
show of force against hundreds of tribal people at the frontlines wanting
access to a highway being blockaded, an entryway to the land corridor where
the pipeline is being laid, and close to another burial ground hill that
police were occupying, upsetting the tribal people's responsibilities to
protect their burial sites.
More than six hours of continual inhumane use of water cannons soaking
protestors in below-freezing temperatures, along with deployment of massive
amounts of tear gas, flash grenades, and rubber bullets, officially caused
167 "water protectors" to be seriously threatened with health issues and
wounds, and one Native elder to suffer a cardiac arrest. Many of the
protestor's lives were endangered with possible hypothermia after hours of
being drenched by the water cannons at close range, requiring emergency
medics to set up two life-saving fire pits on the edge of the protest to
immediately keep the wounded warm until ambulances could arrive.
Water protector Sophia Wilansky, 21, was seriously wounded by a concussion
grenade while she was taking water to the frontlines for the few left
standing at 4 a.m. Her father, Wayne Wilansky, an attorney from the Bronx,
in a press conference in Minneapolis (where her daughter was airlifted to
surgeons), stated, "Our government is throwing grenades at our citizens.
It's un-American what is being done to the native peoples. My daughter said
they threw it right at her, so there is no question of accuracy. The force
of the explosion blew out the arteries. It was a grenade, a weapon of war. I
love President Obama but three weeks ago, he said 'let it play out.' This
needs to be diffused or people are going to die."
The next day, Morton County sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier announced that water
protectors had caused the explosion by throwing a propane bottle, even
though Native media drones documented concussion grenades being launched
through the night by the police force.
Lisa Bellanger, an Ojibwa Board Member of the International Indian Treaty
Council, stated at the press conference, "We honor Sophia for standing with
us. It is for Water, the life blood of Mother Earth. This water supply is
the Missouri River, which flows into the Mississippi River, and then feeds
into the dead-zone in the Gulf of Mexico. This is a major water source we
are protecting. Are they using Federal money to harm our people of all
tribal nations? Is the oil pipeline considered a 'disaster' to get these
funds? The world is watching."
Morton County sheriff's spokesman Rob Keller stated that water cannons were
only used to put out fires intentionally set by the "rioting" protestors.
However, Facebook livestream and drone footage showed a different story:
While millions of Facebook viewers watched the live footage, they witnessed
firsthand the continual use of water cannons on the people, and tear gas and
flash grenades, which hit the ground igniting fires. Contrary to sheriff
reports, protestors were the ones putting out the erupting fires, not
starting them.
On November 15th, United Nations officials denounced the "inhumane
treatment" against the tribal people by police forces protecting the
construction of the pipeline. United Nations Special Rapporteur Maini Kiai,
a human rights lawyer, reported, "Law enforcement officials, private
security firms and the North Dakota National Guard have used unjustified
force to deal with opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline."
Kiai reported, "Protesters say they have faced rubber bullets, tear gas,
mace, compression grenades, and beanbag rounds while expressing concerns
over environmental impact and trying to protect burial grounds and other
sacred sites of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe."
To date, 550 water protectors have been arrested, and Kiai's statement
issued by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights
also addressed additional unjustifiable force while detaining arrestees:
"Marking people with numbers and detaining them in overcrowded cages on the
bare concrete floor, without being provided with medical care, amounts to
inhumane and degrading treatment." Tribal attorneys have also shown the
excessive use of cavity and strip searches, along with one Native woman
stripped and left naked in the jail cell overnight. The UN human rights
expert also pointed out, "Tensions have escalated in the past two weeks,
with local security forces employing an increasingly militarized response to
the protests. This is a troubling response to people taking action to
protect natural resources and ancestral territory in the face of
profit-seeking activity." He added, "The excessive use of state security
apparatus to suppress protest against corporate activities that are alleged
to violate human rights is wrong, and is contrary to the UN Guiding
Principles on Business and Human Rights."
The human rights violations at the front lines of the protests were recorded
via live Facebook feeds, and by Native media drones. The violence led many
tribal children to post personal videos pleading for President Obama to
"Help us," "You visited us and said you had our back," "Don't let us down."
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights issued a statement on November 22nd
concerning the issues of "excessive use of force by police, the civil and
sovereign rights of Native Americans, and environmental justice." They
stated that "protesters have a constitutional right to peacefully assemble
and lawfully express their concern about the environmental and cultural
impacts of the pipeline, and that our concerns are compounded by the
disproportionate police use of excessive force against Native Americans, who
are more likely than any other racial group to be killed by police."
Over the past month, Amnesty International USA had sent a delegation of
human rights observers "to monitor the response of law enforcement to
protests of the Indigenous community," calling on the DOJ to investigate law
enforcement officers "who are not respecting international human rights
standards while policing protests." Amnesty International was concerned that
police and security staff have responded to tribal people with guard dogs,
pepper spray, and bean bags. In addition, those arrested have been subjected
to strip and cavity searches, and in one instance, a young native woman
(daughter of the camp's founder) was strip-searched and left naked in her
jail cell overnight.
On November 28th, forty members of Obama's administration, all American
Indian and Alaskan Natives who served as appointees in his administration,
wrote a letter to the president, urging him to block or reroute the Dakota
Access Pipeline. They stated, "Months of peaceful demonstrations on the part
of the water protectors have been met with intimidation tactics and civil
rights violations. The youth you and the First Lady visited in Standing Rock
in 2014 are on the front lines of this effort. We were outraged to see
attack dogs unleashed on water protectors. And we were disgusted as we
watched local law enforcement agencies spray water on unarmed people in
sub-freezing weather. These tactics were used to inflict fear, pain, and
humiliation on people who were merely exercising their constitutional
rights."
In October, over 500 nationwide clergy also traveled to the Oceti Sakowin
Camp to stand in solidarity with the tribe after they had been tear-gassed
and held in the freezing waters of the river. After protesters were
recovering from their trauma, clergy did a prayer walk the next day to the
front lines, and some priests later were arrested doing a civil disobedience
action at the State Capitol.
Neil Young, Daryl Hannah, Joan Baez, Mark Ruffalo, Dave Matthews, Graham
Nash, Jackson Browne, Jason Mraz, Sting, Willie Nelson, Shailene Woodley,
and A. Bone Martinez all played a big part in keeping the story of the
Standing Rock water protectors in the limelight, especially when Native
people locked down the construction equipment, halting the digging on their
ancestral burial grounds, and then later when gross human rights violations
were occurring, and the mainstream media was engulfed in covering the
presidential election. Thankfully, reporter Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!
had recorded the first human rights violations against the water protectors
when a private security team used vicious attack dogs against Native
peoples. She was arrested for covering the ordeal, when in reality she
should receive the Pulitzer Prize for the extraordinary coverage.
Joan Baez sent a passionate letter to First Lady Michelle Obama, stating, "I
am appealing to you as one concerned mother to another. You were fierce when
you spoke so eloquently about your daughters, how precious they are, how
they need to be respected and protected. Your speech was a wonder for the
world to hear." Baez pointed out, "There are girls your daughters' ages and
my granddaughter's age, risking their lives daily at Standing Rock. They are
brave, and they are patient. There is little to protect them from the North
Dakota winds, rubber bullets, pepper spray and water cannons in freezing
weather. The children of the original caretakers of America are fighting not
only for their sacred lands, but for their lives. Maybe you can feel for
them as profoundly as you feel for your own children."
Baez emphasized to Michelle Obama, "There are two sides to the battle to
keep oil interests off their sacred land, the Native Americans and their
many allies, with their prayers and nonviolent resistance on one side, and a
militarized police force with its crushing power on the other. I applaud the
courage of the Water Protectors for maintaining a statute of nonviolence, as
great transformative heroes from our past, like Martin Luther King and
Gandhi, have done." She implored, "I do not believe President Obama wants to
be remembered for The Bloody Battle at Standing Rock. Nor for complicity
with five hundred years of disrespect, racism, torn up treaties, and
massacres. I believe he is better than that. There is still time for your
husband to right wrongs. Now he must take care of our Native American
children, just as he would his own, and stop the ongoing bloody
confrontations at Standing Rock by first rescinding the order to close the
camp on December 5th. Then he must reaffirm his commitment to the
environment, and once and for all, put an end to the construction of the
Dakota Access Pipeline."
After Jane Fonda joined the Standing Rock tribe for Thanksgiving feasts, she
wrote in Time, "I came away with the belief that what is happening at
Standing Rock is an existential confrontation between two opposing world
views. One is represented by the Indigenous Water Protectors and their
allies who believe our future depends on respecting the land and water on
which human life depends. The people on the front lines are very brave. They
stand, carrying their banners, chanting, and praying with arms reaching
toward the sky. They are unarmed as they face the Morton County Police. They
have all been trained in non-violent civil disobedience. No weapons of any
kind. And no drugs or alcohol are allowed in the camps. The aggressor side,
with militarized police defending their interests, is represented by those
who insist on unfettered extraction of non-renewable fossil fuels no matter
the consequences. Greed versus a habitable planet.
Fonda warned, "Because of where we find ourselves at this precarious moment
in history, with the reality of climate change close to its tipping point,
if the short-term, profit-oriented view is allowed to prevail, it could
actually spell the end of human life as we know it. The other view looks
long-term, to the future and holds the potential for salvation - ours and
the Earth's. This is the existential crossroad. The choice is ours to make
and it must be done quickly."
Nationwide Protests, Bank Divestments, and International Treaty Law
A nationwide Day of Action was also launched on November 15th in major
cities, resulting in huge protests to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, and a
new nationwide campaign began to divest monies from banks that funded the
pipeline. So many bank accounts have been closed in major banks over the
past month, that Wells Fargo announced on December 3rd that they want to
meet with the leaders of the Standing Rock Tribe to discuss their issues
about the bank's funding of the pipeline.
Last week, Chief Arvol Looking Horse traveled to Washington DC to study maps
of the original treaty lands of his tribes. Standing Rock tribal attorneys
have also been communicating their nation-to-nation sovereignty status, and
demanding that their international treaty laws and statutes be respected.
Audio recordings of Standing Rock Tribal Councilwoman Phyllis Young have
been released, showing the tribe's rejection of the pipeline two years ago,
though the oil company tried to convince the public that the tribe never
raised objections.
Two attorneys from Marin County, California, Larry Bragman (a Marin
Municipal Water District board member) and Ford Greene (San Anselmo mayor),
traveled to Standing Rock and, after discussing treaty rights with Phyllis
Young, conducted their own research. In an interview with the Marin
Independent Journal (MIJ), Bragman stated, "Under a 1958 congressional
authorization to partially compensate the tribe, there is a specific
reservation of rights for oil, gas and all mineral rights whatsoever. I
believe under the clause that the tribe retains rights to those adjacent,
underground areas that the pipeline company is intending to tunnel through."
He stated to the MIJ that another congressional action in 1992 "more sharply
defined and limited the Army Corps of Engineers' authority at Lake Oahe. The
Army Corps of Engineers has authority over the operation and maintenance of
Lake Oahe, but the tribe has retained its right to the area beneath the lake
bed that the pipeline would violate."
President-elect Donald Trump this week voiced his support of the Dakota
Access Pipeline, but many are questioning his conflict of interest due to
his large investments in Energy Transfer Partners in the past and currently.
Energy Transfer Partners LP owns the DAPL jointly with Sunoco Logistics
Partners LP and Phillips 66. A joint venture was announced in August by
Enbridge Energy Partners LP and Marathon Petroleum Corp., who stated they
also are taking a minority stake in the pipeline.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) congratulated President Barack Obama Sunday
after the Army Corps of Engineers announced it will deny a federal permit
needed for the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Sanders stated,
"I appreciate very much President Obama listening to the Native American
people and millions of others who believe this pipeline should not be built.
In the year 2016, we should not continue to trample on Native American
sovereignty. We should not endanger the water supply of millions of people.
We should not become more dependent on fossil fuel and accelerate the
planetary crisis of climate change. Our job now is to transform our energy
system away from fossil fuels, not to produce more greenhouse gas
emissions."
Water is Life.
________________________________________
Jane Ayers is an environmental and human rights independent journalist
(stringer with USA Today and Los Angeles Times, etc.) and a regular
contributor to Reader Supported News. She is Director of Jane Ayers Media,
and can be reached at JaneAyersMedia@xxxxxxxxx
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
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Water Protectors protect each other on the front line from riot police on
Thanksgiving. (photo: Rob Wilson Photography/Facebook)
http://readersupportednews.org/http://readersupportednews.org/
Dakota Access Pipeline Halted by Obama in 11th Hour
By Jane Ayers, Reader Supported News
05 December 16
he Obama administration stepped in on Sunday to permanently halt and
reroute the construction of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline in North
Dakota, the site of a seven-month standoff with tribal water protectors of
the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Jo-Ellen Darcy, the Army's Assistant
Secretary for Civil Works, announced that the Department of the Army "will
not approve an easement that would allow the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline
to cross under Lake Oahe in North Dakota."
Darcy stated in the official announcement that it was determined that the
best way to complete the project "responsibly and expeditiously is to
explore alternate routes for the pipeline crossing." She pointed to the need
for a thorough Environmental Impact Statement "with full public input and
analysis," so decisions could be reached where to reroute the pipeline.
Standing Rock Sioux tribal chairman Dave Archambault II stated, "Today, the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that it will not be granting the
easement to cross Lake Oahe for the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline.
Instead, the Corps will be undertaking an Environmental Impact Statement to
look at possible alternate routes."
He continued, "We wholeheartedly support the decision of the Obama
administration and commend with the utmost gratitude the courage it took on
the part of President Obama, the Army Corps, the Department of Justice, and
the Department of the Interior to take steps to correct the course of
history and to do the right thing."
Chief Arvol Looking Horse, spiritual leader of the Great Sioux Nation,
announced the news to the 15,000 gathered at the water protector camp for a
global day of prayer, and to thousands of Veterans Stand with Standing Rock
(organized by Wesley Clark Jr.) gathering for a nonviolent action as human
shields for the tribal water protectors.
He stated, "The prayer has been answered, and it is so beautiful. Great
Spirit will bless each and every one of you. People have said it was either
'make it or break it,' so I guess we made it. We thank people all over the
world who stood with us in prayer. It is not just our prayers that were
answered, but the prayers all over the world were answered, and I know it
will change everyone's lives. Water is life." The camp erupted in joy and
celebration, and the elders asked the veterans to stay for days to have
direct actions of celebration with the water protectors. Fireworks lit the
sky at dark. Drumming and singing expressed the victory for the tribal
people and their water.
Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who was on site with the veterans when the
announcement was made, stated, "Today we have shown the power of people's
voices standing together to protect our water. Water is life. We cannot live
without it. While we celebrate today's news, we cannot be complacent. We
must continue to protect our water and preserve our land."
Halting the Pipeline: Timing with Veterans Deployment and Evacuation Threat
The halting of the pipeline was announced today, one day before a December
5th evacuation date ordered by North Dakota governor Jack Dalrymple was to
begin unfolding, with the tribal people stating they would not budge from
their location. Last Monday, Chairman Archambault asserted the governor's
evacuation order was a "menacing action meant to cause fear" and noted that
the governor's order stated his concern for tribal campers' protection due
to winter weather, but was issued one week after police authorities had
doused tribal peoples in sub-freezing temperatures, endangering them with
hypothermia and bombarding them with tear gas, rubber bullets, and
concussion grenades.
Archambault stated, "The most dangerous thing we can do is force
well-situated campers from their shelters and into the cold. If the true
concern is for public safety then the governor should clear the blockade and
the county law enforcement should cease all use of flash grenades,
high-pressure water cannons in freezing temperatures, dog kennels for
temporary human jails, and any harmful weaponry against human beings. This
is a clear stretch of state emergency management authority and a further
attempt to abuse and humiliate the water protectors. The state has since
clarified that they won't be deploying law enforcement to forcibly remove
campers, but we are wary that this executive order will enable further human
rights violations."
A strong nationwide envoy of thousands of veterans called Veterans Stand
with Standing Rock, organized by Wesley Clark Jr., had committed to arriving
at Standing Rock tribal lands on Sunday, with peaceful actions planned for
Monday, December 5th. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) had also
arrived to join with the veterans in a non-armed show of force of their own
against the escalating police presence. Even though all actions were to be
nonviolent, Morton County police were stirring the pot with assertions at a
press conference "of INTEL" that tribal people were going to give guns to
veterans with PTSD to escalate tensions.
The stage was being set for possible conflict and/or chaos with the
veterans, even though they were "deploying" committed to nonviolence, so the
announcement to halt the pipeline construction couldn't have come at a
better time. Not only that, it was highly disrespectful for the county
police to insinuate that tribal people would ever use or harm veterans.
Native Americans comprise 1.7% of the military population, making it the
highest per capita commitment of any ethnic population to defend the United
States, and all tribes actively honor their veterans.
Yesterday, former congressman Dennis Kucinich addressed an open letter to
the thousands of veterans deploying to Standing Rock's front lines: "Thank
you once again for being willing to put yourself on the line. I have heard
from thousands of people across America about the hope that you represent.
Your presence at Standing Rock, coming to the defense of native peoples and
future generations, in the struggle to protect the water supply of 17
million people from the threat of the Dakota Access pipeline, represents the
potential for a historic turning point."
Because of the recent ongoing silence from President Obama (except for
stating he was waiting to see "how it all plays out"), there was beginning
to be a sense of abandonment being expressed by tribal members. This
morning, Dr. Cornel West, renowned civil rights movement leader,
participated in a prayer circle with tribal leaders and arriving veterans,
stating, "So much of this solidarity has to do with the fact that we are
expressing our genuine love for indigenous people. It is a deep love, and
when you have the love, you hate the fact that they are treated unfairly.
You loathe the fact that they are being treated unjustly, and if we don't do
something, the rocks are going to cry out." Congresswoman Gabbard had also
addressed Congress three days ago, pleading for the president to intercede
and halt the pipeline, so the accumulative efforts by so many across the
nation prompted the 11th hour reprieve for the tribe.
Earlier in the week, former vice president Al Gore also addressed The New
York Times Global Leaders' Collective Conference, saying, "The massive
investment in these pipeline infrastructure projects will be amortized over
50 to 75 years, and we need that capital to flow into renewables. This
Standing Rock project is an atrocity. It is an absolute atrocity, and I wish
that President Obama would step in before there is more violence out there
against those who call themselves 'water protectors.' This is an
embarrassment to our country. All those promises have been broken for so
long. Using water cannons in subfreezing temperatures? That's inhumane."
Three weeks ago, Gore had also stated, "I stand with the Standing Rock Sioux
Tribe in their opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline. We have witnessed
inspiring and brave acts by Native Americans and their allies who are
defending and trying to protect their sacred sites and the safety of their
sole source of water.. The courage and eloquence of the Standing Rock Sioux
in calling all of us to recognize that in their words 'Water is Life' should
be applauded, not silenced by those who are driven by their business model
to continue spewing harmful global warming pollution into our Earth's
atmosphere."
Attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. marched to the front lines in November to
show his support to the Standing Rock Tribe. He spoke about how the pipeline
will create more carbon pollution than "29 coal-burning power plants" and
how sad it was that the "police power" of the state had been deployed "on
behalf of a law-breaking corporation."
Today a full Environmental Impact Statement was mandated with the Army Corps
of Engineers' announcement of denying the easement. This week, Kennedy
stated in Ecowatch, "If Obama were to order an Environmental Impact
Statement, our incoming President, Donald Trump, would be powerless to
reverse that determination." Previously, an environmental impact assessment
had been conducted but was questionable and inadequate to address the many
threats to the water, environment, and wildlife (i.e. eagle nesting,
whooping crane migration zones, etc.).
Even though the Obama administration recently requested Energy Transfer
Partners to voluntarily halt the laying of pipeline until considering the
treaty rights and legitimate concerns of the Standing Rock Tribal Nation,
the oil company has rapidly moved forward to finish within "days," blatantly
disregarding all attempts by government agencies and tribal attorneys to
halt the prospect of immediate drilling under the Missouri River.
Dakota Access, LLC issued a statement on November 11th, stating they were
"left with no choice but to fulfill its responsibilities to its tens of
thousands of unit holders by continuing its efforts to complete the
project." However, documents show that a January 1st deadline has been
issued to the Energy Transfer Partners Company stipulating that if the
pipeline isn't up and running by then, all shipping contracts will be null
and void.
President Obama stated a few weeks ago that he wanted the pipeline
controversy "to play out," but time had rapidly been running out in this
false temporary "voluntary halting." Over a week ago, Native media drone
footage documented the oil company barreling ahead in the night, while
transporting parts of the horizontal drilling equipment to the drilling pad,
now close to the banks of the Missouri River. All this movement, documented
by Digital Smoke Signals media drones, caused the tribes to be on high
alert.
The night before the most recent clash with police, the drone footage showed
DAPL drilling equipment being transported into the drilling pad area in the
night, prompting tribal "water protectors" to begin more direct actions.
These passionate tribal people once again tried to gain access to one of
their ancestral burial grounds, since others had been previously desecrated
by pipeline construction. But more importantly, they were also trying to
gain any access to the area of the drilling pad so water protectors could
stop the horizontal drilling from immediately beginning to drill without an
easement permit and/or a full Environmental Impact Statement.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's concern was the pipeline's horizontal
drilling equipment being rapidly transported to the drilling pad, and
dangerously becoming a possible threat to their water source and sacred
sites. They stated that the immediate non-complying plans by Energy Transfer
Partners for drilling under the Missouri River could endanger the tribe's
main source of drinking water, and the water source for millions of the U.S.
population downstream. Two hundred eighty tribes support the Standing Rock
Sioux Tribe's assertion that international treaty laws are also being
violated by the government allowing the Dakota Access Pipeline to endanger
their water rights.
Myron Dewey, a Native journalist who operates the Digital Smoke Signals
drones, stated via livestream during the November 20th protest, "Energy
Transfer Partners is an international oil company being allowed to use the
domestic resources of our National Guard, county police, and mercenaries,
and invoking eminent domain of farmland and Indian country to possibly
contaminate our water." The Standing Rock Tribe has documented 86 sacred
sites that the Dakota Access Pipeline has desecrated. Dewey added, "While
the big drill was being moved in the night, this recent show of force was
the distraction to militarize the area."
Rev. Jesse Jackson also visited the front lines and encouraged the water
protectors with empowerment messages to continue to stay strong during the
tense standoffs. He noted "environmental racism" and immediately sent a
letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, stating, "I plead with you
to intervene in the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe pipeline protest in North
Dakota and ask the state authorities to stand down immediately." He cited
the tribe's water source and added, "One leak in the pipeline could cause a
catastrophic environmental disaster."
Robert Redford, who recently was honored with the Presidential Medal of
Freedom by President Obama, appeared in a Redford Center video urging the
public to contact Obama to halt the pipeline, and urging Americans to
question the laws of the land, stating, "There are laws that prioritize the
profits of energy companies over the rights of people who actually live on
the land, drink its water, and eat its food."
Human Rights Violations: United Nations and Amnesty International Step In
Two weeks ago, the National Guard and riot police arrived with a brutalizing
show of force against hundreds of tribal people at the frontlines wanting
access to a highway being blockaded, an entryway to the land corridor where
the pipeline is being laid, and close to another burial ground hill that
police were occupying, upsetting the tribal people's responsibilities to
protect their burial sites.
More than six hours of continual inhumane use of water cannons soaking
protestors in below-freezing temperatures, along with deployment of massive
amounts of tear gas, flash grenades, and rubber bullets, officially caused
167 "water protectors" to be seriously threatened with health issues and
wounds, and one Native elder to suffer a cardiac arrest. Many of the
protestor's lives were endangered with possible hypothermia after hours of
being drenched by the water cannons at close range, requiring emergency
medics to set up two life-saving fire pits on the edge of the protest to
immediately keep the wounded warm until ambulances could arrive.
Water protector Sophia Wilansky, 21, was seriously wounded by a concussion
grenade while she was taking water to the frontlines for the few left
standing at 4 a.m. Her father, Wayne Wilansky, an attorney from the Bronx,
in a press conference in Minneapolis (where her daughter was airlifted to
surgeons), stated, "Our government is throwing grenades at our citizens.
It's un-American what is being done to the native peoples. My daughter said
they threw it right at her, so there is no question of accuracy. The force
of the explosion blew out the arteries. It was a grenade, a weapon of war. I
love President Obama but three weeks ago, he said 'let it play out.' This
needs to be diffused or people are going to die."
The next day, Morton County sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier announced that water
protectors had caused the explosion by throwing a propane bottle, even
though Native media drones documented concussion grenades being launched
through the night by the police force.
Lisa Bellanger, an Ojibwa Board Member of the International Indian Treaty
Council, stated at the press conference, "We honor Sophia for standing with
us. It is for Water, the life blood of Mother Earth. This water supply is
the Missouri River, which flows into the Mississippi River, and then feeds
into the dead-zone in the Gulf of Mexico. This is a major water source we
are protecting. Are they using Federal money to harm our people of all
tribal nations? Is the oil pipeline considered a 'disaster' to get these
funds? The world is watching."
Morton County sheriff's spokesman Rob Keller stated that water cannons were
only used to put out fires intentionally set by the "rioting" protestors.
However, Facebook livestream and drone footage showed a different story:
While millions of Facebook viewers watched the live footage, they witnessed
firsthand the continual use of water cannons on the people, and tear gas and
flash grenades, which hit the ground igniting fires. Contrary to sheriff
reports, protestors were the ones putting out the erupting fires, not
starting them.
On November 15th, United Nations officials denounced the "inhumane
treatment" against the tribal people by police forces protecting the
construction of the pipeline. United Nations Special Rapporteur Maini Kiai,
a human rights lawyer, reported, "Law enforcement officials, private
security firms and the North Dakota National Guard have used unjustified
force to deal with opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline."
Kiai reported, "Protesters say they have faced rubber bullets, tear gas,
mace, compression grenades, and beanbag rounds while expressing concerns
over environmental impact and trying to protect burial grounds and other
sacred sites of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe."
To date, 550 water protectors have been arrested, and Kiai's statement
issued by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights
also addressed additional unjustifiable force while detaining arrestees:
"Marking people with numbers and detaining them in overcrowded cages on the
bare concrete floor, without being provided with medical care, amounts to
inhumane and degrading treatment." Tribal attorneys have also shown the
excessive use of cavity and strip searches, along with one Native woman
stripped and left naked in the jail cell overnight. The UN human rights
expert also pointed out, "Tensions have escalated in the past two weeks,
with local security forces employing an increasingly militarized response to
the protests. This is a troubling response to people taking action to
protect natural resources and ancestral territory in the face of
profit-seeking activity." He added, "The excessive use of state security
apparatus to suppress protest against corporate activities that are alleged
to violate human rights is wrong, and is contrary to the UN Guiding
Principles on Business and Human Rights."
The human rights violations at the front lines of the protests were recorded
via live Facebook feeds, and by Native media drones. The violence led many
tribal children to post personal videos pleading for President Obama to
"Help us," "You visited us and said you had our back," "Don't let us down."
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights issued a statement on November 22nd
concerning the issues of "excessive use of force by police, the civil and
sovereign rights of Native Americans, and environmental justice." They
stated that "protesters have a constitutional right to peacefully assemble
and lawfully express their concern about the environmental and cultural
impacts of the pipeline, and that our concerns are compounded by the
disproportionate police use of excessive force against Native Americans, who
are more likely than any other racial group to be killed by police."
Over the past month, Amnesty International USA had sent a delegation of
human rights observers "to monitor the response of law enforcement to
protests of the Indigenous community," calling on the DOJ to investigate law
enforcement officers "who are not respecting international human rights
standards while policing protests." Amnesty International was concerned that
police and security staff have responded to tribal people with guard dogs,
pepper spray, and bean bags. In addition, those arrested have been subjected
to strip and cavity searches, and in one instance, a young native woman
(daughter of the camp's founder) was strip-searched and left naked in her
jail cell overnight.
On November 28th, forty members of Obama's administration, all American
Indian and Alaskan Natives who served as appointees in his administration,
wrote a letter to the president, urging him to block or reroute the Dakota
Access Pipeline. They stated, "Months of peaceful demonstrations on the part
of the water protectors have been met with intimidation tactics and civil
rights violations. The youth you and the First Lady visited in Standing Rock
in 2014 are on the front lines of this effort. We were outraged to see
attack dogs unleashed on water protectors. And we were disgusted as we
watched local law enforcement agencies spray water on unarmed people in
sub-freezing weather. These tactics were used to inflict fear, pain, and
humiliation on people who were merely exercising their constitutional
rights."
In October, over 500 nationwide clergy also traveled to the Oceti Sakowin
Camp to stand in solidarity with the tribe after they had been tear-gassed
and held in the freezing waters of the river. After protesters were
recovering from their trauma, clergy did a prayer walk the next day to the
front lines, and some priests later were arrested doing a civil disobedience
action at the State Capitol.
Neil Young, Daryl Hannah, Joan Baez, Mark Ruffalo, Dave Matthews, Graham
Nash, Jackson Browne, Jason Mraz, Sting, Willie Nelson, Shailene Woodley,
and A. Bone Martinez all played a big part in keeping the story of the
Standing Rock water protectors in the limelight, especially when Native
people locked down the construction equipment, halting the digging on their
ancestral burial grounds, and then later when gross human rights violations
were occurring, and the mainstream media was engulfed in covering the
presidential election. Thankfully, reporter Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!
had recorded the first human rights violations against the water protectors
when a private security team used vicious attack dogs against Native
peoples. She was arrested for covering the ordeal, when in reality she
should receive the Pulitzer Prize for the extraordinary coverage.
Joan Baez sent a passionate letter to First Lady Michelle Obama, stating, "I
am appealing to you as one concerned mother to another. You were fierce when
you spoke so eloquently about your daughters, how precious they are, how
they need to be respected and protected. Your speech was a wonder for the
world to hear." Baez pointed out, "There are girls your daughters' ages and
my granddaughter's age, risking their lives daily at Standing Rock. They are
brave, and they are patient. There is little to protect them from the North
Dakota winds, rubber bullets, pepper spray and water cannons in freezing
weather. The children of the original caretakers of America are fighting not
only for their sacred lands, but for their lives. Maybe you can feel for
them as profoundly as you feel for your own children."
Baez emphasized to Michelle Obama, "There are two sides to the battle to
keep oil interests off their sacred land, the Native Americans and their
many allies, with their prayers and nonviolent resistance on one side, and a
militarized police force with its crushing power on the other. I applaud the
courage of the Water Protectors for maintaining a statute of nonviolence, as
great transformative heroes from our past, like Martin Luther King and
Gandhi, have done." She implored, "I do not believe President Obama wants to
be remembered for The Bloody Battle at Standing Rock. Nor for complicity
with five hundred years of disrespect, racism, torn up treaties, and
massacres. I believe he is better than that. There is still time for your
husband to right wrongs. Now he must take care of our Native American
children, just as he would his own, and stop the ongoing bloody
confrontations at Standing Rock by first rescinding the order to close the
camp on December 5th. Then he must reaffirm his commitment to the
environment, and once and for all, put an end to the construction of the
Dakota Access Pipeline."
After Jane Fonda joined the Standing Rock tribe for Thanksgiving feasts, she
wrote in Time, "I came away with the belief that what is happening at
Standing Rock is an existential confrontation between two opposing world
views. One is represented by the Indigenous Water Protectors and their
allies who believe our future depends on respecting the land and water on
which human life depends. The people on the front lines are very brave. They
stand, carrying their banners, chanting, and praying with arms reaching
toward the sky. They are unarmed as they face the Morton County Police. They
have all been trained in non-violent civil disobedience. No weapons of any
kind. And no drugs or alcohol are allowed in the camps. The aggressor side,
with militarized police defending their interests, is represented by those
who insist on unfettered extraction of non-renewable fossil fuels no matter
the consequences. Greed versus a habitable planet.
Fonda warned, "Because of where we find ourselves at this precarious moment
in history, with the reality of climate change close to its tipping point,
if the short-term, profit-oriented view is allowed to prevail, it could
actually spell the end of human life as we know it. The other view looks
long-term, to the future and holds the potential for salvation - ours and
the Earth's. This is the existential crossroad. The choice is ours to make
and it must be done quickly."
Nationwide Protests, Bank Divestments, and International Treaty Law
A nationwide Day of Action was also launched on November 15th in major
cities, resulting in huge protests to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, and a
new nationwide campaign began to divest monies from banks that funded the
pipeline. So many bank accounts have been closed in major banks over the
past month, that Wells Fargo announced on December 3rd that they want to
meet with the leaders of the Standing Rock Tribe to discuss their issues
about the bank's funding of the pipeline.
Last week, Chief Arvol Looking Horse traveled to Washington DC to study maps
of the original treaty lands of his tribes. Standing Rock tribal attorneys
have also been communicating their nation-to-nation sovereignty status, and
demanding that their international treaty laws and statutes be respected.
Audio recordings of Standing Rock Tribal Councilwoman Phyllis Young have
been released, showing the tribe's rejection of the pipeline two years ago,
though the oil company tried to convince the public that the tribe never
raised objections.
Two attorneys from Marin County, California, Larry Bragman (a Marin
Municipal Water District board member) and Ford Greene (San Anselmo mayor),
traveled to Standing Rock and, after discussing treaty rights with Phyllis
Young, conducted their own research. In an interview with the Marin
Independent Journal (MIJ), Bragman stated, "Under a 1958 congressional
authorization to partially compensate the tribe, there is a specific
reservation of rights for oil, gas and all mineral rights whatsoever. I
believe under the clause that the tribe retains rights to those adjacent,
underground areas that the pipeline company is intending to tunnel through."
He stated to the MIJ that another congressional action in 1992 "more sharply
defined and limited the Army Corps of Engineers' authority at Lake Oahe. The
Army Corps of Engineers has authority over the operation and maintenance of
Lake Oahe, but the tribe has retained its right to the area beneath the lake
bed that the pipeline would violate."
President-elect Donald Trump this week voiced his support of the Dakota
Access Pipeline, but many are questioning his conflict of interest due to
his large investments in Energy Transfer Partners in the past and currently.
Energy Transfer Partners LP owns the DAPL jointly with Sunoco Logistics
Partners LP and Phillips 66. A joint venture was announced in August by
Enbridge Energy Partners LP and Marathon Petroleum Corp., who stated they
also are taking a minority stake in the pipeline.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) congratulated President Barack Obama Sunday
after the Army Corps of Engineers announced it will deny a federal permit
needed for the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Sanders stated,
"I appreciate very much President Obama listening to the Native American
people and millions of others who believe this pipeline should not be built.
In the year 2016, we should not continue to trample on Native American
sovereignty. We should not endanger the water supply of millions of people.
We should not become more dependent on fossil fuel and accelerate the
planetary crisis of climate change. Our job now is to transform our energy
system away from fossil fuels, not to produce more greenhouse gas
emissions."
Water is Life.
Jane Ayers is an environmental and human rights independent journalist
(stringer with USA Today and Los Angeles Times, etc.) and a regular
contributor to Reader Supported News. She is Director of Jane Ayers Media,
and can be reached at JaneAyersMedia@xxxxxxxxx
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
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