More than 761 arrested, 310 cases dismissed, so far two activists imprisoned in connection to DAPL controversy
By C.S. Hagen MANDAN – Defense lawyers are whittling down the cases involved with the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy, but the sudden imprisonment of two last month came as a shock, and has activists wondering if the state is either being vindictive, or changing strategies.
“I was singled out among many who were unjustly arrested,” Alex Simon said.
Simon, 27, is a teacher from New Mexico and served 13 days of an 18-day sentence for locking arms with activists – known as water protectors – against a police line on October 22, 2016. That same day, 140 others were arrested with him, but only one other received a jail sentence: 65-year-old Mary Redway, a retired environmental planner from Rhode Island.
Mary Redway spent four days in jail for standing her ground while at Standing Rock – photograph by Liminal Films
“I was shocked that he ordered us to jail immediately,” Redway said after she served four days inside the women’s booking cellblock of the Burleigh Morton Detention Center. “We were shackled and led out of the courtroom as though it were a scene from a really bad movie. It was [Judge Thomas A.] Merrick’s way of saying ‘F*ck you.’”
“It seems that Judge Thomas A. Merrick wanted to make an example of me, berating me because, in his opinion, I didn’t ‘have a dog in the fight,’” Simon said. “He is mistaken, and I am proud to help shoulder the burden in the fight for Indigenous Rights. If this is the price I must pay for Indigenous Peoples to pursue a path towards sovereignty, I am honored to do it.”
“I’m out,” post from Alex Simon on Facebook
Both Redway and Simon say they were treated decently while inside, surviving on a high-carbohydrate diet. Redway was treated with “kid’s gloves,” while Simon even made a few friends during his incarceration.Redway said the booking guard refused to believe she was convicted and imprisoned on a disorderly conduct charge.
“I had to show him the court papers before he would change what he had typed in,” Redway said. “Then he muttered something to the effect that nobody gets jailed for disorderly conduct.”
So far, 310 cases for activists arrested during the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy have been dismissed or acquitted, 107 activists made plea deals, 24 cases have had pre-trial diversions, and one case has made an appeal to the North Dakota Supreme Court, according to Sarah K. Hogarth, communications director with the Water Protector Legal Collective. Another 109 cases are inactive, and 259 cases remain to be tried, calendared until July 2018.
A total of 761 people were arrested during the months-long opposition to the 1,172-mile-long Dakota Access Pipeline, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department. The Water Protector Legal Collective reports 854 people were arrested.
Alex Simon spent 13 days in jail for locking arms with activists against the Dakota Access Pipeline – photograph by Liminal Films
Chase Iron Eyes, an attorney and registered member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe who ran against Congressman Kevin Cramer R-ND, last year, is one of those arrested and he’s still awaiting trial. He faces felony charges of inciting a riot, and plans to use the necessity defense, a tactic denied to valve turners in Pembina County by Judge Laurie A. Fontaine in early October.
Iron Eyes plans to argue that his crime, while he does not dispute his involvement, was justified because he committed them to prevent a greater harm. His case had a hearing on Friday to argue that his attorneys needed more time to gather evidence.
Iron Eyes also plans to challenge the “civil rights conspiracy” narrative that portrayed activists as terrorists, which resulted in harsh treatment.
“Radicalized capitalists are the terrorists,” Iron Eyes said in a Facebook post on Friday. “The unnatural outlier, the disease of all pursuits of life, liberty, happiness and spirit. Here they stand before God, criminalizing water protectors, privatizing water, preying on the impoverished, forcing a form of indentured servitude for capital exchange, committing genocide, and forcing people to kill each other for their own profits. Not in defense of land, water, people or even ‘country.’ We, sentient beings, are committing unforgivable murder on the innocent for their endless war machine, their death march.”
Redway is now out of jail, and finishing up her community service with theWater Protector Legal Collective in Mandan. Despite the state’s poor conviction record, she is worried that state prosecutors, and state leaders, are changing tactics. Judge Merrick was one of the petitioners who attempted to change the Supreme Court law to stop out-of-state attorneys from defending primarily out-of-state defendants.
The petition failed after the North Dakota Supreme Court received 536 comments against changing the law.
On October 23, Cramer along with 80 colleaguespetitioned US Attorney General Jeff Sessions to help prosecute “to the fullest extent of the law any criminal who try to destroy energy infrastructure.
“This is about right and wrong,” Cramer wrote. “As we’ve seen from the DAPL riots, environment terrorism – when left unchecked – sets a dangerous precedent that puts lives at risk and has resulted in major damage to private and public property.”
Judge Merrick – photograph taken by Liminal Films
“We’ve seen the state change it’s strategy vis-a-vis prosecution tactics,” Redway said. “They really went to town on my trial with enhanced photos taken from helicopter footage to establish who was where, and when. There was nothing like this in any earlier trials, and they brought in new charges and a judge from the surrogate circuit who is vindictive and willing to twist the law. All new plays.
“The state has found its winning combination and will probably try to replicate it in future trials. Chilling. They may even recharge those who had their original two charges dropped, but haven’t yet gotten the new charges.”
Despite serving time behind bars, both Redway and Simon do not regret their actions.
“The movement for Indigenous Rights is so powerful because it is focused on healing historical and environmental trauma and it is being led by people whose ancestors were the original stewards of this land,” Simon said. “As a fellow human being a person who comes from Jewish descent, I am compelled to help alleviate suffering wherever it exists.”
“Would I do it again?” Redway said. “To be clear: I had no intention of getting arrested that day. But I also believe, the judge’s verdict notwithstanding, that I did not break the law in any way. I do not regret my actions, despite having been convicted and sent to jail. I stand by my right to peaceably protest.”
Biologist and schoolteacher found guilty; others had charges dismissed
By C.S. Hagen MANDAN – Hundreds of trials for activists who stood against the Dakota Access Pipeline have seen the judge’s gavel, but only two, so far, received jail time.
Mary Redway, 64, a retired environmental biologist from Rhode Island, and Alexander Simon, 27, a teacher living in New Mexico, both were found guilty and sentenced Thursday to jail by Southeast District Court Judge Thomas Merrick. Both activists, known as water protectors, were arrested on October 22, 2016 along with 140 others, most of whom had their charges dismissed.
Despite the North Dakota State’s Attorney’s lack of a recommendation for jail time, Merrick sentenced Simon to 18 days in jail and Redway to a total of six days, with two already served.
“There is no logic or consistency to the different outcomes people received on these same charges,” a Water Protector Legal Collective press release stated. “Judge Merrick’s decision to sentence them to jail demonstrates disparate treatment.”
Activists calling for prayer form human chain to prevent others from marching on law enforcement – photo by C.S. Hagen
The Water Protector Legal Collective is an indigenous-led, on-the-ground legal team defending activists arrested during the months-long Dakota Access Pipeline controversy. It is currently fighting up to 427 criminal cases in North Dakota, according to the legal team’s website.
Merrick reportedly signed the petition trying to change the law temporarily allowing out-of-state attorneys to represent activists facing charges during the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy, the Water Protector Legal Collective reported.
“That effort failed,” the Water Protector Legal Collective press release stated.
The North Dakota Supreme Court Clerk’s office reported 536 comments on the judges’ petition to change the current law. The North Dakota Supreme Court upheld their January ruling granting permission for out-of-state lawyers to continue defending those arrested during the controversy. “We conclude termination of our prior order would be premature,” Supreme Court judges said.
During the public comment period, many asked the state a question: why is it permissible to accept out-of-state checks from Dakota Access, LLC, but not allow out-of-state lawyers to defend people not from North Dakota?
Dakota Access, LLC recently gifted $15 million to the state via the Bank of North Dakota, and sent Energy Transfer Partners teams to first responders in North Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois, with additional checks, totalling $1 million.
The financial gifts have been called bribes by opponents of the pipeline, and the act of a “good neighbor” by those supporting the pipeline.
The Water Protector Legal Collective says the denial of the motion to allow out-of-state lawyers is part of the reason two activists received jail time days after the Supreme Court made its ruling.
“We see this decision as his attempt to send a message that people will face harsh sentences regardless of innocence or guilt as a means to put pressure on others with pending charges to take pleas or forgo trial. The prosecutorial discretion and conviction of some and not others has been arbitrary and targets what police and state’s attorneys call agitators.”
New Mexico teacher Simon was charged and found guilty of misdemeanor charges of physical obstruction of government function and disorderly conduct, and was acquitted of disobedience of safety orders during a riot, according to court records. Rhode Island biologist Redway was found guilty of disorderly conduct, acquitted for disobedience of safety orders during a riot, and found not guilty of physical obstruction of a government function, according to court records.
Merrick is the judge that dismissed charges against The Guardian photojournalist Sara Lafleur-Vetter earlier in October. He was scheduled to retire at the end of 2016, according to news reports.
Hundreds of cases still remain to be tried. Officially, 761 people were arrested during the months-long opposition to the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline, and in July, 114 cases were dismissed by the state. Eleven people received guilty verdicts; 50 pleaded guilty – primarily on lesser charges — and three have been acquitted. A total of 854 people were arrested, according to the Water Protector Legal Collective.
[ Editor’s note: This is a continuing story and will be updated with new information]
Defense lawyers: TigerSwan infiltration and police entrapment should be recognized by courts
By C.S. Hagen MANDAN – After being handcuffed, forced to strip, locked in dog cages, and hauled to jails across the state, hundreds charged with crimes during the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy are finding vindication through North Dakota’s court system.
Officially, 761 people were arrested during the months-long opposition to the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline, and already 114 cases have been dismissed by the state. Eleven people received guilty verdicts; 50 pled guilty – primarily on lesser charges, and three have been acquitted.
The state cannot meet the elements of offenses as charged, defense lawyers say.
“In an attempt to extract guilty pleas, the state is waiting to dismiss each case until the last minute before trial, which has created great hardship and uncertainty for many water protectors,” Water Protector Legal Collective attorney Jacob Reisberg said in a press release. “The No-DAPL water protectors withstood extreme violence from militarized police at Standing Rock and now the state admits that it cannot substantiate the alleged justification for that violence.”
While the Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported 761 people were arrested, the Water Protectors Legal Collective reports the actual number is higher: 854.
A total of 552 cases remain open, Water Protectors Legal Collective staff attorney Andrea Carter said. Last weekend, one of activists involved in arguably one of the most controversial cases also had charges against him dropped.
Less than a week after former Leighton Security Services project manager Kyle Thompson went live on Digital Smoke Signals to speak about his experience working security along the Dakota Access Pipeline route, the state dropped charges against Brennon Nastacio, charged with a Class C felony of terrorism.
Nastacio, 36, a Pueblo Native American nicknamed “Bravo One,” was charged for his participation in stopping Thompson, who wielded a semi-automatic AR-15, on October 27, 2016.
On June 14, Assistant State’s Attorney Gabrielle Goter of Morton County filed a motion to dismiss the charge, which came days before the scheduled deposition of North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Scott Betz, who was instrumental in Nastacio’s prosecution. Depositions were also scheduled for two FBI agents involved in the transfer of Thompson for BIA custody to the Morton County Jail, and for Thompson, according to Nastacio’s lawyers Bruce Nestor and Jeffrey Haas.
“This was a case where Mr. Nastacio acted to protect himself and others,” Nestor and Haas said. “He should have been thanked and not prosecuted for his bravery.”
“The feeling is good,” Nastacio said. “Now I just need to concentrate on my other case.”
Nastacio was indicted on February 8 on federal charges of civil disorder and use of fire to commit a federal crime, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of North Dakota.
Michael Fasig and Israel Hernandez also face felony charges over the same incident. Class C terrorizing charges carry up to a five-year prison sentence.
Other salient cases include the state dropping charges against drone operator and owner of Digital Smoke Signals, Myron Dewey, and rap artist Aaron Sean Turgeon, also known as ‘Prolific the Rapper.’
U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland recently agreed to the conditional release of Redfawn Fallis to a halfway house from where she’s being held in Rugby. Fallis’s arrest, which was filmed live, has become one of the movement’s most viewed recordings. Police say she discharged a handgun while being tackled by law enforcement. Officially, Fallis was charged with criminal possession of a firearm or ammunition by a previously convicted felon, according to the United States Attorney’s Office District of North Dakota.
Another reason the state is dropping cases en masse is because of evidence the camps were infiltrated by TigerSwan operatives, who were on a mission to “find, fix, and eliminate” pipeline opposition, according to Nastacio’s lawyers.
“TigerSwan worked closely with law enforcement to infiltrate the camps, produce pro-DAPL propaganda, and aid prosecutions. TigerSwan acted in a supervisory capacity over Leighton Security, Thompson’s employer.”
Aaron Sean Turgeon ‘Prolific the Rapper’ (right) – Facebook page
“As we’re learning that there was some kind of infiltration by either the FBI or TigerSwan, or both, we think it should become an issue in the cases that the state should have to prove that some of those people who were engaging in that kind of activity were law enforcement or infiltrators,” Carter said.
“That’s what is getting debated in a lot of these cases, is presence,” Carter said. “There are entrapment issues. Five or more people must be engaged in a riot. If you have one of those five as law enforcement or as an infiltrator, and the state is alleging that someone is setting fires or throwing stuff, what if one of the people present was an infiltrator, and everyone else at the demonstration was peaceful or sitting in prayer, and you have one person instigating who wasn’t even part of that group?”
Bennon Nastacio – Facebook page
During standoffs along the frontlines, police also gave contradictory warnings. Activists were told to leave an area immediately, and then given a different order to pick up items or clean up an area before leaving, which resulted in many people becoming trapped, Carter said.
“They would say ‘go,’ and as people were running to their cars, police were tearing them out of their vehicles. It’s incredible the amount of force they were met with.”
Former City Attorney for Valley City, Russell Myhre, who is now practicing law privately at his office in Valley City, is defending four people against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
“I have never seen delays like this,” Myhre, who has been practicing law for nearly half a century said. “Even in high profile cases, there was always this contact with prosecution and the court. Here, there appears to be no reason whatsoever, and I don’t know why they’re not dealing with speedy trials.”
The Dakota Access Pipeline controversy reminds Myhre of the Vietnam War era, he said, which polarized the nation instantly until the mid-1970s when the contention simmered and people began to realize that perhaps, the Vietnam War was not one of the nation’s brightest moments.
Red Fawn Fallis – online sources
“I think this Dakota Access Pipeline is tearing North Dakotans apart,” Myhre said. “North Dakota was a god-forgotten outpost in the United States for many years, but they have found out that maybe they have sold their soul to big oil, and maybe, there is a dark side to this, and they’re just now starting to realize this.”
The lack of speedy trials is a legal tactic defendants can consider, he said. “A trial is scheduled within 90 days after demand for a speedy trial. It could be thrown out by the trial court or appealed to the North Dakota Supreme Court, or it could be brought to federal court for denial of due process and the denial of a right for a speedy trial.”
There is potential that cases could be reopened and appealed, even if found guilty under North Dakota Century Code post-conviction relief laws, Myhre said. The law is a substitute for habeas corpus – after being convicted a defendant can come back in and allege their rights have been violated.
“I think the system is overwhelmed,” Myhre said. “One of the other things is that prosecutors and law enforcement are realizing this is not going the way they wanted it to. Not many are coming forward pleading guilty.”
And law enforcement records are lacking, he said. “Most of these officers did not write up personal reports, which is standard practice. Most of these officers did not write up anything, it was left to one officer in charge of writing things up for everyone.”
Money is another contributing aspect as to why cases are being dropped faster than hot potatoes. The state was denied reimbursement for the $38 million spent during the controversy by the federal government last week. Days later, Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company of Dakota Access LLC, offered, once again, to pay the bill.
To compound the issues a federal judge ruled on July 16 that permits authorizing the pipeline to cross the Missouri River less than one mile from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation violated the tribe’s fishing rights, hunting rights, and environmental rights.
“There’s something funky going on in the background,” Myhre said. “And I just don’t know what it is. A lot of it may have to do with TigerSwan and the manipulation of the media. In North Dakota, unless you were a Native American or an extreme liberal, many people were anti protest.
“We’re living in strange times.”
Since the last Standing Rock camp was cleared in February, TigerSwan kept roving teams active in North Dakota until earlier this month. The security company left North Dakota last week, Energy Transfer Partners personnel reported. The security company hasn’t left the oil business, however, and has set up shops along the Mariner East 2 Pipeline, which runs through Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Mariner East is also owned by Energy Transfer Partners.
In November 2016, TigerSwan LLC obtained business licenses for the three states, according to state registration records, but its private security license is under review in Louisiana by the Louisiana State Board of Private Investigator Examiners. The Louisiana Secretary of State reports TigerSwan, LLC was established in Lafayette on June 1, 2017.
“It is worth exposing in a court of public opinion, this is who law enforcement is working with, and this is exactly who TigerSwan is, and do you want these cultural things perpetuated domestically?” Carter said. “They [TigerSwan] manufactured some of these instances, they didn’t like the surveillance. They just didn’t want to be under surveillance.”
The state’s stranglehold on the anti-DAPL movement squeezes shut, veterans speak out
By C.S. Hagen CANNON BALL – Standing Rock’s fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline has all the ingredients of legend, with only the ending remaining be be told. Centuries past, bards would be tuning their lutes, preparing lyrics, in fact, modern singers such as Neil Young, Dave Matthews, the Black Eyed Peas, Trevor Hall, and many Native American talents have already immortalized Standing Rock’s resistance.
“If you are a rock, stand up like a mountain,” Hall sang about Standing Rock.
Two months ago, the story promised a happy ending for activists: the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers halted the pipeline, ordered an environmental impact statement, and thousands of veterans converged into the camps. The caravan stretched for miles, cars – bumper to bumper – for a full day and a night.
Activists offering thanks of sage, fir nettles, and tobacco to the former Oceti Sakowin sacred fire – photo by C.S. Hagen
Proponents of the pipeline however, bided their time, waited on a savior. Bending to pressure from President Trump’s Administration, the Army Corps has issued the easement needed for Dakota Access, LLC to complete the pipeline, and have said nothing about the continuation of its promised environmental impact statement. The Peace Garden State’s tactics against the Standing Rock camps – pitted for an ongoing 190 days against the 1,172-mile pipeline – were nothing more than a slowly-squeezing siege, activists and veterans say, calculated and methodical. Like a medieval siege.
Activist at Highway 1806 barricade – photo by C.S. Hagen
“It started with the roadblock, which brought economic sanctions against Standing Rock,” attorney and long time activist Chase Iron Eyes said. “It was a genius move, but now the walls are definitely closing in.”
Once North Dakota’s tenth largest community with more than 10,000 people living in the floodplain along the Cannonball River, the remaining activists now number only 400, Iron Eyes said. Calls have gone out to return; some, including veterans, are heeding the cry for help.
“Numerous law enforcement and federal agencies have severely limited access to the camps at Standing Rock,” Mark Sanderson, executive director for VeteransRespond said. “They run propaganda and psy-ops against any group going to help. You can’t make it to camp without going through roadblocks or checkpoints. The situation on camp is that many necessities are very limited. Clean drinking water for one is hard to get, fuel for generators, food.”
Siege (n.) early 13th century, from Vulgar Latin ‘sedicum’ meaning ‘seat’
Militarized law enforcement began its siege by closing down Highway 1806, and then erecting a blockade on Backwater Bridge to rival Korea’s Demilitarized Zone. One of the first rules of a siege is to isolate the target, like the Arabs did against Constantinople in 717 CE, or Nazis 872-day siege against St. Petersburg in 1941, or the 1,425-day siege of Bosnian Serb’s against Sarajevo in 1992.
Law enforcement and the North Dakota National Guard toyed with closing the road down for nearly three months before making the blockade official in late October 2016.
Former Governor Jack Dalrymple set the stage. In August 2016, he declared a state of emergency. Two months later he issued an emergency evacuation order, further declaring anyone caught supplying Standing Rock with goods or equipment could face a fine of up to $1,000.
DAPL Front lines in January 2016 – photo provided by Johnny Dangers
Besieging forces are not allowed to target civilians, according to the U.S. Army field manual’s Additional Protocols of 1977, and relief agencies are authorized to provide aid to people in need. A day after the threat was issued by Dalrymple, he backtracked, saying police would not target people or close down additional roads.
Backwater Bridge is the site where Morton County Sheriff’s Department hosed activists in below freezing weather; the site where Sophia Wilanksy nearly lost her arm; the site where trucks were burned, where disguised infiltrators attempted to gain access to the main camp, and the site where dozens were maced, injured, and arrested. Instead of using trebuchets and crossbows, law enforcement used its “non-lethal” arsenal of pepper spray, water cannons, and percussion grenades.
It was also the site of prayers, burning sage, traditional dances, and colorful banners.
Surrounded on all sides
The state’s next move was to encircle the Standing Rock camps. A second rule for laying siege is to completely surround the target, preventing food, water, and supplies from assisting the besieged. Activists at Standing Rock soon found themselves trapped behind razor wire, mace, rubber bullets, and concussion grenades. The only route in or out was to take Highway 6, which easily added 40 minutes driving time.
When activists attempted to reach the DAPL drill pad in November, hundreds of police waited along Cantapeta Creek, showering activists in frigid water with pepper spray. When they marched on Backwater Bridge, they were hit with water cannons, percussion grenades, mace, and pepper spray. When activists plowed through snow and across a frozen Cannon Ball River in January, they were met, once again, with razor wire and more mace.
Activists nearing DAPL drill pad – photo provided by Johnny Dangers
Many of the actions taken by activists occurred on reserved lands the Sioux Nation agreed to during the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, and have never relinquished, according to Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Dave Archambault II. Lands north of the Cannon Ball River were taken from the Standing Rock Tribe after massive devastation from damning the Missouri River during the Pick-Sloan legislation.
Police sprayed mace and pepper spray intermittently at activists in Cantapeta Creek – photo by C.S. Hagen
“They’ve also encouraged the local economies to participate in the siege by denying support to those trying to secure goods for camp,” Sanderson said. Sanderson retired from the US Army in 2015 as a Sergeant First Class. He was a designated marksmen and was awarded the Purple Heart after being wounded in Baghdad, Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Riot police spray activists at Backwater Bridge – photo by Rob Wilson Photography
“They make it seem like we’re all coming with intentions of building bombs and getting into confrontations, they’ve successfully turned a large group of Americans against veterans.”
Psychological warfare
Next came psychological and according to some, biological warfare. Although Morton County denied the use of chemicals against activists near Standing Rock, more than 40,000 pounds of Rozol Prairie Dog Bait, an anticoagulant rodenticide, were purchased by a nearby rancher, David Meyer, of Flasher, according to the United State Environmental Protection Agency. A portion was spread across more than 5,408 acres of nearby pasturelands in the spring of 2016, the same time activists began gathering at Sacred Stone Camp. Investigators said the chances any of the more the 20,000 people who traveled through Standing Rock being poisoned were remote, nearly impossible, but many activists retain their doubts. Questions have arisen as to whether humans now suffering what is known as the “DAPL cough” might not have been affected.
Frozen water at Backwater Bridge – photo by Rob Wilson Photography
“There have been no substantiated clinical cases of Rozol poisoning traced back to camp exposure,” NDResponse.gov, a state information delivery platform said. “Wood-burning stoves, kerosene heaters, and other temporary forms of heat have been known to cause lung, nose, and eye irritation. An ongoing cough is not consistent with Rozol exposure.”
Sound cannons, attack dogs, and tactics causing hyperthermia, were also used against activists admittedly trespassing during their repeated marches on the pipeline.
Airplanes and helicopters surveyed the camps daily. Cyber warfare ensued, including reports of mass data seizures, electronic bugs, stolen files, according to the Lawyer’s Guild Mass Defense Committee and nonprofit Geeks Without Bounds.
Coldness of river, evident by discoloration on activist’s back – photo by C.S. Hagen
Medics battle hypothermia and hurry to warm activist – photo by C.S. Hagen
And then came Standing Rock’s victory on December 4, celebrated as joyous news to many activists. Standing Rock Tribal Council asked everyone to return home, winter was coming, and the camps’ numbers dwindled.
Some, including Iron Eyes, stayed. The December victory was an ingenious stall of time, he said. A besieging army would never dare attack a force with far superior numbers.
“December 4 was no victory at all,” Iron Eyes said. “We didn’t win. They told us to go home because ‘we won,’ ‘our prayers were answered.’”
State tactics were seemingly pulled straight from a page of Sun Tzu’s ‘Art of War.’
“It turned the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, under economic duress, against the same people they were supposed to protect.” He is currently in Canada, but plans to return to Standing Rock later this week. He faces a Class C felony charge of inciting a riot, and he’s also planning lawsuits against Morton County.
“Morton County is trying to throw me back in prison,” Iron Eyes said. In addition to being the founder of media outlet Last Real Indians, Iron Eyes ran for a congressional seat in 2016. “It seems ludicrous to me.”
Iron Eyes is worried that the Army Corps’ deadline for all camps to be evacuated by February 22 will be the government’s final assault.
“I’m afraid it will look like the Siege on Fallujah,” Iron Eyes said.
Activists hugging each other as law enforcement issue final warning to move – photo by C.S. Hagen
When pipeline proponents’ savior, President Donald Trump, ascended to the White House in January, political attacks intensified. In addition to Morton County Sheriff’s Department propaganda program entitled “Know the Truth,” which includes short videos from the law enforcement side of the controversy, the state kickstarted a website called NDResponse.gov, a “a single source of accurate and timely information.”
Veterans for Standing Rock before the former Oceti Sakowin Camp sacred fire on December 4 at – photo by C.S. Hagen
Politicians, including Representative Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier, and Morton County Commissioner Cody Schulz called activists paid protesters, and blamed missing livestock in the area on activists while the case is still ongoing by the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association.
“As many as 14 dead or missing animals have been reported in the vicinity of the encampments,” NDResponse.gov reported. “Whether any of those animals were consumed illegally is part of an ongoing investigation.”
The state is further attempting to sway public opinion by depicting activists as careless by disseminating video of trash being compiled at the former Oceti Sakowin Camp. The state’s official stance is that activists are trucking garbage to one camp location and dumping it for a consolidated pick up, but at the same time report officers are digging through the trash looking for dead bodies.
“The veteran community is being targeted as they would a minority,” Sanderson said. “We feel like the supporters of the civil rights movement.”
Although more than 700 people have been arrested, Morton County Sheriff’s Department broadcasted a case on Monday saying “Leader of VeteransRespond Cited for Drug Possession.” Matthew Crane, VeteransRespond chief operations officer, who uses medical cannabis to treat PTSD, and three others were cited after they traveled beyond the road closure sign on Highway 1806 near Fort Rice.
Matthew Crane – Facebook page picture
“One of the occupants turned over a smoking device identified as a pipe used to ingest marijuana,” the North Dakota Joint Information Center reported. “At that point, all occupants and their luggage were removed from the vehicle and searched by the K-9. A bag of marijuana was located with Crane’s name on it.”
Medical Marijuana was legalized by every state district in North Dakota last November. The bill, known as the North Dakota Medical Marijuana Initiative, is currently under review after being postponed and rewritten by state legislature.
Posted on the VeteransRespond’s Facebook page, volunteers have begun to arrive at the Standing Rock camps. They’ve been chopping wood, setting up kitchens, and helping with the trash situation.
Fueled by a national wave led by “alternative facts” and President Trump’s big oil agenda, Pro DAPL supporters have stepped up their attacks – verbal and physical – against anti DAPL supporters lately, Sanderson said. Verbal attacks are hitting online, and law enforcement is hunting veterans on the roads. Some media outlets have reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s terrorism task force is aggressively monitoring people affiliated with the No DAPL movement.
“Much of this negative energy is a result of two encounters with law enforcement, one in North Dakota and another in South Dakota,” Sanderson said. “Our Chief Operations Officer, Matthew Crane, was cited for having less than a gram of medicinal cannabis on him, he took ownership that it was his and received a ticket. He was not arrested. The Morton County Sheriff’s department felt necessary to issue a press release about this citation calling our organization out by name and inaccurately attributing an arrest in South Dakota to our organization.”
Travis Biolette was traveling through Sough Dakota and was arrested for possession of hash oil, Sanderson said. Biolette is not a member of VeteransRespond, but the group picked him up when he was released from jail.
“While we respect state and federal laws we also respect the right to a veteran’s safe access to his or her medicine,” Sanderson said. “Many of our core members suffered from opioid and amphetamine addiction upon leaving the service and have found a better way forward with the help of medicinal cannabis.”
Biolette is in good spirits, and currently at the camps, he said on his Facebook page.
“As soon as the police found out I was going to Sacred Stone Camp I was placed in the police car and searched,” Biolette said. “I am currently free and have to go to court on February 27th. I am looking at five years in a state penitentiary of South Dakota for medical marijuana that the state of Michigan has determined I need. I am currently looking for legal representation to prevent that prison time.”
“It’s hard to imagine a time in America when police officers would target a veterans group for trying to help a community and support our fellow vets,” Sanderson said. “They certainly do all they can to deny support to the camp and use disinformation and propaganda against anyone who tries to help, even those like us that come in peace.”
Sanderson previously joined the December veterans at Standing Rock, and said at that time 300 cots provided by the American Red Cross were denied entry to Standing Rock by Morton County Sheriff’s Department.
In total, 705 people have been arrested since August 2016, with 92 percent of those arrested from out of state, 212 people arrested had prior criminal records, 33 arrested had a history of violence, 40 with a history of theft, robbery, or burglary, and 41 previously cited or arrested for drug possession, according to the North Dakota Joint Information Center.
The total cost to taxpayers in North Dakota so far is $32.9 million, with $25 million going to salaries, $3.6 million going toward personnel support, including travel and lodging, and $4.3 million going toward equipment and supplies to survive the winter, according to the North Dakota Joint Information Center.
The North Dakota Department of Transportation announced on Monday that Highway 1806 closure point was changed from south of Mandan to County Road 135, north of Fort Rice, allowing eight more miles of open highway.
North Dakota Legislature
The Peace Garden State’s political siege against those who openly differ in opinion has taken the frontline in the forms of proposed bills to strike fear into activists and future protesters. One of the bills hit activists in the pocketbooks, another tried to legalize the “unintentional” killing of protesters.
North Dakota Legislative ‘scoreboard’ on HB 1203 – photo provided by North Dakota Human Rights Coalition
House Bill 1203, the proposal that attempted to legalize the unintentional running down of protesters blocking public roadways died in the house on Monday. Other bills created as direct responses to the DAPL controversy have passed the house and will soon be voted on in the senate: House Bill 1304, the law that would outlaw wearing ski masks and face coverings in public, House Bill 1293, the bill that would essentially legalize shooting to death trespassers even if there was space to retreat, House Bill 1426, which stiffens laws against protesters, and House Bill 1193, which prohibits “economic harm” due to disorderly conduct.
Senate Bill 2337, a bipartisan bill that would have enacted cultural competency training for legislators was killed 26 to 20 on Tuesday.
“A ‘disease of the mind’ has set in world leaders and many members of our global community,” Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe Arvol Looking Horse said. “With their belief that a solution of retaliation and destruction of peoples will bring peace. We need to understand how all these decisions affect the global nation; we will not be immune to its repercussions.”
Standing Rock Chairman says ‘time to go home,’ Bismarck Police investigate altercation
By C.S. Hagen CANNONBALL – Blizzards and biting Arctic winds are all in a winter day’s work for most North Dakotans, but to the unprepared the cold can become a struggle between life and death. Due in part to winter conditions this week the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has asked everyone at Oceti Sakowin to go home.
The main road into the camps against the Dakota Access Pipeline has been blocked for weeks, forcing travellers to the area down a longer, winding road. The Backwater Bridge, not more than a spear’s throw from the camps, has become a militarized zone complete with cement impediments, razor wire, and armed police.
“We have no need for water protectors and anyone to put themselves in unsafe environments,” Chairman Dave Archambault II said. “It’s time now, it’s time to go home. It doesn’t do us any good to live in an unsafe environment. It’s okay to go home. If it’s needed in the future, you’re welcome to come back.”
Oceti Sakowin – photo by C.S. Hagen
Additionally, Archambault believes Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company of Dakota Access Pipeline, will not endanger the company’s situation by breaking the law and drilling without an easement across the Missouri River.
“We have a winter storm, we have cold weather coming. If they violate that easement it’s going to threaten all the investors’ monies.”
Archambault is grateful for the help it has received against the Dakota Access Pipeline, but said the US Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to deny easement, citing that a full environmental impact assessment was needed, cannot be overturned overnight, even if it is President-elect Donald Trump’s top priority, Archambault said. His current job is to convince state and national leadership that the Army Corps’ decision was the right decision, he said.
“If they do drill, which I don’t think they will, they don’t have an easement. What they will do is try to drill right up to that easement just to get a reaction out of water protectors, because a decision was made by the Corps of Engineers, and it was the right decision. They’re trying to convince everyone that this is a wrong decision, and the only way they can do that is if we do something, if we try to commit a crime, like hurt somebody, hurt law enforcement, take over a pad. When we do something like that, it’s an illegal act.”
The Indigenous Environmental Network said they support the chairman’s wishes, but recognize the fight is far from over.
“We are not abandoning our relatives here in Standing Roc,” the Indigenous Environmental Network said in a press release. “In fact, it is escalating and the stakes are even higher. We are stronger than ever, filled with even more hope and more prayer, and no matter who is in the White House, we will continue to follow our original instructions as Indigenous Peoples to defend land and to protect water.”
Horse riders in the snow outside Oceti Sakowin – photo by C.S. Hagen
Not everyone agrees with the chairman.
Attorney Chase Iron Eyes, who ran for congress this year, and has recently become more active in the movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline, said people who are capable of withstanding the elements should stay.
“Some people are standing down, packing up, leaving, calling the easement denial a victory while DAPL moved to force the court to allow it to drill,” Iron Eyes said. DAPL owners, which include Energy Transfer Partners, have filed a suit in federal court to force the Army Corps to approve the easement. The hearing is scheduled for Friday.
“The roadblock is still up, militarized presence by DAPL ongoing,” Iron Eyes said. “It’s never been easy. I get it. Be safe, those who are infirm go home, but the reality is thousands are staying and they’re here sacrificing for us because DAPL won’t stand down. They need our courage right now, not our doubt. We help when it gets tough, we don’t run.”
Iron Eyes didn’t fault Archambault for petitioning everyone to go home. “You must remember the chairman is concerned about protectors’ safety. He is the chairman and he’s looking out for all elderly, disabled, children, and others in the camp.”
Tipi at Oceti Sakowin, surrounded by hay bales, tipis are far warmer than tents – photo by C.S. Hagen
A Bismarck altercation
A native person going by the name of Shiyé Bidzííl on Facebook was ambushed on Wednesday by two people thought by some to be police officers while at the Ramada Inn. A man in a skull mask approached the vehicle Bidzííl was in, warning them to go home.
“Take your protesting asses back home,” the man said in the video. “All you mother f*cking protesters go home. Us North Dakota people are going to f*ck you up, every f*cking one of you.
“We know who you are too. We follow you too. We f*ck your wives at home, we hope you like it. Go ahead. Threaten us. Keep it up. You threaten our people?”
“This is for real sh*t guys, this is not f*cking joking around sh*t. They blocked us in,” Bidzííl said in the video.
Man in skull mask
A man he identified as Chris trapped them and refused to let them go, Bidzííl said. Not until bystanders interfered did the two masked men leave. In his video reports Bidzííl said he plans on going to Bismarck to press charges against the people involved.
“What I’m going to do is going to tell the story about what I was doing up there by myself,” Bidzííl said. “I wanted to document what was going on with all of us indigenous people.”
He had difficulty getting a room during the latest blizzard because of his appearance, Bidzííl said.
Accomplice
“When we were up there for three days stuck in the blizzard, we couldn’t get a room,” Bidzííl said. Hotel management said they had no rooms, but he had heard from others that they did have vacancies. “I asked this lady is there a room, and she said no. I asked her was it because we had fatigues on like this? She kinda looked at us all scared, and I realized that how I looked at those guys walking toward our vehicle, in her eyes that is how she thought of us.
“She didn’t have to think like that, but that’s how much fear is running around Bismarck right now, and racism, that stuff is all real.”
The Bismarck Police Department is investigating the case as an altercation, according to a Bismarck Police Department press release. A bystander also filming the incident was threatened along with two other victims. One of the victims involved was followed around town.
“The suspects in this case have been identified and are actively being investigated,” the press release stated. “There have been several rumors circulating that the suspects were police officers. This has been determined to be false.”
Police are also trying to re-contact the victims, and are asking for help in putting the victims in touch with police.
Shortly after the incident, the international network of activists and hacktivists Anonymous released a warning to Morton County Sheriff’s Department saying “Operation Morton” is now engaged.
“Your acts of violence, threats, and torture upon the protestors and water protectors of the North Dakota pipeline have gone too far,” Anonymous stated. “The two officers who threatened the protesters in the parking lot now have 48 hours to turn themselves in, or we will expose all their information publicly.”
License plates of vehicles involved were identified, Anonymous said. They also demanded that officers involved in hurting activists with tear gas, pepper spray, concussion grenades, and water cannons be held responsible.
Lieutenant Governor Drew Wrigley said to the Fargo City Commissioners on Monday that reports of activists injured by law enforcement have not been substantiated. Excessive use of force by law enforcement is only commentary by social media, Wrigley said.
Road conditions
North Dakota Department of Transportation Public Information Officer Jamie Olson said Highway 6, the only main road leading into Standing Rock, is mostly cleared, but high winds are forcing snow back onto the roadways in some areas.
“There’s certainly an improvement over the last couple of days,” Olson said. “They’re all drivable, but there’s still going to be some areas where there will be snow and ice. It’s not a perfect road.” She advised to slow down, don’t use cruise control, and be alert. Road conditions can be found on a travel information map at www.dot.nd.gov.
Standing Rock’s resolve is “stronger than ever,” more arrests in Bismarck, and a North Dakota sheriff is suspended
By C.S. Hagen BISMARCK – Standing Rock and supporters have 10 days to move camps, or face possible mass arrests, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported Friday.
“This decision is necessary to protect the general public from the violent confrontations between protestors and enforcement officials that have occurred in this area, and to prevent death, illness, or serious injury to inhabitants of encampments due to the harsh North Dakota winter conditions,” U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Omaha District Commander John W. Henderson stated.
“Any person found to be on the Corps lands north of the Cannonball River after December 5, 2016, will be considered trespassing and may be subject to prosecution under federal, state, and local laws… any person who chooses to stay on these Corps’ lands… does so at their own risk.”
A “free speech zone” south of Cannonball River on Army Corps lands will be authorized.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers map of the area surrounding Oceti Sakowin
“Our tribe is deeply disappointed in this decision by the United States, but our resolve to protect our water is stronger than ever,” Standing Rock reported in a statement. “The best way to protect people during the winter, and reduce the risk of conflict between water protectors and militarized police, is to deny the easement for the Oahe crossing, and deny it now.”
Standing Rock further reported that the tribe’s stance on the Dakota Access Pipeline crossing the Missouri River at Lake Oahe less than a mile from the reservation was stated clearly in a meeting with DAPL representatives and the North Dakota Public Service Commission on September 30, 2014, more than two years ago.
North Dakota government agencies have reported frequently the tribe did not involve itself in hearings and discussions pertaining to the Dakota Access Pipeline.
“It is both unfortunate and disrespectful that this announcement comes the day after this country celebrates Thanksgiving – a historic exchange of goodwill between Native Americans and the first immigrants from Europe,” Standing Rock reported. “Although the news is saddening, it is not at all surprising given the last 500 years of mistreatment of our people.
“Although we have suffered much, we still have hope that the President will act on his commitment to close this chapter of broken promises to our people and especially our children.”
Standing Rock is currently planning if and how an exodus from Oceti Sakowin, or the Seven Council Fires camp will occur, Standing Rock spokesperson Sue Evans said.
“The timing of this latest action by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers is demoralizing and disrespectful for Native Americans and the millions of peaceful water protectors and supporters in America and across the globe who are standing with Standing Rock to protect the water and 17 million Americans downstream on the river,” Evans said.
Standing Rock is ready, however. Other camps exist in the area, and leadership is planning the tribe’s next steps.
The deadline brings back a similar deadline issued a century ago for attorney Chase Iron Eyes. On December 3, 1875, the US government issued a deadline for all Native Americans not on reservations to return to their areas of confinement, or else they would be considered hostile.
Turtle Hill, Cantapeta Creek, law enforcement has now stretched razor wire across the bank opposite Oceti Sakowin – photo provided by Digital Smoke Signals
“We are tired of the protests too,” Iron Eyes, who ran for congress this year, said. “DAPL is backing us into a corner. This is about standing up to Trump fascism, and we’re going to be considered trespassers on Army Corps land. We’ve seen what Morton County is capable of… they tell lies, but by the time we disprove them they’ve already been able to manipulate the public narrative and push that out to the world as truth.”
For instance, Morton County reported its use of water cannons to put out fires on November 20, but turned the same high-powered hoses onto activists in sub freezing temperatures because they feared activists might push through multiple rows of razor wire, cement blocks, hidden hedgehogs, and fully-armed police.
Morton County also reported Sophia Wilansky, who nearly had her left arm blown off the same night, was not harmed by law enforcement’s less-than-lethal armaments, but by an explosion from the activists’ side, even after many eyewitnesses came forward saying that Wilansky was first struck with a rubber bullet, and then targeted by a compression grenade while she was on the ground.
Iron Eyes calls for those involved to keep prayer and peaceful civil disobedience at the center of all direct actions, but he refuses to be intimidated
“If it’s too risky for Bismarck, it’s too risky for us,” Iron Eyes said. “We have to stand up. If a law allows for water to be poisoned or put our children’s future at stake, then that law has no moral or spiritual authority, and we should be within rights to stand up to that law. We have to be very, very clear about this; these are risks that we choose to assume.
“It’s easy to be neutral when it’s not your family at risk,” Iron Eyes said. “We must always fight for the democracy we want.”
Additionally on Friday, Governor Jack Dalrymple granted McKenzie County Commissioners’ request to remove Sheriff Gary Schwartzenberger from office after the state attorney general’s office investigated him, according to state news outlets.
“We are now witnessing the first action against local law enforcement tonight for their abuses to peaceful water protectors,” Evans said.
Pig head authorities report anti DAPL activists carried into Bismarck on Thanksgiving Day – photo provided by Morton County Sheriff’s Department
In October, the McKenzie County Commissioners asked the governor to remove the sheriff from office, citing an alleged workplace culture of bullying and retaliation, according to press reports. Schwartzenberger will be allowed a hearing before the governor makes a decision to make the suspension permanent.
In 2015, two other deputies from McKenzie County Sheriff’s Department were allegedly involved in criminal activities, according to the Bismarck Tribune. Corporal Travis Batemen faces a felony charge of reckless endangerment, and Detective Michael Schmitz was charged with two counts of giving false information to law enforcement.
The day after Thanksgiving, 33 more arrests were made by Bismarck police at Bismarck’s Kirkwood Mall outside the Target entrance, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department. The total number of activists arrested since early August is 561.
The McKenzie County Sheriff’s Department is one of the agencies involved against activists at Standing Rock. Nearly 1,300 people have assisted from 25 North Dakota counties, 20 cities, and nine states, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department.
Family speaks out: “I died a thousand deaths” victim’s father says
By C.S. Hagen
OCETI SAKOWIN – The woman who nearly had her arm blown off Sunday night at the Backwater Bridge standoff is in stable condition, according to the Standing Rock Medic Healer Council.
Sohpia Wilansky, 21, from New York, was hauling drinking water to activists near the front line when a concussion grenade thrown by law enforcement hit her left arm and exploded, according to medic reports.
(Graphic) Sophia Wilansky with arm nearly blown off. Father, Wayne Wilansky, said during interview that she had been at Oceti Sakowin for three weeks, and planned to stay no matter how cold the winter weather becomes. Wilansky has undergone surgery, but more surgeries are required. “It’s now my fight too,” Wayne Wilansky said. – photo provided by Keven Gilbertt
Law enforcement denies the accusation, claiming a Coleman propane explosion wounded Wilansky. “There was an explosion behind in the protester area, we don’t know where it came from but it wasn’t law enforcement,” Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said.
“These statements are refuted by Sophia’s testimony, by several eyewitnesses who watched police intentionally throw concussion grenades at unarmed people, by the lack of charring of flesh at the wound site and by the grenade pieces that have been removed from her arm in surgery and will be saved for legal proceedings,” the Standing Rock Medic Healer Council press release stated.
Activist standing under a shower in sub-freezing temperatures – photo by Rob Wilson Photography
The explosion destroyed Wilansky’s radial and ulnar arteries, and shattered her radius, according to medic reports. “All her muscle and soft tissue between her elbow and wrist were blown away. The police did not do this by accident – it was an intentional act of throwing it directly at her,” Wilansky’s father, Wayne Wilansky, said.
Medics also claimed police were shooting people in the face and groin areas intending to cause as much damage as possible.
“She will need multiple surgeries to try to gain some functional use of the arm and hand. She will be, every day for the foreseeable future, fearful of losing her arm and hand,” Wayne Wilansky said. “There are no words to describe the pain of watching my daughter cry and say she was sorry for the pain she caused me and my wife. I died a thousand deaths today, and will continue to do so for quite some time.”
Injury reports stemming from Sunday night and early Monday morning’s standoff at Backwater Bridge climbed to 300, according to medic reports. “These 300 injuries were the direct result of excessive force by police over the course of 10 hours. At least 26 people injured had to be evacuated by ambulance to three area hospitals.”
Riot police spray activists at Backwater Bridge – photo by Rob Wilson Photography
Some of the additional injuries included an elderly man who lost consciousness, but was revived, a young man who suffered a grand mal seizure, a woman who was shot in the face by a rubber bullet, a young man shot in the abdomen by a rubber bullet who was vomiting blood, a young man shot in the back near the spine by a rubber bullet, and multiple fractures, according to medic reports.
Law enforcement said late Monday night they received no reports of any activists injured.
The front line separated with coils of razor wire – photo provided by Rob Wilson Photography
During a press conference, Kirchmeier added that Backwater Bridge is deemed unsafe, that the trucks were purposefully left blocking the Highway 1806, and investigators will not inspect the bridge until activities have calmed down.
“We can use whatever force necessary to maintain peace,” Mandan Police Chief Jason Ziegler said. He stated the use of water on activists in sub-freezing temperatures was necessary, and that law enforcement would use the same tactics again.
“It was effective, wasn’t it?” Ziegler said.
A total of 528 individuals have been arrested on charges stemming from the DAPL controversy since early August, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department.
Frozen water at Backwater Bridge – photo by Rob Wilson Photography
A ride along with law enforcement clarifies the state’s legal stance, tensions along DAPL’s front lines show no signs of abating
By C.S. Hagen BISMARCK – North Dakota Highway Patrol Lt. Tom Iverson’s police radio crackled to life; Standing Rock activists were caravanning toward Bismarck.
Troopers patrolling alongside the convoy stayed in constant contact over the radio, watching to see if the activists split up.
“We’ve lost the front part of the convoy,” a voice on the police radio said.
A bulletproof vest and a black cudgel were stowed in the cruiser’s back seat. Iverson’s government-issued Glock handgun sat holstered at his waist. During his 13 years with the Highway Patrol, he has drawn the weapon, but has never fired his sidearm in the line of duty.
North Dakota Highway Patrol Lt. Tom Iverson – photo by C.S. Hagen
“We had all sorts of commotion yesterday,” Iverson said. In North Dakota, the No DAPL National Day of Action disrupted commerce on the BNSF railroad for more than three hours. Pro DAPL supporters lined up against anti DAPL activists at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers center; law enforcement prepared for confrontation. Pro DAPL activists named the oil pipeline “Mary.”
“I’m always careful of the word peaceful,” Iverson said, “because a peaceful protest would require the sense of calm. There has been no calm in any of this.”
“They’re trying to slow down, it looks like they’re going down Memorial Highway, they’re eastbound,” the police radio said.
“10-4.”
“Right now the plan is to drive around a little bit, monitor things,” Iverson said. He shifted the cruiser into drive; a couple just chose Bismarck’s Capitol grounds as a good place for a domestic quarrel.
“Obviously, I am biased, but there is overwhelming support for law enforcement,” Iverson said. “That being said, you can support law enforcement and be anti pipeline. I see no problem with that, or why anyone would have a problem with that.”
One male was arrested at the scene of the domestic quarrel, and Iverson turned his attention toward more than 175 activists who were gathering at the Bank of North Dakota, and at North Dakota National Guard Fraine Barracks.
“I could care less about the pipeline,” Iverson said. He’s careful not to lump the activists together, after all, Standing Rock is a neighbor; many in Bismarck have friends and family there. After the controversy dies down, they will all need time to heal and work together again. He also understands the majority of activists at Standing Rock are peaceful, but adds there is a violent group bent on doing whatever it takes to stop the pipeline. His job is to protect everyone: the peaceful, the potentially violent, the civil disobedient, DAPL workers, the area’s citizens, and fellow officers. He prefers helping the asphalt’s stranded change flat tires to the recent front lines in Morton County.
“I truly enjoy working with people and helping people,” Iverson said. “I know that sounds cliché, but I get more of a kick out of driving up on somebody and helping them change their tires. Seeing the smile on their face that I’ve helped them out for the day. That’s something that people overlook at times: we are public servants. That being said, the laws of North Dakota were made by the people. We are charged with enforcing those laws, so it is a representation of the people as a whole.
“We don’t want to make arrests. Quite frankly, it is a pain in the butt and takes a lot of time.”
Although DAPL is nearly finished, Iverson’s instincts tell him the controversy may get worse before it gets better. There is no solid intelligence that predicts the violence will increase more than it has, “but it’s always a possibility. Personally I would say when the time gets closer to boring under the river, the final piece, it would only make sense that those who are committed to civil disobedience and violence will go to more desperate measures.
“Some will do whatever it takes.”
And the North Dakota Highway Patrol, along with other agencies involved, will do whatever they have to do in response, and for as long as it takes, he said. Departments involved are emotionally exhausted. Lines are strained. “This is very taxing on our officers, and from a budget standpoint, it’s costing taxpayers a large amount of money, but it is needed, and it is justified. But we will do whatever it takes to make sure that we are keeping up and providing adequate resources to do what the citizens of North Dakota expect us to do.
“Will it be stressful and taxing? Definitely.”
So far, Morton County Sheriff’s Department has spent more than USD 10 million taxpayer dollars since August. The state is paying for all assisting personnel, according to State Representative Mary Schneider D-N.D.
“But it’s time to figure out something else,” Schneider said. “I don’t know what that is, but the federal government should step in and find a solution to put this back together. It’s not fair to the local tribe and the local ranchers, farmers and taxpayers.”
Iverson has received many emails and telephone calls from people who feel law enforcement response has been brutal and unnecessary. Less than five emails, he said, were from North Dakota residents.
Frustrated
Today, DAPL’s drill pad, surrounded by deep ditches, a 15-foot tall HESCO bastion topped with razor wire, is poised like an army in ambush, less than a quarter mile from the Missouri River. Video footage from media outlet Digital Smoke Signals shows drill equipment has already arrived. Recently, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers temporarily denied Dakota Access Pipeline workers the easement needed to burrow under the Missouri River at Lake Oahe, a declaration called hypocritical by the Morton County Commission Chairman Cody Schulz.
North Dakota Capitol Building – photo by C.S. Hagen
“The scope of the federal government’s inaction is breathtaking,” Schulz said. “They have not only furthered the uncertainty of the situation and prolonged the outcome, but have at the same time refused law enforcement resources requested by the county and state to deal with a situation that is to a very large degree a federal issue. I find it more than a little hypocritical that the USACE and DOJ can stand up in a federal court and argue that all laws, regulations, rules, and policies were followed in their permitting of the project, and after a federal court agrees with them they backtrack and delay the final easement for more study.”
“We believe this is unnecessary and problematic delay that does nothing but continue to prolong the difficulty that we have as a state and as counties dealing with this great challenge,” North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple said. “Increases our costs and increases the risks of something happening that everybody will regret, and it is a mistake on behalf of the Corps.
“But as long as the federal government continues to allow protesters to camp on federal land near Cannonball without a permit, in other words to be there without permission, and as long as they fail to make a decision on the easement we believe this situation will continue. We have no choice…”
During a press conference, Dalrymple evaded a direct question if his office has contacted the U.S. Federal Marshal’s Office for assistance, but added that under normal circumstances the task of cleaning out the camps outside of Standing Rock would be a job for the U.S. Federal Marshals to lead. He said he has asked for federal assistance, but none has been forthcoming.
Dalrymple is frustrated “on every level,” he said. “The primary level where the frustration comes is simply the inaction on the part of the government, first the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. We have come to believe that it is not really just the Corps itself, but the Department of Interior, Department of Justice, they have co signed letters to us that this should be delayed.”
Nearly two weeks ago, Dakota Access Pipeline’s parent company, Energy Transfer Partners, said through its CEO Kelcy Warren it will begin digging under the river within 14 days.
If DAPL begins horizontal drilling, Iverson will make sure the work is shut down immediately and violators arrested, he said.
“We are not in DAPL’s corner,” Iverson said. “We absolutely would not allow something unlawful to continue. If that can provide a peace of mind to protesters out there, I am on record right now saying that will not be happening, so without the proper permits and easements, we would not allow that to happen.”
“We’ll keep an eye on them… found one of the security guys here and he’s broadcasting the message over his walkie-talkie…” the police radio interrupted. “They seem to be willing, at least open to assemble where we’re directing them to. I do see a bunch of guys with large knives on their belts, other than that just a lot of flags again.”
Despite Iverson’s instincts citing possible escalation of violence in the near future, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office began returning home on Thursday, November 17, in time for the upcoming winter storm, Cass County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Kim Briggeman said. Morton County officials said Cass County Sheriff’s troopers were home on Friday, but Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney did not return telephone calls for comment.
“All these DAPL days are running together,” Briggeman said. “But there was a time of need and our agency stood up just as many agencies did in North Dakota.” Briggeman would not comment on activities in Morton County, but did say Cass County Highway Patrol troopers responded again on August 15, and the department’s sheriff, who has been serving as Morton County’s operations chief since August was expected to return before the weekend. Additional troopers responded to a “code red” call from Morton County on the No DAPL National Day of Action, Briggeman said.
On the front lines
Iverson flipped through notes taken on the No DAPL National Day of Action. License plate numbers and states were penned neatly on a legal pad. Only one vehicle was from North Dakota, the rest came from California, Utah, and elsewhere.
“It shows you the out-of-state influence that is coming into the state of North Dakota,” Iverson said. “If there was that much support from citizens of North Dakota, I think we would be seeing a lot more vehicles from North Dakota out there.”
Activists on front lines facing off with law enforcement from four states – photo by C.S. Hagen
He’s been on the front lines. Recalled the day law enforcement evacuated the northern “Treaty Camp” on lands taken over by indigenous eminent domain declarations.
“As much as I would love to be the tough guy, it’s a fearful situation,” Iverson said. “It’s a surreal moment, where we are on the front line and are face to face with people who are trying everything they can to escalate the situation, such as lighting cars on fire, throwing logs, rocks, and sticks, and feces at officers. It’s a very surreal moment and we need to keep our composure.”
North Dakota has never seen nor handled such mass violence before, he said. The DAPL controversy is a historical event, and the eyes of the world are upon the Peace Garden State. The United Nations, President Obama, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have petitioned Energy Transfer Partners to voluntarily halt pipeline construction, but the company plows ahead, destroying burial grounds and sacred sites, according to a September 2016 lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and filed by former Standing Rock historic preservation officer Tim Mentz Sr.
Not once have law enforcement outnumbered the activists, Iverson said. Their nametags are now hidden because officers were targeted. Some received death threats; others were followed home.
“Early when this was going on, we had numerous officers being followed home, they had death threats because they were able to follow the officers home and gather information from the officers because they knew their names. This is something that is very concerning and we have zero time for that. Our families are all involved in this.” The practice of releasing police officers’ names is known as “doxing,” and is used by groups such as Anonymous, according to the Morton County Sheriff’s Department.
Now, Iverson always doubles back at night, watching for following cars. He rarely takes the same route twice.
“Could somebody say I’m fear mongering? Maybe. But where there are active threats out there, and the fact that some have been followed home…?” Iverson stopped to answer a call on the police radio.
“It’s an intimidation factor. My family and law enforcement families should not have to deal with that.”
Although those at Oceti Sakowin say they are unarmed, Iverson said they’ve found guns and ballistic armor.
“They’ve said all along they have no weapons. I would say to the person who says that to me: ‘can you vouch for everyone out here?’ It’s a bold faced lie.”
Iverson has also investigated social media, looking for additional threats. He’s found pictures of people posing with weapons threatening to come to Cannonball to “kill a pig,” he said.
“How do we not take that seriously? That’s the other part on being on the front line, knowing there could be a lone wolf in the group that may have a weapon, such as a gun, and would want to do harm to law enforcement. There are people who would love nothing more than to kill a law enforcement officer.
“In fact, it happened on Thursday, October 27, when a lady tried to fire on law enforcement. Knowing this is out there and we’re walking into that, that’s a stressful situation to be in.”
Red Fawn Fallis, 37, was charged with attempted murder after allegedly firing three shots at law enforcement officers during the clearing of the northern Treaty Camp, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department.
“Some would argue those are empty threats,” Iverson said. “I would argue, that those people are angry at the situation, and we all know that law enforcement has been killed, and nobody wants that happen.”
Red Fawn Fallis mug shot – Morton County Sheriff’s Department
With the recent rise in fake news posted often on Facebook, Iverson said that the rumors law enforcement sent aircraft to demoralize the activists, that officers have urinated on native belongings, that the departments involved are racists, are untrue.
“I understand I may not be able to convince everyone, but nothing could be farther from the truth. We probably have law enforcement who do not agree with the pipeline, but we, as law enforcement take an oath of office, and we take that seriously.”
Has law enforcement response been perfect?
“Nobody is coming out of this smelling like roses,” Iverson said. The relationship between Highway Patrol and Standing Rock historically has been good, he said, and after this controversy passes, he hopes it will improve.
The militarization of law enforcement is partly to intimidate, in the hopes that people will back down quickly from any situation. The use of Bearcats however, is for their own safety. He recalled the night at Backwater Bridge when Molotov Cocktails were thrown at the police line. His cruiser would have taken heavy damage, and put his life in jeopardy, he said.
“Do we need to be conscious of the aggressiveness of our look? Yes. But at the same time we need to have the resources available to us to keep us safe.”
At every event, law enforcement has repeatedly petitioned the activists to disperse before resorting to less-than-lethal weapons, Iverson said. Tear gas, Tasers, pepper spray, and rubber bullets are used at an officer’s discretion for crowd dispersal, and only after all attempts have been made to clear an area.
“But we get beat up on both sides,” Iverson said. Law enforcement is a primarily a reacting force during standoffs. “We’re always behind the eight ball.” Some people have condemned law enforcement actions for not arresting sooner, he said.
Activists and friends of Red Fawn Fallis say she is innocent – photo by C.S. Hagen
Bismarck Police Chief Dan Donlin agreed. “Bismarck, Mandan, we’re not used to this. There’s the ‘arrest them all’ advice that we get, and then there’s you’re being way too oppressive and too heavy handed because these people are being prayerful and peaceful. But we also know masked in that area… is violence and potential for violence. Law enforcement is caught in the middle.”
“They want you to draw blood,” Hollywood actor Mark Ruffalo said during a Standing Rock meeting on Friday. “They want to be able to crush you with their weaponry with their tanks with their armor with their might with their force, you’ve seen it, I’ve seen it. They want you to draw first blood so they can crush you. They lose when you remain peaceful.”
Police have seen peaceful rallies and violent rallies, but most rallies contain a mix of both peaceful and violent agitators, Donlin said. He also warned those supporting police, and those who are pro DAPL, to abide by the laws.
Throughout the Peace Garden State, there is large support for law enforcement, and Iverson feels that the citizens in the area are “sick and tired of violent acts and unlawfulness.” If the activists were all white, Iverson said there would be no difference in law enforcement reaction.
“It wouldn’t be any different,” he said. “To think we would do anything to demoralize my friends, neighbors, and family, is incorrect. Law enforcement is made up of the people, from all walks of life.”
Anthony Rogers-Wright, the police and organizing director for Environmental Action, stated racism is at North Dakota’s core and the DAPL controversy combined with Trump’s recent election, is bringing the hatred “out of the woodwork.
“This is not just about an environmental issue, this at its core is racism,” Rogers-Wright said. “This pipeline was slated to go through a majority white community, they rejected it and said basically said send it to the Native American area, let that be the sacrifice.”
Local negative reaction is worsening now that native peoples are standing up for themselves, he said. Hatred has been given a license. Incidents such as the one involving a local DAPL worker who nearly ran over activists and fired a sidearm six times in the air last week, will increase. “It’s emboldening them to basically point guns at native people at native women, and yell things out of their cars.
“This is an environmental issue, but starts on a platform of racism.”
Police sprayed mace and pepper spray intermittently at activists in Cantapeta Creek – photo by C.S. Hagen
The fine line
Standing Rock and the tribe’s supporters have the Constitutional right to protest, but Iverson recommends everyone to stay at Oceti Sakowin, or the Seven Council Fires camp to make their voices heard.
To protest peacefully is legal; civil disobedience carries consequences, Iverson said.
“Once that line is crossed, you are doing more harm than good,” he said.
In August when Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Dave Archambault II pushed his way through a police crowd and when horses charged the police line, forcing retreat, and in late October when buffalo were herded towards police flanks, the protest is no longer deemed peaceful, Iverson said.
Activists argue that Archambault’s actions were heroic, that the sudden appearances of wild horses, gold eagles, and buffalos, even winter’s slow arrival, are nature’s responses to an invasion of greed. A curse lies on those who dig up sacred grounds, Mentz said during a hearing at Standing Rock, and it is a curse coming from the earth, from disturbed spirits who will rise with vengeance to drive DAPL workers mad.
Civil disobedience is typically a conscious decision made by an activist, protester, or water protector to affect change. While law enforcement arrests those who break the laws, the civil disobedient are defying what they consider laws already broken by Energy Transfer Partners.
Author and long-time environmental attorney, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., visited Standing Rock this week and condemned Energy Transfer Partners saying their actions were illegal.
“The arrogance to break the law and then the ability to get away with it,” Kennedy said to a group of people outside of Oceti Sakowin. “Not only that but when people stand up peacefully to ask the law be enforced, instead of aligning itself with the law abiding citizens of our country, the power of this state, and other states are aligning themselves with the law-breaking entity.
“I know that what they’re [Energy Transfer Partners] doing is illegal. They’re trying to build this pipeline fast, so they don’t have their day in court.” A reporter asked Kennedy what was the point of protesting any longer now that the pipeline is almost finished.
“I told the reporter if you have people robbing a bank and they came in the bank with their guns blazing, and they tied up people and they started emptying the cash register, and the police then came, do you think the police would say, ‘well, they’ve gotten this far we ought to just let them take the money.’
“What’s the difference? What they’re doing is a crime, an environmental crime, and there are real victims.”
The fast tracked pipeline is an old trick approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a loophole in environmental assessment laws. “This company took this little loophole and tried to draw it around a 1,200-mile pipeline. It’s called segmentation, it’s an old strategy, a device of chicanery.” By segmenting the pipeline route into small sections for approvals nullifies the need for a full environmental impact assessment along the entire route. A full assessment would certainly be denied, Kennedy said.
The pipeline will produce the same amount of carbon as 29 coal burning factories, he said.
“They use a flim-flam to break the law, and now when peaceful protesters say they want to see a cost benefit analysis, the company says no we’re not going to do that. This pipeline is not going to benefit the American people, it will benefit a few billionaires like Donald Trump, and it’s going to make them richer by impoverishing the rest.”
Another argument made by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is that the pipeline is on lands that belonged to them under the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie. Their eminent domain declaration at the northern Treaty Camp was on lands that belonged to the tribe until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took the land away after devastating floods incurred by the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program from 1944. More than 200,000 acres of Indian land was flooded because of the project, effectively impoverishing many within Standing Rock tribe whose old homes are at the bottom of Lake Oahe, where the Dakota Access Pipeline plans to run.
Iverson understands the validity of Standing Rock’s claims to their homeland, but such issues are for the courts, not for the police, he said. Trespassing will always be trespassing, he said.
Criteria for conducting a legal protest include obtaining a legal license. If a protest becomes disorderly, marches on private property, or disrupts a city’s function, the protest then becomes unlawful. No protests on private property are legal, Iverson said, unless, of course, permission is granted by the owner.
Staying at the main camp Oceti Sakowin is not good enough for many of the activists involved with Standing Rock. Every day DAPL construction is halted is considered a victory, and every time activists are able to reach DAPL equipment, construction workers must stop, Iverson said.
“I understand that at times they are able to halt or stop construction,” Iverson said. “So in a sense, they have been successful. But, just because you believe in something so strongly, that doesn’t give you the right to engage in illegal activities. We as a society cannot accept that.
“My recommendation is to remain peaceful and prayerful and to conduct those activities within the areas they have been allowed to camp in. They’ll claim they won’t be able to have their voice heard from there, but that’s not true. There are many, many media who go down there on a daily basis.”
The Dakota Access Pipeline controversy remains in limbo; both sides say there is a front line, and both sides believe their fight is right. Activism against the pipeline will continue; law enforcement will keep making arrests. All sides involved are not willing to capitulate, even on the eve of another Dakota winter as the “black snake” slithers toward the Missouri River.
Oceti Sakowin or the Seven Council Fires camp – photo provided by Morton County Sheriff’s Department
Recent Events
Thursday: An additional eight people were arrested after 130 activists marched on Bismarck’s Wells Fargo main office. Six activists made their way into the William Guy Federal Building as well, locked arms, and refused to leave, Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported.
Thursday: Activists released the name of a Bismarck police officer, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department, and the North Dakota Legislative Management voted 10 – 3 to forego formal events, including a State of the Tribes address, due to security reasons surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline, according to North Dakota Legislative Management.
Thursday: Internationally, on November 17, Norway’s largest bank, DNB, sold its assets in the Dakota Access Pipeline, according to Greenpeace Norway. Its decision came after the bank received 120,000 signatures urging the bank and other financial institutions to pull finances from the project.
Friday: More than 130 felony charges against activists dismissed by Morton County courts.
Friday: Morton County Sheriff’s Department condemned Oceti Sakowin, saying that activists’ attempts at winterizing break federal guidelines. “Inhabitants are fortifying their encampment by constructing temporary and permanent structures without a permit,” Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said. The North Dakota Department of Health activated a low power radio transmitter that operates at 1620 AM, which will be transmitting public health, safety, and other information near to Oceti Sakowin.
A total of 486 people have been arrested in connection with the DAPL controversy since early August, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department. A total of 1,287 officers from 25 counties in North Dakota, 20 cities, and nine states, which include Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, have assisted Morton County during the DAPL controversy, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department.
Hundreds defy DAPL in Fargo, activists march on man camps in Mandan
By C.S. Hagen FARGO – From San Francisco to Washington D.C., Maine and Massachusetts to Arizona, Mandan to Fargo, tens of thousands of activists marched against the Dakota Access Pipeline on Tuesday in a nationwide call to action initiated by the Standing Rock Sioux.
The No DAPL National Day of Action was issued before a long-awaited victory for the Peace Garden State tribe and supporters when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers temporarily denied Energy Transfer Partners the rights to drill under the Missouri River at Lake Oahe on Monday. Energy Transfer Partners has less than one week to make good on its vow made approximately eight days ago to begin drilling under the river.
The leader behind the pipeline is confident that under President-elect Donald Trump his company will finish the job, according to an interview with Kelcy Warren on CBS This Morning last week. “We will get this easement and we will complete our project,” Warren said on CBS This Morning. Trump holds minor holdings in Energy Transfer Partners, and Warren invested USD 103,000 into Trump’s presidential campaign. Warren also stated in the CBS This Morning interview that it is naïve to think Standing Rock and the tribe’s supporters will stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, and that he is ready to reimburse the state of North Dakota for the millions various agencies have spent during the controversy.
Namarie Dansuri-Keating – “When I heard something was going on in Fargo, I was like I am totally there”- photo by C.S. Hagen
In between Fargo and Moorhead, the Minnesota Public Interest Research Group or MPIRG, organized a rally against the Dakota Access Pipeline over the Red River of the North on the Veterans Memorial Bridge. Approximately 200 people from both sides of the river joined the National Day of Action rally. Many waved banners saying “No DAPL” during rush hour traffic. Cars honked in response. Only a few pickup trucks revved their engines loudly while driving by.
Police officers did not order the activists from the bridge. No streets were cordoned off to the public. No tear gas or pepper spray was used. No rubber bullets were fired. During the 90-minute rally one police car drove past.
“One of these days I would like to see us fill the whole bridge,” Willard Yellowbird said. Yellowbird is a liaison for the Native American Commission and has traveled to Standing Rock before. He’s seen the front lines, and hopes one day the tribal flags and flags from across the world will come to the Peace Garden State’s largest city to support Standing Rock.
“Here we are, just a support group in a spiritual way,” Yellowbird said. “They’re the front line people, we’re here to support them through financing, through prayer, through energy.
“We send them all our strength and spirit and energy from here.”
Activists cheering on Veterans Memorial Bridge – photo by C.S. Hagen
Elizabeth Arroyo, from Moorhead, plans on visiting Standing Rock in December to assist a Nicaraguan group with translation work. She took a stand on Veterans Memorial Bridge because she’s worried about the native heritage and their sacred sites becoming rubble, she said.
“It’s the weak who always suffer,” Arroyo said. “America should be an example for the rest of the world to follow.”
Jonathan Taylor (right) and Adam Heckathorn hold up a sign during the National Day of Solidarity with Standing Rock – photo by C.S. Hagen
Most people wanted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to shut DAPL down permanently, but they also realized if that wasn’t an option, a reroute should be considered. Some like musician and sportsman Iron Ike, hopes oil never flows through the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Everyone who gathered Tuesday evening was concerned about how the Native Americans and supporters are being treated.
“I’m just appalled at the level of unnecessary violence,” Adam Heckathorn, from Moorhead, said. “North Dakota really needs to make progress. This is what a third-world country does, and that’s what I see over there.
“If their complexion was a little paler, I doubt they would be shooting rubber bullets.” He helped friends hold up a cardboard sign that read, “Dalrymple spent $10M on DAPL Law Enforcement.”
“Look at us here today,” Heckathorn said. “Nobody is shooting at us.”
Namarie Dansuri-Keating and her friends follow the controversy in the news. Some think the pipeline should be rerouted; other friends want the pipeline gone for good, but all her friends, she said, believe Native Americans are being mistreated.
Activists on Veterans Memorial Bridge – photo by C.S. Hagen
Two hundred miles away in Mandan a very different scene unfolded along the BNSF railroad track near an oil workers’ man camp. A group calling themselves the “Black Snake Killers” and other supporters carried a message to the camp: “No more stolen sisters.”
Activists spoke from megaphones, describing how the rise of man camps in western North Dakota have coincided with a parallel increase in meth addicts, crime, murder, and human trafficking on indigenous reservations.
Men took the front lines; women formed circles to sing and pray.
“We can’t have any more of our sacred women disappearing into these perverted man camps, all they care about is making money, satisfying themselves,” said Julie Richards, founder of Mothers Against Meth Alliance, or M.A.M.A. at Pine Ridge, South Dakota.
Her war pony, or car, has been smashed. Guns have been held to her head, she said, because of her work with M.A.M.A. Before an audience of hundreds, she spoke of days when the US Army sent smallpox into native tribes, and then quickly followed with trading liquor. She called it liquid genocide. Today, Native Americans are still threatened, but this time against methamphetamines. “Our reservations are a cash crop for these cartels,” she said. “Meth is poison. Chemical genocide. We will not put up with them anymore.”
Activist holding NODAPL umbrella – photo by C.S. Hagen
Richards’ daughter became hooked on crystal meth three years ago, she said, and Richards has been fighting the cartels and drug distributors ever since. She started M.A.M.A. to help raise awareness, and as a support group for families suffering from similar circumstances.
Morton County Sheriff’s Department’s description of the scene differed from the activists’ message. Nearly 400 activists shut down the BNSF railroad by moving a pickup truck onto the tracks, then slashing its tires and placing brush under the vehicle.
“A rope attached to the vehicle was soaked in kerosene and protesters attempted to ignite the vehicle,” Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported. “State troopers used an extinguisher on the rope to stop the fire.”
Activists hindered law enforcement from making arrests, Morton County Sheriff’s Department stated, which resulted in officers using less-than-lethal force.
Activists were shot with pepper spray, sponges, and beanbags, and one activist was shot with a Taser, Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported. Law enforcement made 29 arrests in conjunction with the No DAPL National Day of Action. The total number of activists arrested is now 478, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department.
Iron Ike holding sign as sun sets – photo by C.S. Hagen
Other marches in North Dakota included a rally at the Morton County Law Enforcement Center. Additionally, 50 people marched on the local U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office, and another 100 people on the United Tribes Technical College, Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported.
One of the arrests occurred at Turtle Hill, a short distance north from Cannonball after an activist allegedly trespassed onto U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ land, Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported.
In Washington D.C., at the front doors of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers headquarters building, Standing Rock resident Ladonna Brave Bull Allard said her homeland is now a war zone. She talked of the injustices her family and others experience on a daily basis.
“The police officers who have pulled out of this engagement with Standing Rock, I honor them,” Allard said. She is the daughter of a police officer, and said the events she has witnessed at Standing Rock are not honorable. “Stereotypes are still predominant in America today. Why is that? We are all just human beings. We’re asking for a basic human right to protect the water… and we have a right to live. And so today, we ask the Army Corps to stand by that, who is supposed to be protecting the water, the people, the environment, we ask them to stand against Dakota Access Pipeline.”
Activists along Veterans Memorial Bridge cheer as cars honk horns – photo by C.S. Hagen
Horizontal drilling equipment en route to Missouri River, ND Public Services Commission proposes DAPL fine
By C.S. Hagen
CANNONBALL – In two weeks, Dakota Access Pipeline promises it will begin drilling across the Missouri River at Lake Oahe.
In a statement released on national election day, Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company of Dakota Access LLC, said it was “mobilizing horizontal drilling equipment to the drill box site… Dakota Access remains confident that it will receive the easement for these two strips of land adjacent to Lake Oahe in a time frame that will not result in any significant delay.”
It is an announcement many believe is in direct defiance of President Obama’s recommendations to halt construction, and an effectual slap to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ face, which has not, nor has shown any signs of giving the easement Dakota Access Pipeline needs to legally cross the Missouri River.
“Dakota Access expects that its mobilization of equipment will be completed over the next two weeks and that it will commence drilling activities upon completion of mobilization,” the statement said. Dakota Access also reprimanded the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and demanded the Corps rescind an earlier statement that it was intending to halt construction.
“To be clear, Dakota Access Pipeline has not voluntarily agreed to halt construction of the pipeline,” the press release stated.
Last week, Senator John Hoeven R-N.D., arranged meetings in his Washington office with the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association to pressure the Obama Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to issue the easement for Dakota Access Pipeline, according to a press release from Hoeven’s office.
Activist and drone operator, Myron Dewey, said the DAPL drill pad is a quarter of a mile from the Missouri River. The area is completely surrounded by razor wire, and long, deep pits have been dug on both sides of the pipeline.
“The black snake head is there,” Dewey said.
“What we are looking at is a full on, militaristic protection of this pipeline,” Dewey said. “They’re not wasting any money on the expense on trying to protect this pipeline.”
Law enforcement on top of Turtle Hill, guarding south of the pipeline – photo provided by Morton County Sheriff’s Department
Tom Goldtooth, director for the Indigenous Environmental Network said legal cases are being compiled, strategies are being made. Standing Rock is not planning on sitting down and letting the pipeline through.
“We know the black snake is continuing to strike,” Goldtooth said. “Even though there have been requests from federal agencies and from the Army Corps for them to voluntarily not construct and to hold off, that’s not what the Dakota Access is doing. They’re going full steam ahead.
DAPL route entrance Highway 6 – photo by C.S. Hagen
“We really have to put our minds together, our hearts together,” Goldtooth said. “The power of prayer is what will stop this black snake. We will do what we can to create some headaches for the company, create some headaches for North Dakota, and just calling them to task on what they should do.”
Additionally, the North Dakota Public Service Commission proposed a USD 15,000 fine for Dakota Access LLC on Tuesday for potential permit violations after the company failed to notify the commission about finding cultural artifacts in the pipeline’s route in a timely manner, according to a press release made available by Julie Fedorchak, chairman of the Public Service Commission.
Dakota Access discovered four stone Cairns and other artifacts in the pipeline’s route in Morton County on October 17, and notified the Public Service Commission on October 27, according to Fedorchak.
“The company developed an alternative route around the site to leave it undisturbed,” Fedorchak said. “In the complaint filed today, Commission advocacy staff alleges the company failed to submit the required documentation and obtain the required clearance from the PSC [Public Service Commission] before resuming construction on the adjust pipeline route.”
Dakota Access has 20 days to respond to the complaint. Energy Transfer Partners’ spokesperson, Vicki Granado, did not return repeated emails and telephone calls. Repeated attempts were also unsuccessfully made to contact Colonel John W. Henderson of the Omaha District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for comment.
“You have guns, we have water.” – photo by C.S. Hagen
One Native American picked from crowd for arrest, four clergy while in prayer handcuffed on Governor’s front lawn
By C.S. Hagen BISMARCK – Nineteen clergy and activists were arrested Thursday evening in the Peace Garden State’s capital; 17 were sent to jail.
Activists said it was “just another day at Standing Rock.”
Fourteen clergy arrested at North Dakota Capitol, four more at Governor’s Mansion – Facebook photograph taken in Toronto TD Bank Building
The arrests occurred in Bismarck, 45 miles away from Oceti Sakowin, the Seven Council Fires camp near Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, at the Capitol Building, and at Governor Jack Dalrymple’s mansion.
Earlier in the day, more than 500 clergy from 20 denominations including Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and Jews, gathered at Oceti Sakowin to support Standing Rock’s opposition to the 1,172-mile-lone Dakota Access Pipeline. By afternoon, clergy and activists traveled to the Capitol Building, where 14 members of the clergy locked themselves down after being notified the governor was not present.
“Fourteen protesters were arrested inside the North Dakota State Capitol Building,” North Dakota Highway Patrol Lt. Tom Iverson said. “A group of protesters gathered inside the judicial wing entrance, formed a circle, and protested inside the building. They were instructed multiple times to leave and after failing to obey, they were arrested for disorderly conduct and criminal trespass.”
Activist praying near Highway 1806 barricade – photo by C.S. Hagen
More than 50 activists and clergy from around the nation then traveled to the governor’s mansion. Four clergy walked across the street, knelt in prayer, and were arrested within minutes, according to videos taken at the scene. One Native American male was pulled from the crowd in a tactical attempt to disperse the crowd.
“A large group of protesters formed near the governor’s residence on the west side of Fourth Street,” Iverson said. “Three protesters walked across the roadway and gathered on the governor’s residence and failed to leave after multiple warnings.”
Four people walked on to the governor’s yard, Iverson later said, and one individual did return to the opposite side of the street.
“It was obvious they were there to be arrested,” Iverson said during a press conference. He went on to say that some of those who exercised passive resistance were childish, and acting with “extreme disgrace.”
Dalrymple made an appearance, activists reported in videos. Riot police and law enforcement surrounded those gathered, first telling them to stay on the sidewalk, then rescinding the order telling them to walk two blocks away.
A Catholic clergy asked the officer on video why out of a mostly Caucasian group standing opposite Dalrymple’s house, one Native American was singled out for arrest. The crowd began pleading with the officer to release the Native American arrested, and agreed to disperse if the individual was released.
“You guys assembled here,” said a law enforcement officer who did not give his badge number and was not wearing a visible nametag. “I want to protect your freedom of First Amendment, but I also got to protect everyone else’s freedom, but when people walked across the roadway and traffic had to be stopped, we have to do something about that.
“So I came over and I told you loudly, this is an unlawful assembly, and you have to disperse,” he said.
The officer in charge of the situation told clergy that he has been involved in protest actions for approximately 15 years. “I’m willing to compromise with you if you guys are going to compromise with me,” the officer said. “Sometimes to get people to disperse, the first person to get arrested, then the rest disperse, because they don’t want to get arrested…
“I’ll release him.”
At Cantapeta Creek – photo by C.S. Hagen
Earlier in the week oil was spilled on the Capitol Building’s front entrance, and a No DAPL sign was also left behind, according to Iverson.
Not including the arrests made Thursday, more than 416 people have been taken into custody since August 10 on resisting the Dakota Access Pipeline charges, Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported. More than USD 9 million of taxpayers money has been spent, and more than 1,245 law enforcement officials from four states, 24 counties, and 16 cities have assisted Morton County to defend the pipeline’s activities. In August, Dalrymple also called an emergency state, bringing in the North Dakota National Guard still active at checkpoints.
Clergy inside the Capitol Building rescinded the Doctrine of Discovery, and voiced apologies for hundreds of years of atrocities committed on behalf of organized religion, according to Native News Online. The Doctrine of Discovery, a claim to European legitimacy over indigenous lands, was a practice used by explorers and was a major influence in Manifest Destiny, a federal policy of taking land from Native Americans.
A rumor is circulating online that two law enforcement officers have turned in their badges after witnessing how prisoners were treated. This report remains to be verified.
Additionally, on Thursday, approximately 200 people gathered in Texas to demand the removal of Energy Transfer Partners CEO and oil tycoon Kelcy Warren from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Commission. No arrests were made. Warren was appointed commissioner for the Texas Parks & Wildlife Commission by Governor Greg Abbott in 2015. Warren recently contributed USD 455,000 to Abbott’s campaign, according to Vote Smart.
Texas demonstrators in Austin, Texas – photo provided by Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club November 3, 2016
Warren has also supported North Dakota politicians, and on Thursday was accused in a Texas Parks & Wildlife Commission meeting of disrespecting Native Americans by putting profits ahead of people, according to the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, an a national environmental advocacy organization.
Warren stated during the meeting that he didn’t believe he was digging up sacred sites along the Dakota Access Pipeline route, and that if he was, it would be “bad,” but he also agreed to meet with representatives of the Society of Native Nations over the issue, according to the Sierra Club.
On Wednesday, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department placed blame on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the day’s events at Cantapeta Creek, when dozens of activists were pepper sprayed while in the frigid creek waters. Native Americans and one journalist were also hit by rubber bullets after law enforcement destroyed a bridge activists erected crossing the creek.
“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requested the Morton County Sheriff’s Department to assist them in removing any trespassers who enter Corps land to the north of the main camp area,” Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported in a press release.
“As you are aware, this area is the location where the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) project has proposed to pace the pipeline under the Missouri River via horizontal directional drilling,” U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Colonel John Henderson said in a letter to Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier.
“The Corps of Engineers has not provided any permits or permissions for anyone to access that area of the federal property that we manage. It is an area that has not been opened for use by the public for recreational or camping purposes. As such, the Corps of Engineers would consider these individual to be trespassers.”
In the meantime, President Obama has decided his administration will wait and see how the situation at Standing Rock unfolds, but made mention that the pipeline may have to reroute.
Standing Rock and supporters march on Dakota Access, turned back by law enforcement
By C.S. Hagen
CANTAPETA CREEK – Activists defending water fought from inside a near-freezing creek Wednesday in a three-pronged attempt to gain access to Dakota Access Pipeline drill pad.
Early Wednesday morning, activists built a makeshift bridge to span a sixty-foot section of the creek, but law enforcement destroyed it, sparking another standoff.
Long shot at Cantapeta Creek – photo by C.S. Hagen
“Protesters are trying to gain access onto private property also known as the Cannon Ball Ranch,” Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported in a press release. “Law enforcement witnessed a group of protesters building a hand-made, wooden pedestrian bridge across Cantapeta Creek. Officers responded and ordered protesters to remove themselves from the bridge and notified them that if they cross the bridge they would be arrested.
Activist plunging into the creek – photo by C.S. Hagen
Activists chose to swim across, some standing in the chill waters for hours. Canoes paddled people back and forth. They formed a line along the creek’s bank, many with hands in the air, wrapped in space blankets for warmth, as law enforcement sprayed mace and pepper spray. Guns rose when anyone attempted to climb the muddy banks. The creek turned to a milky color from the amount of toxic sprays used to disperse the activists.
Activists at Oceti Sakowin, or the Seven Council Fires, are trapped; any access to the Dakota Access Pipeline has been blocked. Highway 1806 remains shut down. The police barricade and two DAPL truck skeletons block the highway on the north side of Backwater Bridge. While hundreds of activists attempted to cross Cantapeta Creek, more than 100 others faced off with police along Highway 1806.
The Cantapeta Creek, a tributary to the Missouri River, separates activists from the pipeline route. According to drone video footage, the 1,172-mile-long Dakota Access Pipeline has already reached the Missouri River banks, the United State’s longest waterway.
Activist at Highway 1806 barricade – photo by C.S. Hagen
Tristan Hartwell, an Arapaho from the Arapaho Red River Indian Reservation, said the water felt frozen. She emerged from the creek shaking. “The creator had an eye on me, and I’m doing this for all the people,” Hartwell said.
“Corporations have no right, we have the right to peacefully protest,” a Kansas schoolteacher named Lynne Hunter said. Sitting in a folding chair, umbrella in hand, she lectured law enforcement from the native side of the creek, “This is America. This is not Russia. You can back down.”
Activists doused bandanas with apple cider vinegar to ward off some of the sting from mace. Medics ushered in bottles of a milk of magnesia mix to help those hurting from the pepper spray and mace. Emergency vehicles responded to the standoff as well.
The air was pregnant with burning sage from smudging; pepper spray at times turned acrid on the tongue, leaving lips dry. Drums beat. Activists sang songs, cheering when someone volunteered to enter the cold creek. Some sat in the mud, hands folded in prayer. A third group attempted to draw law enforcement away by staging another action around the creek’s bend. One police officer fainted halfway through the standoff.
Andy Kader warming up – photo by C.S. Hagen
Andy Kader was given a hero’s ovation when he stumbled from the creek after staying in the water for more than an hour. He helped swimmers back and forth, made sure logs from the activists’ floating bridge didn’t impede progress.
Shaking wildly, wrapped in a space blanket near a roaring fire, medics reported he had a light case of hypothermia.
“I didn’t feel the cold because of the drums and the prayers of the people kept me going,” Kader said. One foot from the water, however, he couldn’t walk. Activists assisted him to a fire. Kader is a Mohawk, from the “People of the Flint” tribe. A large man, tattooed arms, he spoke quietly as he tried to sip water. His hands shook, making the sips difficult.
“Our water is so badly polluted from where I come from,” Kader said. “It’s already beyond repair. If I could do my little part to help my brothers and sisters from having their waters polluted as ours, it is the least I could do.”
As law enforcement began pepper spraying the activists in earnest, Pete Red Bear knelt along the native side and began a song on an elk flute. He didn’t play traditional songs, he played how the spirits led him, he said.
Pete Red Bear on elk flute – photo by C.S. Hagen
“They are very brave,” Red Bear said. “We’re all here to protect the water for all life.”
Adam Karls traveled from Sweden to assist Standing Rock. “For me this is like science fiction. This is another world for me, another planet.
“Here in this country they’re still talking about the history – make America great again, but for us, America was never great. You have to deal with your history. I have many white friends in the US, and they don’t care about this. They’re only talking about the drunk Indian, the lazy Indians, because they don’t know the history.
“They’re part of an organized structure that wants to divide everybody,” Karls said. “This is environmental racism.” Before his trip to the Peace Garden State, his friends said he was about to travel to the “Mississippi of the North,” he said.
Trump’s recall for the American Dream he sees as a joke. Many European nations are dealing with their racist pasts, for instance Germany, he said. “The American Dream works best for white rich people. I am so pissed off at my white American friends because they don’t care about this. They get angry when I talk about the past, the dirty past of the US.”
Kansas native Lynne Hunter lecturing law enforcement – photo by C.S. Hagen
The director general for the National Association for the Advancement of Indigenous People, United Nations Human Right IPO, Tushka Humoc, said he can only sit and wait for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and supporters to “do the right thing.
“We actually came out here to hopefully provide some remedy to this situation in an international venue,” Humoc said. For now, he can only take pictures; conduct interviews, and report back to the United Nations.
“The UN can’t do anything, because they’re US citizens by law,” Humoc said. “The moment they remove themselves from being US citizens by law, then the UN can step in and do something, because the UN has to protect the foreign nationals, whose lands are being occupied by the United States. As long as the United States has these people under BIA, they’re adhesion by Congress, so the federal government controls every aspect of their lives.”
He’s calling out for a deliberate change among indigenous people in the United States.
“They should immediately within 72 hours develop a new trust, submit it to BIA, nothing changes except the power. And now we can move these people [law enforcement] off these lands, it’s really that simple.”
Police sprayed mace and pepper spray intermittently at activists in Cantapeta Creek – photo by C.S. Hagen
Former Oklahoma Senator Enoch Kelly Haney, full-blooded Seminole and the only Native American to serve on Oklahoma Legislature, said Standing Rock’s stand against big oil has the potential to become “very dangerous.”
As an artist, he crafted a four-foot-tall bronze statue for the tribe, naming it “Standing His Ground,” and is based off the native Dog Soldier’s custom of “pinning” themselves off with sacred arrows when making a final stand, usually against greater odds.
Medics battle hypothermia and hurry to warm activist – photo by C.S. Hagen
“This is their last stand,” Haney said. “And I do hope this does start some kind of precedent in law.”
President Obama this week announced his administration was watching the Dakota Access Pipeline situation, but wanted it to “play out for several more weeks,” he said, but also stated future plans might include a reroute.
“Given the recent escalation of violence by protesters, letting the situation ‘play out’ is quite literally putting lives in danger,” Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported.
Some activists, frustrated by being trapped, said that perhaps lives is what it may take to stop the pipeline. An argument erupted among the younger generation activists after elders recalled the activists from the Cantapeta Creek.
Elderly native woman sprayed by mace, at medics – photo by C.S. Hagen
“Our warriors need to buck up,” an activist said.
“Are you scared to die?” another activist asked.
“No, I am not scared to die.”
“If they start killing innocent people you really think that the US is going to let them build that pipeline?”
“What’s your plan?”
“Let’s all go up there, let’s all go back up there.”
A bystander intervened. “If you don’t know what’s going on, go back to camp. We’re keeping them from working when we stand our ground. Let people do what they feel is right in their heart. Don’t have all this warriors fighting each other; that’s what they want. We have to keep the unity strong.”
Activist warming up after coming out of Cantapeta Creek – photo by C.S. Hagen
The Red Warrior Camp posted in an official statement said they are putting their bodies and lives on the line.
Activist praying at Cantapeta Creek – photo by C.S. Hagen
“If you live on this land, breathe the air and drink water, this is your fight too,” the Red Warriors Camp reported. The services date for the Dakota Access Pipeline is January 1, they reported.
“We are calling for two months of sustained waves of action targeting the Army Corps of Engineers, investors, pipeline companies, security firms, and elected officials who are behind this project. We need to hold these institutions, corporations, and individuals accountable and put pressure on them to stop this pipeline.
“Additionally, recognizing that we are being charged with illegal activities for simply protecting the water, we are taking back our power and charging the pipeline companies, banks, and individuals behind this project with crimes against humanity and crimes against Mother Earth. The Dakota Access Pipeline is in direct violation of the United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights, most especially in regards to the right to security of person, the right to not be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Oceti Sakowin at night – photo provided by Steve Gross
No county or state charges filed against DAPL mercenary, paper trail leads to private military security companies, prairie fire threatens Standing Rock’s main camp, and inmates locked in dog cages
By C.S. Hagen
BISMARCK – The man who dressed as a “water protector” and reportedly drove his white Chevy toward Standing Rock’s main camp, armed with a semi-automatic Colt AR15, is a mercenary for Dakota Access Pipeline.
Kyle Thompson from Facebook page
Kyle Thompson, of Bismarck, also known as “War Eagle” after a native naming ceremony ten years ago, according to a 2007 story published in the Bismarck Tribune, was arrested by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Thursday, October 27. He was an “armed agitator” who fired shots with his assault rifle, according to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Facebook page.
Thompson worked security for a company called Thompson-Gray LLC, according to paperwork found in his truck. The company’s legal trail, long and twisted, leads to private military contractors named Pathfinder Security Services/Consultant and AMGI Global Ltd. Co.
The Paper Trail
Insurance papers and an employee identification badge found in Thompson’s truck linked him to Dakota Access Pipeline, according to Dallas Goldtooth, campaign organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network. The truck was licensed to Thompson-Gray LLC doing business as Knightsbridge Risk Management, of Springfield, Ohio, according to the insurance papers. The description of operations listed at the bottom of the paperwork is to protect to Dakota Access LLC, its parent and affiliates, its officers, directors, employees, and agents.
Thompson-Gray LLC is an active company established October 27, 2015 in Cincinnati, Ohio, under Silverton Consulting International according to the Ohio Secretary of State. The company has no paperwork on file with the North Dakota Secretary of State. In Ohio, however, Thompson-Gray LLC’s business scope includes security consulting and management services for “any legal service.” The company is considered by some to be an emerging leader providing solutions to the Department of Defense.
Charles Graham Clifton is listed as the owner of Silverton Consulting International. The company is ten months old, and has an identical business scope as Thompson-Gray LLC, according to the Ohio Secretary of State. One online review of the company was that it is “very shady,” and “does not pay its employees on time.”
Knightsbridge Risk Management is a private security firm also owned by Clifton and headquartered in Dallas that primarily serves the oil and gas industry. Its registration with the Texas Department of Public Safety has expired, but it is listed as a guard, guard dog, investigation, and security consultant company. Knightsbridge Risk Management is also registered in Colorado, where it is in good standing and established by Barbara Colliton of Ohio.
Knightsbridge Risk Management is active in western North Dakota, according to 2015 media reports. Another inactive company Clifton is linked to along with Grady Emmons is Precision Risk Management Group, LLC, according to the Florida Secretary of State, however; Emmons is listed as the registered agent for Precision Risk Management Group out of Saginaw, Michigan established in 2006, according to the Michigan Secretary of State. Knightsbridge Risk Management’s Texas company license expired on June 30, 2016, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety, and it lists Clifton and Colliton as owners.
Clifton is also the owner of AMGI Global, Ltd. Co., according to the Texas Department of Public Safety, and Pathfinder Security Services LLC operates under its name. Pathfinder Security Services was dissolved in 2010 in Wyoming, and its parent company, Pathfinder Tactical Inc., was dissolved for failure to pay taxes in 2011, according to the Wyoming Secretary of State. Clifton is reported as the qualifying agent for both AMGI Global and Pathfinder Security Consulting, a company that specializes in oil and gas security, is a private military contractor reportedly active in the United Arab Emirates.
“For whatever reason, he has always used multiple companies and multiple names,” Emmons said of Clifton. “Whenever he gets a new direction, he forms a new company.”
Clifton also charged to train his employees as owner and manager of Castle Peaks Training Center – license also expired – according to Texas Department of Public Security. Clifton is further listed as the director of the Humanitarian Defense Inc., a non-profit security organization.
Emmons and Clifton have worked together in the past, Emmons said, in fact, they used to be friends. “We had a falling out about this Dakota Access debacle,” Emmons said. Emmons is the owner of Precision Risk Management Group, LLC, a security company that also provides investigative solutions. “He reached out to me when this contract came into his hands.”
They fought over tactics; Clifton’s tactics were far too heavy handed, he said.
“I could just see the writing on the wall, and once I saw the dogs and the way he was handling some things, it was one of the best decisions I made in my life.”
The security companies involved during the day of the attack dogs, and the recent DAPL security procedures on law enforcement’s flanks last week were illegal, Emmons said.
“It was an idiotic move, and way outside of standard practice.”
As private security employees they are allowed to defend themselves, establish a perimeter, ask and then direct people to leave an area. “But when it comes down to a violent encounter, you don’t have the right to get violent with them if you’re not defending yourself. The point of where you’re kidnapping people and things like that, you become the aggressor. That’s the job for the police; it’s their decision. On the security side, you’re becoming the aggressor, and generally speaking that is illegal.”
Emmons said he would have used a different approach to the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy.
“I certainly wouldn’t have used dogs, and wouldn’t have had employees out there with assault rifles and handguns. This isn’t 1955 anymore. Guns and dogs don’t have anything to do with a protest. There’s no place for dogs, and certainly untrained dogs.” He showed videos to friends pertaining to the day of the attack dogs, and noticed the dogs were not trained well.
“I’ve dealt with protests in my career, and trying to handle people like this with more and more levels of force, it’s just going to lead to more situations like this. These people have very strong beliefs, right, wrong, or indifferent,” Emmons said. “You can’t think you can hit them with hammer, or use a scare tactic and then think things will go your way.”
He has heard that G4S is active in western North Dakota. “If it’s true, it’s probably one of their umbrella companies.”
Activists on top of burned out DAPL machinery, fires still burning in gas tank – photo by C.S. Hagen
A long paper trail jumping state to state, a crooked path of registered agents, leads to the security company G4S Secure Solutions (USA) Inc., registered in Florida with Corporation Service Company listed as its registered agent list. Corporation Service Company is a worldwide leader for business, legal, and financial services, according to its website.
An employee search in the Texas Department of Public Safety shows workers jump from G4S or G4S Secure Solutions formerly known as The Wackenhut Corporation to companies such as Knightsbridge Risk Management frequently. Knightsbridge Risk Management security officers Joshua Paul Franke-Hyland and Robert Alvarado both worked for G4S in 2013 and 2009 respectively.
Standing Rock camp attorney Angela Bibens said she also has heard of G4S involvement in western North Dakota. G4S denied any of their employees are working along the DAPL line, according to the company’s communication director Monica Garcia, and technically, she may not be wrong. However, there are shadows that link the security companies involved in the Dakota Access Pipeline and G4S.
Activists on front lines facing off with law enforcement from four states – photo by C.S. Hagen
G4S, a U.K.-based security company, goes by many nicknames such as the “Chaos Company” in an April 2014 article for Vanity Fair, and as “spy for hire” in Tim Shorrock’s 2009 book Spies for Hire. Historically, G4S is hired by companies and governments to enter dangerous situations such as Nigeria, Israel, Colombia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and now, in western North Dakota, although in an extremely twisted and complicated route.
G4S has registered companies registered in North Dakota, according to the North Dakota Secretary of State:
G4S Compliance & Investigations, Inc., registered in 1997 in Bismarck
G4S Retail Solutions (USA) Inc. registered in March 2015 and located in Bismarck
G4S Secure Integration LLC, registered for protective and detective services in 2004 in Bismarck
G4S Technology Software Solutions LLC registered in 2010 in Bismarck for security and building management software and services
G4S USA, owned by G4S Secure Solutions (USA) Inc., had its license renewed in Bismarck in August 2015 and is authorized for security guard work and security systems consultation
G4S Youth Services, LLC, established in 2012 in Bismarck and authorized for juvenile facility management.
The G4S press office did not return telephone calls or emails related to whether their companies have security personnel at the Dakota Access Pipeline, or what if any is the relationship between the companies involved today and G4S.
All efforts were made to contact Clifton and the companies he owns; telephone numbers were listed as non-working numbers or had busy signals; Clifton could not be reached for comment.
The “Mercenary”
Thompson’s alleged attack against activists came to a halt on Thursday evening after he was stopped by a SUV when it smashed into the side of his car, activists and videos report. He was chased into a nearby pond waiving his weapon, and was later arrested by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Thompson’s description of events posted Sunday on his Facebook page, and his Facebook profile, raise more eyebrows than answers questions.
Mercenary Kyle Thompson, just before his arrest – photo provided by Steve Gross
“Three days ago on October 27th, I was in a situation in which myself and others were faced with the difficult decision to take another’s life or not,” Thompson said. “A decision in which most people are never faced with and I hope never will, a decision in which changes a person’s outlook on life forever.
“I’m not here to defend myself or the others who stood their ground on the opposite side, (opposite for some reason doesn’t sound like the right word to use, however it paints the picture for those who weren’t there), we both know damn well we did enough of it that day.”
Thompson was asked to take pictures of DAPL equipment on fire, he said. “So I attempted to go and do just that, nothing more nothing less.”
He primarily stayed on Highway 1806 until he was forced off the road. He said he was also attempting to leave the area “as directed by the protestors on 1806.”
“I drew out my rifle after my vehicle was disabled and over 300 protesters were rapidly approaching my location, a few had knives and were dead set on using those knives.”
He then retreated into the pond to escape being surrounded. He denied firing his weapon. “That rifle hasn’t had a single round pass through the barrel in well over three months, the FBI can confirm,” he said.
During the confrontation an activist fired a flare at him, and his truck was set on fire, he said.
“I’m not out there for the money, fame, or personal gain,” Thompson said. “I will never stop, at any cost, defending those who I care for and those who put their trust in me.”
His Facebook profile reports he works for Rock Point, a bar and grill, and he was a former “door kicker” for the U.S. Army. A December 2007 article published by the Bismarck Tribune reported Thompson returned from a 15-month tour in Iraq with the U.S. Army 1-89th, 2nd Brigade to a hero’s welcome. At a Bismarck airport former Three Affiliated Tribes Chairman Tex Hall also presented him with an eagle feather headdress, and he was previously given the name War Eagle at a naming ceremony.
“It meant a lot to me because of my heritage,” Thompson said in the article.
On Facebook, Thompson has liked pages such as Unicorn Riot, Native Lives Matter, and Young Americans for Liberty, but also liked Predator Tactics, a company that manufactures night hunting lights for outdoorsmen. He left the Army in 2013, and graduated from State University of New York at Oswego with a major in business administration, according to his Facebook Page.
But, according to documents found inside his vehicle, he also works for the Dakota Access Pipeline as private security. After activists cornered him in the pond, Bureau of Indian Affairs officers arrived and took him into custody. He was jailed in Fort Yates, bonded, and then released, according to Bibens.
Friends of his on Facebook inquired of his well-being. His reply was that he was fine, “Always, you know that.” He also thanked friends for defending him online. “I can only hope that this will open up some minds to what could happen when you push someone so far that you force them into doing something that cannot be undone. Luckily for them it was someone like me on that other end.”
“We are doing our own investigation,” Bibens, said. “It’s a little too soon to say, but there are some key witnesses who can give a truer version of what happened.” Bibens is also the ground coordinator for the Red Owl Legal Collective, and works with the National Lawyers Guild.
Bibens said there are loopholes when it comes to prosecuting such cases. Pending charges against Thompson must come from the federal government.
“White guy on the rez,” Bibens said. “This is a major crime, and reservations don’t have authority over major crimes. This is a felony; this isn’t a simple assault. Someone brandishes a killing machine, that’s a felony.
“But maybe it’s not so much of a thing if law enforcement that does have jurisdiction over this guy doesn’t pick up the case. There are predatory white men who go to the reservation and victimize… and they know they can get away with it because there is a huge loophole in the jurisdiction law. This is the same loophole in the jurisdiction of criminal offenses.”
“I’m not worried about this whole situation because I know that whatever happens will happen for a good reason,” Thompson said. “I will always be fine no matter what happens. If only this lesson reaches the ones who truly need it, then we will be able to call it a success.”
Kyle Loven, chief division counsel and media coordinator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation Minneapolis Office, was familiar with the incident, but refused to comment on Thompson’s situation, or any other aspects of the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy.
Morton County State’s Attorney Brian Grosinger did not reply to repeated requests for information on whether the county or any other state agency will be investigating or filing charges on Thompson. The North Dakota Secretary of State also did not return requests for information, and hung up the telephone halfway through a request.
Morton County Sheriff’s Department called Thompson a victim, and reported they were unable to confirm if any shots were fired. “The victim was instructed to get pictures of construction equipment,” Morton County Sheriff’s Department said in a press release. “In order to do so, the victim disguised himself so he would be able to gain access without being singled out as a construction worker.
“The man grabbed a rifle to defend himself, he retreated toward the Cannonball River and was pursued. No charges will be filed against this man as he was using the weapon to protect himself.”
Chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Harold Frazier said he will be seeking charges of attempted murder against Thompson.
Prairie fire east of Oceti Sakowin, or Big Camp – photo provided by Morton County Sheriff’s Department
Prairie Fire, Numbers, and Dog Kennels
Three days after Thompson’s arrest by the BIA, when law enforcement from four states violently cleared Standing Rock’s northern Treaty Camp, a fire ravaged the grasslands west of Highway 1806.
The fire was reported at 1 a.m., near Backwater Bridge, which is separated from the main camp, Oceti Sakowin, or the Seven Fires Council camp, by the highway.
“Mandan Rural Fire responded to the fire,” Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported. “However, due to the terrain, Mandan Rural was unable to access the fire.”
Winds swept the fire east, burning a large swath of prairie land owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The land formerly belonged to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe but was taken by the Corps after it was condemned. At 8:45 a.m., North Dakota National Guard units suppressed the fire. Black Hawk helicopters with 600-gallon water buckets assisted, Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported.
“For three hours they let that fire burn,” Bibens said. Her legal team, now fully staffed, is investigating the case as arson. “The hillsides are scorched. Somebody was talking about this was a controlled burn. Who does that at 2 o’clock in the morning?
“It was to cause fear and confusion. There’s video of someone with a flashlight walking along the ridge with fire following them. What does that tell you?”
More people than she can count reported injuries from Thursday’s events, Bibens said. “The numbers are stacking up. We’re taking instant reports. People are knocking on the tent before we open, and we’re there until 6:30 at night. It’s intense. It’s really intense.”
Treatment of the 117 people arrested on Thursday was “deplorable and illegal,” Bibens said. Activists were thrown into dog kennels at Bismarck’s airport; inmates’ forearms were numbered, an action many are comparing to the Nazi’s practice of tattooing Jews and others in concentration camps during World War II.
Activists hugging each other as law enforcement issue final warning to move – photo by C.S. Hagen
“Not only illegal, but dehumanizing to put people in dog kennels,” Bibens said. “They had this all planned out. People were denied their medication; diabetics were denied food in a timely manner, denied insulin. Just the medical neglect alone is illegal.
“We have a lot of people coming out of custody who have some stories to tell.”
Since August 10, 411 people have been arrested on charges related to resisting the Dakota Access Pipeline, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department. Most, if not all of those arrested have been strip searched before incarceration, according to Bibens and activists. One woman was left naked in a cell overnight for the viewing of male guards, according to Bruce Ellison, a long-term criminal defense lawyer and legal team coordinator of the Lawyer’s Guild Mass Defense Committee.
On Monday, the Morton County States Attorney’s office charged 37-year-old Red Fawn Fallis with attempted murder, among other charges, after she allegedly fired three shots at law enforcement on October 27, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department.
Since Governor Jack Dalrymple’s emergency declaration in August, the state has spent approximately USD 9 million of taxpayer’s money, according to the Morton County Sheriff’s Department.
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Dave Archambault II has asked for an official U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the actions of both law enforcement and Dakota Access Pipeline. His plea has been heard in Fargo and city leaders have echoed the call, asking for DOJ boots on the ground at Cannon Ball. Over the weekend, the United Nations and Amnesty International announced plans to visit the Oceti Sakowin to collect information and record testimonies, according to media outlet Indigenous American Network.
Molotov Cocktails, bridge burning, and activists say DAPL security fired weapon into crowd
By C.S. Hagen
CANNONBALL – One footstep at a time, law enforcement pushed activists south of their “line in the sand,” overrunning the “Treaty Camp,” and arresting 117 by early evening.
Approximately 250 activists held firm, singing native songs, burning sweetgrass and tobacco, against heavily armed law enforcement. Some chained themselves to approaching machinery. Others yelled back at an officer on a megaphone, who, according to the Indigenous Environmental Network, was telling activists to “stop fighting amongst themselves” and to “stop shooting arrows even if they were fake.”
Law enforcement entering “Treaty Camp – photo by Margaret Landin
By late afternoon, at least one activist was shot with a Taser in the face, activists reported; others were sprayed with pepper. By nearly 5 p.m., activist and medicine maker Sacheen Seitcham, of the West Coast Women Warrior Media Cooperative, was hit in the chest and in the knee by beanbag rounds fired by law enforcement, she said on her Facebook page. By 6 p.m., Seitcham reported law enforcement started throwing percussion bombs and smoke grenades. Shortly after 6 p.m., Seitcham reported two trucks were on fire, and Governor Jack Dalrymple reported the camp was cleared. Nearing 7 p.m., activist Francine Podenski reported that her 15-year-old nephew who had been shot off his horse was missing.
Nearing 8 p.m., activists started two fires on the Backwater Bridge, and are throwing Molotov Cocktails at law enforcement, the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services reported. Activists reported that a DAPL security employee shot at them with an AR15, the employee’s vehicle was overrun and burned.
“I’m standing here in front of tanks and armed police,” Seitcham said, “and they are advancing on us and trying to run us down. They almost ran an elder over.
“They say they don’t want to hurt us, but we don’t believe them. We’re making our stand for clean water.”
The North Dakota Department of Emergency Services reported one private person was run off the road and shot in the hand, and a woman who was being placed under arrest pulled a .38 caliber revolver and fired three shots, narrowly missing law enforcement officials. A total of ten shots were reported in the area, according to Amy Fong, public information officer for the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services.
The camp’s clearing day came one day after Hollywood movie star and activist Mark Ruffalo visited the site.
Militarized police prepare to enter “Treaty Camp” – photo by Sacheen Seitcham West Coast Women Warrior Media Cooperative
“You have a corporation and a state who’s working on behalf of a corporation to hurt our people. They’re militarized,” Ruffalo said to CNN. “This is not an emergency, this is not a national emergency. These are peaceful protesters.”
The company was asked weeks ago to voluntarily stop construction by the federal government and President Obama, and yet it hurries toward the Missouri River. “And Governor Dalrymple of North Dakota, if there’s blood on anyone’s hands, it’s on his hands.
“Let me tell you that people are really getting hurt there. It’s scary,” Ruffalo said.
By midafternoon, Humvees and other armored vehicles had infiltrated “Treaty Camp,” which is land the activists reclaimed on Sunday, October 23 under their own eminent domain actions. The land formerly belonged to the Cannon Ball Ranch, and was sold quietly to Dakota Access Pipeline, Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported. The purchase was a move some Peace Garden State officials deem questionable. DAPL crews are closing in quickly on the easement along the Missouri River, and although the U.S. Corps of Engineers has yet to give the oil company permission to construct on their lands, Kelcy Warren, Energy Transfer Partner’s CEO, has sworn repeatedly that the pipeline will be built on time.
Activists were resolute in not giving an inch of ground, but they were slowly pushed back. By 6:30 p.m., Dalrymple reported the camp was cleared. Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported activists shot twice at law enforcement.
“To the best of my knowledge we’ve had no serious injuries,” Dalrymple said in a press conference. “The situation has been well handled from start to finish. The really important point is that the sheriff’s office made it very clear that they were being asked to voluntarily go to a different location that is not private property. They had more than ample time yesterday and today to do that. So, those that did not go obviously did not intend to go and we had to deal with that as we have.”
“During the course of moving protesters south, law enforcement officers used a long range acoustic device (LRAD), which transmits a high-pitch tone and is used by law enforcement to disperse crowds,” Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported. “In addition, they they have had to deploy pepper spray due to protesters throwing projectiles at officers and refusing to comply with officer’s orders.”
For the activists, the “line in the sand” was their last stand.
Activist at the frontline – photo by Sacheen Seitcham West Coast Women Warrior Media Cooperative
An officer on the megaphone continuously shouted orders for activists to back up, not to approach officers or they would be arrested or sprayed with pepper. Some activists shouted threats, but were reminded to stay peaceful, stay in prayer. A bonfire was lit before noon, which halted law enforcement’s advance.
“The protesters are not being peaceful or prayerful,” Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney said. “Law enforcement has been very methodical in moving ahead slowly as to not escalate the situation. However, the protesters are using very dangerous means to slow us down. Their aggressive tactics include using horses, fire and trying to flank us with horses and people.”
Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier’s threats against the activists are not empty.
“Morton County has entrusted me to uphold the law and that is exactly what I intend to do,” Kirchmeier said. “Yet I am being asked by outsiders and millionaire Hollywood actors to let agitators and rioters walk onto private property, destroy equipment, and endanger lives. And, so-called environmentalists are asking me to turn my head and allow this to happen. We have patrolled the county and enforced the law because our number one priority is public safety, separating the unlawful actors from legal protestors.
Activist chained to steering wheel – photo by Sacheen Seitcham West Coast Women Warrior Media Cooperative
“This is not about the pipeline. This is not about those who wish to legally protest. This is about the rule of law.”
A message from Shailene Woodley, also a Hollywood movie star and an activist who was arrested by Morton County Sheriff’s Department, strip-searched, and plead not guilty this week to misdemeanor charges, called for support of Standing Rock.
“We must hold firm – those at Standing Rock and we around the planet. This is just the beginning. Not an end. They are losing. The peaceful protests are working, the hate and attacks of the police and military are turning more people against them each minute. We need to continue to document and share the stories as each emerges, even as we stand with Standing Rock.”
Police, National Guard march on barricade near Standing Rock’s Treaty Camp; activists hold the line
By C.S. Hagen CANNONBALL – Hundreds of heavily-armed law enforcement officials marched on activists at their “Treaty Camp” Thursday morning.
“Hold the line, be brave,” an activist called out.
A massive fire was set at the activists’ frontline barricade on Highway 1806. Thick black smoke billowed toward approaching police, halting their advance. Two more barricades were setup further south; the third built along a county road number 134 to prevent or slow down a flanking maneuver.
The law enforcement from “numerous city, county, and state agencies” arrived with a Bearcat, bulldozers, armored vehicles, and they called out to the activists, who refused to move. National Guard and Humvees were seen on nearby hilltops.
Activists versus the law near Cannonball at Treaty Camp
“Everyone move down, we will not hurt you,” an officer shouted through a megaphone. Attempts were made to negotiate. “Move south one hundred yards so we can put the fire out. Let’s start from there.”
The activists responded with a resounding no.
“Hold the lines. Hold the lines.”
“They’re going to hurt people,” a female activist said through her tears.
“Don’t be afraid,” another activist consoled.
The sonic gun blasted a second time.
“It hurts,” Dallas Goldtooth said. Goldtooth is a campaign organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network, and posted live feed to his Facebook page. He reported National Guard units were at the site; two Humvees were parked on a nearby western hill.
“They’re using signals to jam our connection,” Goldtooth said. He stood at the frontline barricade. Police to the west protected Dakota Access Workers, who were digging furiously toward the easement three miles away from the Missouri River. So far the easement has been declared off limits by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
North Dakota National Guard near Treaty Camp
Razor wire was strung along Highway 1806, overlooking the pipeline’s pathway, according to live feed videos posted on Facebook.
The activists defending the first barricade were prepared with earplugs, logs, and cars, tires slashed. They formed human barricades behind the bonfire, arms locked, refusing to move.
As of 1 p.m. Thursday, no arrests have been officially reported. Activists report arrests began around 2:30 p.m. Some activists were attempting to outrun DAPL security and police to lock themselves to DAPL machinery, according to the Sarah Sunshine Manning.
“Thursday morning at 11:15 authorities began taking steps to remove the illegal roadblocks and protesters trespassing on private property near Highway 1806,” a Morton County Sheriff’s Department press release stated.
The Treaty Camp is the site two miles from the Missouri River along Highway 1806 on land the Dakota Access Pipeline formally owns. On Sunday, October 23, activists reclaimed the land under their own declaration of eminent domain. The Treaty Camp is located on the Dakota Access Pipeline right of way on property that was formerly known as Cannon Ball Ranch, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department.
Activists also responded to Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier’s declaration that the Standing Rock’s position was unlawful.
“They say ‘You can’t just come in and take over someone’s land…’” a Facebook post from the Sacred Stone Camp reported. “We were here first. And you picked the wrong place for this battle. We are Lakotas/Dakotas, the last warriors who stood up to the U.S. government.”
From New York, the tribe’s chairman also delivered a message of support.
“The camp is at the point where the pipe has to cross Highway 1806, and the law enforcement, the government, and the state is saying you cannot occupy that space,” Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Dave Archambault II said. “It’s causing a potential conflict. The company, Dakota Access Pipeline, is pressing on forward, even though there was an ask by the three agencies, departments of Army, and Interior, Justice. They continue to construct no matter what.
DAPL crews hurrying construction toward easement area, nearly three miles from Missouri River
“What we’re seeing is a lot of law enforcement presence, I would say hundreds of law enforcement. Morton County has called in resources from all over.”
“I can’t stress enough,” Kirchmeier said. “This is a public safety issue. We cannot have protesters blocking county roads, blocking state highways, or trespassing on private property.”
Despite the inconveniences to local residents, many ranchers and farmers have stopped by to offer the activists assistance, many activists report. Some have brought wood for fires; others have expressed respect for the cause.
Morton County State’s Attorney has also filed charges against two activists who allegedly attacked Phelim McAleer and crew on October 18. McAleer says he is a journalist, but is known as a pro-oil public relations agitator, and “professional character assassin.” The suspects, Kareen Lewis and James White, face class C felony charges.
Militarized police advance on Highway 1806 blockade; confrontation imminent
By C.S. Hagen
CANNONBALL – Energy Transfer Partners is attempting to pull Morton County’s legal strings. A statement released by the Texas-based company on Tuesday demanded activists to vacate company-owned lands, or face the consequences.
“Lawless behavior will not be tolerated,” the company stated. “Alternatively and in coordination with local law enforcement and county/state officials all trespassers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and removed from the land.”
In a move many call unlawful and controversial, Dakota Access LLC, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners, quietly purchased 6,000 acres of the Cannon Ball Ranch on September 22, claiming it was needed as a buffer zone for their 1,172-mile-long oil pipeline.
Activists’ blockade on Highway 1806 Wednesday, October 26 – photo provided by Morton County Sheriff’s Department
On Sunday, hundreds of activists moved tipis and tents directly into the pipeline’s pathway, and under their own eminent domain laws reclaimed the land in question that was originally theirs according to the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. Devastating national disasters that came after the 1944 Pick-Sloan Plan for building flood controlling dams along the Missouri River eventually led to a condemnation suit in 1960 that gave the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers title to lands in the immediate area.
The Cannon Ball Ranch was established in 1883, and was inducted into the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1999. The 20 parcels of the Cannon Ball Ranch previously owned by David and Kathy Meyer, are lands the Standing Rock Sioux claim are sacred, filled with burial grounds, and also where attack dogs led by DAPL security personnel bit at least half a dozen activists.
Seven archaeologists from the State Historical Society of North Dakota conducted a pedestrian survey of a portion of the area, and determined there were no human burial grounds on the land.
“The inventory recorded ten locations where rodent-to-bovine-sized mammal bone fragments and teeth were present,” Chief Archaeologist Paul Picha said in a September 21 report. “No cultural material was observed in the inspected corridor. No human bone or other evidence of burials was recorded in the inventoried corridor.”
An area map provided by the State Historical Society of North Dakota shows the area in question, somewhere between the Meyer’s former land, now purchased by DAPL, its proximity to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ land, and the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.
Recently, Hollywood movie stars, including Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, and Shailene Woodley, who plead not guilty on Wednesday to misdemeanor charges in Morton County District Court, have been speaking out against the Peace Garden State’s tactics.
Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, and Shailene Woodley are all campaigning against big oil.
“This just has to stop,” Ruffalo said in an Indigenous Environmental Network live feed after being turned away by police barricade near Cannonball. “We’re going to win. I just want to say for anyone with money in this pipeline better start pulling that money out now, in another couple of months they’re going to lose their shirts, because we’re going to kick the crap out of this thing. In a peaceful way.”
“Not only is it an environmental, but it’s a problem in terms of social justice,” Sarandon told activists at a rally in Los Angeles.
Rev. Jesse Jackson
Reverend Jesse Jackson also traveled to North Dakota Wednesday to show support to the activists. “I am proud to stand with the people of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to say enough is enough,” Jackson said in a press release. “I ask the government to keep its promises, to protect the sacred sites of the tribe and the water that million of Americans count on to survive.”
“We have the resources, we have the manpower to go down and end this right now. We have that ability,” Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney said. “But what we did today was go down and reach out to the camps.”
Laney, who serves as Morton County Sheriff’s Department operations chief, said he approached the activists at the roadblock, and told them to clear the highway, go back to the Seven Council Fires camps, because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers doesn’t have a problem with them being there. “And then let’s talk.
“They said absolutely they’re not going to leave, they’re going to draw their line in the sand at 1806. They’re going to make their stand there.”
“Our message was simple, remove the illegal road block, move off the private property, and return to the camp on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers property,” Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said. “Unfortunately, I am very saddened by the response of the protesters’ spokesperson. He repeatedly told our group they we’re ‘not moving’ and that they would hold their ground at the north encampment which is on private property.”
Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney
He said the Morton County Sheriff’s Department is being depicted as the jack-booted thug, looking for confrontation. “But we don’t want a confrontation. We’re trying everything we can to not have to do that. We’re having our hand forced, and at some point rule of law has to be enforced. We have to defend rule of law.”
Kirchmeier has been in contact with tribal leaders, Laney said. The two-month long misconception that Kirchmeier took ceremonial peace pipes for pipe bombs is wrong. Tribal leaders, Laney said, told Kirchmeier that pipe bombs were being made in the camp.
Since early August, nearly 270 people have been arrested, many of whom were stripped, on misdemeanor and felony charges.
Calls for U.S. Department of Justice to halt pipeline, investigate the law
By C.S. Hagen
CANNON BALL – The head of state, chief, and chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Dave Archambault II, called upon the U.S. Department of Justice for an injunction against the Dakota Access Pipeline on Monday morning.
Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II – photo by C.S. Hagen
“We are disappointed to see that our state and congressional delegations and Governor Jack Dalrymple have failed to ensure the safety and rights of the citizens engaged in peaceful protests who were arrested on Saturday,” Archambault said in a statement. “Their lack of leadership and commitment to creating a dialogue towards a peaceful solution reflects not only the unjust historical narrative against Native Americans, but a dangerous trend in law enforcement tactics across America.”
In total, 269 activists have been arrested since early August, nearly half of them taken into custody on Saturday and spread to jails across the Peace Garden State to spend the weekend behind bars.
“Today’s situation clearly illustrates what we have been saying for weeks,” Morton County Sheriff Kirchmeier said after the mass arrests. “That this protest is not peaceful or lawful… this is not about the pipeline. This is not about the protesters. This is about the rule of law.”
Activists are not protesting, they’re protecting, Standing Rock Sioux leaders said.
More than 900 law enforcement officials from 17 counties, 12 cities, and four states are currently using public funds to protect Energy Transfer Partner’s private project, known as DAPL. Wielding batons, automatic weapons, driving in armored vehicles, and spraying mace, with the North Dakota National Guard at their backs, and Dalrymple’s declaration of an emergency state in August, expenditures are rising – fast.
Archambault condemned Kirchmeier’s tactics.
“The militarization of local law enforcement and enlistment of multiple law enforcements agencies from neighboring states is needlessly escalating violence and unlawful arrests against peaceful protestors at Standing Rock,” Archambault said. “We do not condone reports of illegal actions, but believe the majority of peaceful protesters are reacting to strong-arm tactics and abuses by law enforcement.
“Thousands of water protectors have joined the tribe in solidarity against DAPL, without incident or serious injury. Yet, North Dakota law enforcement has proceeded with a disproportionate response to their nonviolent exercise of their First Amendment rights, even going as far as labeling them rioters and calling their every action illegal.”
Lawyers are being denied access to prisoners, camp attorney and ground coordinator Angela Bibens said. Many, if not all activists, including Archambault, have been strip-searched, and her firm calls the practice unwarranted and degrading.
“For these reasons, we believe the situation at Standing Rock deserves the immediate and full attention of the DOJ. Furthermore, the DOJ should impose an injunction to all developments at the pipeline site to keep all citizens – law enforcement and protestors – safe. The DOJ should be enlisted and expected to investigate the overwhelming reports and videos demonstrating clear strong-arm tactics, abuses and unlawful arrests by law enforcement.
“Preventing government agencies from stripping protestors and tribal members of their constitutional rights to organize and protect our sacred places and water is paramount to both U.S. citizens and tribal sovereignty.”
Dozens of Standing Rock activists undergo debasing treatment; “fake journalists” stir up trouble, and North Dakota politicians pressure Army Corps to speed the pipeline
By C.S. Hagen CANNONBALL – An ancient, bloodless war fuels the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy. It’s a war of words and aged rhetoric; a war of cultures beckoning back the “good old days” of Manifest Destiny and settlers versus the Indians.
Fear the scalp-taking Indian, North Dakota government appears to be saying; save the peaceful colonial homesteader. Little is ever mentioned by official sources about the Native Americans’ side of the story. Their version is simply not as important when compared to finishing the USD 3.8 billion, 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline.
In 150 years, little has changed, according to activists, on how federal and state governments treat Native Americans. Newspapers spread fear, espoused by the law, handed down by politicians who are financially invested into the Bakken oil fields, whose campaigns this election year do those same companies fund, Chase Iron Eyes, the Democrat Party challenger for state congress, said.
The U.S. Cavalry never went away, they merely changed uniforms. More than 900 law enforcement officials from 17 counties, 12 cities, and from four states using public funds have been involved in protecting Energy Transfer Partner’s private project.
“We’re choking on hate and nobody seems to care,” camp attorney Angela Bibens said.
Law enforcement versus activists on Dakota Plains Oct. 22 – photo provided by Morton County Sheriff’s Department
The battle for water and land led by the Standing Rock Sioux against DAPL is far from over, and media on both sides of the controversy have woven stories from legends, half-truths, and hearsay. Tempers flare as DAPL nears the Missouri River, and militarized law enforcement show no pity.
In the beginning there were pipe bombs, which turned out to be ceremonial peace pipes. And then law enforcement reported activists carrying guns, yet no one was arrested. DAPL security personnel from Ohio’s Frost Kennels sprayed mace and urged attack dogs into crowds, resulting in at least half a dozen bites, and yet law enforcement insists activists were the danger. Recently, 30 head of cattle were reported missing, and then three days later mysteriously resurrected by a Sioux County rancher. Two other cows have been found shot in Sioux County, one by bullets, one by arrows, and law enforcement and media are trying to link the crime to activists in the area.
Law enforcement making arrests Saturday, Oct. 22 – photo by Rob Wilson Photography
Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier repeatedly emphasizes the activists near Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Reservation are dangerous. Activists’ criminal records are being made public, yet no effort has been made to check pipeline workers’ past brushes with the law, which should be swamped with outstanding warrants if the state lives up to its man camp reputation.
Arrested on the plains near DAPL – photo provided by Morton County Sheriff’s Department
Since Saturday morning, 126 more activists were arrested on riot charges along the DAPL pipeline, Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported. Two officers were injured, one by his own pepper spray. In total, 269 people have been charged with misdemeanors and felonies since early August.
“Today’s situation clearly illustrates what we have been saying for weeks,” Kirchmeier said. “That this protest is not peaceful or lawful. This is not about the pipeline. This is not about the protesters. This is about the rule of law.”
From the controversy’s start, Morton County Correctional Facility officers have been strip searching – nearly every activist arrested, no matter the charge. Simple misdemeanors to felonies, all are being treated the same.
“It’s a tactic of trying to break you down, and degrade you, make you feel shamed,” Cody Hall said. Hall is the media spokesman for the Red Warrior Camp, and was arrested in early September, held for three days without bail or bond.
Miqamwes M’teoulin being treated after police sprayed him twice in the face on October 22 – photo by Rob Wilson Photography
“They have you get naked,” Hall said. “And then he grabbed my genitals and lifted them up, then he said squat, and then he said cough. And then he was looking, when I bent down, he kind of bent down.”
A scare tactic, Hall said. Morton County Correctional Facility reported the strip searches are procedure and in the interest of security.
“The duty correctional officer(s) will conduct a complete visual assessment of prisoners being admitted to insure that the prisoner(s) does not have inadmissible/illegal items on his/her possession before entering a security cell/area of the correctional center,” Morton County Correctional Facility’s guidebook states.
The guidebook continues by stating “admissions procedures will be carried out by correctional staff in a manner which promotes mutual respect rather than one which degrades the prisoner(s) admitted.”
“That’s all I saw it as,” Hall said. “It’s a tactic they were trying to deploy on me, in a way of taking my dignity. You’ll crumble if you don’t have that… dignity.”
Furthermore, an inmate cannot be detained in the holding cell for longer than one hour, although the duty senior correctional officer can make exceptions. Inmates in the holding cell are also allowed to use cell phones, and are closely monitored by duty officers, according to the correctional facility’s guidelines.
Myron Dewey, a filmmaker, was charged with a class-A misdemeanor. Like Hall, he was stripped down, and because he has a ponytail, officers rifled through his hair. He was then put into a visitor’s holding area for three hours, he said. “It was a really small room, barely enough room for one person.”
“Leaving me in that visitor’s area didn’t seem right, they should have put me in the holding cell,” Dewey said. When he went to the courtroom, one of the officers involved in his arrest waited for him in the hallway. “The officer who stole my drone was standing in the hallway,” Dewey said. “And he was trying to look at me like he was some, I don’t know, it was the eye contact. I thought that was kind of odd. He was there to let me see him for a reason.”
Dewey’s drone was “arrested” under civil forfeiture laws after an unnamed DAPL worker filed an intimidation report. When Dewey attempted to clarify questions and gather facts, law enforcement officials refused to listen and forced him from the Morton County Sheriff Department premises.
After being strip-searched, they’re all given the orange jumpsuit.
Activists on the plains marching Oct. 22 – photo by Rob Wilson Photography
Others who have claimed they too were strip searched include: Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II, a chief of a sovereign state, Dr. Sara Jumping Eagle, a pediatrician, Divergent actress Shailene Woodley, and Dale “Happi” Americanhorse Jr., the first activist to chain his arms to machinery with a sleeping tar dragon.
Bruce Ellison, a long-term criminal defense lawyer and legal team coordinator of the Lawyer’s Guild Mass Defense Committee, said the practice is nonsensical. Ellison and his team are also not allowed direct access to clients and must discuss the dozens of cases through glass windows and telephone conversations, which are being recorded, Bibens said.
“We have a lot of questions about that,” Ellison said. “When there are strip searches for lowest grade misdemeanors on the books in North Dakota – that certainly raises questions. We had one woman who was left naked in her cell overnight for the viewing of male guards.
“This seems unusual.”
Ladonna McLaughlin claims to have been left overnight naked in a cell, according to Bibens. Her family is preparing to sue Morton County.
“Where do we live?” Ladonna Allard, McLaughlin’s mother, said. “Is this the United States? This is a police state.” She was not ready to speak about the upcoming lawsuit, not until it is filed, she said.
“We are preparing litigation to address the violations that have occurred within the Morton County Jail,” Bibens said. She is a Santee-Dakota by birth, is the ground coordinator of the Red Owl Legal Collective, and also works as the camp’s attorney.
Most of the reported 126 people arrested Saturday have been spread to jails across the Peace Garden State, Bibens said. Costs of keeping a prisoner overnight is USD 100 for the Morton County Jail, times that by 269, then multiplied by how many nights, the costs add up.
“Hardly anyone is out,” Bibens said. “Parents are calling me from everywhere because they’re not allowing their 19-year-olds to bail out.” Officials around the Peace Garden State are now requiring cash only for bonds, are instituting special rules, and most activists arrested won’t get an opportunity for release until judges arrive at work Monday morning. “There’s an equal protection due process issue, if you’re related to the camps, then you get treated this way,” Bibens said.
“They’re not in any hurry to process any of our water protectors.”
Additionally, the Red Warrior Camp, the activists’ most secure group, reported law enforcement shot down two drones with shotguns on Saturday. Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported “less-than-lethal ammunition” was used on a drone on Sunday charging a helicopter with a sheriff on board.
The helicopter pilot and passengers were “in fear of their lives” when the “drone came after us,” according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department press release. Two arrows were also fired at the helicopter, according to Kirchmeier.
On Sunday, Dewey reported nearly 700 Native Americans and activists enacted “their sovereign rights” proclaiming eminent domain along Dakota Access Pipeline route, effectively blockading Highway 1806 with hay bales, rocks, and tree stumps, on lands that once belonged to the Sioux under 18th century treaties. Tipis and tents were erected. A sacred fire was lit. The land, according to Dewey, has been desecrated, and they are returning it back to the natural and spiritual balance.
Barricade across Highway 1806 built by activists on Sunday, Oct. 23 – photo provided by Morton County Sheriff’s Department
“All tribes across the country witnessed this historical day, October 23,” Dewey said. “This is a very special moment in Indian law as well, inherent rights have just been exercised. Our inherent rights to clean food, clean drinking water, medicine, clean air, all of those rights have just been practiced.”
The move is called the “Last Stand” by activists before DAPL reaches the Missouri River.
In response, Morton County Sheriff’s Department blocked off Highway 1806 “due to a large group of protesters blocking the north and south bound lanes.” The barricade was dismantled later Sunday afternoon after law enforcement asked activists to take it down.
“Individuals trespassing on private property can’t claim eminent domain to justify their actions,” Kirchmeier said.
“Thirty Minutes of Terror”
Phelim McAleer, who identified himself as an Irish journalist to Morton County emergency personnel, is the director of the film FrackNation, a movie some say is part of the big oil campaign to debunk the harmful affects of fracking. McAleer traveled to the Standing Rock area last week to “get the truth about the story on both sides,” he said.
The first day he and two others received permission from Seven Council Fires Camp, or Big Camp personnel to conduct interviews, McAleer said. He waited until the second day to pull out the big questions.
Phelim McAleer and camp security scuffling over microphone – photo provided by Morton County Sheriff’s Department
“I asked them if they were being hypocritical,” McAleer said. “Because they were using automobiles to arrive at camp. And then a gentleman grabbed my microphone and dragged me across the field.”
His self-described “thirty minutes of terror” began.
Video of the incident taken primarily from inside a vehicle shows no violence, and yet McAleer insists that his life and property were threatened.
“I was scared, I really was,” McAleer said. He said he has reported news in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, and also in Eastern Europe when communism fell. “I’ve been around the block, a journalist for 30 years. It was very scary. There was a sense of lawlessness and anger that led to the unpredictability, feeding off their own energy, getting angrier and angrier. Blowing the horn seemed to excite them, it was escalating and that was the problem. There was no calming voice.
“I could see this getting ridiculously out of control.”
Their vehicle was surrounded. The driver, Magdalena Segieda, another producer of FrackNation, was afraid to put the car in park because the doors would unlock, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department. Segieda called 911, and law enforcement arrived. McAleer, Segieda, and one other were eventually allowed to leave.
“They’re attacking us for asking questions,” McAleer said in the video.
“This is scary,” Segieda said in the video. “We want to leave.”
“It was a threatening and terrifying situation for the three journalists that were down there,” Kirchmeier said during a press conference. The video was taken from a low vantage point, and shows little outside activity.
McAleer retreated to Ireland after the incident, and isn’t pressing charges. He said Morton County Sheriff’s Department will investigate, and the department has already posted pictures of people involved in the incident on their Facebook page, asking for help identifying those involved. McAleer believes the video footage will speak for itself. “All I want to get is the truth of what’s happening, and I found that truth and it’s an ugly truth,” he said.
Camp authorities report that McAleer was read the rules of the area “one by one,” when he checked in. He was caught documenting children without permission from a parent or guardian, documenting the sacred fire that was off limits, and asking offensive questions of community members. When confronted, McAleer said he did not have a press pass, and that he did not need one, and when he pulled away in his vehicle he hit an unnamed activist.
In YouTube videos, McAleer described water contamination victims due to fracking practices are like bank robbers. “Why do you rob banks? Because, that’s where the money is. Why do you sue oil and gas companies? Because, that’s where the money is.”
McAleer, who has been called a “fake journalist” on big oil’s payroll, denied being supported by big oil companies. He is also known as a “professional character assassin,” and has been documented harassing movie stars and homeowners affected by Cabot Oil & Gas drilling in Pennsylvania. In a question and answer session after a showing of FrackNation in Pennsylvania, McAleer reported that the people with poisoned water, toxic enough to light on fire coming out of their taps, were lying.
“You can call it this, you can call it that, and maybe the truth is somewhere in between,” McAleer said. “And I know to use the word liar is a very strong statement, but they are liars. These are not stupid people, although they do a good job at looking like it. But they lied…
“Sorry. Where is the scientific evidence of your water being contaminated? If you don’t have any, how do you know you have any, you don’t know, you’re lying. You’re making it up, you’re scaring people.”
Closer to home, an April 27, 2016 study released by Duke University, funded by the National Science Foundation, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, and published in the Environmental Science & Technology magazine shows that accidental wastewater spills from “unconventional oil production in North Dakota have caused widespread water and soil contamination.” More than 9,700 wells have been drilled in the Bakken region of North Dakota in the past decade, which led to more than 3,900 brine spills, primarily from faulty pipes, the report states.
The water studied in some spill sites was unsafe to drink, the study reported.
Political Pressure to Finish the Race
Senator John Hoeven R-N.D., met with the US Army Corps of Engineers last week to pressure the Corps to allow the final easement, a three-mile stretch of land leading up to the Missouri River, which would give DAPL the access it needs to send the pipeline under Lake Oahe.
“That means getting the Corps to approve the easement so construction can be complete and life can return to normal for our farmer and ranchers in the region, and for our law enforcement who are working very hard to protect lives and property,” Hoeven said in a press release. “We need to have this situation resolved.”
Last week, the U.S. Corps of Engineers, representatives from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, state archeologists, and DAPL environmental team members coordinated a walk-through of a portion of the pipeline project, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department.
The walk through along the pipeline – photo provided by Morton County Sheriff’s Department
“Morton County has been making an effort to bring representatives from the tribe, DAPL, and the state historical society for weeks,” Kirchmeier said. “This is very positive to see that all interested parties could together look at the sites in which they have had differing opinions of the historical significance. While there still may be differences, the conversation was positive and allowed all parties to better understand each other.”
Congressman Kevin Cramer R-N.D., participated. “I believe those of us on all sides of the Dakota Access Pipeline issue benefitted from walking together and sharing our expertise, experiences, and expectations,” Cramer said. “I hope this can help us establish a better understanding going forward. And, I am certain that after today the Corps of Engineers will feel confident it has the adequate affirmation to issue the final easement to complete the pipeline construction across the Missouri River at Lake Oahe.”
While Standing Rock Sioux leaders contemplate whether to move the winter camp to their own lands, one aspect of their fight has not changed. Their fight is not only today against DAPL, but it is a growing global resistance to big oil, and in many activists’ opinions, they are winning.
Even if the pipeline crosses the Missouri River.
“As an activist I never cared about voting,” Iron Eyes said in a Facebook post. “I can see now how apathy about the political process allows establishment paid for politicians to stay in power like a revolving door. Big money pays for their campaigns, the politicians pave the way for their benefactors, the people feel disconnected, nobody cares, and we end up with politicians who suppress votes, militarize and embarrass our state…
“This is a great test for us. We need to be committed to peace on all sides.”
“We remain vigilant and organized,” Red Warrior Camp leaders posted on Facebook. “We’ll see you on the prairie.”
“I have the firm belief that we will stop a pipeline that carries 500,000 barrels of oil a day, and is 60 percent complete… we will stop it in its tracks,” Dallas Goldtooth, a campaign organizer of the Indigenous Environmental Network, said in a speech.
Barricade across Highway 1806 built by activists on Sunday, Oct. 23, later torn down at request – photo provided by Morton County Sheriff’s Department
Activists outside Standing Rock winterize, law enforcement puts more boots on the ground, and state politicians speak their minds
By C.S. Hagen CANNON BALL – Snow fluttered across tipis and tents last weekend, tip-tapping like panicked field mice across canvas. It was not a gentle fat-flaked snow, rather ice, a bone-chilling wintry taste for the activists camped outside of Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.
Dried corn cobs, a camp sign with hand written wooden signs hailing from the USA, the Arctic, Paris, and more – photo by C.S. Hagen
As the sun crested Facebook Hill, flooding the prairie with much-needed warmth, a dog howled mournfully. An infant cried. Horses snorted the cold night’s air from their nostrils. Slowly, the camp stirred. A drum beat; an elder greeted the day with native song. Younger “water warriors” screeched like crows, and their cries seemingly echoed from both sides of the Cannon Ball River.
The camps have grown smaller. Some activists, like Dale “Happi” Americanhorse Jr., have traveled to Iowa to assist in what Americanhorse says is a losing battle against Dakota Access Pipeline. Other activists simply cannot handle the elements, for inside a thin canvas tent, deep in the night, cold bites the skin, and by day fierce winds and thinning shade can only toughen or shatter activists’ resolve.
For the thousands that do remain encamped and resolute against the Dakota Access Pipeline, the 17 international banks funding the 1,172-mile project, the politicians whom activists say are forcing agendas and filling pocketbooks, and the federal government’s broken treaty promises, they’re preparing for their own Valley Forge.
“We are fighting three battles right now,” a Facebook post published by the Red Warrior Camp stated. “We are protecting the sacred from the Dakota Access Pipeline, we are defending ourselves from the fascist state armed to harm, and we are reinforcing our camp to face the harsh weather that is arriving.”
Big Camp, outside of Cannon Ball – photo by C.S. Hagen
On Sunday, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. dissolved a second emergency motion for an injunction filed by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to halt the pipeline project. For weeks, Dakota Access LLP, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners, had been ordered to halt all work on the pipeline within 20 miles on either side of Lake Oahe along the Missouri River.
“But ours is not the final word,” U.S. Court of Appeals documents stated. “A necessary easement still awaits government approval – a decision Corps’ counsel predicts is likely weeks away; meanwhile Intervenor DAPL has rights of access to the limited portion of pipeline corridor not yet cleared – where the Tribe alleges additional historic sites are at risk.”
Despite the court ruling, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers refused to give its permission for Dakota Access Pipeline to build on Corps lands bordering or under Lake Oahe, and once again recommended that DAPL “voluntarily pause all construction activity” on private lands, according to a press release made available by the U.S. Department of Justice.
DAPL, or the Dakota Access Pipeline, is now legally authorized to continue its project into parts of the no work zone.
Tipis and Mongolian-styled yurts are replacing flimsy North Face tents. Some activists are building wind-breaking fences around their designated spots. Wood stoves are providing warmth in a handful of larger military-styled tents. Massive trees have been brought in for log cabins, hay bales for windbreakers. More activists have moved to the nearby Cannon Ball River, a tributary of the Missouri River, for its wooded banks offer some shelter.
Those that do remain are not surrendering.
On October 8, more than 20 riders from Winona LaDuke’s Honor the Earth organization, and from the Wounded Knee Memorial Riders, the Dakota 38, the Big Foot riders, among others, set off on a four-day horse ride from Standing Rock to Tioga against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Winona LaDuke preparing to begin the four-day horse ride against the flow of the pipeline – photo by C.S. Hagen
“This is our moment,” LaDuke said on the Honor the Earth website. In addition to being a longtime environmentalist LaDuke was also two-time vice presidential candidate for Ralph Nader’s Green Party. “Tribes and First Nations are standing up and standing together to demand an end to the desecration of our lands and the poisoning of our sacred waters.”
Minutes after the riders disappeared into the Dakota prairies an Aztec group performed ritual dances drawing nearly everyone to the Sacred Circle. Native Americans and supporters from around the country, including Fargo residents Cindy Gomez-Schempp of the People’s Press Project 88.1 FM radio, and Barry Nelson, of the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition, showed their enthusiasm for the ritual dancers, swirling in their emerald and citron feathers from the tropical quetzal and troupial. Air turned sweet with burning copal, or pine tree sap, southern native equivalent to sweetgrass, as the dancers pounded the earth, many in bare feet.
Riders set off through main entrance to Big Camp – photo by C.S. Hagen
“I come here because I need to bear witness to what is happening,” Nelson said. Many national news agencies reporting of the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy are wrong, Nelson said, and the efforts of the Native Americans and others against big oil is “historically incredible,” he said.
Tom Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, said he is troubled by the recent court’s decision, but civil disobedience at Standing Rock will not diminish.
“We will continue to support the tribe’s efforts to hold the US federal government accountable for rubber stamping this dirty oil project… This fight is far from over.”
Myron Dewey – from Facebook profile
Although law enforcement and DAPL security are watching and documenting camp activity, activists have digital scouts of their own. Myron Dewey, a filmmaker and drone operator, fought back by documenting pipeline activity with a drone, until the machine was confiscated by Morton County Sheriff’s Department after an unnamed DAPL worker filed an intimidation report. When Dewey attempted to clarify questions and gather facts, law enforcement officials refused to listen and forced him from the Morton County Sheriff Department premises.
Some officers have hidden their nametags, Dewey said, and the officer who “arrested” his drone only offered his badge number on the report. No warrant was issued for his arrest, because in order to do so the DAPL worker would have to be named, Dewey said.
“When our public officials no longer can become identified, they are no longer the public officials,” Dewey said.
Dewey documented DAPL activity with video, photographs, and GPS coordinates 24 miles and then on October 8 – a day before the U.S. District Court of Appeals decision – 16 miles from the Missouri River. Once past the 20-mile marker, Dakota Access LLP work on the pipeline became illegal.
DAPL private security personnel were mysteriously gone on Monday, which was Indigenous People’s Day, formerly known as Columbus Day. “It’s now police policing the pipeline, and they’re there, everywhere, all along the pipeline. This is where the tax dollars are going. You’re seeing militarization of a police force that is not trained in militarization. That’s today.
“It’s really sad. It’s women and children, they’re Native Americans, and people from all over the world.” Much of the assistance is coming from Bismarck, Dewey said, but those who are helping are afraid to give their names for fear of repercussions when they return home.
Dewey offered his views on why he and thousands of others will continue.
“We have a Dakota Access Pipeline entity that has lost its connection, its spirit, to the earth,” Dewey said. “Our goal is to help Dakota Access Pipeline, and all the workers and private security, and also the officers that are protecting that pipeline to get connected to the earth. And then you will understand why we are fighting to protect the water in a good way in prayer.”
Divergent actress Shailene Woodley’s mug shot at Morton County Jail – photo provided by Morton County Sheriff’s Department
On Indigenous People’s Day, Divergent series movie star Shailene Woodley was arrested along with 26 others by sheriff deputies. A deputy grabbed her jacket as she was walking with her mother toward their vehicle to return to Big Camp, and arrested her for criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor. Woodley asked officers why she was singled out for arrest.
“You were identified,” the arresting officer said.
“Alright, I’m being arrested.” Woodley smiled into the camera. Her mother was filming as the officer shackled her daughter’s wrists.
“So everybody knows, we were going to our vehicle, which they had all surrounded, and were waiting for me with giant guns and giant truck behind them, just so they could arrest me.” Woodley said. Law enforcement then led her away in handcuffs.
Woodley posted a USD 500 bond, and could face up to three months in prison and USD 3,000 in fines, according to Morton County Sheriff Department spokesman Rob Keller. Her court date is set for October 24. A total of 27 people were arrested Monday after approximately 300 people protested at two construction sites along the Dakota Access Pipeline.
“All 27 were arrested on the same charges, engaging in a riot and criminal trespass,” Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney, who currently serves as Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier’s operations chief in Morton County, said. “She [Woodley] was one of 27, she was no different than the others.” Laney said he hopes the activists return home now that their message has been heard across America and the U.S. Court of Appeals has denied Standing Rock’s petition for a second time.
Armored police vehicles outside of St. Anthony, ND – online sources
More Boots on the Ground
As Dakota Access LLP’s pipeline nears its finish in Iowa, and is reportedly 68 percent completed across the country, the project is still behind schedule in North Dakota.
Since early August a total of 123 activists have been arrested on misdemeanor and felony charges including criminal trespass, reckless endangerment, and terrorizing law enforcement. Governor Jack Dalrymple declared an emergency state in August, has brought in the National Guard, has asked President Obama for further financial assistance, and has approved out-of-state support from the National Sheriffs’ Association.
“We have basically tapped the resources to a level that we’ve never seen here in North Dakota for one particular incident,” Kirchmeier said in a press conference.
“I’m sorry I have to be here today,” Wyoming’s Laramie County Sheriff Danny Glick and president of the 15-state Western Sheriffs’ Association, said in a press conference. “But my message is simple and direct. I’m here to pledge the support of the nation’s sheriffs to the people of Morton County and North Dakota.”
Kirchmeier believes the collaboration is a win, and 40 deputies from Wisconsin began taking 21-day shifts to assist Morton County law enforcement, but on Wednesday, the 10 from Dane County returned home, according to the Dane County Sheriff’s Office.
“Throughout the week, Sheriff [Dave] Mahoney has engaged in conversations with a wide cross-section of our community, all of whom felt strongly that our deputies should not be involved in the events taking place in North Dakota,” a press release from the Dane County Sheriff’s Office reported.
Kirchmeier also plans to engage in a more proactive stance against anyone who breaks the law. So far, the North Dakota National Guard is still acting in a limited capacity, primarily working the roadblock on Highway 1806.
“Protesters have disdained the rule of law, and that has resulted in a heightened level of fear and concerns among the residents,” Kirchmeier said. “These fears are real.”
Aztec dancers – photo by C.S. Hagen
Laney said Monday’s protest was anything but peaceful. “While some would like to say this was a protest, this was not a protest – this was a riot. When you have that many people engage in that kind of behavior, inciting others to break the law, cheering others on as they do break the law, refusing to leave when they are asked to leave, that’s not a protest… Today, 27 arrests were made – not because we wanted that to happen, because those people on scene chose for that to happen.”
Recently, local residents have become the victims of terrorizing threats, intimidation, and criminal trespass, Kirchmeier said. Even Morton County’s new residents, those encamped outside of Cannon Ball, were victims recently when Bryce Ironhawk, from South Dakota, allegedly ploughed into Big Camp in a stolen Chevy Camaro late on October 6, knocking over flagpoles and partially destroying a tipi, Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported. Ironhawk’s blood-alcohol level was more than double the legal limit, and he was charged with driving under the influence and aggravated reckless driving.
Camp spokespeople said Ironhawk was not an activist living in the camp. Posted at Big Camp’s entrance are the rules: no weapons, no drugs, no alcohol.
“How many days are going to go by before someone gets hurt?” Dewey said. Native Americans and activists are targeted by police on the roads; law enforcement without proper identification are driving through camp, acting like predators, taking pictures of children in the makeshift school on camp premises, he said. DAPL security are dressing like activists and infiltrating the camp. “We’re being targeted now, and this is something that is not okay anymore. We are asking for the power of protection and prayer coming from all the four directions.”
Reports have been made to police about strange people and occurrences, including reports made by those attacked by dogs on September 3, Dewey said, but nothing is being done about their reports. “They did not do their job in protecting the people that were bit. I find that’s a violation of their protocols and what they’re supposed to do. They sat at the bottom of that hill.”
On October 4, nearly 20 activists appeared at Morton County Courthouse to plead not guilty at their arraignments. All requested court-appointed attorneys, some of whom met with camp attorney Angela Bibens and others behind closed doors.
Morton County State’s Attorney Brian Grosinger appeared on behalf of the state, and frequently seemed confused during the proceedings, at one point offering District Court Judge Bruce Haskell an apology. Grosinger asked for a higher bond against Mason Redwing, who turned himself in after being charged with reckless endangerment, criminal trespass, and terrorizing law enforcement after he allegedly charged armed law enforcement on horseback on September 28.
If proven guilty Redwing could face five years imprisonment and or a USD 10,000 fine.
Dale “Happi” Americanhorse Jr. walking alone into the Morton County Courthouse – photo by C.S. Hagen
“We’re prosecuting crimes,” Grosinger said after the first round or cases were arraigned. Too early, he said, to say if the state will be seeking maximum penalties against the dozens of activists arrested.
Americanhorse, who was represented by Steven Balaban, a Bismarck attorney, will begin court proceedings on December 23. He is charged with one felony and three misdemeanors stemming from August 31.
“We as water protectors are not intimidated by the trumped up charges they throw at us,” Americanhorse said. “We are not backing down and will continue to do exactly what we do. Protect.”
“The state is using excessive force normally used in war overseas on unarmed Indigenous People to protect DAPL,” a Red Warrior Camp press release reported. “This is tantamount to an act of war on the Indigenous People…”
To Be or Not To Be – a Governor
Dalrymple is currently serving his final term as the governor of North Dakota. Three men are vying to take his place.
Representative Marvin E. Nelson, D-N.D., from Rolla, said he fears the Dakota Access controversy will end in violence.
Representative Marvin E. Nelson – online sources
“First of all, clearly the process did not work properly at the state level,” Nelson said. “I would point to what happened that the pipeline did not get sited in the right place. As governor, we have a company engaged in legal activity and it’s trying to move ahead, and then there are protestors. It would be my responsibility to protect them… that is the thing as governor – you have to do what you are responsible to do.
“Everyone wants to roll the clock back… but you can’t always go back.”
Nelson expects DAPL is preparing for a quick build to Lake Oahe, protected by beefed-up police presence. The situation has become polarized between absolute support and absolute opposition. “I look too at the protestors and what they’re saying, and I really do fear that there will be violence here. It’s just frustrating. It’s what happens with ultimate positions.”
The governor is more of a spectator, charged with protecting human life, and outside of offering pardons to activists and DAPL workers charged with crimes, the governor has little authority in these situations.
“The company is going to shove it through there,” Nelson said. “The big question is whether the government will allow an easement. It is still possible the tribe will win. Their strongest case is on their water rights. It’s involving their water – and it doesn’t seem there was an engagement with the tribes pertaining to their water rights.”
Nelson added that the U.S. Corps of Engineers rarely investigates beyond river crossings, and that national building permits are not adequate; a full environmental impact study should be conducted.
“Really, the relationship between our tribes and our state could become better and more active,” Nelson said. “We do need to work together more.”
Marty Riske, the Libertarian candidate for North Dakota governor, said it is a very dangerous time for North Dakota.
Marty Riske – online sources
“I know what I would have done, hindsight being twenty-twenty,” Riske said. “I would have brought a table to the site and invited the chiefs of the Native American tribes, the chiefs of the oil companies, and the governor himself. I would have been down there at a long table and a decision tree, and each of us would have espoused what we want, and the things that remained in the tree, the differences that weren’t being met, would have to be brought closer together to get everyone to agree.”
Now that the controversy is polarized, however, and low commodity prices are threatening North Dakotan prosperity, pension funds for teachers and state employees are sliding into arrears due to slipping oil prices, a pipeline is what the state needs, Riske said. Used correctly shipping oil via pipelines is half the cost of transportation by rail or truck. Energy Transfer Partners also has obtained the proper authority to complete the pipeline, the Public Service Commission did their work correctly, Riske said, but President Obama came up from behind and threw the project into chaos.
“If I were governor, I would say, ‘Obama, we are removing all our law enforcement by this date and we ask you to replace them all, or take over the bills, and then you work this deal out. Come here and get this deal done.’”
Oil and natural gas are necessities for North Dakota, and for the nation, Riske said, and although he plans to begin using solar panels on his own property, the technology for alternative energy is not ready to take over the fossil fuel industry.
“I know damn well you don’t want oil to go away,” Riske said. “This notion that we can end fossil fuels is uniformed.”
North Dakota has to get Bakken oil to market, or North Dakota will “suffer greatly,” Riske said.
“By doing what we’re doing, we’re putting the shivers into the whole pipeline program in North Dakota.”
Doug Burgum
Doug Burgum, the Republican candidate for governor of North Dakota, said free speech and the right to protest need to be respected, but that law and order must be maintained on federal lands.
“One of things that makes our country so special is the right of free speech and the right to peacefully protest,” Burgum said. “The state should continue to request that the federal government uphold their responsibility for maintaining peace and order on federal land. Going forward, we need to remember that disagreement can exist alongside mutual respect, listening, and dialogue as we work together towards a peaceful, constructive resolution.”
The signpost at Standing Rock Camp – photo by C.S. Hagen
By C.S. Hagen CANNON BALL, ND – Movie star Shailene Woodley was arrested by Morton County Sheriff’s deputies Monday, Indigenous People’s Day, during an action against Dakota Access Pipeline.
One day after the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. gave Dakota Access LLC the green light to speed the pipeline into a 20-mile no work zone leading up to Lake Oahe and the Missouri River, hundreds gathered to pray and dance, effectively shutting down pipeline activity. For weeks, Dakota Access LLP, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners, was ordered to halt all work on the pipeline within 20 miles on either side of Lake Oahe along the Missouri River.
Despite the court ruling, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers refused to give its permission for Dakota Access Pipeline to build on Corps lands bordering or under Lake Oahe, and once again recommended that DAPL “voluntarily pause all construction activity” on private lands, according to a press release made available by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Morton County law enforcement grabbed the Divergent series actress’s jacket as she was walking with her mother toward their vehicle to return to Big Camp, and arrested her for criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor, which if found guilty could warrant one year in prison and or USD 2,000 in fines. Woodley asked officers why she was singled out for arrest.
“You were identified,” the arresting officer said.
Shailene Woodley being arrested on Monday, October 10, 2016 – online sources
“Alright, I’m being arrested.” Woodley smiled into the camera. Her mother filmed as the officer shackled her daughter’s wrists. More than 40,000 viewers across the world watched as she filmed on live to her Facebook page.
“So everybody knows, we were going to our vehicle, which they had all surrounded, and were waiting for me with giant guns and giant truck behind them, just so they could arrest me.” Woodley said. Law enforcement then led her away in handcuffs.
Before her arrest, Woodley, an environmental activist, moved to an area she thought safe, saying that she did not want to be arrested. This was not her first trip to North Dakota to assist Standing Rock and thousands of Native Americans and other activists against Dakota Access Pipeline. In August, Woodley traveled to the Standing Rock encampment and to Bismarck.
Woodley posted a USD 500 bond, and could face up to three months in prison and USD 3,000 in fines, according to Morton County Sheriff Department spokesman Rob Keller. Her court date is set for October 24. A total of 27 people were arrested Monday after approximately 300 people protested at two construction sites along the Dakota Access Pipeline.
“All 27 were arrested on the same charges, engaging in a riot and criminal trespass,” Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney, who currently serves as Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier’s operations chief in Morton County, said. “She [Woodley] was one of 27, she was no different than the others.” Laney said he hopes the activists return home now that their message has been heard across America and the U.S. Court of Appeals has denied Standing Rock’s petition for a second time.
Activists from around the world verses law enforcement from Morton County, Wisconsin, and cities across North Dakota – online sources
Dakota Access Pipeline, or DAPL, private security personnel were mysteriously gone along the pipeline on Monday, the day formerly celebrated as Columbus Day. “It’s now police policing the pipeline, and they’re there, everywhere, all along the pipeline,” Myron Dewey, a filmmaker and drone operator, said.
Law enforcement have arrested 123 protestors since early August, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department. Some of those arrested include: Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II, Red Warriors Camp media spokesperson Cody Hall, citizen journalists, and charges were filed against third-party candidate Jill Stein, her running mate Ajamu Baraka, and Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman.
Late last week North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple authorized Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier to reach out to the National Sheriff’s Association for assistance. Kirchmeier believes the collaboration is a win, and 40 deputies from Wisconsin began taking 21-day shifts to assist Morton County law enforcement. He also plans to engage in a more proactive stance against anyone who breaks the law. So far, the North Dakota National Guard is still acting in a limited capacity, primarily working the roadblock on Highway 1806.
“We have basically tapped the resources to a level that we’ve never seen here in North Dakota for one particular incident,” Kirchmeier said in a press conference.
“This is where the tax dollars are going,” Dewey said. “You’re seeing militarization of a police force that is not trained in militarization. That’s today.
“It’s really sad. It’s women and children, they’re Native Americans, and people from all over the world.” Much of the assistance is coming from Bismarck in the form of winter clothing, food, materials for shelters, Dewey said, but those who are helping are afraid to give their names for fear of repercussions when they return home.
