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Standing Rock: “A Change is Coming”

Curse lies on DAPL workers, Standing Rock speaks of Trump’s victory, the Dakota “Excess” Pipeline, and a return to native roots

By C.S. Hagen
CANNONBALL – Winds are changing, blowing from the south. Ants are returning early to their hives. The seasons are beginning to shift counter-clockwise, former Standing Rock historic preservation officer Tim Mentz Sr. said.

“Today with the elements, they’re changing,” Mentz said. He spoke during a Standing Rock testimonial hearing at Prairie Knights Casino on Wednesday. “Natural law is changing, and the change is coming now.

“If it goes south, devastation is going to come to us in a form we can never imagine.” There will be punishment for those who have committed crimes against the earth, he said during his speech.

“If you don’t get violent, these things will be taken care of,” Mentz said. Spirits within the earth, and the ground itself, will not tolerate the desecration. “The ones that tore up all that ground, they’re going to go nuts, they’re going to go crazy, because that’s what they’ve opened up. That’s what this spirit can do.”

Tim Metz Sr. speaks at Standing Rock hearing - photo by C.S. Hagen

Tim Mentz Sr. speaks at Standing Rock hearing – photo by C.S. Hagen

During the four-hour hearing, Mentz called upon the Seventh Generation or the youth at Standing Rock to return to native roots, to sit like stones and listen to repetition – the oral teachings of the Sioux tribe handed down for generations. A native of Standing Rock, Mentz was born in a two-room log house on the Missouri River’s banks, he grew up listening to the same lessons from his grandmother.

He slept on dirt. Ate dirt. Walked barefoot on the earth.

“When your feet touch the ground, you show honor to Mother Earth.”

The generation gap, Mentz said, is due to lack of proper teachings. He described how the Lakota, Nakota, and the Dakota pray, facing east to west, and how everything in nature has a heart that beats. Years ago two prophecies were made about black snakes. The first pertained to public highways, how the system would break up community, and destroy people’s relationship with nature. The second prophecy was reiterated in 2013, and refers to the Dakota Access Pipeline’s “black snake” Standing Rock and its supporters fight today.

In the past, he said, “spirit callers” could call the buffalo with their breath, from 200 miles away. Those days need to come back, he said. Many of the elders have left Oceti Sakowin, or the Seven Council Fires camp, because some of the younger generation won’t listen.

“Those are some of the things we don’t talk about, but yet today at that camp, we should be talking about,” Mentz said. “But guess what, the young individuals there say ‘nah, that is not important.’ They don’t want to talk about the environment there, they want to get up front and confront those people standing there with those guns. They want to confront authority, not the hazard that we are in.”

Oil, Mentz said, is the earth’s blood, and frakking is sucking this life force from the ground.

“How do we preserve what we have left?” Mentz said. “If you can’t bring the older people back into this, you will lose a lot. The power of prayer that was there, that is still there, we have to bring it back.”

Signs outside of Oceti Sakowin – photo by C.S. Hagen

The pressure to defend land and water is a real, everyday concern for all gathered at Oceti Sakowin, Dallas Goldtooth, campaign organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network said. And now with Donald J. Trump as the president elect of the United States and an investor in the Dakota Access Pipeline, the battle mat only become more difficult.

“We always knew the cards were stacked against us, no matter who is in the White House,” Goldtooth said. “Look at what we were fighting against so far and this is with Obama. At least now we know where we stand. We know where he stands, and what his priorities are. At least we have that going for us.”

Some activists at Oceti Sakowin are nervous; others are becoming more active. At approximately 2 a.m. in Boone County, three activists climbed into pipes to be used on the DAPL route, according to Red Warrior Camp. “They are still in the pipes and will be occupying indefinitely, risking their lives to protect water for us all,” the Red Warrior Camp’s statement reported.

“I’m shocked,” Jordan Roberts from Denver said. Cell phone reception at the camps is difficult, at best, and he didn’t know Trump had won the election until late Wednesday morning. “It will definitely hurt the efforts here.”

James Hanika, of Mt. Vernon, Washington, wasn’t worried. “We’re in the best place in America today,” Hanika said of Oceti Sakowin.

“It appears to be just a way to calm investors’ concerns about this pipeline being stopped on the eve of the presidential election,” Goldtooth said. “They still don’t have the easement.”

“We have so much work to do,” Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Dave Archambault II said. “In this time of uncertainty, President Obama still has the power to give our children hope. We believe halting the Dakota Access Pipeline presents a unique opportunity for President Obama to set a lasting and true legacy and respect the sovereignty and treaty rights of Standing Rock and tribal nations across America.”

Energy Transfer Partners, Dakota Access LLC’s parent company, and North Dakota’s politicians including Senator John Hoeven R-N.D., and Congressman Kevin Cramer R-N.D., have been applying pressure to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to authorize the easement needed to dig under the Missouri River at Lake Oahe.

Earlier this week, Energy Transfer Partners issued a statement saying in two weeks time the company will be drilling under the Missouri River. Already, horizontal drilling equipment is being hauled to the drill pad north of Oceti Sakowin, and less than a quarter mile from the river. Energy Transfer Partners also reprimanded the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers demanding it rescind its statement that Dakota Access Pipeline had agreed to halt construction.

On Thursday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers struck back, saying a winter camp for Standing Rock and its supporters will be provided. The Corps asked DAPL to voluntarily cease operations on November 4, but the company did not listen, the report stated.

“Our assessment is, after having visited these areas in North Dakota on multiple occasions, there are a lot of individuals who have been brought together and now find themselves under difficult conditions,” Colonel John W. Henderson said in the statement. “We again ask DAPL to voluntarily cease operations in this area as their absence will help reduce these tensions.”

Mentz wants the pipeline stopped, and said he is becoming involved again in the movement against DAPL, but he is also looking further down the road, stressing what the environmental impacts of DAPL will bring. Despite the desecration of sacred lands, and poisoning of the waters, the pipeline heralds a possible change that mankind may not come back from.

“When the animals turn white, that’s when major change to the environment is going to happen, and we are in that right now,” Mentz said. If the change is not rectified, finding their Sioux ancestors’ graves will become as difficult as chasing dirt in the wind.

Mentz was invited by nearby rancher Dave Meyer, who recently sold 20 parcels of Cannonball Ranch to Dakota Access Pipeline, to inspect lands in the pipeline’s path, he said in a September 2, 2016 lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He conducted a Class III survey along DAPL’s south side a length of two miles in early September and discovered 82 stone features and archaeological sites, with at least 27 of the sites burial grounds.

A survey conducted by the North Dakota archaeologists “yielded no evidence of human remains or significant sites,” according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department and the North Dakota State Historical Society.

“Based on my extensive experience evaluating sites on the National Register of Historic Places, it is my opinion that each of these sites unquestionably meets the criteria for inclusion in the National Register,” Mentz said in the lawsuit. One of the stone features he said is the Iyokaptan Tanka, or Big Dipper, which is rare in the Great Plains and a place where only an important chief can be buried.

Another stone effigy Mentz found was the Mato Wapiya, or Bear Medicine Healer, a sacred site where a medicine healer received his gifts, is only a few feet away from the DAPL corridor. Another site known as the Itancha, or Chiefs Dreaming Pair with Staffs, is less than one foot from the DAPL route and was a site marked for its significance of when a chief united his tribe.

Prayer circle at Oceti Sakowin – photo by C.S. Hagen

Dakota Excess Pipeline

Winona Laduke, an economist, environmentalist, and two-time vice presidential candidate for Ralph Nader’s Green Party, said the Dakota Access Pipeline from an economic standpoint was a poor investment.

Winona Laduke, executive director of Honor the Earth, speaks at Standing Rock hearing – photo by C.S. Hagen

“The Dakota Excess Pipeline – not the Dakota Access Pipeline – we refer to it as the Dakota Excess Pipeline because present production in the Bakken is at 930,931 barrels per day of oil, that is presently being served by both pipelines and oil trains. Production is now at the bottom, this is called a bust, in economic cycles.”

Production in 2019 will not get any better, Laduke said, so she questioned the need for investment in such a pipeline funneling 570,000 barrels per day. Additionally, oil trains travel to destinations the pipeline does not plan to go, eventually to Nederland, Texas for refinement, which directly negates what DAPL has been saying all along that the pipeline will decrease the amount of current road and rail traffic hauling oil in North Dakota.

“There must be a full assessment of the environmental impact, that is known as a wells-to-wheels assessment,” Laduke said. “In other words, where did the oil come from? What is the environmental impact, carbon impact, the health impact, the radiation exposure impact, the oil discharge impact, the social impact of the Bakken oil itself? This has not been discussed at any point, either by Dakota Excess Pipeline Corporation, nor the state of North Dakota.”

Many in the Peace Garden State have been enriched by the Bakken oil boom, but not the Standing Rock Sioux, Laduke said. Instead, drugs, crime, sex trafficking have found ways to infiltrate native communities.

“It is a trauma that this tribe, which has never been a beneficiary of Bakken oil, has felt, as heroin moves toward this community, as meth moves toward this community in epidemic levels not seen prior to the progressive behavior in the Bakken oil fields.”

Mexican cartels are working in the Bakken, the Bismarck Tribune reported in 2015, and that crime rates jumped nearly 8 percent from 2011 to 2012. Crime rates have tripled since the Peace Garden State’s oil boom, especially in native lands, and due primarily to the sudden influx of highly-paid oil workers living in man camps, according to the Washington Post.

And the boom now begins to take its pound of flesh, Laduke said.

In the past five years, 5.9 million gallons of oil have been spilled in the Bakken, Laduke said. Since January 2016 alone, more than 100,900 gallons of crude oil, waste oil, biosolids, natural gas, and brine have been spilled in the Bakken and surrounding areas, according to North Dakota Department of Health records. Also, 11.8 million gallons of brine, an inorganic waste product the earth cannot absorb, have been spilled in the Bakken, Laduke said.

The carbon impact and catastrophic spills are not only confined to pumping stations, as DAPL suggests, but is also evident along all transportation routes, Laduke said. She pointed to the zip code 48217 in Michigan, a predominantly black community where Marathon Petroleum Corporation refines Bakken oil. The area is the single most polluted zip code in the USA, Laduke said. “The Marathon refinery is allowed to use the sewage system… in order to dispose of its toxins.” The vast majority of people in this neighborhood have health problems, she said, and no one has ever found redress under the federal system.

“From the front to the get, we have a problem with this pipeline on the community and on health,” Laduke said. “You cannot bring 570,000 through a pipeline with a vast amount of carbon, there is at present no way to remove that carbon from the environment.”

In essence, investment in DAPL is an unhealthy waste of money, Laduke said. “It’s like you spent your money on candy when you should have bought something nutritious.”

Nah-Tes Jackson, from California, who also spoke at Wednesday’s hearing, describes himself as a feeler. He worries about the people involved in recent clashes with law enforcement, and the rifts between the elderly and the youth that are developing in the camps.

“The damage they’re causing upon the lives right now, makes me pray,” Jackson said. “Hurt can fester, and eventually control and consume. We can become so lost in our hurt that we don’t know how to heal anymore,” Jackson said. “We are all tools in this life, and we can be used for good or for bad.”

No matter the differences inside the camps, healing, and prayer is still powerful there, he said.

Jackson broke down in tears when he recalled recent violent confrontations.

“Can you imagine a mother watching her children fight, and kill each other, and then their blood spilled on her?”

Vehicle at Oceti Sakowin – photo by C.S. Hagen

North Dakota’s Valley Forge

October 13, 2016 / CSHagen / 0 Comments

Activists outside Standing Rock winterize, law enforcement puts more boots on the ground, and state politicians speak their minds

By C.S. Hagen
CANNON BALL – Snow fluttered across tipis and tents last weekend, tip-tapping like panicked field mice across canvas. It was not a gentle fat-flaked snow, rather ice, a bone-chilling wintry taste for the activists camped outside of Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

Dried corn cobs, a camp sign with hand written wooden signs hailing from the USA, the Arctic, Paris, and more – photo by C.S. Hagen

As the sun crested Facebook Hill, flooding the prairie with much-needed warmth, a dog howled mournfully. An infant cried. Horses snorted the cold night’s air from their nostrils. Slowly, the camp stirred. A drum beat; an elder greeted the day with native song. Younger “water warriors” screeched like crows, and their cries seemingly echoed from both sides of the Cannon Ball River.

The camps have grown smaller. Some activists, like Dale “Happi” Americanhorse Jr., have traveled to Iowa to assist in what Americanhorse says is a losing battle against Dakota Access Pipeline. Other activists simply cannot handle the elements, for inside a thin canvas tent, deep in the night, cold bites the skin, and by day fierce winds and thinning shade can only toughen or shatter activists’ resolve.

For the thousands that do remain encamped and resolute against the Dakota Access Pipeline, the 17 international banks funding the 1,172-mile project, the politicians whom activists say are forcing agendas and filling pocketbooks, and the federal government’s broken treaty promises, they’re preparing for their own Valley Forge.

“We are fighting three battles right now,” a Facebook post published by the Red Warrior Camp stated. “We are protecting the sacred from the Dakota Access Pipeline, we are defending ourselves from the fascist state armed to harm, and we are reinforcing our camp to face the harsh weather that is arriving.”

Big Camp, outside of Cannon Ball – photo by C.S. Hagen

On Sunday, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. dissolved a second emergency motion for an injunction filed by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to halt the pipeline project. For weeks, Dakota Access LLP, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners, had been ordered to halt all work on the pipeline within 20 miles on either side of Lake Oahe along the Missouri River.

“But ours is not the final word,” U.S. Court of Appeals documents stated. “A necessary easement still awaits government approval – a decision Corps’ counsel predicts is likely weeks away; meanwhile Intervenor DAPL has rights of access to the limited portion of pipeline corridor not yet cleared – where the Tribe alleges additional historic sites are at risk.”

Despite the court ruling, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers refused to give its permission for Dakota Access Pipeline to build on Corps lands bordering or under Lake Oahe, and once again recommended that DAPL “voluntarily pause all construction activity” on private lands, according to a press release made available by the U.S. Department of Justice.

DAPL, or the Dakota Access Pipeline, is now legally authorized to continue its project into parts of the no work zone.

Tipis and Mongolian-styled yurts are replacing flimsy North Face tents. Some activists are building wind-breaking fences around their designated spots. Wood stoves are providing warmth in a handful of larger military-styled tents. Massive trees have been brought in for log cabins, hay bales for windbreakers. More activists have moved to the nearby Cannon Ball River, a tributary of the Missouri River, for its wooded banks offer some shelter.

Those that do remain are not surrendering.

On October 8, more than 20 riders from Winona LaDuke’s Honor the Earth organization, and from the Wounded Knee Memorial Riders, the Dakota 38, the Big Foot riders, among others, set off on a four-day horse ride from Standing Rock to Tioga against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Winona LaDuke preparing to begin the four-day horse ride against the flow of the pipeline – photo by C.S. Hagen

“This is our moment,” LaDuke said on the Honor the Earth website. In addition to being a longtime environmentalist LaDuke was also two-time vice presidential candidate for Ralph Nader’s Green Party. “Tribes and First Nations are standing up and standing together to demand an end to the desecration of our lands and the poisoning of our sacred waters.”

Minutes after the riders disappeared into the Dakota prairies an Aztec group performed ritual dances drawing nearly everyone to the Sacred Circle. Native Americans and supporters from around the country, including Fargo residents Cindy Gomez-Schempp of the People’s Press Project 88.1 FM radio, and Barry Nelson, of the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition, showed their enthusiasm for the ritual dancers, swirling in their emerald and citron feathers from the tropical quetzal and troupial. Air turned sweet with burning copal, or pine tree sap, southern native equivalent to sweetgrass, as the dancers pounded the earth, many in bare feet.

Riders set off through main entrance to Big Camp – photo by C.S. Hagen

“I come here because I need to bear witness to what is happening,” Nelson said. Many national news agencies reporting of the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy are wrong, Nelson said, and the efforts of the Native Americans and others against big oil is “historically incredible,” he said.

Tom Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, said he is troubled by the recent court’s decision, but civil disobedience at Standing Rock will not diminish.

“We will continue to support the tribe’s efforts to hold the US federal government accountable for rubber stamping this dirty oil project… This fight is far from over.”

Myron Dewey – from Facebook profile

Although law enforcement and DAPL security are watching and documenting camp activity, activists have digital scouts of their own. Myron Dewey, a filmmaker and drone operator, fought back by documenting pipeline activity with a drone, until the machine was confiscated by Morton County Sheriff’s Department after an unnamed DAPL worker filed an intimidation report. When Dewey attempted to clarify questions and gather facts, law enforcement officials refused to listen and forced him from the Morton County Sheriff Department premises.

Some officers have hidden their nametags, Dewey said, and the officer who “arrested” his drone only offered his badge number on the report. No warrant was issued for his arrest, because in order to do so the DAPL worker would have to be named, Dewey said.

“When our public officials no longer can become identified, they are no longer the public officials,” Dewey said.

Dewey documented DAPL activity with video, photographs, and GPS coordinates 24 miles and then on October 8 – a day before the U.S. District Court of Appeals decision – 16 miles from the Missouri River. Once past the 20-mile marker, Dakota Access LLP work on the pipeline became illegal.

DAPL private security personnel were mysteriously gone on Monday, which was Indigenous People’s Day, formerly known as Columbus Day. “It’s now police policing the pipeline, and they’re there, everywhere, all along the pipeline. This is where the tax dollars are going. You’re seeing militarization of a police force that is not trained in militarization. That’s today.

“It’s really sad. It’s women and children, they’re Native Americans, and people from all over the world.” Much of the assistance is coming from Bismarck, Dewey said, but those who are helping are afraid to give their names for fear of repercussions when they return home.

Dewey offered his views on why he and thousands of others will continue.

“We have a Dakota Access Pipeline entity that has lost its connection, its spirit, to the earth,” Dewey said. “Our goal is to help Dakota Access Pipeline, and all the workers and private security, and also the officers that are protecting that pipeline to get connected to the earth. And then you will understand why we are fighting to protect the water in a good way in prayer.”

Divergent actress Shailene Woodley’s mug shot at Morton County Jail – photo provided by Morton County Sheriff’s Department

On Indigenous People’s Day, Divergent series movie star Shailene Woodley was arrested along with 26 others by sheriff deputies. A deputy grabbed her jacket as she was walking with her mother toward their vehicle to return to Big Camp, and arrested her for criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor. Woodley asked officers why she was singled out for arrest.

“You were identified,” the arresting officer said.

“Alright, I’m being arrested.” Woodley smiled into the camera. Her mother was filming as the officer shackled her daughter’s wrists.

“So everybody knows, we were going to our vehicle, which they had all surrounded, and were waiting for me with giant guns and giant truck behind them, just so they could arrest me.” Woodley said. Law enforcement then led her away in handcuffs.

Woodley posted a USD 500 bond, and could face up to three months in prison and USD 3,000 in fines, according to Morton County Sheriff Department spokesman Rob Keller. Her court date is set for October 24. A total of 27 people were arrested Monday after approximately 300 people protested at two construction sites along the Dakota Access Pipeline.

“All 27 were arrested on the same charges, engaging in a riot and criminal trespass,” Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney, who currently serves as Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier’s operations chief in Morton County, said. “She [Woodley] was one of 27, she was no different than the others.” Laney said he hopes the activists return home now that their message has been heard across America and the U.S. Court of Appeals has denied Standing Rock’s petition for a second time.

Armored police vehicles outside of St. Anthony, ND – online sources

More Boots on the Ground

As Dakota Access LLP’s pipeline nears its finish in Iowa, and is reportedly 68 percent completed across the country, the project is still behind schedule in North Dakota.

Since early August a total of 123 activists have been arrested on misdemeanor and felony charges including criminal trespass, reckless endangerment, and terrorizing law enforcement. Governor Jack Dalrymple declared an emergency state in August, has brought in the National Guard, has asked President Obama for further financial assistance, and has approved out-of-state support from the National Sheriffs’ Association.

“We have basically tapped the resources to a level that we’ve never seen here in North Dakota for one particular incident,” Kirchmeier said in a press conference.

“I’m sorry I have to be here today,” Wyoming’s Laramie County Sheriff Danny Glick and president of the 15-state Western Sheriffs’ Association, said in a press conference. “But my message is simple and direct. I’m here to pledge the support of the nation’s sheriffs to the people of Morton County and North Dakota.”

Kirchmeier believes the collaboration is a win, and 40 deputies from Wisconsin began taking 21-day shifts to assist Morton County law enforcement, but on Wednesday, the 10 from Dane County returned home, according to the Dane County Sheriff’s Office.

“Throughout the week, Sheriff [Dave] Mahoney has engaged in conversations with a wide cross-section of our community, all of whom felt strongly that our deputies should not be involved in the events taking place in North Dakota,” a press release from the Dane County Sheriff’s Office reported.

Kirchmeier also plans to engage in a more proactive stance against anyone who breaks the law. So far, the North Dakota National Guard is still acting in a limited capacity, primarily working the roadblock on Highway 1806.

“Protesters have disdained the rule of law, and that has resulted in a heightened level of fear and concerns among the residents,” Kirchmeier said. “These fears are real.”

Aztec dancers – photo by C.S. Hagen

Laney said Monday’s protest was anything but peaceful. “While some would like to say this was a protest, this was not a protest – this was a riot. When you have that many people engage in that kind of behavior, inciting others to break the law, cheering others on as they do break the law, refusing to leave when they are asked to leave, that’s not a protest… Today, 27 arrests were made – not because we wanted that to happen, because those people on scene chose for that to happen.”

Recently, local residents have become the victims of terrorizing threats, intimidation, and criminal trespass, Kirchmeier said. Even Morton County’s new residents, those encamped outside of Cannon Ball, were victims recently when Bryce Ironhawk, from South Dakota, allegedly ploughed into Big Camp in a stolen Chevy Camaro late on October 6, knocking over flagpoles and partially destroying a tipi, Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported. Ironhawk’s blood-alcohol level was more than double the legal limit, and he was charged with driving under the influence and aggravated reckless driving.

Camp spokespeople said Ironhawk was not an activist living in the camp. Posted at Big Camp’s entrance are the rules: no weapons, no drugs, no alcohol.

“How many days are going to go by before someone gets hurt?” Dewey said. Native Americans and activists are targeted by police on the roads; law enforcement without proper identification are driving through camp, acting like predators, taking pictures of children in the makeshift school on camp premises, he said. DAPL security are dressing like activists and infiltrating the camp. “We’re being targeted now, and this is something that is not okay anymore. We are asking for the power of protection and prayer coming from all the four directions.”

Reports have been made to police about strange people and occurrences, including reports made by those attacked by dogs on September 3, Dewey said, but nothing is being done about their reports. “They did not do their job in protecting the people that were bit. I find that’s a violation of their protocols and what they’re supposed to do. They sat at the bottom of that hill.”

On October 4, nearly 20 activists appeared at Morton County Courthouse to plead not guilty at their arraignments. All requested court-appointed attorneys, some of whom met with camp attorney Angela Bibens and others behind closed doors.

Morton County State’s Attorney Brian Grosinger appeared on behalf of the state, and frequently seemed confused during the proceedings, at one point offering District Court Judge Bruce Haskell an apology. Grosinger asked for a higher bond against Mason Redwing, who turned himself in after being charged with reckless endangerment, criminal trespass, and terrorizing law enforcement after he allegedly charged armed law enforcement on horseback on September 28.

If proven guilty Redwing could face five years imprisonment and or a USD 10,000 fine.

Dale “Happi” Americanhorse Jr. walking alone into the Morton County Courthouse – photo by C.S. Hagen

“We’re prosecuting crimes,” Grosinger said after the first round or cases were arraigned. Too early, he said, to say if the state will be seeking maximum penalties against the dozens of activists arrested.

Americanhorse, who was represented by Steven Balaban, a Bismarck attorney, will begin court proceedings on December 23. He is charged with one felony and three misdemeanors stemming from August 31.

“We as water protectors are not intimidated by the trumped up charges they throw at us,” Americanhorse said. “We are not backing down and will continue to do exactly what we do. Protect.”

“The state is using excessive force normally used in war overseas on unarmed Indigenous People to protect DAPL,” a Red Warrior Camp press release reported. “This is tantamount to an act of war on the Indigenous People…”

To Be or Not To Be – a Governor

Dalrymple is currently serving his final term as the governor of North Dakota. Three men are vying to take his place.

Representative Marvin E. Nelson, D-N.D., from Rolla, said he fears the Dakota Access controversy will end in violence.

Representative Marvin E. Nelson – online sources

“First of all, clearly the process did not work properly at the state level,” Nelson said. “I would point to what happened that the pipeline did not get sited in the right place. As governor, we have a company engaged in legal activity and it’s trying to move ahead, and then there are protestors. It would be my responsibility to protect them… that is the thing as governor – you have to do what you are responsible to do.

“Everyone wants to roll the clock back… but you can’t always go back.”

Nelson expects DAPL is preparing for a quick build to Lake Oahe, protected by beefed-up police presence. The situation has become polarized between absolute support and absolute opposition. “I look too at the protestors and what they’re saying, and I really do fear that there will be violence here. It’s just frustrating. It’s what happens with ultimate positions.”

The governor is more of a spectator, charged with protecting human life, and outside of offering pardons to activists and DAPL workers charged with crimes, the governor has little authority in these situations.

“The company is going to shove it through there,” Nelson said. “The big question is whether the government will allow an easement. It is still possible the tribe will win. Their strongest case is on their water rights. It’s involving their water – and it doesn’t seem there was an engagement with the tribes pertaining to their water rights.”

Nelson added that the U.S. Corps of Engineers rarely investigates beyond river crossings, and that national building permits are not adequate; a full environmental impact study should be conducted.

“Really, the relationship between our tribes and our state could become better and more active,” Nelson said. “We do need to work together more.”

Marty Riske, the Libertarian candidate for North Dakota governor, said it is a very dangerous time for North Dakota.

Marty Riske – online sources

“I know what I would have done, hindsight being twenty-twenty,” Riske said. “I would have brought a table to the site and invited the chiefs of the Native American tribes, the chiefs of the oil companies, and the governor himself. I would have been down there at a long table and a decision tree, and each of us would have espoused what we want, and the things that remained in the tree, the differences that weren’t being met, would have to be brought closer together to get everyone to agree.”

Now that the controversy is polarized, however, and low commodity prices are threatening North Dakotan prosperity, pension funds for teachers and state employees are sliding into arrears due to slipping oil prices, a pipeline is what the state needs, Riske said. Used correctly shipping oil via pipelines is half the cost of transportation by rail or truck. Energy Transfer Partners also has obtained the proper authority to complete the pipeline, the Public Service Commission did their work correctly, Riske said, but President Obama came up from behind and threw the project into chaos.

“If I were governor, I would say, ‘Obama, we are removing all our law enforcement by this date and we ask you to replace them all, or take over the bills, and then you work this deal out. Come here and get this deal done.’”

Oil and natural gas are necessities for North Dakota, and for the nation, Riske said, and although he plans to begin using solar panels on his own property, the technology for alternative energy is not ready to take over the fossil fuel industry.

“I know damn well you don’t want oil to go away,” Riske said. “This notion that we can end fossil fuels is uniformed.”

North Dakota has to get Bakken oil to market, or North Dakota will “suffer greatly,” Riske said.

“By doing what we’re doing, we’re putting the shivers into the whole pipeline program in North Dakota.”

Doug Burgum

Doug Burgum, the Republican candidate for governor of North Dakota, said free speech and the right to protest need to be respected, but that law and order must be maintained on federal lands.

“One of things that makes our country so special is the right of free speech and the right to peacefully protest,” Burgum said. “The state should continue to request that the federal government uphold their responsibility for maintaining peace and order on federal land. Going forward, we need to remember that disagreement can exist alongside mutual respect, listening, and dialogue as we work together towards a peaceful, constructive resolution.”