Hundreds of demonstrators supporting the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe faced off against private security officers from Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners. Here’s what you need to know about what’s at stake.
Violence didn’t “erupt” - Energy Transfer Partners, the oil company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, sent private mercenaries from G4S Security (notorious for human rights violations) along with barely trained dogs from Frost Kennels, to attack the peaceful protesters.
A quick perusal of the #NoDAPL tag on Twitter shows firsthand footage of the following:
1. Private corporate mercenaries spraying protesters, including CHILDREN and elders, with pepper spray/mace
2. The same mercenaries unleashing agitated dogs against the peaceful protesters - at least six people were bit, including a CHILD and an elderly woman
3. Helicopters flying over the protest camp recording everything when the mercenaries moved in to to attack
4. Mercenaries removing the license plates from their vehicles and refusing to identity themselves when questioned
5. The oil company went out of its way on Saturday to bulldoze through Native burial grounds and ancient cairns - they deviated from their original construction path EXPRESSLY TO DO THIS
It turns out that Frost Kennels is owned by a white supremacist - screen shots are on Twitter under the #NoDAPL tag.
It turns out that one of the pipeline project managers used to work for the Army Corps of Engineers, who illiegally approved the pipeline in flagrant oversight and breaking Federal treaty law.
Follow the money. There is a reason that North Dakota law enforcement was not present at the protest on Saturday - they knew that the GS4 private mercenaries would move in with gas and attack dogs.
I will do a master post on what you can do to help, but in the meantime:
TWEET @POTUS, Hillary Clinton, @CNN, @FoxNews, @NBCNews, tweet every media outlet you can think of in the United States and demand that they cover this story. Thus far only Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC has given any mainstream media coverage to these protests which have been going pon since April 2016.
don’t be complacent in the murder of native americans and the wanton disrespect from the government. don’t let people cover their ears and close their eyes and wait for us to die out. please please support NODAPL. here’s a place with an address to send supplies to and a list of supplies needed. water is especially important since they’ve cut everyone off. the government doesn’t care about us or anyone, the government doesn’t care about justice, the government cares about money and corporations.
I just went to the North Dakota Petroleum Council website to do some quick research and my takeaways are:
1) It looks a LOT like a church website. Font, layout, colour scheme of images… looks like some evangelical mega church’s home page.
2) There are editorials proclaiming the inevitability of oil flowing “to the markets,” claiming that academics are too PC-cautious and also all the “grant money” is in studies that are shaped to support whatever “the Indians” claim.
3) Underneath that is a write-up that says the protesters have lost credibility for their “violence and intimidation” tactics.
4) These editorials are near the top of a sidebar of news/new posts; further down is a little blurb proudly proclaiming that Trump delivered the keynote speaker at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference back in May. (The Williston Basin extends from Saskatchewan to South Dakota and includes the DAPL.) Much like church websites, this one is clearly not updates frequently.
The security company that laid assault to the Standing Rock frontlines.
[Image description: screenshot of an Internet comment by Patricia Blanchard saying “New info: the ‘security’ company is identified: 10-Code LLC, is a North Dakota Petroleum Council member.”
The comment goes on to quote the following from this article (dated Aug. 10. 2016) posted on the Unicorn Riot news website:
“Unicorn Riot has learned that the Bismarck, ND based security company “10-Code LLC” has been retained by Energy Transfer to provide the physical means to attempt forcing through this construction project; local community members believe DAPL jeopardizes their future survival by increasing risk of catastrophic environmental damage to the Missouri River basin.
10-Code LLC is registered with the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board. Its info:
DEADBEAT CLUB PRINT SALE: “NO DAPL” FUNDRAISER AVAILABLE NOW - ENDING MONDAY AT MIDNIGHT
Starting Now until the end of Cyber Monday (PST) Deadbeat Club will be selling an open edition of prints (the more we sell, the bigger the donation we can send) by all your favorite artists:
All Proceeds will be donated to Water Protector Legal Collective (formerly Red Owl) and Standing Rock Medic & Healer Council. Each print will be stamped “Deadbeat Club / Open Edition / Supporting NO DAPL” and signed by the Artist. Some of us can’t make it to the front lines of the protest in the Dakotas, so the next best thing we could do is support those who have made that commitment.
All prints will be $100.00 each! 8.5" x 11" Archival Pigment Print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag 310 GSM Open Edition Stamped and Signed on Verso.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s water supply may be heavily compromised if the pipeline would ever leak.
As environmentalist Bill McKibben noted in the New Yorker, the pipeline was originally slated to cross the Missouri River not far from North Dakota’s capital city of Bismarck, but the route was changed partly due to concerns about the potential contamination of the capitol’s drinking water in the event of a leak or spill. The pipeline is now set to run half a mile from the Sioux reservation near its water supply, Lake Oahe. (x)
The construction of the pipeline is expected to disrupt the tribe’s sacred burial grounds and other historically significant sites.
In a broader perspective, the environment would suffer extreme consequences as it will fuel climate change.
Not only is it infringing on Native American rights but this pipeline will quicken the demise of Planet Earth. This is bigger than politics.
This may sound strange on the surface but I’m PROUD of Shailene Woodley for her arrest. Civil disobedience and peaceful protest are things that MLK and Gandhi were praised for. Shailene doesn’t give a shit that she’s supposed to present a pleasant public personality. She sees the injustice in our government’s treatment of Native Americans and is using her celebrity platform to make sure the entire world sees it too.
Just wanted to make it aware, for those who don’t know, that Shailene Woodley was arrested a few hours ago for joining a peaceful protest against the Dakota Access Pipelines. She was arrested for being vocal about this problem; for protecting Mother Earth. She was arrested for Live streaming this incindent on Facebook, making millions of people aware. She is standing up with Native Americans, she was standing up for earth. Water is sacred. Water is life. Water is important. You can’t drink oil or money. I want to thank her for standing up and helping this movement and making it more than just a protest.
I couldn’t keep my opinion on the matter quiet anymore! They scream about profit like it is the ultimate prize, what good are material things without an Earth to survive? Hard, cold, harsh water is spraying at you full force from a hose only mere feet away. Each drop hits like a needle against your skin and causes you to shiver more. Moments ago mace filled the eyes of your 19 year old daughter and still her eyes are blood red and she cries out in pain. In the last months alone your family has been caged, shot with rubber bullets, and mauled by dogs. One may think in these conditions that you live in a special kind of hell on Earth, a rare place of horrors only heard of in nightmares or the worst depths of history books but you live in North Dakota, USA in the year 2016 and all you are doing is peacefully protecting your land. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North Dakota and other water protecting activists have been enduring harsh conditions for months now in peaceful protest to protect their land from the Dakota Access Pipeline, a pipeline that will carry toxic fracked oil across 200 waterways in 4 states and across sacred land of the tribe. Oil and profit are the only things being considered in the decision to place the pipeline and to use inhumane policing in effort to stop the protest, forgetting very important things such as nature preservation, water quality and basic humanity. Not only does this pipeline run through sacred burial grounds to the Sioux tribe but it runs through land period, which should be enough for you to want to end it. Oil pipelines have an infamous history of leaks or spills and the effects of these spills last for decades to come. The oil sticks to everything in its path, poisoning water, destroying plants and killing wildlife. Pipelines effect the air quality around them causing people living within close proximity to become ill and sometimes even die. This particular pipeline, the Dakota Access Pipeline could have one single leak and destroy water for thousands of people. With people becoming sick, the Earth reaping the ultimate consequences what really are the benefits? Sure, we can move oil from point A to point B faster, but at what cost? I realize oil equals profit but what good is profit if we are not alive to enjoy it, if our Earth is not alive to allow us to? When we have no Earth, no water, no trees, no land we don’t have life, that is simple science. What good does getting 570,000 barrels of crude oil across the country in one day do then? None. We can wait days, months and years to stop ignoring the damage that we are doing to our planet but we are only stealing those days, months and years from future generations, from our grandchildren, from the future. We can wait and rob them of the opportunity of nature, prosperity and life or we can continue to be selfish and wait. “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” Now you know what is going on in Standing Rock, North Dakota. For my local friends in Indy that means that people are being arrested, maced, shot and caged for peacefully exercising their first amendment right to protest only 1,034 miles from your home. 1,034 miles from your home people are being arrested, maced, shot and caged for choosing the health and well being of our Earth and its inhabitants over the profit of oil. Now you know and you no longer have an excuse to ignore what is going on. Stand with Standing Rock but more importantly Stand Up For Standing Rock!! Here is how you can help: (Please be professional and courteous when making calls.) -Call North Dakota governor Jack Dalrymple at 701-328-2200 -Donate at http://standingrock.org/news/standing-rock-sioux-tribe–dakota-access-pipeline-donation-fund/ -Donate items from http://sacredstonecamp.org/supply-list/ Together there is nothing we cannot do! By: Chyanna Scherer #NoDAPL #CantDrinkOil #WaterIsLife #StandWithStandingRock #FrackNo #NoPipelines
