Standing Rock

It’s Time For Members Of Congress To Show Up And Stand Up For Standing Rock

... Rock are fair game for Wednesday's hearing. But members of Congress should also address the federal government’s failure to protect the constitutional and human rights of Native American water protectors and others assembled at Standing Rock in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Last Friday, the ACLU renewed its ask that the Department of Justice investigate law enforcement’s use of force and militarized response against Standing Rock protestors. We know law enforcement have used armored vehicles, automatic rifles, sound cannons, water cannons, and other offensive military weapons and equipment in possible violation of the Constitution and federal laws. We also asked DOJ to send federal observers to Standing Rock, echoing a request from members of Congress to protect protesters from civil rights and civil liberties abuses. Last Friday, we learned that the federal government has intervened, but not as we have ...

Dakota Access Protest Backfires For Standing Rock

... makes for no provisions for. 1. Indian sovereign nations. None of the asserted tribes possess any of the attributes of being a ‘sovereign nation:’ a. No Constitution recognition b. No international recognition c. No fixed borders d. No military e. No currency f. No postal system g. No passports. 2. Treaties with its own constituency. 3. Indian reservations whereby a select group of U. S./State citizens with “Indian ancestry/race” reside exclusively and to the exclusion of all others, on land-with rare exception-that is owned by the People of the United States according to federal documents readily available on-line that notes rights of ‘occupancy and use’ as renters by these distinguished U. S./State citizens with “Indian ancestry/race” only with the land owned by the People of the United States. 4. Recognition of ‘Indian citizenship’ asserted by various tribes. There is no U. S. Constitution/international recognition of “Indian citizenship” as there is no ‘nation’ from ...

Local Pipeline Opponents Stand With Standing Rock

... the pipeline on Greenfield’s streets was a “walk in the park” compared to what protesters are facing in North Dakota. Today is the federal deadline for Standing Rock pipeline protesters to evacuate the site. Boston said Tuesday’s demonstration in Greenfield was organized by the Sugar Shack Alliance, which is also preparing to oppose the Kinder Morgan/Tennessee Gas Co. pipeline that is to run through the Otis State Forest. The local demonstrators are many of the same people who became energized opposing the now-canceled Kinder Morgan proposed pipeline through Franklin County. Boston said the protests will continue twice a week, noon to 1 p.m., on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Energy Transfer Partners of Texas got federal permission to lay a pipe under a Missouri River reservoir in North Dakota. That’s the last big section of the $3.8 billion pipeline, which would carry oil from North Dakota to Illinois. The ...

Northern Lights Community School Students Visit Standing Rock

... Partners is always there, just in case, keeping an eye on the peaceful spread of wooden shacks, teepees, forest green tents, below. But tonight, and every night, their night vision glasses only see smoke from the Water Protectors’ wood fires quietly curling into the cold night. The students are back in camp by 9 a.m. the next morning. Rosebud camp, initially started by the International Indigenous Youth Council as a prayer camp, is their first stop. Many of the members of the Council are back in school and the camp is quiet. Humphrey’s group delivers tarps to the security tent, first aid supplies to the medic tent and extra clothing to the tent piled high with sweaters, pants, shoes, gloves, and hats. Finally they head over with food to the dining tent run by Donna. The students met Donna and her husband, Curly Charging Horse, at the casino hotel the night before. Curly is in charge of the Rosebud camp and he and Donna are part of the direct action group who stay there. They regularly pray for the water by silently standing at the foot of Energy Transfer Partners’ giant floodlights or in front of their heavy equipment. Donna is in the dining tent today and reminds the ...

At Standing Rock, Part 4

... me and the duffel shifted. I fell onto my knees and fingers and crawled forward, swiping one hand at my back to free the entanglement and transmitting dismay to the whole tipi. Inside, someone played a weak flashlight beam over a jumble of sleeping bags, cut wood, food, clothes, gas masks, and unused lanterns, faster than my eyes could follow. Several people had been living there and left their clutter, much of it valuable in this situation, the way farmers keep the hulks of every machine and implement they’ve ever owned because they cost good money and you never know. We began to clear our own spaces. I set my small new LED flashlight upright on the useless woodstove, and the upper half of the tipi glowed. Things be damned, but that flashlight was like a bright child that had done something clever, and I couldn't have been prouder. The very first things I needed were packed stupidly at the bottom of my duffle. Everything else had to come out, fast. First, long johns, clothes pulled back on over them, then the Carhartt Men’s R 33 Extremes Arctic Zip Front Bib Overall—Quilt Lined—I’d ordered online. Pulling it on over my clothes, it was so stiff ...

Holly Miranda Drops Standing Rock Charity Single

... to sing on the track. The charity single was released on the same day protesters of the Dakota Access Pipeline set fire to the protest site hours ahead of the Army Corps of Engineers’ deadline for demonstrators to vacate the area. Police began arresting protesters Wednesday as some refused to leave their long-term camps. Members of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and others sing Wednesday as they prepare to evacuate the main opposition camp against the Dakota Access oil pipeline near Cannon Ball. (TERRAY SYLVESTER/REUTERS). The Sioux Nation has argued that the $3.8 billion pipeline violates their territorial rights from an 1851 treaty. Environmental activists believe that the pipeline, which would bring crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken oil pitch through the Midwest and to the Gulf Coast, would ...

Native People React To Standing Rock Setback

... Harry Williams, historian, Bishop Paiute Tribe. "Ugly America raises its head again with no Honor in its Treaties. This is unconstitutional and unjust. Oil interests first; people's health? Forget about it. No honor, America.  [To] the rest of the world, this is a heads up: when you deal with the U. S., beware!". (Source: personal communication). Lee Sprague, activist and cultural educator, instructor at  Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College. [Note: the North Dakota wind makes a minute or so of Sprague's statement very hard to hear. Nonetheless, it's a good reminder of conditions people must endure at the encampments.]. (Source: Facebook live ). Dallas Goldtooth, Keep It In The Ground Campaign Organizer at  Indigenous Environmental Network. You know, what started out as literally 20 to 30 people in the middle of the prairie in this grassroots fight against this multibillion-dollar corporation has culminated into what just happened the other day in Seattle, where the city made the announcement that they are going to divest over $3 billion out of this company—or out of Wells Fargo, who funds this company. I think that shows the power of unified action. It shows the ...

Standing Rock Chairman Calls Protests An ‘awakening’ At Cornell

... denied their request for an injunction ruled against them a second time. On Monday, Judge Boasberg refused to halt work on the pipeline, which could be operational in as few as 30 days, saying the pipeline currently poses no threat to the tribes’ well-being. Archambault said the tribes are now appealing on the basis of treaty rights, which guarantee them access to hunting, fishing and water within their lands. The courts represent the tribes’ last hope, as governmental leaders mostly support the pipeline. North Dakota Governor Doug Bernum praised the pipeline’s approval. “This is a key step toward the completion of this important infrastructure project, which has faced months of politically driven delays and will allow for safe transport of North Dakota product to market,” he told The New York Times. President Trump’s support of the Dakota Access pipeline came under scrutiny when it was revealed he had owned stock in the project’s owners. A 2015 disclosure showed him owning a share in Energy ...

Revenue Declines At Standing Rock Sioux Casino

... on how quickly Highway 1806 is reopened and how long it takes to entice customers to return, The Bismarck Tribune (__link__ m 7 SXFU) reported. "I don't know how bad the perception is," Long Bottom said, unsure how closely people associate controversy over the Dakota Access crude oil pipeline with the casino. Concert and visitor attendance at the casino are down over the past several months, general manager E. J. Iron Eyes said. "I'm looking for things to improve as we move into summer," Iron Eyes said. Iron Eyes is launching a public relations campaign to draw customers back to the casino. He emphasizes the pipeline protests were not the only problem. Iron Eyes said the casino usually serves an older demographic coming from surrounding North Dakota cities, including Bismarck-Mandan, Jamestown and Minot. There is a hotel, gambling casino and monthly country and rock concerts. Daily buses from the Bismarck-Mandan area and surrounding towns ferry residents for a day at the slots. But in December, casino regulars found themselves mingling with a new mix of guests from across the U. S. who traveled to Standing Rock to protest the ...

Lakota Protectors Vow Treaty Stand To Resist Eviction Today

... House is moving to greatly expand the Department of Homeland Security’s authority to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and to increase the number of immigration and Border Patrol agents by 15,000. Under rules issued on Tuesday, almost any undocumented person in the country could be detained and deported, even if they have never committed a crime. A traffic violation or mere suspicion of committing a crime could now be grounds for deportation. Any immigrant who cannot prove they have been in the United States for over two years could be deported without a hearing. The memos also call for the prosecution of parents who seek to reunite their family by using smugglers to bring their children into the country. According to the White House, protections will remain in place for now for DREAMers—immigrants who ...

An Improvised Tribe Of Americans Looking For 'justice

... they came to live together here in the cold. Somebody put bacon in a skillet. It was just after noon. The temperature was 17 degrees. “In weather like this,” explained the man from Kentucky, “you need to keep your calories up.”. Not that anyone seemed cold. Not Cindy, the grandmother who quit her job in Oregon to be here. Not Chato Duncan, who grew up in Northern California with parents who are from the Dine and Pomo tribes. Not Christopher, the homeless Kentuckian. Not Benji Buffalo, who was raised in the Blackfeet tribe in Montana and, if you ask the others, is the leader of this improvised tribe. “He’s our chief,” said Duncan. Of the thousands of people who spent hours or months here protesting the Dakota Access oil pipeline before approval of its final segment this week by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, some have had mysterious backgrounds and lengthy arrest records, while others have been prominent and accomplished. At least one, Patricia Arquette, has won an Academy Award. Some would not share their real name or age or ...

Melissa Etheridge Seamlessly Blends Activism, Art At Standing Rock Benefit Concert Review

... representative Ray Halbritter and  Onondaga Nation lawyer Joe Heath , who traveled to the Standing Rock Sioux Nation last fall to provide legal services to the protestors. The money raised at the Friday concert will help defray costs associated with legal issues for those who were detained and harassed while protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. Halbritter said the fight at Standing Rock was about more than the pipeline, but rather about demanding equality, respect and basic civil rights. Heath discussed the mistreatment he saw by law enforcement officials against the Sioux elders. It was a disturbing, depressing opening for an otherwise fiery show, but there was no better time to deliver the message. The crowd came to see Etheridge and there was no way the party would stop once it had started. The night moved uphill from there, with Etheridge continuing the Standing Rock support with her (far more effective) ...