Tag: FBI

Infiltrated: No-DAPL activist hoodwinked by paid FBI informant, defense says

January 11, 2018 / / 1 Comment

A web of informants, lies, and seduction led to Red Fawn Fallis’s arrest; defense files motions to compel discovery while motions for continuance denied in federal court

By C.S. Hagen
FARGO – Events leading up to the arrest of one of the Dakota Access Pipeline’s most prominent defendants played out like a game of bughouse chess. Little did an isolated pawn, Red Fawn Fallis, know of an apparent trap set for her near Standing Rock on October 27, 2016, the day police took over the northern 1851 Treaty Camp, according to her defense attorneys.

Red Fawn Fallis – online sources

The state’s side, heavily armed, bolstered by a governor’s emergency declaration and taxpayers dollars, were short on time; the pipeline had a schedule to keep. Law enforcement targeted potential leaders of the pipeline resistance. Early morning meetings began every Tuesday “so that battle rhythm should be protected with our state team,” according to emails from the Office of the Governor of North Dakota Communications Director Mike Nowatzki.

Battle rhythm is a military term, meant to describe the maintenance of synchronized activity and process among distributed “warfighters,” according to the Defense Technical Information Center.

Before Energy Transfer Partners hired the international private security firm TigerSwan, local law enforcement repeatedly retreated from the front lines. Pressure from politicians financially supported by big oil lobbyists mounted, and the state requested federal help.

After TigerSwan’s arrival, however, the tempo shifted, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation sent one known infiltrator into the camps.

Heath Harmon – Facebook post

The infiltrator, Heath Harmon, a 46-year-old Fort Berthold Reservation member, befriended and seduced Fallis, according to a December 29, 2017 Motion to Compel Discovery filed by defense attorneys. The relationship continued for an unspecified time after Fallis was arrested for allegedly shooting a handgun – a weapon that did not belong to her, but to the infiltrator, who will be paid $40 per day to testify against his former lover on and after January 29, when Fallis’s case goes to trial at Fargo’s Quentin N. Burdick U.S. Courthouse.

Fallis was considered a potential leader by law enforcement in the resistance camps against the Dakota Access Pipeline, according to the defense’s Motion to Compel Discovery, and her identity was placed into a “link chart” prepared by the North Dakota and Local Intelligence Center.

Out of the hundreds that begrudgingly gave way before the law enforcement blitz on the northern Treaty Camp, she was targeted and tackled by a deputy named Thadius Schmit. Two shots rang out, according to affidavits; other video reports state three. One bullet struck the ground near an officer’s knee, and the authorities say a handgun was pried from her hand.

Checkmate, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of North Dakota is preparing to argue.

Not so fast, Fallis’ defense attorneys say. The 37-year-old Oglala Sioux woman was caught up in a scheme to take her off the playing field, and the prosecution is attempting to prove she was someone who could cause serious disadvantages to DAPL’s agenda.

She was arrested with the informant’s loaded handgun. Fallis’s defense team has asked the federal government for all information related to the informant for nearly a year, but the federal government dallied, waiting months before handing some information over, according to the defense.

Police drone footage still shot of the moment Red Fawn Fallis was tackled – The Intercept files

Due to the lateness of incoming information, Fallis’ defense team also asked four times for a continuance, but was denied.

In the United State’s Response to Defendant’s Motion to Compel Discovery, filed on December 20, 2017, prosecutors believe they have given over enough information, and they were not compelled to turn over surveillance gathered by TigerSwan or other private security firms because “Private security contractors have not participated in the criminal investigation of this matter.”

Defense attorneys fired back with a Defendant’s Reply to Government’s Response to Motion to Compel Discovery.

“The FBI recruited, supervised, and paid a specific informant to infiltrate the camps of protesters near Standing Rock,” the motion, which was compiled by Fallis’s attorneys, Bruce Ellison, Jessie A. Cook, and Molly Armour, stated. “During his employment by the FBI, this particular informant seduced Ms. Fallis and initiated an intimate, albeit duplicitous relationship with her. He spent the majority of the 48-hour period prior to Ms. Fallis’s arrest with her and had access to her and her belongings… He used their romantic relationship to rely upon her as an unwitting source of information for informant activities.”

Harmon regularly reported to the FBI, according to unclassified FBI documents revealed by the defense.

“He was instructed to collect information on potential violence, weapons, and criminal activity. This informant’s work was considered so valuable that his FBI handlers recommended additional compensation for him to be ‘motivated for future tasking.’”

Harmon was ordered to spy on specific people in the camps, but never uncovered plans for violence, including firearms, explosives, or fireworks, and insisted that activists involved in the resistance were nonviolent, according to a defense’s motion.

Harmon, however, may not have been the only infiltrator; he’s simply the only person known by name, so far. Others were embedded in the camps, according to the testimony. Informants gave briefings to law enforcement about what they had witnessed.

Bird’s eye view of Backwater Bridge – photograph by C.S. Hagen

A November 5, 2016 TigerSwan situational report also stated in an executive summary that documents obtained at a resistance camp showed activists were evolving, getting training from within and outside North Dakota, and that Earth First magazines had been discovered, which TigerSwan stated promoted violent activities.

The situational report added that documents obtained at a resistance camp showed activists were evolving, getting training from within and outside North Dakota, and that Earth First magazines had been discovered, which TigerSwan stated promoted violent activities.

From the onset, one of TigerSwan’s goals was to create dissension within the camps, according to emails and information obtained by The Intercept. TigerSwan analysts described a sense of urgency in attempting to obtain information, which was at best difficult, according to a September 22, 2016 informational report from TigerSwan.

“DAPL security workers were present amongst protesters, participated in arrests, and in at least one case, possessed liquid accelerant and a firearm while dressed as a protester,” according to a defense motion. “The identity and reports of other undercover security operatives, possibly including the informant boyfriend, have not been disclosed.”

The defense attorneys maintain that Harmon continued his relationship with Fallis until shortly after her arrest.

“He was present and witnessed her seizure. The ammunition and the firearm she is accused of possessing and discharging following that seizure are the property of the same informant who, admittedly, made a series of false statements regarding his knowledge and involvement in the incident to various law enforcement agencies.”

An activist dowsed with Milk of Magnesia to ward off effects of pepper spray – photograph by C.S. Hagen

“Fishing expedition”
TigerSwan operatives may not be participating in criminal investigations today, but they did work closely and help organize law enforcement responses, according to Cass County Sheriff’s Department information obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The private security firm was also paid to gather information for what would become a “sprawling conspiracy lawsuit accusing environmentalist groups of inciting the anti-pipeline protests in an effort to increase donations,” according to leaked documents and FOIA information obtained by The Intercept.

“Law enforcement agencies certainly communicated with private security agencies during the DAPL protests,” the federal government replied. “However, much of the defendant’s overbroad discovery requests are fishing expeditions.”

The defense argues that videos and documents they have received from the prosecution, namely United States Attorney Christopher C. Myers and Assistant United States Attorney David D. Hagler, are vastly incomplete, and that some videos from body cams and GoPros have had sections deleted or have been tampered with.

Hundreds of videos exist from the months-long controversy, but only one – taken from a distant drone – was taken during Fallis’s arrest, according to prosecutors.

“Due to the high volume of videos on October 27, 2016, law enforcement officials did not create a record of which officer created the particular videos,” the federal government said in their response. “Also, most of the videos do not contain a timestamp reflecting the time they were recorded.

“After, an exhaustive review of all the videos, no law enforcement videos (other than the drone video offered by the United States) has been located that depict the defendant’s conduct preceding the shooting incident.”

Law enforcement began setting up the barricade at Backwater Bridge the day after the Treaty Camp eviction – photograph by C.S. Hagen

The defense responded with another motion nine days later, arguing that all pertinent information from all the agencies, public and private, involved in intelligence gathering should be handed over, as per U.S. Supreme Court precedent under the Brady motion.

A Brady motion is a defendant’s request for evidence concerning a material witness, which is favorable to the defense and to which the defense may be entitled, according to US Legal Definitions. Favorable evidence includes not only evidence that tends to exculpate the accused, but also evidence that may impeach the credibility of a government witness.

“The government acknowledges communication between law enforcement and private security entities, but asserts that DAPL security contractors are not part of the prosecution team, and that the prosecution does not possess records of any private security contractors.

One of the burned out DAPL trucks – photograph by C.S. Hagen

Assuming DAPL security contractors are not members of the prosecution team, the government ignores that many of the requests for DAPL security-related information are in the possession of cooperating law enforcement agents.”

As at the Wounded Knee trials in the 1970s, the federal government has also failed to prove that officers involved were “lawfully engaged in the lawful performance” of their duties, the defense argued.

“Prosecutors have a general duty to learn and disclose evidence known by investigating police officers,” the defense’s motion stated. “The defendant is entitled to argue to the jury that law enforcement’s relationship to illegally operating DAPL security entities rendered their October 27, 2016 operation unlawful, or at the very least, not lawful beyond a reasonable doubt.”

In an October 17, 2016 corporate-sensitive DAPL security report, which includes TigerSwan, the Russell Group of Texas, SRC, Leighton Security Services, and 10Code LLC, all videographers and photographers were to provide “immediate playback to further the LEO [law enforcement officers] investigation.”

“The purpose is to collect evidentiary photographic and video evidence,” the report stated. “Purpose: collect information that is relative and timely to tactical situation on the ground and supports the pipeline effort and supports law enforcement efforts for prosecution of violations of right-of-way and equipment sanctity, as well as any assaults on pipeline personnel.”

As early as September 7, 2016, days after TigerSwan had arrived, Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier and Bureau of Criminal Investigation officials received requests from the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board (NDPISB) to “investigate possible criminal activity in the form of unlicensed individuals providing security services at the Dakota Access construction site,” the defense argued.

Police gather for a photo opportunity before a roadblock setup by activists reports differ on who set the debris on fire – photo provided by online sources

In June of last year, the NDPISB sued TigerSwan as the “fusion leader” of private security organizations also named in the civil suit; and the company’s founder, James Reese, for operating illegally in North Dakota.

“The board is in the process of a civil action against TigerSwan, and that I believe is out for service. The board does have civil authority to initiate either administrative actions or civil actions under the Century Code,” Monte Rogneby, attorney for Vogel Law Firm and the NDPISB, said in June. The civil suit is still pending.

TigerSwan was hired by Energy Transfer Partners because the “Dakota Access Pipeline has been halted as a result of active protests against construction of the pipeline,” the NDPISB civil suit against TigerSwan and others stated. “On information and belief, these protests resulted in the hiring of TigerSwan.”

But instead of policing the “criminal operation of TigerSwan and other unlicensed private security entities, law enforcement and the U.S. Attorney’s Office collaborated with TigerSwan,” Fallis’s defense attorneys stated.

Among other investigative and intelligence gathering tactics, “TigerSwan placed or attempted to place undercover private security agents within the protest group to carry out investigative and surveillance activities against these groups on behalf of Energy Transfer Partners and others,” the NDPISB civil suit stated.

In addition, TigerSwan hired Stutsman County Sheriff Chad Kaiser as the DAPL operations local deputy unified commander, according to defense motions.

National security Intelligence Specialist Terry W. Van Horn of the U.S. Attorney’s Office used DAPL security footage to identify people for arrests later, according to the defense’s motion.

“For DAPL criminal investigations, Mr. Van Horn is involved in precisely the type of ‘joint investigation’ and ‘sharing] [of] labor and resources,” the defense argued. “Mr. Van Horn at times directed DAPL-related intelligence gathering by state officials; was a part of a sustained joint investigative effort involving numerous local, state and federal law enforcement agencies; and had ready access to law enforcement-generated materials as well as real-time evidence generated by private security entities.”

DAPL security’s relationship to law enforcement embodies joint activity, the defense argued.

“DAPL security agents assisted with arrests, provided contemporaneous information in the form of live feeds and other intelligence gathered to ‘aid in prosecution,’ received information in return, procured military-grade equipment for October 27, and even employed a sheriff prominent in law enforcement’s DAPL-related command structure…”

When TigerSwan began operations in North Dakota, it first denied its role as a fusion leader on or before September 23, 2016. Later, multiple requests for cooperation and information were mostly ignored, according to the NDPISB civil suit. More than two months after TigerSwan’s arrival, it submitted an application for working in North Dakota, but the application was denied because if failed to provide positive criminal history for its founder, Reese.

In January 2017, TigerSwan’s application was rejected again, but the security firm never stopped working in North Dakota, the NDPISB reported.

“Morton County, BCI, and other law enforcement agencies ignored an explicit request made by the NDPISB to ensure private security operators were operating legally and instead initiated a sustained relationship of collaboration with these illegally-operating security companies,” Fallis’s defense attorneys stated in the Motion to Compel Discovery.  

Under North Dakota law, officers who collaborated with TigerSwan may be accomplices to the misdemeanor violation of unlicensed operation, the defense stated.

Red Fawn Fallis (in back) and her mother (center front) – Facebook

Red Fawn’s arrest
Fallis was assumed guilty by many before the ink dried on her arrest report. She spent a year in jail without bond. Morton County Sheriff’s Department press releases were sent far and wide, with more than 140 reportedly arrested on October 27, 2016. Many pipeline supporters pointed to the incident to ridicule the entire resistance movement outside of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, which at one time became the tenth largest community in the state.

An October 28, 2016 affidavit conducted by Special Agent Joseph Arenz of the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation stated that Pennington County deputies Thaddeus Schmit and Rusty Schmidt were moving activists, known as water protectors, south along Highway 1806, when they identified Fallis as an instigator.

Free Red Fawn banner outside of main entryway to Oceti Sakowin – photograph by C.S. Hagen

“On October 27, 2016 deputies with the Pennington County, South Dakota Sheriff’s Department were in Morton County, North Dakota assisting with law enforcement functions for the Dakota Access Pipeline protest,” the affidavit stated. “An operational plan had been made which was going to consist of law enforcement removing individuals who had set up a camp on private land owned by DAPL, on the east side of Highway 1806 where the pipeline was supposed to be laid.”

When Fallis walked away from the crowd that day, Schmit and Schmidt “took her to the ground” and attempted to flex handcuff her. Lying face down, two heavily armed deputies manhandling her, Schmit heard two quick gunshots,  and Schmidt noticed the ground near his knee “explode,” the affidavit stated.

Schmit then lunged towards Fallis’ left hand and with the help of other officers, pulled the handgun away before handcuffing her.

Standing at five feet three inches tall, and weighing approximately 125 pounds, Fallis would have been an easy tackle for two well-trained sheriff deputies.

Neither deputy saw a gun when they took Fallis to the ground, and believe she was able to retrieve the weapon when Schmit stopped pulling on her left arm, the affidavit stated.

“Once Red Fawn Fallis was in custody, officers found a small amount of what they believed to be marijuana in Red Fawn Fallis’ left and right pants pockets and also metal knuckles in the backpack that Red Fawn Fallis was carrying,” the affidavit stated.

While being transported to the Morton County Detention Center, police said Fallis told them she was trying to pull the gun out of her pocket and was jumped, making the gun go off.

“Red Fawn Fallis also made the statement to Probation and Parole that they are lucky she didn’t shoot ‘all of you f*ckers,’” according to the affidavit.

A Facebook page supporting Fallis called Free Red Fawn stated that Fallis was retreating from the front lines when she was tackled.

“Police reports allege that one of the officers pulled his weapon and placed it against her back,” the post stated. “While she was pinned to the ground, shots were fired. She is accused of firing a weapon. Eyewitness accounts and video show otherwise.”

Originally, Fallis was charged with attempted murder, preventing arrest, carrying a concealed firearm, and possession of marijuana. The charges were dropped by the state a month later, but were moved to federal court. On January 29, Fallis will begin court proceedings charged with engaging in civil disorder, discharging a firearm in relation to a felony crime of violence, possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon, which if found guilty carries a minimum sentence of 10 years and the potential of life imprisonment.

Law enforcement against activists in water – photograph by C.S. Hagen

Red Fawn
Today, Fallis resides in a halfway house in Fargo. She has access to a mobile phone and can chat online, but heeding caution from her lawyers, refused interview requests.

Fallis, and her supporters, say she is a political prisoner of a war that has lasted more than 500 years.

“The U.S. government is engaged in tactics of lies, and rumor, and paid informants in an attempt to put our sister, daughter, auntie, water protector, and friend in prison,” a post from the Free Red Fawn Facebook page stated.

“But she can’t wait to get her story out,” Cempoali Twenny, an activist who stayed at the Standing Rock camps and is Fallis’ friend said. “They’ve already convicted her, and painted her as someone who is violent. She is a good-hearted person, she’s been in this whole thing for a year now, and she’s been having a hard time, but she’s operating from the truth, and she has nothing to hide.”

While at the camps, Fallis worked primarily as a medic, pulling injured people from the front lines, dowsing faces burning from pepper spray with milk of magnesia, and easing the pain of those hit with rubber bullets.

“People are holding her up as a hero, because she is one of the water protectors that has been targeted, and they’re using her as an excuse to prove to themselves, to make sure something goes through. We don’t want that to happen to her.”

Fallis also worked with youth, as an older sister, Twenny said.

“There were no leaders there, there were never any leaders there,” Twenny said. “Our leader was the water, and the fire that kept us in peace and in harmony.”

Red Fawn Fallis with her mother Troylynn YellowWood – Facebook

Fallis is the daughter of Troylynn YellowWood, an activist who helped block the Columbus Day Parade in Denver, Colorado in 2004, according to the American Indian Genocide Museum. YellowWood was also a member of the American Indian Movement, and in the 1970s gave safe house to Annie Mae Aquash in her Denver home, according to February 2004 testimony in the trial of Arlo Looking Cloud.

YellowWood passed away in June 2016, four months before her daughter was arrested.  

Fallis has a prior record from 14 years ago, and served 30 months of probation in Denver after pleading guilty. She is the only woman and one of six Native Americans facing charges in federal court from the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy, according to the Water Protector Legal Collective. Federal charges against five men stemmed from information obtained by Energy Transfer Partners’ security teams, according to an affidavit filed by ATF Special Agent Derek Hill.

Michael Giron, known as Little Feather, is from the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation and was raised in Santa Barbara, California. He has been incarcerated without bond since March 9, 2017 on two federal charges of civil disorder and using fire to commit a federal felony offense arising from October 27, 2016. His trial is set for April 10, 2018, in Bismarck. Little Feather faces up to 15 years in prison if proven guilty.

Dion Ortiz, 21, was being held at the Sandoval County Detention Center in New Mexico on federal charges of civil disorder and the use of fire to commit a federal crime. His request to be released to a halfway house was granted on December 7, 2017.

Brennon J. Nastacio, 36, commonly known as “Bravo One,” is a Pueblo Native American, and was indicted on February 8, 2017 for civil disorder and the use of fire to commit a federal crime on October 27, 2016. Nastacio was also charged by the state with felony terrorism after he helped disarm Kyle Thompson, a former employee of Leighton Security Services under the TigerSwan fusion lead. The state’s charges were dropped in July 2017.

Michael “Rattler” Markus, from Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation, is on supervised release after being held for nearly two months at the Heart of America Correction Center in Rugby, North Dakota.

James “Angry Bird” White, 52, a veteran and from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, worked security in the Standing Rock camps. He too faces federal charges and was arrested in January 2017.

On December 4, 2017, Fallis made a public statement on the Red Fawn Facebook page.

“I remember the last time I had the opportunity to go with my Ina (mom) to express our support and solidarity for our Cheyenne relatives whose families were murdered in the Sand Creek Massacre,” Fallis wrote. “We went to the Capitol in downtown Denver and on our way there she reminded me that no matter what we are doing in our own lives, we must always take time and make an effort to go to gatherings like this to show support because no matter how much time has passed, the importance of honoring and remembrance is crucial to the healing process and as Lakota people we must always remember our relatives.”

Her mother was an influence in her life, she stated.

“We all share the same history in one way or another so we must open our hearts in order to love and encourage each other and continue to help each other heal. I added a picture of us at the Capitol that day and even though my Ina was very ill and battling cancer she was there, smiling and offering her heart and love to our relatives who were there to honor the memory of so many who died at the hands of hate, racism, greed, and the American government.

“I am grateful for the lessons and teachings she handed down to myself and so many others because at camp I was able to go to the youth and build a great bond with them as I admired the work they started in a prayerful way to Protect Mni Sosa from the Dakota Access Pipeline and the big oil companies. I love them and my heart feels good when I remember the times we spent and the talks we had. I also remember the strength in their hearts and their prayers and the fire in their eyes, I am thankful for each and every one of them.”

A lone activist starts the day with singing as a building burns (upper right) on the day of eviction from Oceti Sakowin – photograph by C.S. Hagen

 

‘We are here, and are not afraid’

November 21, 2017 / / 2 Comments

The pipeline fighter who nearly lost an arm is still wrestling the FBI

By C.S. Hagen
Sophia Wilansky says she’s lucky she’s right handed. Since nearly losing her left arm from an exploding projectile on Backwater Bridge one year ago, cooking has become a tedious art. She can no longer be involved in circus acrobatics.

Sophia Wilansky self portrait

Daily chores like carrying a purse by its strap, or lifting a grocery bag, aren’t possible. The injuries are permanent; she will carry the scars all her life.

“Makes it harder to do a lot of physical things, can’t even do a downward dog properly in yoga,” Wilansky, 22, said during a video interview. “Everything takes a little more energy, even reading a book, with two hands.”

Was it worth it? Wilansky smiles, hugs her injured arm closer.

“Yes. Definitely,” Wilansky said. “One of the most fulfilling things you can do in life is to act with integrity, for the things you believe in, and make the world the place it’s supposed to be, and once was. It’s fulfilling. It’s worth it from even a personal perspective.”

Since her injury outside of Standing Rock during the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation have hounded her.

“We have yet to determine why or what their basis of information was,” Wilansky’s attorney, Lauren Regan said. She is the founder and executive director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center in Oregon. “Since then, they say she blew herself up, accidentally, and that water protectors were responsible for this percussion grenade that hit her in the arm.”

FBI agents also took the shrapnel taken by surgeons from Wilansky’s arm, and Regan will be filing a federal lawsuit called a suit of equity within a week to demand the FBI turn over evidence.

A year has passed since Wilansky’s injury on Backwater Bridge, and Regan admits she’s worried evidence could have been tampered with. But surgeons took pictures of the shrapnel and Wilansky has not been indicted, which is a good sign the government has no case.

“It does seem preposterous with all this time and resources the government has, that they have not had the time to test this fragment,” Regan said.

She’s already filed a notice of claims against the State of North Dakota and law enforcement divisions involved. If the FBI is hiding something, she intends to find out.

“If we determine that the FBI is part of the cover-up, they will be added to lawsuit as well,” Regan said. “She’s endured all these injuries, and surgeries, and prosecution, and yet she is still an incredibly strong woman and still involved in the movement and standing up for what’s right. She is a positive role model for other young people who are struggling and unsure how to contribute.”

One year ago November 21, Wilansky had already been at the Standing Rock camp known as Oceti Sakowin for 17 days. She spent her nights in a tent, in deteriorating winter conditions, and her days with Standing Rock activists, known as water protectors. As a recent college graduate, she had little experience with activism, and a rudimentary awareness of the consequences of colonialism for America’s Indigenous people.

“It was the place to be in 2016,” Wilansky said. “But I already had an interest in fighting pipelines, and I had an intellectual interest in decolonization.”

Before standing against the Dakota Access Pipeline, she first became involved against Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct in her home state of New York, which piqued her curiosity about climate change.

“Honestly, it’s cliché, but I went on a climate march in 2014, and so I think that helped awaken the dormant necessity of relating everything to climate change, because it’s so urgent.”

Life without fossil fuels is nearly impossible, she said, but she’s trying to lessen her carbon footprint by driving in an altered van that runs on used free vegetable oil from fast food chains.

“That’s still not going to solve the problem,” Wilansky said. “Ultimately I want to live in an eco-village, where you don’t have to live with the guilt of ecological destruction, and focus more on eco-revitalization.”

Sophia Wilansky near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota this summer – photograph by Jacob Crawford

Early evening: September 20, 2016
Wilansky stood with hundreds of activists against a brightly lit blockade at Backwater Bridge, north of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Reservation. Coils of razor wire sparkled, icicles quickly forming from water cannons blasted into the crowds.

Two burned-out DAPL trucks formed a V in front of massive cement blocks. The water cannons came from fire trucks, and behind each door and jutting from military vehicle turrets stood sharpshooters with less lethal rounds.

Strangely, the plastic bin lid she used as a shield worked well against the water cannons, but did little to stop the rubber bullets. Earlier in the evening she was hit twice, once in the groin, and once in the chest. The upper portion of her left arm still bears the scar from where another rubber bullet broke the skin. Her clothes were soaked, and when she got too cold, she warmed up around fires out of the water cannons’ range.

“It wasn’t really bad, it took me a while to figure out why they were doing it, and at first we thought it was some kind of chemical they were spraying us with,” Wilansky said. “So many people were letting the water splash over them in an interesting form of defiance. It was really horrible, a human rights violation, but at the same time it was an incredible display of strength, the joy of being in water.

“I think it was a very spiritual action because it just felt like I said, defiance, to this basically military occupation right next to the reservation and next to Oceti. I don’t think that people had any illusions that this action was going to accomplish anything concrete, in the moment, and there were many actions with that same flavor.

“We were just saying ‘We are here, and we are not afraid.’  Just being there and holding that space, at that point in the struggle it was an act of resistance.”

Activist prepares to be hit with water – photo by Rob Wilson Photography

Since 4am, November 21, 2016
The blast knocked her down, hard. Pain was excruciating. At the time, many media outlets reported she lost her arm, and for a time, Wilanksy thought she had.

“In the early morning hours of November 21, 2016, police launched an exploding munition at Wilansky, which tore off most of her arm and left her gravely injured,” a press release from the Civil Liberties Defense Center stated.

The explosion ripped out the radius bone, muscles, nerves, and arteries, leaving her hand hanging by bits of skin. Friends placed her in a car and drove 30 minutes to an ambulance near Prairie Knights Casino. From there she was medevaced to a Minneapolis hospital, where doctors averted amputation.

Moments after she was struck, while waiting for the driver, Wilansky was afraid to look at her arm, and thought only about the medications she would soon receive to ease the pain. She never lost consciousness, and used her good hand to text a friend.

Sophia Wilansky after being injured early November 21, 2016

While at the Minneapolis hospital with her family gathered, “They were besieged by FBI agents who demanded Sohpia’s clothing, medical records, cell phones, and even threatened her doctors.” the Civil Liberties Defense Center press release stated. “Rather than attempt to ascertain which of the many armored police caused Wilansky’s serious injuries, the FBI launched a federal investigation against Wilansky – even issuing a federal grand jury subpoena to the Native American Water Protector who rushed her to medical care.”

Four surgeries later, her radial bone is slowly healing after a large bone graft. The metal plate inside her arm has not shifted, but she has no feeling in the palm side of her hand. Some feeling has returned from her forearm to her wrist, and she is able to wiggle her fingers now. A fifth surgery is scheduled, which will be a tendon transfer so that her thumb may move to touch her pinky finger. Pain, however, is still ever present.

On Monday, the Fargo Forum’s Inforum ran a short editorial by one of their own, Rob Port, who wrote about the “unfortunate profile of NoDAPL activist” in the New York Post.

“It’s all part of an ongoing effort by left wing propagandists to rewrite the history of the NoDAPL protests, particularly as we approach the one-year anniversary this week of their most violent episodes.”

That night, long before a police report could be filed, long before Wilansky had arrived in Minneapolis, police and TigerSwan, the private security company for Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company of Dakota Access LLC, initiated a “False and defamatory media campaign attempting to blame Sophia Wilansky for blowing herself up… including publishing fake photos and other information in the Internet,” the Civil Liberties Defense Center press release said, corroborated by emails obtained by The Intercept:

Ninety minutes after the standoff at Backwater Bridge began, Bismarck Police Officer Lynn Wanner told everyone to watch live feeds. A Code Red was issued at approximately 6:17pm. Nearly 15 minutes later, activists were attempting to remove the two burned-out DAPL trucks. Less lethal munitions were brought in at 7:16 p.m., and the fire truck arrived nearly 15 minutes later. By 7:45 p.m., officers were asking to retreat, and an FBI informant inside the camps reportedly found propane tanks set to explode.

By 9:58 p.m., the conversation between law enforcement officials and TigerSwan turned to preparation for a media backlash. Hundreds of reports of tear gas, pepper spray, concussion grenades, and water cannons used on people came across in an email around 9:43 p.m.

In total, more than 300 activists were injured at Backwater Bridge before dawn on September 21, including a woman shot in the face with a rubber bullet, many suffering from internal bleeding, hypothermia, lost consciousness, severe head lacerations, and multiple fractures.

Law enforcement relied heavily on social media feeds in early attempts to refute Wilansky’s story. TigerSwan echoed law enforcement’s worries of a media backlash by saying live videos would be turned into anti-DAPL propaganda. The North Dakota National Guard also weighed in, asking how to disseminate the government narrative to the public, and the public information officer with the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services suggested Port’s SayAnythingBlog.

Citing disinformation, both Regan and Wilansky’s family have said the government’s narrative does not contain “a shred of truth.”

“They’re using what happened to me as an excuse to ruin the whole movement,” Wilansky said.

Her only regret is that her time at Standing Rock was cut short.

“I certainly fulfilled some kind of purpose there, because what happened to me helped spur thousands of more people arriving. Ultimately, that didn’t stop the pipeline from being built though.”

Wilansky encourages young people, especially, to become involved in causes they believe in.

“Being involved in this particular movement and land defense is a really good option for people finishing college and high school and not ready to go get a job, and taking the typical path. It’s still possible for anyone to be a part of these camps, there’s so many camps, so many struggles all over the world.”

Self portrait Sophia Wilansky

If Wilansky’s injuries have taught her anything, it’s that she will work harder for the causes she believes in.

“The police commit daily acts of violence against black, brown, and Indigenous people, murdering Native people at a higher rate than any other group,” Wilansky said. “Extractive industry does the same thing, only more slowly and insidiously. The fact that state actors are willing to assault and maim anyone who stands for the water within an Indigenous-led movement only means that each of us must strengthen our resolve to contribute in our own way to the struggle to defend life and end the colonizing institutions that threaten it.

Despite her injuries, Wilansky isn’t angry. “A lot of people are angry for me, I think, at the police and all the other entities that are giving me a hard time. There’s lots of good reasons to be angry, but I’m not angry, because I already knew that’s how this society works.

“No attack on my body or my character will silence me or prevent me from returning to the frontline as soon as I am physically able.”

 

“They are stealing our babies”

September 28, 2017 / / 0 Comments

A former Spirit Lake Tribal case manager under investigation in allegedly faked adoption proceedings

By C.S. Hagen
WOODWORTH – A former case manager for the Spirit Lake Tribal Social Services is under police investigation for fraud and allegedly faking adoptions for Native American children.

Stutsman County Sheriff’s Department is currently investigating Betty Jo Krenz, approximately 46, and currently living in Woodworth, according to court documents and Stutsman County Sheriff’s Department Detective Jason Falk. It was unclear if other agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are involved at this time.

Betty Jo Krenz – YouTube

According to Janel Herald, a registered member of the Spirit Lake Tribe and involved with organizing information pertaining to the case, the FBI, as well as the Spirit Lake Nation, Grand Forks Police, Rapid City Police, Devil’s Lake Police, Medford, Oregon police, Boise, Idaho police, the North Dakota State Attorney General’s office, and Jamestown Police are also involved in the investigation.

Krenz was a case manager for helping children at the Spirit Lake Tribal Social Services until 2011, and has been a high-profile figure, interviewed by the New York Times and local media about her work with children on the reservation.

The Krenz family was interviewed by Valley News Live in January after she attended President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Krenz also gave testimony before a congressional subcommittee, which included Congressman Kevin Cramer (R-ND), according to 2014 media reports.

“She was employed with social services and she was released from here,” said June Yankton, the Spirit Lake Tribal Council administrator.

Krenz has a long criminal record of writing bad checks, forgery, and counterfeiting, under both her current and former surnames.

Online complaints against Krenz have become viral during the past month, and came to a head after Autym Burke, of Oregon, posted about her experience with Krenz on September 21 to Jodie Blackboy.

“My husband and I met a woman named Betty Jo Krenz,” Burke wrote. “We were introduced to her earlier this year because we were told that she helped facilitate adoptions for Native American children who needed good homes…My husband and I have wanted to adopt for over a decade and had just begun the journey to adoption when we met her.”

What followed was a description of lies and deceit, of a woman who tricked the couple out of money and their hopes for adopting a child named Julissa.

“Anyways, we were told there was a baby to adopt, and that baby, we now know, was your [Jodie Blackboy’s] daughter,” Burke wrote. “For months, we received photographs, videos, and updates about her, thinking our family was going to be adopting her. It ended in heartbreak when we realized that we had been scammed by Betty Jo Krenz.

“We were lied to and left heartbroken. And I’m sure you’ve been lied to also. I can send you everything I have. I have tons of photos and videos of baby Julissa.

“I’m only keeping them as long as I need them to prove my case to you, and to the proper authorities. Once that is done, I promise I will not keep them. I’ve closed the door and know that this baby is, and always was yours, and I am truly glad that she is safe and sound with you, her Mom.”

Blackboy acknowledged that the baby involved in the adoption proceedings was her daughter, but declined to comment further.

Betty Jo Krenz – former Facebook photo

Other online messages between alleged victims and Krenz talk about Julissa, whose adopted name was to be Ruby, and Haisley Jo, believed to be the same baby taken from Savanna Greywind on August 19. Krenz’ messages about Haisley Jo were written on August 22, while Haisley Jo and the suspects in Greywind’s murder weren’t found or arrested until the following Thursday, August 24.

One September 27, 2017, the Spirit Lake Tribal Council banned Krenz from entering the Spirit Lake Reservation. Tribal Administrator Yankton said that the Tribal Council plans to issue a press release later.

Krenz, also known as Jo Betty, described herself as a “fierce advocate for women and children of rape and abuse” on a former Facebook page profile. Since Wednesday, however, all her Facebook pages have been taken down, and four telephone numbers for her are no longer working.

“They are stealing our babies,” Linda Black Elk said on a Facebook post. “If you ever doubted racism and genocide in North Dakota, you won’t after reading this: Betty Jo Edland-Krenz, a white woman from the Fargo area, was once a child advocate for the Spirit Lake Nation foster care program. Red flags were raised over the years. People found out about her felony convictions and other suspicious behavior and tried to warn the community, but very little was done. In fact, Betty Jo has numerous GoFundMe accounts open for various projects that never seem to come to fruition.”

One GoFundMe account, now closed, raised $16,544. Another account Krenz is credited for being involved with is called a math camp for Lakota children and raised $4,470. Krenz was also involved with the Kind Hearted Woman Dream Shelter, in Jamestown; with Robin’s House, a shelter for women and children; and with a blog called Restless Spirit Blog, last updated in 2015.

On a September 2016 YouTube channel, Krenz discusses a $2,000 micro grant she planned to use to help women by donating to Damsel In Defense, an organization that empowers women.

“I am a thrift store shopped for children’s books and toys,” Krenz wrote in the Restless Spirit blog. “If you feel you can help in any way please donate to Robin’s House and help me make Robin’s dream come true and the families be comfortable.”

“The state government loves her because she is a Trump supporter and was even featured in Kevin Cramer’s campaign,” Black Elk wrote. “For some reason, they consistently overlooked her track record and upheld her as an exemplary citizen.

“It has now come to light that Betty Jo was attempting to sell North Dakota’s Native American babies,” Black Elk wrote.

“I’m just trying to prove my story, and an agent at the Attorney General’s office is working on going through all of my documentation,” Autym Burke said. “We have been scammed, and I know of another family. We were ‘adopting’ babies who we now know were never for adoption. I’m working with many law enforcement agencies right now, and cooperating and trying to help as much as I possibly can, so that no other moms, babies, or families who want to adopt are scammed, lied to, and hurt.”

Burke declined to talk about case specifics further, pending investigation.

Online, netizens call Krenz a whistleblower, who thinks she is safe because of her previous work on the Spirit Lake reservation.

“Yet she is victimizing our Native people and needs to be held accountable for her wrongdoing,” Ashley Roulette, of Oberton, said in an online post.

Deb Bjorem, from West Fargo, met Krenz in March 2017, and said she too was cheated financially by helping her, and another woman from West Fargo who runs a daycare and did a benefit for Michelle Schumacher last year, who both claimed to be raising funds, primarily for abused women and the homeless.

“I opened myself to them, I told them everything about my past, my history, and now they use it to their advantage,” Bjorem said. “They have my whole life in their hands. I’ve lost so many so-called friends because of this, but I hang on to my faith in Jesus as I have for the past 20 years. The truth will set you free, and it will come out in the end.”

Bjorem said Krenz is in Hawaii right now. Others who admit knowing Krenz say she is remains in North Dakota. 

This is a breaking story; updates will follow.

Police gather for a photo opp before a roadblock setup by activists, reports differ on who set the debris on fire - photo provided by online sources

Leaked Documents 2: TigerSwan and Government Twist Narrative Over Dakota Access Pipeline

June 6, 2017 / / 0 Comments

By C.S. Hagen
CANNON BALL – As at Wounded Knee in 1973, the Federal Bureau of Investigation used informants to infiltrate the anti-Dakota Access Pipeline camps, according to government emails leaked to media outlet The Intercept. 

The claim was widely believed true by activists in the Standing Rock camps against the Dakota Access Pipeline, but was never proven until now. Law enforcement from five different states, the North Dakota National Guard, the National Sheriff’s Association, and TigerSwan security personnel hired by Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company of the Dakota Access LLC, also depended upon extracting information from social media feeds.

Police gather for a photo opportunity before a roadblock setup by activists, reports differ on who set the debris on fire – photo provided by online sources

Leaked emails stemming from the November 21 standoff on Backwater Bridge after militarized law enforcement used water cannons to force back hundreds of activists in freezing temperatures, reveal government agencies’ attempts to control the narrative. Hundreds of activists were reportedly injured, one seriously – Sophia Wilansky – was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after an explosion nearly ripped off her arm.

“Everyone watch a different live feed,” Bismarck Police Officer Lynn Wanner wrote in an email, which was seen by FBI agents, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“FBI inside source reporting propane tanks inside the camp rigged to explode,” Wanner, who according to records acted as an on-the-ground liaison between agencies, wrote in an email.

TigerSwan was quick to respond, worrying that activists would use the growing numbers of people injured as an “anti-DAPL propaganda,” according to records. 

Relying on information from the FBI’s infiltrator and social media posts on Facebook, U.S. Attorney’s Office National Security Intelligence Specialist Terry Van Horn sent out an email a day after the November 21 confrontation saying Wilansky was seen throwing a homemade Coleman-type gas canister bomb on Backwater Bridge.

“How can we get this story out? Rob Port?” Major Amber Balken, a public information officer with the North Dakota National Guard, said. “This is a must report.” 

Cecily Fong, a public information officer with the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services, replied saying she would “get with” the blogger for wider dissemination. 

Medics working to warm a man suffering from hypothermia – photo by C.S. Hagen

Wilansky was injured by an explosion from the activists’ side, Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported at the time, even after many eyewitnesses came forward saying that Wilansky was first struck with rubber bullets, and then targeted by a compression grenade while she was on the ground. Another eyewitness said she was hit first by a rubber bullet, and then by the grenade as she crossed the guardrail south of Backwater Bridge, approximately 30 feet from the frontline.

Lawyers working with Wilansky’s father, Wayne Wilansky, denied the accusations citing government disinformation. Formal notices of claim were filed against the Morton County Sheriff’s Department and Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier and other law enforcement agencies in May for state tort claims, and for libel, slander, and defamation of character. 

“This is outrageous that this happens in our country, and I’m afraid it’s only going to get worse,” Wayne Wilanksy said in a video interview.

In addition to the FBI’s informant, at least one other person was sighted in the back of a pickup truck holding a fake gun wrapped in duct tape, and another attempted to infiltrate the camps. 

Kyle Thompson, of Bismarck, was disarmed by activists then turned over to the Bureau of Indian Affairs on October 27, 2016. Thompson was later handed over to Morton County, and then released, called a victim. No charges were filed at that time, but Thompson was later arrested in an unrelated case on drug and weapons charges in April 2017 by Bismarck Police. 

Thompson worked for Thompson-Gray LLC, listed under Silverton Consulting International by the Ohio Secretary of State, according to paperwork discovered inside his truck. The company was not authorized to work in North Dakota, and was owned by Charles Graham Clifton, a man who has at least three civil lawsuits filed against him. 

 

Forty-three years after Wounded Knee
In 1973, confrontations between Native Americans and government agencies at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, lasted 71 days, leaving two people killed during shootouts, 12 people wounded, including one FBI agent, and to the arrests of approximately 1,200 people. Forty-three years later, the anti-DAPL movement camped outside Standing Rock for nearly ten months with no casualties, but hundreds suffered from hypothermia under siege-like tactics, and were also hit with mace, rubber bullets, pepper spray, attack dogs, and percussion grenades. Approximately 761 people were arrested by law enforcement, whose efforts and intelligence were coordinated by TigerSwan Inc., the  private security company hired by Energy Transfer Partners. 

Starting soon after Ohio-based Frost Kennels admitted its involvement in altercations when the security company’s attack dogs bit activists in September 2016, TigerSwan stepped in, and worked closely with law enforcement using military-style counterterrorism measures against the movement opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline, according to documents leaked to The Intercept.  

TigerSwan attempted to target Native Americans, especially those involved in the Red Warrior Society and the American Indian Movement, actress Shailene Woodley, even activists from Black Lives Matter, Veterans for Peace, the Catholic Worker Movement, and Food and Water Watch, according to records, and labelled activists outside of Standing Rock as “jihadists” involved in a religious uprising. 

Daily intelligence report from TigerSwan circulated to law enforcement included this picture of a gorilla overseeing the Standing Rock camps

Aaron Pollitt, 28, from Indiana, was charged on October 22, 2016 by Morton County Sheriff’s deputies for engaging in a riot and criminal trespass, and was also targeted by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force after leaving Standing Rock. 

“It was really eerie,” Pollitt said. “It is really concerning to be investigated by a terrorism task force or state police, but I am not too concerned.This is an assault on the rights of people to be scaring us away from our right to protest and to free speech.”

TigerSwan Inc., with offices in Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, India, Latin America, and headquartered in North Carolina, has won more than 13 contracts with the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security since 2014 worth more than $9 million, according to USASpending.gov. The North Dakota Secretary of State holds one record for TigerSwan, LLC, established in Fargo on November 7, 2016, seven months after the controversy began. 

Communication between the various agencies attempts to paint the activists – known as water protectors – as criminals, out of state troublemakers, and sexual deviants, a theme widely reported by the state’s media, particularly on the Forum Communication Company’s right-wing editorialist Say Anything Blog, managed by Port. 

“We probably should be ready for a massive media backlash tomorrow although we are in the right. 244 angry voicemails received so far,” Ben Leingang said on November 21. Leingang is listed as the director of the North Dakota Fusion Center, Bureau of Criminal Investigation, State of North Dakota, by Leadership Directories. 

The North Dakota Fusion Center was established by current Senator John Hoeven R-N.D., when he was governor in 2007, and began to serve as a industrial surveillance complex for communications between North Dakota law enforcement and National Guard with the federal government for information collections, analysis, and dissemination, according to the North Dakota Governor’s Office. 

 

Creating the government narrative 
In an October 3, 2016 TigerSwan document, security agents attempted to exploit internal divisions between Native Americans and “white allies,” saying that drug use and sexual activity persist among the activists, which at the time was closing in on 10,000 people. What was uncertain to TigerSwan operatives was the “number and type of weapons within the camps or who has been providing military-style training sessions.” 

Nearly every mainstream North Dakota media outlet used more ink to publish stories pertaining to local anger and trash pileups than actual events occurring along the Dakota Access Pipeline. Additionally, law enforcement tried to exacerbate the story that a journalist was attacked inside the camps on October 18. Phelim McAleer, from Ireland, was given permission to enter the camps and soon began asking pointed question about activists being hypocritical, he said. 

McAleer is known as a pro-oil public relations agitator, and ‘professional character assassin’ by many. 

TigerSwan disseminated a Powerpoint report citing positive and negative aspects of the controversy. 

“Positive – Sheriff’s Association continues to publish positive news stories. Local news media is highlighting negative effects the protesters are having to the area.”

“Negative – Protesters continue posting anti-law enforcement anti-DAPL content on social media in order to garner sympathy and support for their cause.”  

TigerSwan also became the law enforcements’ ‘weatherman,’ posting the week’s predicted weather patterns. 

On the south side of the camps, activists held daily classes teaching newcomers about passive resistance tactics, incessantly stressing the importance of non-violent methods. Rules were posted on a large board outside the tent’s entrance. 

Direct Action classroom tent – photo by C.S. Hagen

In the Sacred Stone Camp, medical massages were available for those suffering from muscle or bone injuries. Multiple kitchens were usually busy, either feeding those inside the camps or running food and coffee out to lookout sites. 

Many people wore knives at their belt, a common tool for anyone living in the wilderness. Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported no weapons were found within the camps at any time. Morton County Public Information Officer Maxine Herr added that the department received reports of weapons – other than survival tools – spotted in vehicles and elsewhere. 

Early during the controversy, either due to faulty information from the FBI’s informant, or due to a cultural misunderstanding, Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported knowledge of pipe bombs, which turned out to be ceremonial pipes. When asked about the claim during an interview, Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney told reporters that tribal leaders said pipe bombs were being made inside the camps.

In 2016, Morton County law enforcement agencies received 8,033 reports, of which 5,257 were verified offenses, Herr stated. 

“September to December, when protesters were her in mass, showed a significant uptick,” Herr said. 

Typically, monthly calls for assistance and crime reports average nearly 400 per month in Morton County, according to police records. In 2016, reports began increasing across the county in June, climaxing at 1,159 reports in September, and slowly decreasing until December with 895 reports called in. Numbers reflect all calls made to Morton County pertaining to any situation, not specifically related to the DAPL controversy.  

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Dave Archambault and other leaders insisted on peaceful protest and prayer.  Signs were posted at the camps’ entrances not allowing weapons or drugs. Although the camps temporarily became North Dakota’s tenth largest community, few real crimes were reported from within the activists’ camps.

TigerSwan also arranged meetings with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to documents. In October 2016, the security company also stated activists will continue to “riot” and force law enforcement to respond with violence. The concern revolved around the pipeline project, however, and not the potential life of a human being. 

“The use of force or death of a protester or rioter will result in the immediate halt to DAPL operations, which will likely permanently halt the entire project,” the October report stated. 

Daily intelligence information from TigerSwan to law enforcement

TigerSwan operatives were also concerned about peaceful activists. “It is important to weed out the non-aggressive groups as they will drain our resources in the wrong direction with no effect to our client.” 

TigerSwan was also seeking information at the time when former Governor Jack Dalrymple attempted to enforce fines on what people in his administration termed as “terrorists,” – anyone traveling the roads to the camps and on local sympathizers providing support, logistics, and “potentially shelter for those committing criminal acts.” 

 

Brennon Nastacio and Kyle Thompson on October 27, 2016 - online sources

Armed DAPL Mercenary Arrested in Bismarck

April 18, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Dakota Access LLC security guard disguised as water protector who tried to ram car into Standing Rock main camp in 2016 faces drug and gun concealment charges 

By C.S. Hagen
BISMARCK – The disguised DAPL security guard set free by law enforcement last year after reportedly driving crazily toward the main No DAPL camp armed with a semi-automatic AR-15, was arrested Tuesday on unrelated charges, according to police. 

Kyle Thompson mugshot – Burleigh County Sheriff’s Department

Kyle James Thompson, 30, was arrested at 8:03 p.m. Tuesday for simple assault domestic violence, carrying a concealed weapon, and for possession of schedule I, II, and III drug paraphernalia, according to the Burleigh County arrest records. By Wednesday afternoon the domestic abuse charge was dropped, leaving two Class A misdemeanor charges: carrying a concealed firearm in his vehicle, and possessing drug paraphernalia, namely syringes and spoons, to consume methamphetamine, according to the Burleigh County Clerk of Court.

Bismarck Police Officer David Haswell stopped Thompson’s car on East Broadway Avenue in Bismarck for a welfare check, according to Clerk of Court records. “Police were notified by witnesses that a male subject was hitting a female subject in the car,” Haswell reported. “I made contact with the driver, Kyle Thompson, and asked him to exit the vehicle. While he exited the vehicle I noticed a handgun concealed between the driver seat and the center console.”

Thompson’s DAPL security badge taken from pickup truck – online sources

In the backseat, Thompson allegedly also had a rifle, Clerk of Court documents reported. Officers also located a small zipper case inside the vehicle with multiple syringes, spoons, a white residue, a grinder with residue, and a glass smoking device, Clerk of Court documents said. 

“The capped needles field tested positive for methamphetamines,” Haswell wrote. “Thompson does not have a concealed carry permit.” 

Nearly six months ago when law enforcement took over the Standing Rock’s Treaty Camp, pitched in the Dakota Access Pipeline’s route, Thompson was arrested by Bureau of Indian Affairs agents after activists slammed a vehicle into his pickup truck. He was disguised as a “water protector” in a t-shirt and bandana covering his face. A short foot pursuit ended in a pond near the camp where according to video reports and interviews with activists, Thompson fired his weapon twice. 

In November 2016, Thompson and the Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation found no evidence that Thompson fired his weapon. Documents linking Thompson to Thompson-Gray LLC, a security firm, were found inside the pickup truck. 

Brennon Nastacio and Kyle Thompson on October 27, 2016 – online sources

After BIA agents handed Thompson over to Morton County officials, he was released, and he was called a victim by Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier. 

“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 on his Facebook page shortly after the ordeal. “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.” 

Brennon Nastacio – Facebook page

The man who stopped him, Brennon “BJ” Nastacio, a Pueblo Native American from Boulder, Colorado, was placed on Morton County Sheriff’s Department’s Most Wanted List. He turned himself in and now faces felony terrorizing charges. Nastacio has had a preliminary hearing where he said the judge already set a court date of October 5. 

“I found that to be fishy,” Nastacio said. “But I pray that he [Thompson] finds help that he needs while being incarcerated. People are so quick to wish bad and talk negative, I am not one of them. I think we endured enough bad and negativity and to add more just isn’t how I was raised. So I am hopeful that this is a wake up call for him to stop walking down that path of destruction.” 

Nastacio remains hopeful that his name will be cleared. “But I am aware that my case is in a county where 92 percent of the people there think that we are guilty. I can only be hopeful and pray for a good outcome.” 

Two others were charged with Class C felony crimes when activists stopped Thompson: Michael Fasig of Minnesota and Israel Hernandez of New York, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department. The two “committed reckless endangerment offenses when they rammed a truck driven by another individual,” a Morton County Sheriff’s Department press release reported.

Provided by Morton County Sheriff’s Department

Thompson-Gray LLC is listed under Silverton Consulting International, according to the Ohio Secretary of State. The company was not authorized to work in North Dakota, the state’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation reported. Rumors at the time when trained dogs attacked activists in September 2016 reported G4S, a U.K.-based security company that often goes by nickname the “Chaos Company,” was involved as the Dakota Access Pipeline’s private security firm are unfounded, and denied by G4S staff. 

G4S does have multiple companies established in North Dakota, according to the North Dakota Secretary of State. 

Charles Graham Clifton with horses in 2015 – photo provided by Joshua Franke-Hyland

Charles Graham Clifton is listed as the owner of Ohio-based Silverton Consulting International, a new company reported as “shady” in online reviews. Clifton is also the owner of AMGI Global, Ltd. Co., now dissolved for tax reasons in Texas, Knightsbridge Risk Management, now dissolved for noncompliance in Colorado. He has connections to the ISSE Foundation Inc., Red Rock Ordnance LLC, and Red Rock Armory, all dissolved for tax issues in Texas, the Lodestar Services International, dissolved in Colorado in 2011, and Humanitarian Defense, dissolved for tax reasons in Wyoming 2010. 

Joshua P. Franke-Hyland once worked with Clifton at AMGI Global, Ltd. Co., he said. “It was a 100 percent failure,” Franke-Hyland said. Clifton is “a scam artist with a very long history of scamming people of all types.” 

Barbara Marie Colliton – photo provided by Joshua Franke-Hyland

Clifton is on the run, Franke-Hyland said, from bench warrants for felony theft and civil lawsuits. Franke-Hyland believes the use of attack dogs was issued by Barbara Colliton, Clifton’s partner and frequent registered agent. Colliton was arrested in December 2016 but released in Taylor County, Texas after restitution was paid, Franke-Hyland said. 

Another company that used attack dogs on September 3 was the Ohio-based Frost Kennels, whose owner, Bob Frost, admitted to using the dogs on September 3, 2016. 

“We went out there to do a job and we did it,” Frost said in September 2016. “So we just said f*ck it, and got our dogs, and tried to make a bridge between them and the workers.” 

Morton County Sheriff’s Department said the companies involved as security firms for Dakota Access LLC on September 3 were not licensed to work in North Dakota, but did not file any charges against security personnel or companies involved. 

Franke-Hyland sued Clifton in Bexar County, and Clifton also is listed as being sued in Bastrop, Texas. 

“Clifton’s dream is to be G4S-AMGI, and was supposed to be Clifton’s answer to G4S,” Franke-Hyland said. “AMGI, like everything else Clifton touches, was complete sh*t. He is a risk in every sense in the word. His best day is as an incompetent short con that refuses to pay the bills.” 

North Dakota’s Body Hunter, Seeker of the Missing and the Dead

April 13, 2017 / / 0 Comments
Human Trafficking Part 1: Missing persons posters are everywhere, stapled to telephone poles, taped to post office doors, fed through Facebook feeds and chats. They pop up every few days as desperate cries from family of loved ones who suddenly disappear. The posters are usually ignored, until the tragedy hits home, victims say. Sometimes, the missing are found, but most of the time their trails grow cold, police either don’t file reports or have no more leads, and that’s when Lissa Yellow Bird-Chase picks up the hunt. 

By C.S. Hagen
FARGO – A body hunter’s untiring enemy is spring, with all its melting snow. While the days lengthen and the sun thaws the prairie grasses, Lissa Yellow Bird-Chase enters what she calls panic mode. 

Ponds flood, potentially covering evidence. Prairie grasses can grow up to seven feet tall. There are cadaver dogs to arrange, volunteers to enlist. Preparations take money, which comes in the form of donations and from her own pocket book. On the Dakota plains, snakes stir, looking for warmth. Coyotes grow brave from from lean winter months and begin to scavenge.

“I got tracked by a mountain lion once, and chased by a few buffalo,” Yellow Bird-Chase said. Most summer weekends she spends searching for corpses in the North Dakota plains. “Almost got the snot slapped out of me by a badger. Adds character, my son told me.”

Lissa Yellow Bird-Chase taking video of suspected burial area – photo by C.S. Hagen

Formerly a bounty hunter, she’s now a body hunter, an independent “seeker for the missing.” who like the badger, never gives up the hunt. The dead leave clues, sometimes hidden within juniper bushes or a few feet under disturbed topsoil in the Bakken oil patch. Clues point to trails – linked piece by seemingly inconsequential piece – sometimes hundreds of miles long. 

Many missing persons’ cases delve deep into North Dakota’s underworld of drugs, human trafficking, and cash-hungry oil workers. Yellow Bird-Chase has worked cases where men have been buried alive, where women have been shot execution style, and cases fit for a television miniseries season of “Fargo,” such as the double homicide-for-hire case stretching from North Dakota to Washington. 

“I’ve always been good at scouting people out,” Yellow Bird-Chase said. She is a Fargoan, and the founder of the nonprofit group Sahnish Scouts of North Dakota, a citizen-led organization dedicated since 2014 to finding missing people for their families. Sahnish means “the people” in Arikara. 

“If we knew there were dead somewhere, we would go and try and recover them,” Yellow Bird-Chase said. Her group started as a recovery team in the Bakken oil fields, and over time built a reputation. Her work attracted the attentions of the New York Times and Associated Press. Soon, the cries for help began pouring in. She has worked on dozens of missing persons’ cases over the years, and is currently focused on the case of Ron Johnson, who at 74 years of age went missing near Spirit Lake in 2011. 

She is also working the cases of: Kristopher “KC” Clarke, 29, Damon Boyd, 29, Edward Ashton Stubbs, 15, and Joseph Lee, 44, and her investigations take her to primarily four states: North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana. 

Yellow Bird-Chase, 49, is part Arikara, part Mandan, part Hidatsa, and a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. She’s patient as a bullsnake, nimble as a Bighorn Sheep, leaping over “quick mud” and gullies. Deer, pheasants, and mountain bluebirds stop to watch. She calls to them. 

“Hey you, have you seen K.C.?” 

She’s been searching for Kristopher “K.C.” Clarke for nearly five years. The 29-year-old’s murderers are behind bars, but his body has never been found. 

Lissa Yellow Bird-Chase investigating a bone – photo by C.S. Hagen

Clarke was killed by a murderer-for-hire on February 22, 2012 after he left the overworked employment of his one-time Texas friend, James Terry Henrikson, “the boss,” an owner of the trucking company Blackstone, LLC. She began combing a part of the Badlands near Theodore Roosevelt National Park nearly two years before police caught the killers and obtained confessions. 

Shovels – photo by C.S. Hagen

She’s not psychic, she said; she simply has indescribable feelings, instincts, at times even forewarnings. Before police solved the case, she said she was threatened and her car wheel fell off on the interstate near Valley City. Not long after, the same thing happened to her daughter’s car, she said, which proved foul play. The murderers were trying to get rid of her, another on their growing hit list, she said.   

The searches intensified, and after five years she believes she is close to finding Clarke’s final resting place. She’s waiting on cadaver dogs, and even if the next massive search toward the end of April doesn’t succeed, she’s not giving up. 

“I’ll find him,” she said. Stratigraphic columns filled with layers of black coal, red fossil soils, and yellow paleosol fill her hunting ground behind her like a natural canvas, more precise and rugged than any Georgia O’Keeffe painting. 

Yellow Bird-Chase’ fingers are blackened from her day job as a welder, she works her “true calling” every summer weekend and most every other winter weekend. During the weekdays she works from her Fargo apartment, papers piled from dining room to office, an organized mess, she says, but still knows where everything is. 

During the years of searches, she experiments with the earth, sometimes filling holes with watermelons and then filling them in to see what happens to topography a year later; other times studying a corpse’s bone scatter by wild animals. 

Yellow Bird-Chase has three rules for everyone who helps on her searches: don’t fall behind, come prepared, and never lie. 

The Bakken – photo by C.S. Hagen

The oil murders 
Yellow Bird-Chase’s mission to find the missing and the dead began shortly after her release from prison on drug-related charges.

“About five years ago one of my aunt’s daughters called me and said, ‘Hey, there’s this white kid whose name is K.C. Clarke working in the oil fields and he went missing.’” Yellow Bird-Chase said. “He was white, and went missing on the rez.” 

She slipped into the gray area – the no man’s land between sovereign tribal law and US and state governments, she said. Native American communities fall under a combination of tribal, state, and federal laws. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is primarily responsible for investigating and prosecuting federal crimes such as murder and rape; misdemeanor cases are mostly prosecuted by tribal law enforcement, or the Bureau of Indian Affairs, who are typically first on any crime scene. 

Cattle, flaring, and oil on Fort Berthold Reservation- photo by C.S. Hagen

The law also differentiates Native American from the non-native, meaning BIA cannot investigate a crime committed by someone not belonging to the reservation, and federal or state police typically have legal troubles investigating a crime committed by a native who is on the reservation. Poor communication between tribal law enforcement, state, and federal authorities inadequate resources, and an increase in crime lead to a “maze of injustice” and loopholes those who know how to work the system can exacerbate. 

As a Native American and private citizen, Yellow Bird-Chase could help investigate both worlds, she said. 

“It was a jurisdictional conundrum, a big circle of jurisdictional denial,” she said. “At first, I was like, yeah, okay, whatever, but that started the big K.C. adventure.” 

Clarke’s murder led in part to the downfall of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation Chairman Tex Hall tight-fisted rule, and also to the arrests and later convictions of five men involved in two murders over Bakken oil money.

According to court documents of the United States District Court Eastern District of Washington, Henrikson hired Tim Suckow, 53, aka. “Donald Duck,” to kill his former friend for $20,000. 

James Terry Henrikson “the boss”

Clarke was a personable guy, according to Scott Travis Jones of the United States Attorney’s Office, who liked motorcycles. Yellow Bird-Chase agreed, but said the young man also had problems, like everyone else. Clarke became a salesman for Blackstone as he was constantly at customers’ job sites. He worked 24-hour-shifts, showered, and went out on another 24-hour shift repeatedly. He lived out of his pickup truck, and was not happy about it, Jones said. 

Clarke decided to jump the fence for Running Horse Trucking, a competitor of Blackstone due to the mistreatment. 

The decision “enraged” Henrikson, according to Jones, who said “He was going to kick K.C.’s ass, kill K.C., and that K.C. was stealing contracts from him.” His thoughts turned to murder, and he ordered Clarke to go on a mandatory vacation for two weeks. 

“The shop” where K.C. Clarke was killed – photo by C.S. Hagen

Hardly halfway through the vacation, Henrikson, through his wife at the time, Sarah Creveling, called Clarke back to “the shop,” a building the company worked out of and situated on Hall’s property. After Clarke placed a new handgun back into his pickup truck, Henrikson distracted Clarke with a new motorcycle while Suckow snuck up behind him and smashed him in the head with a floor jack, a tire-changing tool used for semi trucks. Four blows, and Clarke’s skull “went soft,” Suckow said. 

Clarke’s truck was first dumped outside of Watford City, and later moved to Williston, where the vehicle sat for four months along the side of a road, according to court documents. Clarke was put into a toilet box and buried in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. His handgun, a .45, was shredded by a Sawzall, and the barrel crushed.

For nearly two years, Clarke’s disappearance puzzled law enforcement and family, and not until DNA evidence found in a welding glove linked Suckow to a second murder of a Blackstone investor, Doug Carlile, did Clarke’s case break. Carlile was shot seven times in his Washington home over a plot of land supposedly rich with oil. Henrikson needed more investment, hundreds of millions to begin his own drilling operations, and potential investors didn’t like Carlile, court documents reported.

Yellow Bird-Chase said she learned about ill intentions toward Carlile and warned him twice. Both times, Carlile was more worried about his investments than to take the threat seriously. 

Once again, Henrikson turned to Suckow, who, along with accomplices Robby Wharer and Lazaro Pesina, later confessed to both murders, saying they were following Henrikson’s orders. 

Other Blackstone investors and a former business partner were targeted by Henrikson, according to court documents. One man on Henrikson’s hit list, Jed McClure, escaped unscathed after Todd Bates, hired Chicago hitman Martin Marvin “The Wiz” to kill McClure. McClure was also an original investor in Blackstone who claimed early on that Henrikson and former wife were fraudsters, and were complicit in Clarke’s disappearance.

Jay Wright, a former employee, and Tim Scott, to whom Henrikson owed money, were also on Henrikson’s hit list, according to court documents. 

Man camp – photo by C.S. Hagen

The entire ordeal began with rights to work on Native American lands. Henrikson obtained three Tier 1 “TERO” cards, which helped him obtain special preference for bidding on contracts, according to court documents. After being fired from two companies, Henrikson’s vehicle “conveniently broke down in front of Hall’s home.” He asked for help, and over time Henrikson and the chairman struck up a business partnership, according to court documents. Although Hall denied they had a relationship outside of business, Henrikson took Hall’s adopted daughter, Peyton Martin, as his mistress, and both men were photographed together while on vacation in Hawaii.

Henrikson is currently serving two life sentences plus thirty years in a high-security penitentiary in Florence, Colorado, according to the Bureau of Prisons. His right-hand hitman, Suckow has found religion and is serving a total of 30 years for both murders. Wharer is serving 10-year sentence for driving the getaway car, and Pesina a 12-year sentence for breaking into Carlile’s home. Others involved are also serving time behind bars. 

 

The hunt goes on
Before Clarke’s murder was solved, Yellow Bird-Chase posted more than 50,000 fliers, she said. She met with Homeland Security, sheriff’s deputies, and court officials regularly, trying to learn news of Clarke’s body. Clarke’s family and information off the Internet helped direct her searches, but she still searches. 

Not long from her release from prison, Yellow Bird-Chase said her initial involvement in hunting the missing and the dead changed her life. 

Lissa Yellow Bird-Chase comparing maps – photo by C.S. Hagen

“I always had that carrot in front of my head,” Yellow Bird-Chase said. “Okay, I don’t have to worry about the dope, just have to wait until I get out of prison. Okay, I just got to wait until Im off parole, okay, I just got to wait until I am off probation. When I was getting off probation, I was like, ‘Oh, shit,’ I was doing good. My head was clear, but there were so many things. I felt guilty for what I did: helping people with their addictions, so I wanted to find a way to give back.”  

She missed the first years of North Dakota’s oil boom, and when she returned to the area to search for Clarke’s body, she experienced a type of culture shock, she said. 

“Buzzing traffic, oil workers, oil drills pumping up and down. I had to acclimate myself to this whole situation. There were a million people all over the place where before there wasn’t anybody.” 

Lissa Yellow Bird-Chase on the hunt in the Badlands – photo by C.S. Hagen

Her search for Clarke’s body so far has been comparable to “looking for teal-covered sand at the bottom of the ocean.” Clarke’s body was identified by both men who assisted in his death and ensuing coverup, but both men pinpointed the burial site with a difference of a quarter of a mile, according to court documents.

In those days, law enforcement rarely helped her, she said. “I’m kinda known as the fire under people’s asses,” she said. “I will call them out, I will go to jail for it, I don’t care. If someone has a missing family member, I will find them. I know what to do. If the police have a problem with that, how are you going to deny a family their loved one? It’s either you don’t care or you’re just lay. Or maybe you’re not educated and you don’t know what you’re supposed to do.”

She has distracted police while her volunteers fan out to search, once finding a body that had evaded police for hours within thirty minutes, she said. 

Blue bird – photo by C.S. Hagen

“Before I was met with, ‘You can’t be here, or you’re impeding an investigation,’” she said. “They used to see me as a threat, now they see me as a threat that won’t go away. Now we have the full cooperation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and we’ve even been offered assistance on any reservation in the United States from that department. 

“It’s been a long time coming, but it made a complete turn around.” She’s even had “anonymous tips” from law enforcement leading her in directions the police didn’t go, she said. 

Morton County Sheriff’s Department declined to comment on one case Yellow Bird-Chase is working in their jurisdiction, according to Morton County Public Information Officer Maxine Herr. 

Ground soaked with oil spills at unattended storage area near Fort Berthold Reservation- photo by C.S. Hagen

Official statistics aren’t accurate, she said. Rarely do families report missing people immediately, and police sometimes fail to file a report, which is crucial in order for discovering information on national databases on any potential victim. Many of the missing are victims of crime, but many more fall prey to human trafficking. 

NamUs, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, reports North Dakota currently has 31 open cases of missing people. 

Reports of human trafficking in North Dakota have been on the rise since 2012, according to the Human Trafficking Hotline Center. In 2016, a total of 66 calls were made, resulting in 19 active cases, compared to a total of six human trafficking cases in 2012. 

Director of the state’s human trafficking coalition FUSE (Force to End Human Sexual Exploitation), Christina Sambor, reported that the North Dakota Human Trafficking Task Force assisted with 79 cases of human trafficking in 2016. A total of 66 victims were involved in sex trafficking, while 26 victims were children. 

Fargo’s most recent trafficking case ended on March 10, when nine people were arrested in a joint undercover operation, according to the Fargo Police Department. Among those arrested, five were from Fargo, one was from Bismarck, one from Grand Forks, and another from Halstad, Minnesota. All face felony arrests for Patronizing a Minor for Commercial Sexual Activity, a Class A felony punishable up to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. 

One of the men arrested was Dan Kenneth Durr, 42, president and CEO of Don’s Car Washes, Inc. Don’s Car Wash began in 1958, and Durr took over the company as president after Duane Durr retired, he said in an interview on Fargo/Moorhead/West Fargo Chamber of Commerce. 

Although Native Americans in North Dakota comprise only five percent of the population, they are the hardest hit ethnic group from human trafficking, according to North Dakota Council on Abused Women’s Services or CAWS North Dakota.

“The rate of violent crime estimated against Native Americans is well above that of other U.S. racial or ethnic groups and more than two times the national average,” CAWS North Dakota reported.  

Senator Heidi Heitkamp D-N.D., is an avid fighter against human trafficking, and released a podcast earlier this year called “The Hotdish,” a platform for discussing issues to combat the traffic of abducted humans. 

“Human trafficking is a serious problem worldwide, and unfortunately North Dakota is no exception,” Heitkamp announced on her U.S. Senate website. “North Dakota is no stranger to this horrible crime. Places like Minot, where we rescued a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old when their mothers discovered them on Backpages,” Heitkamp stated in her podcast. “How in the world can we allow that to happen in our country?” 

She highlighted a website called Backpage, reportedly a major facilitator of human trafficking. A report released to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in early January cited Backpage on its role in trafficking, particularly with minors. 

Although Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer refused to comment during the hearing, the website shut down its adult section of its website, according to the U.S. Senate.

Yellow Bird-Chase said statistics don’t reflect reality. “For North Dakota, as big of denial as they’re in, it’s not so much that it has increased, for population, it’s probably the same. We have a new culture of sex workers here, and they’re not afraid or are inhibited by letting people know what they’re up to. It’s always been here.” 

Picture taken during a search – photo provided by Lissa Yellow Bird-Chase

Because of Yellow Bird-Chase’s past, she can’t become a private detective, she said. She loves her job as a welder, but her true calling always beckons. She is searching for a grant writer, and volunteers help with raising funds. 

“I would like to do this full time, but I’m not going to have an agency telling me what is a priority case.” 

Dozens of missing persons are listed on the Sahnish Scouts of North Dakota Facebook page. Most are young, female; some are children. 

“When you don’t have any closure it’s hard to know how to grieve,” Yellow Bird-Chase said. “Some people just write it off and don’t talk about it ever again. And there’s some people who talk about it nonstop night and day, and they die of a broken heart because they never find out what happened to their loved one.” 

All missing people should be reported immediately, and family or friends should obtain a report number, she said. 

“If that person is missing for five seconds, you can call it in and they have to take a report. Get that officer’s name and thee report number. Once you get that report number, call me.” 

To support Yellow Bird-Chase and the Sahnish Scouts of North Dakota donations can be made to: https://www.youcaring.com/sahnishscoutsofnorthdakota-769883 

Into the Bakken sunset – photo by C.S. Hagen

Well armed police prepare to clear an area - photo provided by North Dakota Joint Information Center

FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force Targets Standing Rock Activist

March 23, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Senators, lawyers, activists speak out against FBI, citing misguided attempts to link free speech to domestic terrorism

By C.S. Hagen
CANNON BALL – Joint Terrorism Task Force agents contacted an Indiana activist days after he returned home from Standing Rock’s fight in North Dakota against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Aaron Pollitt, 28, from Indiana, was charged on October 22, 2016 by Morton County Police with engaging in a riot and criminal trespass, according to Morton County Clerk of Court. His trial is pending. 

Aaron Pollitt – from Facebook page

After three weeks of direct action and living in the Standing Rock camps, Pollitt, listed as a water protector by Unity-Bloomington, said he left the fight to go home and vote in November 2016 when he was contacted by law enforcement who identified themselves as the Indiana State Police Intelligence Division. They stopped by his house – twice – called, and left messages, according to Pollitt. According to Indiana State Government website publication of the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy Basic Courses, one of the agents involved is connected to JTTF, or the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. 

HPR Magazine chose to withhold the name of one of the agents identified for potential endangerment reasons. 

“First time it happened I did not know why a police officer came out to my house,” Pollitt said. “They wanted to talk to me, wanted to take me out for a Coca Cola, and they also said it didn’t have anything to do with my arrest.

“I told him I didn’t want to talk about it, but they came out again about a month later. I told them I had a lawyer to talk to, so I was a little more clear.”

Pollitt is a carpenter, worked as a stagehand at Indiana University, and is applying to be a ranger in the Forestry Bureau, he said. He is also a musician, a flutist, practicing a type of music called Kirtan, or Vedic chanting. According to a 2010 letter Pollitt is also an adventurist, and an environmentalist who aided in the development of a documentary called “Spirit of the Orca.”

“Strange times we live in,” Pollitt wrote in a Facebook post pertaining to Minnesota’s U.S. Senator Al Franken’s request about an explanation why at least three U.S. citizens opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline are being investigated by JTTF. 

“I am concerned that the reported questioning of political activists by one of the FBI’s terrorism task forces threatens to chill constitutionally protected conduct and speech,” Franken, a Democrat and a member of both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Indian Affairs, wrote in a letter on March 1, 2017 to FBI Director James Comey.

The Guardian reported in February that investigations into three activists at Standing Rock is being construed by the FBI as acts of terrorism. FBI personnel could not be reached for comment. 

Pollitt will be defended in court by Valley City Attorney Russell Myhre. Myhre condemned his client’s targeting by JTTF agents. 

“This type of contact, and I have been subjected to it in the past, has a chilling effect upon free speech,” Myhre said. “It appears to be an attempt to tamp down any further attempt to exercise free speech by water protectors.”

“It was really eerie, it is really concerning to be investigated by a terrorism task force or state police, but I am not too concerned,” Pollitt said. “I feel like I am pretty safe.” 

JTTF is America’s front line on terrorism, according to the FBI, and work as small cells of highly trained, locally based, investigators, analysts, linguists, SWAT experts, and other specialists from dozens of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

“By assigning JTTF agents and officers to investigate Standing Rock protesters, I am concerned that the FBI has opted to view civil rights activism through a national security lens,” Franken wrote. “Embracing such tactics risks chilling the exercise of constitutional rights and further undermining trust between federal law enforcement and our tribal nations.” 

First page of Senator Al Franken’s letter to FBI concerning its investigations into No DAPL activists

While at the camps outside Standing Rock Pollitt said evidence of racism and hatred were everywhere. He was “cussed out” by Bismarck residents, he said, because as a white person he resembled a protester. He joined the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline because he sees North Dakota government as corrupt, bought by big oil money, and does not truly care for the environment or for the state’s Native American population. 

“I feel personally this is a critical time to make changes so we do not destroy our planet,” Pollitt said. “That voice needs to be loud and clear, but it is continually met with violence.”

His three-week experience at the camps showed him that Standing Rock and supporters were peaceful and nonviolent, he said.

“This is an assault on the rights of people to be scaring us away from our right to protest and to free speech,” Pollitt said. “To be assaulting people with crowd control weapons I think it is an attempt to oppress a certain portion of the population, and a lot of money is being poured into that part of the system by the new administration.

“We need to have the freedom to really express ourselves, especially if it’s a tremendous portion of the population that wants this change. This militarized police force is trying to suppress that voice.” 

Franken and The Guardian reported three people have been targeted in the United States by JTTF, and it is unclear if Pollitt was one of the three or a fourth US citizen targeted, Myhre said. 

In Morton County, Highway 1806 is now open to the public, but law enforcement ask for all travelers to pay close attention to traffic signs as the road will continue to be watched. 

On Monday, Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company of Dakota Access, LLC, said in court documents that there have been “recent coordinated physical attacks along the pipeline that pose threats to life, physical safety and the environment.” No mention was made of who was responsible for the alleged attacks, and the company plans to have oil running through the 1,172-mile long pipeline early as March 28.

Attack Dog Handlers in the Wrong, No Charges Pending, Lawyers Threatened by FBI

October 26, 2016 / / 0 Comments

“Today is the day that they’re going to try and remove everybody”

By C.S. Hagen
MANDAN – An investigation launched by Morton County Sheriff’s Department has proven the dog handlers on September 3 were not properly licensed to perform security work in the Peace Garden State.

But because security personnel cannot be identified, no charges are forthcoming from county law enforcement, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department.

“Through this investigation it has become evident that many security companies have been hired to do security work for the DAPL pipeline project,” Morton County Captain Jay Gruebele said. “Although lists of security employees have been provided, there is no way of confirming whether the list is accurate or if names have been purposefully withheld.”

Dog handlers have come and gone, Gruebele said, making it impossible to identify who was involved.”

Seven dogs and seven handlers were involved during the September 3 dog attacks, Gruebele said. The attack dogs were deployed in an attempt to keep the activists under control.

The owner of Ohio-based Frost Kennels, a security firm that specializes in guard dogs, said they were at the scene on September 3.

12803132_948036555271881_4242097186663631363_n“We went out there to do a job and we did it,” Bob Frost, the owner, said. “So we just said f*ck it, and got our dogs, and tried to make a bridge between them and the workers. We did not go out to attack people, but they knocked down a fence and entered private property. I tell you what, if someone came onto my own yard, I’d have the right to shoot them, it’s the law.”

Today, Wednesday, October 26, may be the day Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier plans to shut the activists down, Bruce Ellison, a long-term criminal defense lawyer, said. He heard the rumor second hand, and the report needs validation, he said.

“The Sheriff today said that today is the day that they’re going to try and remove everybody,” Ellison said. He is also the legal team coordinator of the Lawyer’s Guild Mass Defense Committee.

Ellison was disappointed with the news that no charges are pending.

“The sheriff’s department seems to be very inclined towards not doing that, not actually seeking to promote charges,” Ellison said. “The whole actions of the law enforcement seem to be geared toward going after people who were the victims rather than the assailants.

Dakota Access Pipeline private security - online sources

Dakota Access Pipeline private security with attack dog on September 3 – online sources

“The wounds that those dogs inflicted were horrific, and completely unnecessary and unprovoked. It is disconcerting that the people who have sworn to protect the people seem more interested in protecting corporations once again.”

The Lawyer’s Guild is preparing litigation. “We don’t intend to let this go. We are also very also concerned about the fact the Sheriff’s Department stood by and watched and the federal authorities at least have taken the position that there is no right to law enforcement protection, which is outrageous.

“It’s part of the systemic problem that people have as they try to exercise their First Amendment rights.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s fingerprints are all over the controversy, Ellison said. “This is a domestic security operation, and it was an FBI agent to one of our attorneys who mentioned that they didn’t see any violation of human rights or criminal, and that law enforcement has no obligation to protect people.”

The FBI is also investigating the firm’s lawyers, he said, and delivered an ominous threat.

“The FBI delivered an implicit threat to people out in the fields resisting the pipeline should not be surprised if some landowner shoots them,” Ellison said. “This is very outrageous. People are in the situation where they don’t have anywhere they can turn for protection.”

The entire area surrounding the new camp is militarized, and law enforcement is slowly circling closer, Ellison said. Hundreds of police officers from around the country are being brought in.

The Morton County Sheriff’s Department report has been forwarded to the Morton County State’s Attorney’s office and the North Dakota Private Investigators and Security Board for possible charges. The report also included an evaluation along the pipeline easement where the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has repeatedly said hold significant sacred sites.

“Morton County is in concurrence with the North Dakota State Archaeologist’s findings that their inspection ‘yielded no evidence of human remains or significant sites’ along the DAPL construction corridor,” Gruebele said.

The Morton County Sheriff’s Department received no information on reports of bite injuries. At least six activists were bitten by dogs, according to Angela Bibens, camp attorney.

In addition, the Federal Aviation Administration instituted a no-fly zone at Cannonball yesterday, citing temporary hazardous conditions. The restrictions start at ground level and up to 4,000 feet, according to the FAA. 

“No pilots may operate an aircraft in the areas covered by this NOTAM,” the FAA reported. The FAA made an exception for aircraft flown by law enforcement for their tactical operation center.

Battle of Two Chiefs

September 21, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Morton County Sheriff’s Department Kyle Kirchmeier vs. Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Dave Archambault II

By C.S. Hagen
MANDAN, ND – Two North Dakotan chiefs are pitted, one against the other.

One chief, Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier, has laws, politicians, the North Dakota National Guard, taxpayers’ money, and a third chief from the private sector, Kelcy Warren, CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, with all the powers money can buy, on his side.

The other, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Dave Archambault II, uses prayer, donations, federal treaties, and thousands of volunteers from native tribes and concerned citizens across the world to fight the pipeline’s continuation.

One chief uses the law’s full force: police in riot gear, automatic weapons, handcuffs, and calls the Dakota Access Pipeline demonstrations, which have continued in earnest and unabated since early August, dangerous. The other chief calls for prayer, civil disobedience, smokes a ceremonial peace pipe, and calls his people, including those from nearly 300 different tribes, water protectors.

One chief lives in Mandan, making USD 78,000 a year; the other sometimes resides in a canvas tipi on land that once belonged to the Great Sioux Nation.

One chief arrested the other. In fact, Archambault was among the first activists to be arrested on August 12, 2016, according to the Morton County Sheriff’s Department. But to Archambault, the fight against Dakota Access Pipeline is just.

“Our tribe has opposed the Dakota Access pipeline since we first learned about it in 2014,” Archambault said in a press conference. “I believe this movement is organic, and has a life on its own. It is not about race, not about hate. It’s about unity.”

For 500 years, Archambault said, Native Americans have suffered from defeat, prejudice, and broken treaties. One day, the pipeline will not only poison the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, but the millions who depend on the Missouri River for water – human, fauna, and flora.

“And yet we’re the ones who continue to pay the costs,” Archambault said.

Buffalo drinking from pond near the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline - by C.S. Hagen

Buffalo drinking from pond near the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline – photo by C.S. Hagen

The costs including but not limited to the pipeline tearing up native burial sites, poisoning land and waters on its journey south toward Nederland, Texas, in the same state where the third chief resides in 23,000-square-foot-home on 10 acres of land. The real costs to the personal freedoms of at least 69 activists arrested, some of whom are banned from returning to protest areas. Misdemeanor offenses of trespassing are now becoming felony charges of criminal mischief, according to the Morton County Sheriff’s Department. Some of those arrested, activists said, are being stalled, and temporarily denied their rights to counsel.

“The biggest concern that we had about those situations, was holding someone on a no-bond hold for three days on a misdemeanor, that seems irrational,” Standing Rock Sioux Tribe camp attorney Angela Bibens said. “The situation is that people are being targeted, people’s relatives are being targeted. Are people’s rights being violated? There is definitely a case for that.”

Sara Long, a citizen journalist, was arrested for trespassing on Sunday. She had her phone confiscated, was abused verbally, and law enforcement threatened to have her phone unlocked with software, Bibens said.

“You have to have a warrant to get into someone’s phone,” Bibens said. “That is a clear case of someone’s rights being violated. All charges against Long were eventually dropped, and Long did receive her cellular phone back, Bibens said.

“People are being arrested indiscriminately. They are trying to target leadership, trying to determine who is in charge. There is a certain amount of panic that is detectable within law enforcement. They’re not accustomed to what they’re seeing, a large, peaceful group of Native Americans – everybody’s here in Standing Rock.”

Bibens was denied one-on-one access to activists in the county jail, she said, and has to speak to them through glass and by telephones, which may be recorded, she said. Licensed to practice in Colorado, and currently with the National Lawyers Guild, it is legal for out-of-state attorneys to be denied the right to practice in another state, but the current situation with 69 arrests is overwhelming, not only for her, but for Morton County.

Some are being appointed court attorneys, and she is attempting to recruit local lawyers to step in.

Additionally, activists have reported seeing military research and surveillance drones, claiming the drones have blocked reception to the Standing Rock camp areas, and that Facebook is blocking some activists’ videos and statements. Bibens is monitoring the claims, she said.

Not long after the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s petition for an injunction against Dakota Access failed, President Obama’s Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a statement recommending Dakota Access LLC was no longer authorized to work on the U.S. Corps of Engineers’ lands. On Friday, the Washington D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals officially backed the President’s recommendation, halting all work on the Dakota Access Pipeline within 20 miles on either side of Lake Oahe along the Missouri River. The news was joyous to some, considered an annoyance to others. With a legal score of one-to-one for both chiefs, some expected the tension – like a ticking time bomb – would be defused.

Instead, tensions grew.

Law enforcement began arresting activists, native spokespeople, and media personnel, by the busloads. Misdemeanor criminal trespass charges have been filed against Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s Red Warrior spokesman Cody Hall, at least two other journalists, and third-party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein, as well as her running mate, Ajamu Baraka.

American horse while chained to a Dakota Access excavator - online sources

Dale “Happi” Americanhorse Jr. while chained to a Dakota Access excavator – online sources

“The Morton County State’s Attorney’s office will pursue felony charges against the protestors who attached themselves to equipment due to the seriousness of the crime,” Kirchmeier said. “The Dakota Access Pipeline has shown good faith in the legal process by removing their equipment from their worksites… But rather than respect this, a small element of the protest group has decided to go and find DAPL equipment and sites wherever they are and interrupt their work that the pipeline has legal right to conduct.”

“This is an unacceptable violation of freedom of the press,” Goodman said in a statement. “I was doing my job by covering pipeline guards unleashing dogs and pepper spray on Native American protestors.”

Long, who is a resident of Cannon Ball, said on her Facebook page that she was incarcerated for 28 hours and charged with criminal trespass.

“They are trying to silence us, again and again, by violating our rights,” Long said on her Facebook page.

“It was not known at the time that Ms. Goodman was a media representative,” Kirchmeier said. “Part of the investigation process is to review all evidence. This included video taken from the protest site. Persons identified on the video were arrested.”

All activists arrested, excluding one female prisoner who had an outstanding warrant from Nebraska, have been released on bail, Kirchmeier reported. Olowan Sara Martinez was charged with criminal trespass on a Dakota Access Pipeline worksite, and has outstanding warrants of terroristic threats, a class-4 felony, among other misdemeanor charges from Nebraska. Nebraska officials have 10 days to take custody of Martinez, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department.

Kirchmeier denied any accusations that the department was targeting media personnel, spokespeople, or medics.

“There are numerous outside groups, some invited and some not,” Kirchmeier said. “They are participating and are suspected to be causing issues. While they may have come in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, they are also pushing their own agenda.”

North Dakota National Guard blockading Highway 1806 - photo by Annie Gao

North Dakota National Guard blockading Highway 1806 – photo by Annie Gao

Many activists feel local and state law enforcement, and now the North Dakota National Guard, are acting as the protectors of big oil interests. While native interests rarely make national or international headlines, and their opinions on matters are rarely heard, these ingredients add to the distrust shared by nearly all Native Americans toward the federal and local governments, activists said. Throw in a pinch of big oil campaign funding for North Dakota politicians, a little private investing, and the final result resembles an agenda the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and its supporters are not comfortable with.

The third chief, Warren, vowed to his employees to complete the 1,172-mile pipeline on time. The pipeline, if built, will “safely move American oil to American markets,” Warren stated in an internal memo to Energy Transfer employees. “It will reduce our dependence on oil from unstable regions of the world and drive down the cost of petroleum products for American industry and consumers.”

DAPL excavation equipment and "scar" or trench made for the pipeline - photo by C.S. Hagen

DAPL excavation equipment and “scar” or trench made for the pipeline – photo by C.S. Hagen

An interesting and profitable venture, analysts say, especially in light of the fact that Congress agreed to lift the nation’s 40-year-old ban on oil exports in 2015. Fourth quarter 2015 the United States exported 4.8 million barrels per day to 136 countries, including Canada, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Mexico, and Colombia, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

“It’s entirely fair to highlight Energy Transfer Partner’s ambitions when it comes to exporting hydrocarbons from North America to the highest bidder, and to tie that to a recent lifting of embargo,” Hugh MacMillan, a senior research for the Food & Water Watch said.

Senator Heidi Heitkamp D-N.D., helped lead the efforts on behalf of oil companies for increased exports of liquefied gas and crude oil, according to Heitkamp’s website. Heitkamp, along with Senator Lisa Murkowski R-AK, wrote the Heitkamp-Murkowski Bipartisan Bill to lift the ban on oil exports in 2015.

Enbridge Inc., an investor of the Dakota Access Pipeline, stated in its 2015 annual report that “We see continued opportunities to expand and extend our pipeline systems to help meet North America’s energy needs and contribute to energy security, as well as build connectivity to coastal markets than enable exports.”

No matter what country Dakota crude from the Bakken region might end up, Warren petitioned employees to contact “elected representatives – all of them – to tell them how important this project is to your livelihood.”

Work on the pipeline is approximately 60 percent complete, Warren stated.

“Our corporate mindset has long been to keep our head down and do our work,” Warren’s memo stated. “We respect the constitutional right of all assembled in North Dakota to voice their opinions for or against projects like ours. However, threats and attacks on our employees, their families and our contractors as well as the destruction of equipment and encroachment on private property must not be tolerated.”

The day of the attack dogs photograph, activists defending themselves - photo provided by Morton County Sheriff's Department

The day of the attack dogs – photo provided by Morton County Sheriff’s Department

Frost Kennels

According to Archambault, activists did not instigate the violence on September 3.

“They provoked everything that happened,” Archambault said in a press conference.

Bob Frost, owner and president of Ohio-based Frost Kennels, said his employees were at the Dakota Access Pipeline site on September 3.

“We went out there to do a job and we did it,” Frost said. Personally, Frost supports the continuation of the Dakota Access Pipeline, and said when activists held a protest in Louisville, Ohio last weekend, he received death threats. Activists also attempted to break into an employee’s home, Frost said. Police arrived and the activists scattered; no one was arrested. Frost also reported that activists were burning Dakota Access Pipeline bridges in the Cannon Ball area, but Morton County Sheriff’s Department stated they received no such reports.

sidebarFrost’s company didn’t have time to prepare properly on September 3, and they “were ambushed,” he said. The plan was to use pronged collars and 20-foot leashes, but he decided to go early to the construction site after he received a call from the company who employed Frost Kennels, a company he refused to name.

Upon arrival, Frost found activists tearing down fences, throwing themselves under excavation machinery, and threatening his dogs and employees, Frost said.

“So we just said f*ck it, and got our dogs, and tried to make a bridge between them and the workers. We did not go out to attack people, but they knocked down a fence and entered private property. I tell you what, if someone came on to my own yard, I’d have the right to shoot them, that’s the law.”

As to the angry online reactions to pictures of Frost Kennels dogs with bloodied jaws, Frost said the blood could not have come from human beings.

“Dogs aren’t trained to be social around 20 people, especially with that riot mentality,” Frost said. “But if a dog bites you, the blood is gone within 30 seconds, because they lick their lips and it’s gone.” The blood, Frost said, came from his dogs being struck by activists.

Despite the threats Frost has received, he said he offered activists food last weekend during their protest against his company. “I offered to give them all food, but they didn’t want it,” he said. “And hey, I’m not racist. My wife is 50 percent Native American, my kids are card carrying tribal members, and my best friend is a black guy sitting right here beside me.”

At least eight activists, including a young woman were injured, some with dog bites, and one child suffered a rash after being hit in the face with mace, according to Bibens.

“As far as that picture of that child being bit, I feel bad for whoever it was,” Frost said. “First because any child who is bit I feel for, but also I feel bad for the parents who brought their children there in the first place.”

Morton County Sheriff’s Department has not filed charges against Frost or his employees yet, but initiated a joint task force on Tuesday comprised of the Morton and Mercer County Sheriff’s departments, the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to investigate all sides involved. The North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board is also investigating whether Frost Kennels was properly licensed or registered to work in the state.

“It is important we give this incident a thorough examination,” Kirchmeier said. “DAPL private security officers with dogs were at the worksite. Protesters broke through a fence and entered the site… Seven individuals have been identified and charged with criminal trespass for their involvement in the protest that day.

“The investigation could lead to charges on both sides.”

Deputies did not know about the use of dogs until receiving a 911 call from security personnel, Kirchmeier said.

Rumors that G4S, one of the world’s leading security companies headquartered in Great Britain, has been hired to provide security staff to Dakota Access Pipeline, are false, according to the company’s communication director Monica Garcia. Garcia said that no G4S personnel were on site on September 3, and that the company has no K9 units in North Dakota yet, and that G4S has had no engagements with activists involved with the Dakota Access Pipeline.

“The incident that occurred near Cannon Ball, North Dakota on Saturday, September 3rd involved other security providers, not G4S,” Garcia said. “We are not providing services to that entity [Dakota Access Pipeline or Energy Transfer Partners].”

The 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, according to media outlets around the world, into western North Dakota.

The company and its subsidiaries are allegedly involved in controversies including immigrant-detainee labor in prisons, crimes against humanity in Israel, misconduct in child custodial institutions, police telephone data manipulation, and its employment of terrorist Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in an Orlando gay nightclub in June 2016, according to Reuters.

horse-in-corral-at-big-camp

A Native American horse inside corral at Big Camp – photo by C.S. Hagen

Winter is Coming

Inside the three camps set up outside Cannon Ball, some activists are winterizing. Solar panels are being used to produce electricity. Sturdier, wooden structures are replacing tents. Woodstoves are being prepared for larger tents that will surround Big Camp’s Sacred Circle. Ceremonies last long into the night, and modern bands have also been performing on the weekends.

Direct Action classes at Big Camp - by C.S. Hagen

Direct Action classes at Big Camp – photo by C.S. Hagen

Although the tension on both sides of the Dakota Access Pipeline may be nearing a breaking point, meetings between the two chiefs, Kirchmeier and Archambault, have “been numerous,” according to Kirchmeier. Morale, for both chiefs, and on both sides of the issue, are high. Big Camp, nestled into a gentle curve of the Missouri River, has expanded. Medic tents have doubled. Classes for children, for activist awareness, for wilderness survival are now being taught to anyone wanting to attend. Jewelers are displaying their wares. Long lines orderly wait for free t-shirts with protect water slogans printed on site. Donations in the forms of clothing, meats, eggs, water, are pouring in. Porta potties are kept clean as possible.

Rock star Neil Young produced a new song and video entitled Indian Givers for the Dakota Access Pipeline protest, according to Rolling Stone magazine.

There’s a battle raging on the sacred land, our brothers and sisters have to take a stand, the song starts off.

Young makes reference to “big money” being the “Indian givers” for plowing an oil pipeline through land rightfully belonging to Native Americans, and sings about Dale “Happi” American Horse Jr., the 26-year-old Sicangu-Oglala Lakota activist who was featured in HPR story entitled “Can’t Drink Oil,” on September 15.

Saw Happy locked to the big machine

They had to cut him loose and you know what that means

That’s when Happy went to jail

Behind big money justice always fails

– part of the lyrics for Neil Young’s song Indian Givers

Kirchmeier realizes the issues will not be resolved anytime soon.

“The morale of our law enforcement personnel is good,” Kirchmeier said. “We have tremendous support from law enforcement agencies across North Dakota.”

A total of 595 people from 51 departments and agencies have assisted, Kirchmeier said. Thirteen counties in North Dakota have provided 144 officers, 11 cities in North Dakota have provided 130 officers, and another 127 officers have been recruited locally.

Medic tent outside of Red Warriors Camp - photo by C.S. Hagen

Medic tent outside of Red Warriors Camp – photo by C.S. Hagen

“Tribal leaders have indicated to law enforcement they want a peaceful protest,” Kirchmeier said. “However, not all protesters have been peaceful. Aggression and actions to incite fear or intimidation are not peaceful activities. Protesters do not have the right to disrupt traffic, close the road, trespass on private property or disrupt other legal activities. They do not have the right to incite fear in the traveling public, local land owners, workers, first responders, or law enforcement.”

Additionally, camps south of the Cannon Ball River will soon be granted a temporary Special Use Permit, which requires a USD 100,000 performance bond, and USD 5,000,000 in insurance, Kirchmeier said. If the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe signs the permit, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will countersign and the permit will be valid for 30 days.

Winter is coming, and all chiefs are preparing. One is doubling down on arrests and following the law. The other chief is also using legal maneuvers, and an indomitable spirit Native Americans have not seen since the Battle of the Greasy Grass, 140 years ago. The third chief, perhaps, is grinding his teeth in frustration at the setbacks.

“We have a connection to Mother Earth,” Archambault said. “And it goes to the center of the earth and goes up to into the universe. We are still here, and the reason why we are here is because of our prayers.

“It is all good.”

Activists from South America posing at Big Camp, near Cannon Ball, ND - photo by C.S. Hagen

Activists from South America posing at Big Camp, near Cannon Ball, ND – photo by C.S. Hagen

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