Tag: Winona Laduke

United Nations Denounces North Dakota State Government

Sweet crude oil preparing to flow through the Dakota Access Pipeline as work finishes, a look at the financials and Russian steel origins behind the pipeline

By C.S. Hagen
CANNON BALL
– Bakken oil could be flowing through the Dakota Access Pipeline within a week, but Standing Rock still hopes for a legal miracle as the United Nations condemns what it calls widespread discrimination and North Dakota’s militarized responses.  

As Standing Rock’s legal options diminish, an injunction filed by the Cheyenne River Tribe, part of the Great Sioux Nation, was once again turned down  by federal judges on Tuesday. Previous injunctions filed by the tribe to stop pipeline construction have also been denied by US District Judge James E. Boasberg, citing the the tribe waited too long to bring up the claim under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. 

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz stated on Monday that Native Americans have the right to defy undue pressures by extractive projects such as the Dakota Access Pipeline. In a scathing report, Tauli-Corpuz said the United Nations is concerned about the safety of indigenous peoples, their cultures, their sacred sites, and their human rights issues in the United States. 

During her human rights mission for the United Nations, Tauli-Corpuz said she discovered widespread discrimination at local and national levels. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe was not consulted as a sovereign nation. 

“In the context of the Dakota Access Pipeline, the potentially affected tribes were denied access to information and excluded from consultations at the planning stage of the project,” Tauli-Corpuz said. “Furthermore, in a show of disregard for treaties in the federal cross responsibility, the Army Corps approved a draft environmental assessment regarding the pipeline that ignored the interests of the tribe. 

“The draft made no attempt of proximity to the reservation or the fact that the pipeline would cross historic treaty lands of a number of tribal nations. In doing so the draft environmental assessment treated the tribe’s interest as nonexistent, demonstrating the flawed current process.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continually dismissed risks and did not conduct an adequate cultural assessment before authorizing the pipeline to cross Lake Oahe or authorized the dumping of materials and waste into waters on Indian reservations, Tauli-Corpuz said. The Army Corps utilized a loophole in environmental assessment laws by fast tracking permits, and after the agency approved an environmental assessment study earlier this year, it backtracked and issued the final easement permit. 

Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak has stated that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe was contacted from the beginning of the pipeline planning stages.

The problem is not contained only to Standing Rock, but widespread throughout the USA, Rauli-Corpuz said.

In addition to local and federal government dismissiveness, Native Americans face the full force of negative health impacts from extraction, with rising levels of heavy metals in water and contamination in livestock from spills, faulty well construction, and the effects of frakking, or toxic and non-biodegradable discharges into surface waters. The oil boom has also enticed thousands of oil and gas workers creating an “incredible increase” of human trafficking, drugs, and sex crimes, Tauli-Corpuz said. 

Highway 1806 – photo by C.S. Hagen

“The trauma accumulated as a result of a the largely discriminatory policies of the government toward Indian tribes and individuals since first contact and today, still results in distrust of government initiatives and poor health outcomes for Indian individuals,” Tauli-Corpuz said.  

Her research showed that government, rather than people, have the final say in matters related to Native Americans, and “it is imperative the federal government properly consult before encroaching on indigenous lands,” Tauli-Corpuz said.

With few legal options left to halt Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company of Dakota Access, LLC, Standing Rock and supporters are preparing to march in Washington DC on March 10 at the Native Nations Rise campaign. 

Activists preparing to leave pause on the Cannon Ball Bridge on Highway 1806 – photo by C.S. Hagen

“They want us to believe that the fight is over,” Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II said in a press release. “But we can still win this. We can unite in peaceful, prayerful resistance against this illegal pipeline.” 

Officials plan to reopen the tribe’s main artery, Highway 1806, by March 13 if there is “no identifiable threat from protesters to block the highway,” the North Dakota Joint Information Center reported. 

Boom 

The North Dakota political machine has been repeatedly rated one of the worst in the United States for transparency by political watchdogs such as The Center for Public Integrity, and its reactions toward the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy have been scrutinized by press from around the world. 

Before pipeline construction began, a 78-page assessment report was compiled by Iowa-based Strategic Economics Group, Inc., written by Harvey Siegelman, Mike Lipsman, and Dan Otto, for Energy Transfer Partners. 

The pipeline companies promised jobs, growth, and stability, according to the November 12, 2014 report entitled Assessment of the Economic and Fiscal Impacts of the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois.

The report states that the pipeline project would create approximately 32,721 job-years – amount of work done by one person for one year. An average salary per worker was listed as $57,000 a year. “The increase in employment will generate a $1.9 billion increase in labor income, and a nearly $5 billion increase in production and sales in the region,” the report stated. 

After the pipeline is finished, 160 ongoing jobs will be added to the economy in North Dakota, generating $11 million in labor income and more than $23 million in new production and sales per year, the report promised. 

The pipeline was planned to cost Dakota Access, LLC $1.4 billion in North Dakota, of that amount an estimated $655.9 million, or 47 percent totaling $397 million, was planned to result in direct and indirect purchases in North Dakota. 

The total impact of the pipeline project in North Dakota was expected to add nearly 7,700 job-years of employment, generate more than $450 million in labor income, and add about $1.05 billion to the production and sales within the state, according to the report. Additionally, the state was to benefit by receiving revenues of approximately $32.9 million in taxes, of which $1.7 was for local governments, and $5.9 million from individual income taxes. During the first year of operation the state is slated to receive $13.1 million in new property taxes for local governments. 

The construction state of the pipeline was expected to generate $9.6 billion in total output nationally, but only half of that, $4.96 billion in output, or production and sales, would be captured in the four-state area. “That is because many of the manufacturers of products that will ultimately be purchased for this project are located outside of this region,” the report states. 

More than two years after the report was written, one of the authors, Lipsman, said he felt that the report will prove accurate, but that at least two more years were needed for government agencies to compile all the necessary information. 

“Obviously there’s been a lot more spent by Dakota Access because of all the slowdown,” Lipsman said. “Initially, we thought the construction would take two years, and then we came back and they said it would take one year, but with all the delays it’s now in the second year.”

Crews moved from state to state, Lipsman said, and although the actual number of people on the job might be less than what Strategic Economics Group, Inc. reported, he calculated job hours, and not actual personnel numbers.

“Especially since they were doing this so fast a lot of people got significant overtime, Lipsman said. “When we did ours in job years, the actual number of people who were on the project might be less than what we forecasted, but that was because we assume a 40-hour week, but if someone is working 15 to 20 hours of overtime you have less bodies but still as much labor going in.”

The Dakota Access Pipeline used less than 57 percent American-made steel, according to the Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now, an industry group lobbying for completion of the pipeline. Despite President Trump’s executive order demanding pipes to be made from American-manufactured steel, most if not all of the steel pipes planned for the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL projects have already been purchased. Piles of steel tubes are scattered throughout the Midwest. 

Dakota Access, LLC pipes – online sources

“Much of the steel for the Dakota Access project appears to have been manufactured in Canada by EVRAZ North America, a subsidiary of the Russian steel giant Evraz,” according to DeSmog, a news outlet focused on global warming misinformation campaigns. 

EVRAZ is owned in part by Roman Abramovich, a Russian multi-billionaire who assisted President Vladimir Putin into office in the late 1990s, according to DeSmog. The company’s management team is nearly all Russian nationals and former government workers, which should send red flags up with all American companies. 

For the 2013-2014 fiscal year, Abramovich reported a record profit of £18 million, according to media outlet Journal Star.  

Bakken oil production saw its “largest decline ever in North Dakota production” in September 2016, pumping out 895,330 barrels per day, according to media outlet Oil Price. Production of oil rebounded to 942,455 barrels in December 2016. The price of North Dakota sweet crude was up slightly in January to $40.75, and in February up again to $42.50 per barrel, which is a far cry from the all-time high in 2008 of $136.29 per barrel, according to Oil Price.

Winona LaDuke, a longtime activist and founder of Honor the Earth, disagrees with the math behind Bakken oil. She was part of the fight that shut down Enbridge’s Keystone Pipeline, and says that since Enbridge is an approximately 28 percent investor in the Dakota Access Pipeline, or as she says the Dakota Excess Pipeline, Enbridge should also be responsible for 28 percent of the injuries that occurred outside of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. 

LaDuke says the Bakken oil patch is busted, and the state should be focused more on infrastructure on people rather than for companies. More people today are employed in solar energy facilities than in oil patches, LaDuke said, and the future does not rest with fossil fuels. 

Government projections estimate 900,000 barrels of oil will be hauled out of the Bakken per day until 2019. “What I’m trying to figure out is where’s the oil for the 570,000 barrels a day pipeline you are shoving down our throats? All the oil going out of there now, is the same that will be going out of there in two years.” 

 

The workforce and mineral rights

On the ground reporting, live streaming videos, and reports from activists in the field rarely reported seeing local license plates on Dakota Access Pipeline vehicles, semis, or trucks. And while the state has been quite content bringing in outside companies, supplies, and an out-of-state workforce for the project, its response has shown contempt against all outside activists fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The North Dakota Joint Information Center frequently posts updates on arrests, identifying repeatedly that out of the 761 people arrested, 94 percent were not from North Dakota. 

Former main entrance to Oceti Sakowin blockaded against police advance – photo by C.S. Hagen

On the construction side of the pipeline, Pam Link, director of governmental relations and new business development for the Laborer’s International Union of North America Local #563, said business couldn’t be better. In 2016, Local #563 had from 400 to 600 union members working on the Dakota Access Pipeline.  

“A vast majority of them were North Dakotans,” Link said. Most of the jobs were short term, but members are already back at work across the state, she said. Her union currently has approximately a dozen workers involved at the drill pad crossing the Missouri River. “We have massive work going on, starting right now, it’s unbelievable, how busy we will be, it’s unbelievable how much work we have.”

Link wouldn’t say if the work load increase was due to changes made by Trump’s Administration, but said in 2016 her union was focused primarily on the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Local #49 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, Laborer’s International Union of North America Local 300, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, among others, also had members working on the pipeline, according Link. None replied to telephone calls for comment. 

“A larger percentage of positions in the earlier phases of oil development are shorter term or transient in nature, but as more wells are added, more people will be needed to service and maintain those wells,” Tessa Sandstrom, the director of communications for the North Dakota Petroleum Council, said.  

Not including transportation and construction jobs, the Bakken workforce has increased from 5,000 jobs in 2005 to 81,500 in 2013, Sandstrom reported. Numbers began to decline in 2015, but “they will still be a pretty big chunk of North Dakota’s total workforce,” Sandstorm said. 

“The petroleum industry will continue to provide economic, tax, employment, and energy security benefits well into the future of North Dakota,” Sandstorm said. “The Dakota Access Pipeline will play a large part in that because it will make transporting North Dakota crude more economic which means we will get a better price for the barrel.”

Pipeline oil will decrease the cost of transportation per barrel, allowing the state to accumulate at least $100 million or more per year if total oil prices do not sink lower than $50 per barrel, Sandstrom said. While the pipeline controversy cost the state more than $38.2 million taxpayer dollars, according to information released Tuesday by the North Dakota Joint Information Center, the state could easily see its investment paid back through pipeline taxes. 

“It’s easy for detractors to immediately jump to this as being only a benefit for the oil companies, but it, in fact, is a boon to the state and mineral owners as well. Mineral owners would stand to gain between $100 to $120 million per year because of this pipeline”

“In terms of businesses benefitting from oil and gas development, it is not a few local drillers who benefit from the work here,” Sandstorm said. 

North Dakota has more than 400 individuals and 115 companies or independent contractors who are involved in the drilling and well production processes in the Bakken, Sandstorm said. There are also 117 certified native-owned companies that provide oil and gas development services. According to a 2014 study made public by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, more than 876 business in North Dakota are part of the larger oil and natural gas supply chain. 

“These aren’t just the stereotypical roughnecks or roustabouts either,” Sandstorm said. “These positions, businesses, and contractors range from the skilled trades, such as electricians, to engineers and from human resources professionals to legal and environmental consultants.”

Exact numbers of people employed or those who are benefitting from the Dakota Access Pipeline, such as mineral rights owners,  are at best difficult to pin down. At the height of the state’s most recent oil “boom” from 2010 until 2014, the state’s population increased by 66,000, according to the North Dakota Census Office. 

Gary Preszler, chairman for National Host Production Deduction Committee and former commissioner for North Dakota Land Management, also owns a large mineral interest in Billings County, from  which he said the royalty payments have put his children through college.

“The average mineral owner is not going to get wealthy from their checks, because wells deplete and start producing less and less,” Preszler said. “The average mineral owner is not going to have any life-changing windfall. They might improve their lifestyle a little bit.”

The average mineral rights owner is a retired elderly person receiving $50 a month, he said. 

The history of mineral rights in North Dakota is confusing even to oil company accountants, and many mistakes have been made in the past, Preszler said. The puzzle dates back to the 1930s Great Depression when many farmers and ranchers sold their mineral rights to survive. 

At the beginning, the state kept five percent of the mineral rights giving 95 percent to purchasers, then in the late 1940s, the state began keeping 50 percent, then 100 percent in the 1960s, Meszler said. Farm credit service banks and the state-owned Bank of North Dakota also own mineral rights in western North Dakota’s oil-rich lands from foreclosures, and typically keep 50 percent mineral rights when land is resold. Professional oil workers and oil companies also have purchased mineral rights directly from landowners. 

Today, third generation cousins scattered across the United States and oblivious to their ownership titles also are heirs to mineral rights, Preszler said. 

“When you’re a mineral owner, it’s not all the sudden the money pours in,” he said. Oil price swings, production tapering, and mechanical failures fluctuate royalty checks. Sometimes, “You go that mailbox for the month and there’s nothing there,” Preszler said.

The Minerals Management Division of the Department of North Dakota Trust Lands manages 2.567 million mineral acres throughout the state, of which 1.215 million mineral acres are in the oil and gas producing counties, and another 1.352 million acres are in non-producing counties. Schools and other trusts own 1.84 million acres, and foreclosed properties formerly managed by the Bank of North Dakota and Sovereign Lands make up the remaining 728,000 mineral acres.

The state of North Dakota covers 45,250,560 acres, according to North Dakota Studies, of which, including some acreage in South Dakota, 4,689,920 acres are on Native American reservations. The Bakken oil patch, in its entirety, spans approximately 15,360,000 acres.

While some in the Peace Garden State may be profiting from Bakken oil and the Dakota Access Pipeline, few think about the long term environmental and sociological effects, the reason behind Standing Rock’s resistance against the pipeline. Additionally, the United Nations wants the state to pay more attention to those who are to a large degree not profiting from the oil “boom.” 

“The United States government should fully realize the rights of indigenous peoples as enshrined in the UN declaration and the rights of indigenous peoples, and i strongly recommend that the United States government continue to improve on its policies to develop stronger government and government relations with the tribes,” Tauli-Corpuz said.

“The Wiindigo Comes in the Winter”

Rumors threaten Standing Rock and activist unity against the Dakota Access Pipeline

By C.S. Hagen 
CANNON BALL – Rumors, like the Wiindigo, are never full. They prey on the weak, devouring their kill, always hungry, gluttonous yet emaciated. 

The legendary, cannibalistic being strikes mainly during lonely winters. According to Algonquian lore it stalks the northern forests around the Great Lakes. Like rumors, the Wiindigo is difficult to kill, as its powers rise with every victim it devours. 

The rumors surrounding Standing Rock’s fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline are not unlike the Wiindigo legends, Winona Laduke, a long time activist said. Laduke is an economist, and two-time vice presidential candidate for Ralph Nader’s Green Party. She is also the executive director for Honor the Earth, a non-profit advocate for indigenous environmental support.

“The winter of the North Country is unforgiving, and here on my own Round Lake, the Winndigo once came and ate a man and his family,” Laduke said. “That man became the Wiindigo. That is the time now, crazy actions occur. A man on my reservation starves his three horses to death, despite many friends. At the Oceti Sakowin Camp, a woman ties her dementia plagued mother onto a chair, and leaves her, without help. It is a time when we do things we regret.” 

No excuses for such strange behaviors, Laduke said, but part of being human is to be weak. 

“In the midst of this there is no question that there is chaos, there is no question that some people are infiltrators and some are profiting off the backs of this on the front line. And who is best served by all this? The answer: North Dakota’s energy empire, the Trump Administration, and, of course, Energy Transfer Partners.”

“Not afraid to look” sculpture overlooking Oceti Sakowin by Charles Rencountre (with Charles Rencountre and LaDonna Allard)- photo provided by Winona Laduke

From the beginning of Standing Rock’s fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, much emphasis has been given to remaining peaceful. Those arrested for civil disobedience such as disobeying police orders or trespassing, are forms of free speech, activists say. Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault encouraged civil disobedience from the beginning, and was himself arrested after trespassing on August 12, 2016. 

While the majority of activists have been peacefully protesting, even while under constant threat from Morton County’s militarized police force armed with pepper spray, tear gas, rubber bullets, concussion grenades, some have fought back using taunts, razor wire, stones, and fire, according to authorities. Supporters attribute violent actions to agitators and federal infiltrators; the authorities use the violence as propaganda and make more arrests.

“When you are standing up against a billion dollar corporation, this is how they work,” LaDonna Tamakawastewin Allard, who owns land the Sacred Stone Camp is on, said in an interview with The Young Turks. “They go into the communities and spread gossip and rumor. That’s what I am worried about. For me I will stand with anybody who stands with the water.”

Since early August, tens of thousands of people from across the world have travelled to Standing Rock, and a total of 696 arrests have been made. 

Some of the rumors include monies donated to Standing Rock’s fight. Others have used isolated actions by people inside the camps, such as the case of Kathleen Bennett, who allegedly restrained and abused her 82-year-old mother at Oceti Sakowin, as a reflection on the movement and the tribe as a whole. 

“For years, the dearth of infrastructure and poverty of Standing Rock have made it a poster child for what’s messed up in the US,” Laduke said. More than 80 percent of people in Standing Rock live below the poverty level, she said. 

“Every year it seems, people freeze to death on Standing Rock, and frankly no one noticed until now.” 

As of January 25, 2017, more than 300 GoFundMe accounts raised a total of $8,061,614 for activists and the camps. Suspicions have been raised by Morton County Sheriff’s Department on how the monies have been spent. State and county officials have made threats in the past saying those donating funds are supporting terrorist causes. 

Standing Rock issued a statement late December 2016 saying that monies it received have gone toward funding legal fees, camp infrastructure, waste management, and outdoor restrooms. 

Standing Rock supporters point to approximately $6 million donated to the tribe that is unaccountable, and are demanding that all expenditures need to be documented and made public so not to tarnish the movement. 

“The stench of malfeasance doesn’t smell any better just because it emanates from an ally,” activist Joshua Smith, from Iowa, said. “I do have to say they are still on the forefront of the legal battle challenging DAPL in court. Lateral violence is when two different factions within a given movement criticize the other in a manner which creates division and also provides those opposed to the movement reasoning to criticize us.” 

Monies have been used to bail people out, and with nearly 700 arrested, “that’s a lot of cash bail,” Laduke said. “There were drones purchased, each time the police shot down a drone, we purchased another one because someone has to keep an eye from the air. 

“A lot of people had to be fed.” 

Unity

Competing narratives exist now at what remains of the camps at Standing Rock. Archambault has asked activists to leave since shortly after December 4, 2016, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ordered Energy Transfer Partners to halt work on the Dakota Access Pipeline, concurrently ordering an environmental impact statement to be done along parts of the pipeline’s route. 

Some say the Standing Rock Tribal Council sold the activists, or water protectors, out. Others say Archambault is looking out for the safety of his tribe. Either way, Archambault’s tone has changed since the warmer, summer months. The fight is no longer at Standing Rock, but in Washington D.C., he says.

“This pipeline is not going to kill our nation, this pipeline is not going to destroy America,” Archambault said recently on The Rock Report. “This one pipeline where people refuse to leave is not going to be detrimental to our nation.”

Water protectors’ job at Standing Rock is done, he said. The tribe has stopped supporting activists camped near the reservation, along the north side of the Cannon Ball River near to the Missouri River where the Dakota Access Pipeline plans to dig under Lake Oahe. 

“I’m not asking it to end, I’m saying that the fight is not here.” 

On February 2, Archambault posted to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s Facebook page, saying that he had met with Governor Doug Burgum, whose stance against the tribe is much different than his predecessor, Jack Dalrymple. 

“There is great contrast to the previous state leaderships, these visits show that he is willing to work for all citizens of North Dakota, including tribal communities. I commend the governor for his efforts and look forward to finding solutions with him.” 

“You are a betrayer of your people,” a netizen said said on the tribe’s Facebook page. “Hang your head low. We all know you sold yourself out for money. May the demise of clean water haunt your conscience.” 

The fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline is just one of many fights across the nation and Canada, Archambault said. The DAPL controversy became high profile for a simple reason. 

“Standing Rock. Water is Life. Taglines. It’s easy. We can have all the water in the world and we’re not creating a better future for our kids. Water is a source of life. It is not life.” 

Allard feels betrayed, she said on her Facebook page. She said that she is not a leader, but began her fight against the pipeline because her son, Philip Levon, is buried near the Dakota Access Pipeline. 

“It has been a hard night. All I can say is we must pray hard. How do we find that unity again? How do we stand together against the Black Snake? We must stand together. I don’t have the answers. All I have is prayer.” 

Allard has been suffering from ill health, and on the day police officers and agents from the Bureau of Indian Affairs entered her land at the Sacred Stone Camp, along the south side of Cannon Ball River, she was en route to a hospital with her husband, also in poor health. 

News that agents entered her land on February 2, after she denied them entry, surprised her, she said in an interview with The Young Turks. Allard and family own more than 300 acres on the south side of Cannon Ball River, where her Sacred Stone Camp is still set up. She heard rumors that Archambault authorized the federal incursion onto her lands because he said he also is a land owner there. 

“At no time did Chairman Archambault own any portion of this land,” Allard said. “What are they talking about, the Archambaults own land here? They do not.” Archambault’s wife, Nicole, is Allard’s cousin, who owns land to graze horses nearby, but not on the Sacred Stone Camp.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe disagreed. “There are two tracts of land: Army Corps of Engineers holds title to one, and the Tribe holds majority ownership of the other. Sacred Stone Camp leaders were made aware of the need for an assessment earlier this week and agreed to a site visit.” 

Allard went home and rifled through land leases, of which she personally owns three acres. The rest of the land is owned by family members, and a tribal trust – held in trust by the United States government. 

“The Archambaults hold no trust here. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe holds trust here, that does not mean the Archambaults hold land here.” Without warrants, Archambault had no right to authorize the “raid” into Sacred Stone Camp, she said. 

“The chairman did not become Trump, and Trump still does not understand his position. I am still trying to figure out how to make peace with this. There should have never been the tribe against the water protectors. We should be standing together in a unified front. What we have is gossip and rumor dividing the people. It’s like when the fur traders were here, and the fur traders again started to gossip and rumor to divide the people. And that is where we are again.” 

She sleeps little at night, stays up worrying and praying.

Another rumor circulating around Sacred Stone Camp include a pending threat of forced removal by federal officers.

The fight is growing, Allard said, and it is not only about water or sacred lands any longer. North Dakota politicians have submitted legislation to give state government more control over reservation land and mineral rights, to run over protesters on public roads, to lessen the responsibilities of corporations to report oil spills, and to criminalize ski masks in public places. 

“I will stand, and I will not back down.” 

This summer, Allard plans to start a summer camp for youth to teach history, how to live responsibly, and how to heal. 

“I don’t need any people to come and defend me, I need people to come and defend the water. I also need people to support the tribe hoping the tribe makes better decisions, and that the tribe will stand in a unified fashion with the people.

“I must stand because my son stands with me. I have no choice.” 

Last Child’s Camp 

When attorney Chase Iron Eyes moved with approximately 80 people to a western hill forming Last Child’s Camp, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Morton County condemned the group as rogue. He was arrested along with 76 others, and was released on February 3. 

He was charged with a Class C felony, inciting a riot, and his legal team is looking into the validity of the charge. Iron Eyes came out of the Morton County Correctional Facility looking tired; months at the camps and it’s apparent he has lost weight. 

“It’s no secret that Morton County, that the North Dakota law enforcement, National Guard, North Dakota media, even the governor of North Dakota, going back to Mr. Dalrymple to Burgum, and the North Dakota legislature, are colluding to villainize, dehumanize, and present the narrative that the water protectors are unlawfully camped in the area north of the Cannon Ball River, and that we are violent, that we are unruly, and indeed they are charging me with inciting a riot. But it’s clear to America, I feel, that Donald Trump is inciting a riot.” 

“Last night, a group of campers moved materials onto private land,” the Standing Rock Tribal Council said. “This group’s actions do not represent the tribe nor the original intent of the water protectors.” 

The tribe still leads the fight, but their opposition has widened to include water rights, hunting, land rights, treaty rights, not just for Standing Rock, but for all tribes, the council said. 

“It is this tribe, the Standing Rock Sioux, whose land is most at risk,” Archambault said. “It is also our court case at risk, but in reality, all our treaty rights are at risk. If we want to be treated as nations then we must behave as such. In the past few weeks at camp, I see no reflection of our earlier unity, and without unity we lose.” 

Last Child’s Camp was cleared; its tipis handed over to Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. 

“We will fight these charges,” Iron Eyes said. “We will hold accountable Morton County and all who have brutally violated our rights. This is an SOS. Vets, warriors, and others who can stand with us in peace and dignity to exercise our inherent, treaty, constitutional, and other birthrights. Come stand with us.” 

Veterans, once again, are hearing the call. VeteransRespond, an organizer and advocator of healing to communities impacted by social injustice, is planning to return to Standing Rock. 

“VeteransRespond is in the process of organizing a return mission to Standing Rock at the wishes of LaDonna Brave Bull Allard,” the group’s GoFundMe page said. “All funds will go directly towards a rental van to transport Texas and Colorado veterans to Standing Rock to help with cleanup efforts as well as serve as a de-escalation and medical response force if needed.” 

VeteransStand also created a second GoFundMe account, and plans to return. 

“In the past two weeks the turmoil and uncertainty at Standing Rock has increased significantly,” the group said on its Facebook page. “We have had thousands of volunteers reconfirm their dedication to the cause, and readiness to help. The success of our fundraising campaign will ultimately dictate our overall potential for a boots-on-the-ground presence, but our learnings from the first mission in December have allowed us to create the right infrastructure to move quickly.” 

The time of the Wiindigo creates confusion, difficult to keep eyes on the more important issues of Native American treaty rights and stopping the Dakota Access Pipeline, Laduke said. 

Signs in the snow outside of the Standing Rock camps – photo by C.S. Hagen

“In the time of the Wiindigo, confusion, and fear prey on us all,” Laduke said. “We forget who are the enemies and who are our friends and families. Let us pray for clear minds. I plan to live through the time of the Wiindigo, and when I look back at the time of Standing Rock, I want to remember the unity, the courage, the outpouring of love for our Mother Earth, our Mni Wiconi, and how we faced the enemy.” 

US Senator Calls on BIA to Clear Anti-DAPL Camps

Standing Rock supporters living with record snowfalls and freezing temperatures remain undaunted

By C.S. Hagen
BISMARCK – North Dakota National Guard units, 1,300 law enforcement officers,  585 arrests, and 22 million dollars apparently isn’t enough for the Peace Garden State to stop Standing Rock’s fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, politicians report. 

State politicians are now calling on the Bureau of Indian Affairs to help remove activists from camps along the Cannonball River.

“We want more BIA law enforcement officers working with our state and local law enforcement to move protestors off the Corps land in an orderly way,” Senator John Hoeven R-N.D., said. 

All of Hoeven’s guns are blazing as in the same breath he admitted to “working forward” with President-elect Donald Trump’s Administration on the pipeline project, with the US Department of Interior nominee Ryan Zinke R-Mont., and with the BIA’s new director Bruce Loudermilk to discuss the quick dispersal of activists against the Dakota Access Pipeline. 

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is a federal agency established in 1824 under the jurisdiction of the US Department of the Interior. 

Hoeven’s petition to add more officers to the standoff between law enforcement and anti-DAPL activists is in preparation for potential spring floods, which according to National Weather Service Meteorologist Michael Mathews is still months away. Snowfalls have reached record depths of 55.3 inches this winter for the Bismarck area, Mathews said, and old man winter shows no signs of slowing down.

The State Water Commission reported a growing potential for spring floods of the main Dakota Access Pipeline camp location, putting the activists camped there at risk, State Engineer Garland Erbele said.  

Mathews could make no predictions about spring flooding. “It’s too early to tell,” Mathews said. “We don’t have much in the way of snowfall for the next couple of days. February stays pretty cold, and usually that goes through March or April, sometimes even May. It’s just too early to tell.” 

“It would be a pretty big hardship to take that on right now,” Winona Laduke said of Hoeven’s petition to clear the camps. Laduke is a longtime environmentalist, economist, and two-time vice presidential candidate for Ralph Nader’s Green Party. She is also the executive director for Honor the Earth, a non-profit advocate for indigenous environmental support.“Most of the native people have a long understanding of weather patterns, and wise decisions will be made by people who have lived there for thousands of years.”

“I think this is just a total inappropriate overreaction of our US government and military, it continues the mismanagement that started with Governor Dalrymple in calling out the National Guard,” Barry Nelson said. He is an organizer for the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition. “The tradition continues.” 

Although Standing Rock Chairman Dave Archambault II has asked for activists to return home, hundreds remain at the camps along the Cannonball River in below freezing temperatures.

“It appears that the new management at the camp have it under control, why not trust them?” Nelson said. “They’re demonstrating some realistic and reasonable approaches to this, we should trust their instincts. Why not going down and show some concern? No, let’s just lob something from Washington DC. 

“A threat.”

Like a much anticipated prize fight, heavyweight North Dakota, pitted against welterweight Standing Rock, has delivered blow after crushing blow, and yet the tribe refuses to go down. 

From the beginning of the controversy, former Governor Jack Dalrymple has lied to HPR Magazine about meeting with Archambault on a regular basis. The former governor also declared a state of emergency in August 2016, utilizing approximately 1,300 officers from 25 North Dakota counties, 20 cities, and nine states have been used to keep anti-DAPL activists in check. Half truths, falsehoods, and some truths have been reported on both sides of the front lines. An unarmed activist was placed on Morton County’s Most Wanted List and later arrested for disarming a fully-armed infiltrator in November. 

Sophie Linda Landin – “Tolerance by Oppression” – wet plate by Shane Balkowitsch

Activists have been torn from prayer circles, maced, pepper sprayed, shot with rubber bullets, bean bags, beaten with clubs, on lands the Standing Rock Sioux still claim as their own. Men and women have been arrested, “branded” with numbers using magic markers like cattle, or Nazi inmates during World War II, and then thrown into dog cages. Hundreds have been injured. Many more lack proper legal counsel. 

The list continues. Another uppercut was delivered to Standing Rock on January 5 when Hoeven was elected chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, according to a Senate Committee on Indian Affairs press release. After attempting to thwart Native American voices from the DAPL controversy’s beginning, the blow was called a cheap shot by many. 

Hoeven, a former North Dakota governor, an active supporter of the Keystone Pipeline and the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline, said he was honored to serve on the committee, but added two of his top priorities were to address job creation and natural resource management issues on native lands. 

“One would assume with Indian affairs you would have someone who would have genuine concern of Indian people,” Laduke said. 

Despite Standing Rock’s win on December 4 when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company of Dakota Access Pipeline, the easement needed to drill across the Missouri River at Lake Oahe, the tribe has had few legal victories to celebrate.

As Trump prepares to take office on January 20, threatening to dismantle President Obama’s work, and reactivating pipelines across the nation, few activists appear worried. 

“It’s happening fam,” attorney and long term activist Chase Iron Eyes said. “We’re going to defeat an empire. We have nothing to lose but the poverty imposed on us. We have nothing to gain but our dignity.” 

As Trump promises a better tomorrow by nominating white supremacists and oil tycoons, Senator Heidi Heitkamp R-N.D., issued a statement asking for North Dakotans input. 

“Any president should be able to nominate those who he feels will best serve in his administration,” Heitkamp said. “It’s critical for me to hear from North Dakotans and I encourage folks to visit my website to share their comments and offer questions they have to help make sure the nominees are prepared to lead our country.” 

© 2024 C.S.News

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑

close
Facebook Iconfacebook like buttonTwitter Icontwitter follow buttonVisit Our GoodReads