At noon on Feb. 9, a day after the Army Corp of Engineers reversed its decision and gave the go-ahead to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), 150 people gathered in downtown Saint Paul to denounce this ruling. After a brief rally, the activists marched through the streets chanting, “You can’t drink oil, leave it in the soil,” “1, 2, 3, 4! Pipelines, genocide and war. 5,6,7,8! America was never great,” and “Mini wiconi, water is life.”

The march stopped at the Army Corp of Engineers office, but the building was locked down. Then they marched to U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo Bank, which have investments in this project.

Nina Berglund, a 17-year-old student at the Gordon Parks High School in Saint Paul, said, “We are here in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and also for the future; for my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.”

Rallies and marches opposing the pipeline continue around the country as activists vow to continue the fight.

#StPaulMN #US #PeoplesStruggles #IndigenousPeoples #EnvironmentalJustice #Antiracism #DakotaAccessPipeline

President Trump issued memorandums Jan. 24 to push ahead construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline. The memorandums direct the Army Corp of Engineers to expedite the issuance of an easement for crossing Lake Oahe and to rescind the Notice of intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement.

Both of these pipelines endanger the country’s water supply and land resources. The Dakota Access pipeline in particular is in violation of the treaty rights and sovereignty of the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota people. Standing Rock has been the site of so far an eight-month-long encampment, prayers and protests against the pipeline.

Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said, “Americans know this pipeline was unfairly rerouted towards our nation and without our consent. The existing pipeline route risks infringing on our treaty rights, contaminating our water and the water of 17 million Americans downstream.”

Archambault said Trump’s decision appears to be a political payback. “By granting the easement, Trump is risking our treaty rights and water supply to benefit his wealthy contributors and friends at DAPL,” he said. “We are not opposed to energy independence. We are opposed to reckless and politically motivated development projects, like DAPL, that ignore our treaty rights and risk our water. Creating a second Flint does not make America great again.”

#NoDAPL activists are calling for local mass protests in support of indigenous rights, for clean water and clean energy, and against Trump’s memorandums.

#MinneapolisMN #US #PeoplesStruggles #EnvironmentalJustice #Elections #DonaldTrump #DakotaAccessPipeline

New York, NY – Around 800 people gathered at Foley Square, in lower Manhattan, Nov. 15, to stand in solidarity with Standing Rock and protest against the North Dakota Access Pipeline.

Brilliant signs were held by the protesters with the slogans “Water is life” and “Keep the oil in the soil.” After the initial introductions from the organizers, people chanted, “Get up! Get down! Keep fossil fuels in the ground!” and “Street by street, block by block, we stand with Standing Rock!”

Nov. 15 marked a national day of action where over 200 U.S. cities participated and demanded that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers deny Energy Transfer Partners, the company spearheading the pipeline, access to the Standing Rock territory. A small victory was won the night of the Nov. 14, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made a concession saying that they must have further discussions with the Lakota nation before allowing further work could occur near and in Lake Oahe, a part of the Missouri River.

This concession came after weeks of militant protests, led by indigenous people, at Standing Rock.

There was a heavy police presence at the New York action as approximately squad 30 squad cars lined the square where the protest took place. When protesters tried to take the streets, the cops retaliated immediately and arrested 12 activists. The rest of the people there chanted at them, “Who do you serve? Who do you protect?”

However, the arrests didn't hinder the rest of the protesters and the action continued. One of the attendees, Colleen Baublitz, spoke about why it’s necessary to have actions of solidarity , “It is essential that we stand with them and speak out against growth in fossil fuel infrastructure that risks drinking water quality in the short term as well as long-term public health by exacerbating climate change.”

The crowd left in high spirits at the end of the protest, knowing that while a small concession was made, there would be more organizing to come.

#NewYorkNY #IndigenousPeoples #EnvironmentalJustice #StandingRockNation #DakotaAccessPipeline #NODAPL

Thousands of Native people have rallied at Standing Rock, North Dakota, to oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). This is one of the largest protests by Native Americans in decades, as Native people and their supporters came from across the country stop the ecological disaster that DAPL would mean for Native lands and rivers.

Almost 100 Native American tribes have formally endorsed the protest, and representatives from more than a hundred different Native peoples have gone to Standing Rock. Massive civil disobedience to stop the DAPL is being met with armed force and mass arrests by the National Guard, along with local sheriffs and police mobilized from across the Midwest.

The DAPL is being built to bring oil from the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota through North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois. This more than a 1000-mile-long oil pipe, like the long opposed Keystone pipeline, is meant to bring oil from the upper Midwest and Canada to tank farms and refineries in the Midwest and Gulf coast of the U.S.

Many environmentalists oppose these oil pipelines, not only because of the danger they pose to the communities that they pass through, but also because they help perpetuate the production, distribution, and use of oil and its products, which is a major source of carbon dioxide, a leading contributor to climate change.

The Freedom Road Socialist Organization urges all progressive activist to take action to support the Native Americans in their fight against DAPL. Those who can provide direct support in person or with financial and material aid to protesters at Standing Rock should do so. Local solidarity protests aimed at local sheriffs and police departments that sent police and weapons to try to suppress the protests as well as the corporations and banks backing the DAPL have brought out thousands of people across the country.

In addition to standing in solidarity with the Native people fighting to protect their lands and waters, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization also supports the return of land, lakes, and rivers to Native peoples so that they can live their lives as they choose, free from the constant threat of giant corporations. Return of natural resources is only right, given that the U.S. was founded on the genocide of Native Americans and theft of their land.

Stop the Dakota Access Pipeline(DAPL)!

Support the struggle of Native Americans to protect their lands and waters from corporate greed!

#CannonBallND #IndigenousPeoples #EnvironmentalJustice #DakotaAccessPipeline #NODAPL

Minneapolis, MN – Nearly 2000 protesters, many Native American, rallied at city hall here, Oct. 28, demanding that Hennepin County Sheriff Stanek immediately withdraw sheriff department personnel from North Dakota, where they have been deployed against demonstrators who are fighting to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline.

About 30 sheriff department personnel have been sent to North Dakota, where they have been photographed carrying out brutal attacks on demonstrators who are defending water resources and sacred land.

#MinneapolisMN #IndigenousPeoples #EnvironmentalJustice #SheriffStanek #StandingRockNation #DakotaAccessPipeline #NODAPL

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine extends its strongest support and solidarity to the indigenous resistance at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline and the settler colonial project of genocide and plunder in North America.

“It is no surprise that the United States and Canada, built on the genocide of indigenous peoples and the plunder of their land and resources, are today the strongest settler colonial partners of the Zionist state engaged in its own settler colonial project of destruction in Palestine,” said Palestinian leftist writer Khaled Barakat in an interview with the PFLP media office.

“The indigenous strugglers at Standing Rock are defending indigenous land and water, the resources that have been confiscated and polluted for centuries by a settler colonial capitalist project that has ravaged indigenous lives, land and resources. They are defending the very existence of their people with their valiant resistance. As a Palestinian national liberation movement, we salute these indigenous strugglers and all who stand alongside them at Standing Rock confronting the militarized forces of the settler colonial state and their privatized agents,” said Barakat.

“It is also no surprise that G4S has been involved in providing private security for the construction of the destructive, invasive pipeline through indigenous land, threatening the water and the safety of the Standing Rock Sioux and the rights of indigenous nations. This same corporation is involved in providing security to the Canadian mining corporations that plunder indigenous land for mineral wealth around the world and destroy indigenous land for the so-called ‘tar sands’ that threaten the future of the land itself. It is the same corporation that sells equipment and security services to the Israel Prison Services that imprison over 7,000 Palestinians in the service of the Zionist settler colonial project, and the same company involved in the mass incarceration of children and youth – especially youth of color – in the US, and in the deportation of migrants in the UK, Australia, US and elsewhere,” said Barakat.

“The hundreds of indigenous nations – including Palestinian participants – coming together in Standing Rock exemplify an unceasing history of hundreds of years of resistance in the face of a genocidal project,” said Barakat. “Today’s U.S. empire that bombs and threatens the lives of people around the world, especially in the Arab world, Asia, Africa and Latin America, was built on settler colonialism, the genocide of indigenous people, and the enslavement and genocide aganst Black people. Throughout its history, it has been confronted by fierce resistance.”

In the face of settler colonial genocide and destruction, the land and water defenders at Standing Rock are defending all of us. We see them reflected in the Palestinian mothers holding tight to their olive trees targeted for settler destruction; in the Palestinian farmers who resist in the so-called “buffer zones,” and the fishers who brave warship fire to preserve Palestinian fishery, in the land and water defenders of the world who resist the vicious onslaughts of settler colonial capitalism. The PFLP salutes these land and water defenders on the front line for all of our struggles around the world.

“There have been hundreds of arrests, the use of massive military equipment and the force of the state in order to enforce the Dakota Access Pipeline through sacred burial grounds and attempt to force indigenous land and water defenders from their land. The use of mass arrests and incarceration as a mechanism to confiscate land and resources and suppress liberation movements is of course not surprising. It is a technique that we see used in Palestine, keeping thousands of Palestinian political prisoners behind bars for struggling for the freedom of their people and their land,” said Barakat. “In fact, many aspects of Zionist settler colonialism in Palestine were developed in light of the colonial techniques used in the US and Canada.”

The PFLP extends its revolutionary greetings and salutes to all of the Native and indigenous peoples defending their land and water, affirming their existence and resistance over centuries of struggle. We express our strongest solidarity with Native and indigenous struggles for self-determination and liberation. We encourage all Palestinians, especially the Palestinian community in the United States, to continue to develop and build upon the efforts of Palestinian youth in support, solidarity and participation in the Standing Rock camps of struggle, and in developing long-term, sustainable, mutual joint struggle and solidarity with Native liberation movements.

We also encourage and call upon the Palestine solidarity movement to build upon the caravans to Standing Rock and cross-country actions and protests to deepen its involvement in the struggle to defend indigenous land, and note in particular the protests in New York and elsewhere linking the struggle of Palestinian prisoners and the call to boycott G4S with the defense of Standing Rock against arrests, attacks and privatized and state repressive power. It is necessary to thoroughly confront US imperialism and settler colonialism as part and parcel of standing with the struggle of the Palestinian people for liberation and return. There is a long history of connections and common struggle between our liberation struggles, together in the global movement to defeat settler colonialism, Zionism and imperialism, that we must nurture and build upon until victory and liberation.

#Palestine #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #PeoplesStruggles #IndigenousPeoples #WorkersAndGlobalization #Protest #Antiracism #PoliticalRepression #DakotaAccessPipeline

Travis LaRouche is from the Lower Brule reservation in South Dakota. Travis also was active in opposing the Keystone XL pipeline. Travis was one of the Riders on the first day of breaking through the police lines and challenging the Dakota Access Pipe Line machines and retold his experience.

Travis LaRouche:

“I was out there, everybody was praying, keeping peaceful. They brought those barriers in, told everybody move back , let them bring these barriers in because we keep tearing that fence down. For me it was like, why we giving up more ground? Why we letting them do that?

“You know what, I said, I mean prayer’s good, but in situations like this, I said prayer ain’t enough. I said they don’t understand prayer. I kinda got disgusted with it and I went back to camp here; we was the only ones here at the time. Brule camp, first ones to set up a teepee. Came back and my nephew showed up. And he got his horses and got all regalia’ed up. Come on get on, he said.

“We got up there, and kinda riding around, and they called us over to the ditch. Elders pulled us down in the ditch, they asked us if we’d do something for them; explained what they wanted done. And that’s how we greet the enemy. He explained how to greet the enemy and push them back. You guys don’t have to do it, they said, it’s dangerous, you know. Everybody was committed. I was all committed because I wanted action. So I said, I didn’t come up here to watch construction being done, I said. I’m all about prayer, but I said we need to do something, I ain’t gonna stand here and watch them. Anyway, when the elders approached us to do that and explained the ceremony and everything, we all agreed, they prayed with us and they told us that you do it in a good way, a good heart. They explained all that and we acknowledged it, they said they was gonna sing us in, and the rest is history. I had goose bumps doing it.”

Fight Back!: Describe how you moved the police back?

Travis LaRouche:“Just charging them, coming in, charging them, if you see some of those videos that’s what they was doing, and held them at bay. I was kinda surprised, we didn’t know the other people were gonna jump the fence, but it was just like a domino effect, cause and reaction, gave the people hope; that’s what it was after and that was what I was after too.

“So being a part of that was a great honor, you know, because we did it for the people. And within that action, we, we’re here today. We pushed them back, we caused the construction to stop, to cease. We got that ground back. And it was [because] of action. Yeah I just had goose bumps doing it, and I turned around and seen everybody jumping fence and running after those dozers was pretty cool. Being a warrior that’s kinda what you do – things you do for your people.

“Being part of AIM, that’s who we are, we fight for the people, I’ve always had that mentality whenever, wherever.

“I was pretty exhilarated, we got done and then they called us in the circle and the guy explained to the crowd what was just done what the elders asked us to do, how to acknowledge, greet the enemy, so he explained all that. Everybody shook your hands and seen a post, we were in New York Times, front page. The pitch [to the states] was it created more jobs in their state with $5, $10 million, if they let this go through it’d help the economy. But if you think about it, if Keystone would’ve went through, and went all the way down to Texas, these little, drops in the bucket here, each state, ten, whatever million they’re giving these states to do this, or these landowners, shit, that’s just a drop in the bucket, Koch Brothers, Canada will get trillions of dollars to get that oil where they wanna get it, so this little $10 million ain’t nothing to them.

I was just glad I did that action.”

#StandingRockSD #IndigenousPeoples #EnvironmentalJustice #StandingRockNation #DakotaAccessPipeline

Alfred Bone Shirt, a Lakota elder from the Rosebud reservation in South Dakota, traveled to Standing Rock Reservation early in August and set up camp. He, like thousands of others, came to North Dakota to unite in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipe Line. Alfred states when he got the call from his brother, who is coordinator for Grassroots AIM in Rapid City, SD, about the stand being taken at Standing Rock, he didn’t hesitate to travel. He went on KOYA 88.1 FM, the Rosebud Nation Community Radio Station, to issue a public service announcement that called on others to do the same.

Alfred Bone Shirt:

”I called for people to – I said, practically to ‘stop what you’re doing’ – this word goes out to our warriors and members of the American Indian Movement to come up and support the people in Standing Rock.’

We got ready and we headed this way. My niece and her husband, we mentioned that and they said we’re gonna come, so they hurried and got a babysitter and they got their bags and we headed out this way.

The major reason behind all this is our people – Red people – are always looked at as an impediment to progress for the white man. Everything, our resources, we’re an impediment. And I don’t like the racism; I pray against the racism. South Dakota is in denial of racism, North Dakota is in denial of racism.

It really bothers me what they say about these corporations coming in and the damage it’s going to do. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to envision – and if you listen to any type of news, you hear of oil spills across the country, catastrophes affecting a lot of areas, and it can’t be undone that easy, it’s really bad.

I know the river, the damage that could be done here, affects whites, rednecks, peaceful farmers, the clergy, down river, it’s gonna affect everybody. If I’ve never done nothing right in my life, let me come here. We come and do what we can.

In my lifetime, the only time I seen so many tribes together was Wounded Knee Two, and the International Treaty Council meeting, that first one at Mobridge, there was a lot of union there.

But prior to that I don’t think there was a representative of so many tribes on the same page, I don’t think there ever was, and this is great. Not only the American nations here are together, but like South American tribes,they’re looking this way. We sent word down to Brazil, we’re gonna send word out again, because they pretty much [know] as far as what the U.S. and corporations do, because what they do in South America, and the evil there, they can identify, they can empathize with what is occurring here. The outright blatant racism, and the civil racism, backed by big oil, backed by the government, backed by corrupt politicians, racist politicians. And here’s the end result. We’re impediments to their progress, again.

They were supposed to put it [the pipeline] above Bismarck, then they move it down here, because it don’t affect them. But see they’re narrow minded, they forgot about Mobridge, Pierre. Why they disregard their own people, I can’t understand it.

I seen the power of that spirit one other time up in Dakota Teepee Sundance. I seen that here when the horses came in [to break through the police line], and I seen the horses dance and I seen them spin and the songs were going up in a good way, the prayers were there. We said nonviolence, I seen that spirit, the same time that spirit came in again, and that was beautiful, the way they [the police] broke ranks and scattered, you know it was really beautiful to see. We were right there where the barricades were. That’s why people say, prayer is at work here, prayer is being answered, and that’s one of the most beautiful things.

When we talk about water, not just for humans, we talk about the survival for fish, other living creatures in there, and our spiritual wiwilas. I want to say, to please encourage people to keep coming. Dedicated people. We need the support, basically reinforcements. I encourage people to keep coming. I know it’s cold and luxuries in life, and it’s for hard for them to break loose from that. They need to come, continue to support and prepare for the long haul.”

#StandingRockSD #IndigenousPeoples #EnvironmentalJustice #DakotaAccessPipeline #DAPL

J. Sitting Bear is a Lakota mother and grandmother from the Rosebud reservation in South Dakota and now lives in Rapid City. She was a continuous presence in the kitchen that feeds the multitudes of protectors at the Oceti Sakowin encampment along the Cannonball River, where thousands traveled to oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline. J. Sitting Bear and her daughter traveled to Standing Rock near the beginning of the encampment and have worked tirelessly from early morning until night to prepare meals and to help with security since they arrived at the site.

J. Sitting Bear has lived a life of activism. At 16 years old, she was at the Wounded Knee uprising on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Now 59, she has a legacy of standing up for the rights of native people in multiple forms, including fighting against police brutality and killings of native people in South Dakota.

J. Sitting Bear:

“If there’s one thing in the world I could pay for and to have it go away, it’s this racism. Because of this racism… it’s just like, like cracking of the ice… you know the racism tears in and it all goes out in veins. And the more it goes out the worse it’s getting. And that just breaks my heart to see that. My chante (heart) is sick when I think of it, it really hurts, because those are all of our brothers and sisters out there.

“That’s why I’m here, I just want to be here for my people. Like I said, if it comes to it, I can lay down my life. I would give my blood, I would let my blood flow. If just one person you know doesn’t get hurt by these people [DAPL],or if just one part of the pipeline gets stopped, that’s worth it. It’s our people…and it’s not only just our people. People think it’s just us natives fighting. But it’s for all people – the farmers and ranchers have their cows, they live off the land by selling crops… that’s gonna affect them too. So it’s just so emotional for me to be here. When I heard of this starting, I told my daughter we gotta go, gotta go and she says, you’re going? And I said ya.

“I guess my life is going to be this until my time comes. I will continue to be at these things, these protests standing up for my people. If I have to crawl, I’ll get there. As long as I have a mouth, I can still speak. I’m here to help people, I give my all.”

#StandingRockSD #IndigenousPeoples #EnvironmentalJustice #StandingRockNation #DakotaAccessPipeline #DAPL

Four groups led by Native American organizers converged on the capitol, chanting, “No more oil, keep it in the soil!” and “Water is life!”

“The pipeline will be about a half mile off the reservation, but it is still a treaty territory. They have already dug up on sacred ground, where many of our ancestors are lying. It’s about desecrating sacred ground, and how it’s going to impact our future generations and our earth”, said Molly Ryan-Kills Enemy of the Sicangu Lakota, from St. Francis, South Dakota, on the Rosebud Reservation.

Ryan-Kills Enemy, the principle organizer of the event continued, “When those pipelines break, it will contaminate the water, and it will not be drinkable. We won’t have anything for our children. This isn’t just a Native American issue. It’s an earth issue, a human being issue.”

Ultimately, the message of the rally was one of unity, with many Native American speakers reiterating that the fight against corporate power is a global matter.

#DenverCO #IndigenousPeoples #EnvironmentalJustice #StandingRockNation #DakotaAccessPipeline

Protesters go near the site of the bulldozers to protect the water or to bear witness. The previous day's rains did the protectors’ work today. The ground was too wet for digging and the bulldozers stayed idle. The camp though, is very much alive and there are always tasks to be done. The camp is a village of 1000 tents. The vast majority of the tents are occupied by members of the 129 distinct Native peoples whose flags line the entrance road. All are standing together to stop the Dakota Access Pipe Line.

Today the camp was able to refuel and prepare for what all understand will be an uncertain day tomorrow. The Governor of North Dakota is expected to deploy the National Guard to support continued work on the pipeline.

This National Guard activation comes on the same day that a federal judge will act on an injunction filed by the Standing Rock band to halt construction and protect the water of the Missouri River.

Cars filled with supporters poured into the camp throughout the day. Dennis Archambault, chairman of the Standing Rock Tribe, held a mid-day open meeting around the fire to detail the legal and other challenges to the pipeline. In anticipation of the court decision, he issued a call for continued unity, prayer and protest to stop the pipeline.

#CannonBallND #IndigenousPeoples #DakotaAccessPipeline

Cannon Ball, ND – As the sun came up behind the clouds, Aug. 26, the camp was already stirring in one of the two main Sacred Stone Spirit resistance camps. Flags of different colors and designs flapped in the morning wind, advertising the multitude of different indigenous peoples represented at the camp. Thousands have traveled to the site to stand in solidarity with the people of Standing Rock as they oppose a pipeline’s threat to the water and land of their people, and millions of others down the Missouri River.

The Dakota Access Pipeline is a $3.78 billion project by Dakota Access LLC, which belongs to Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners. The proposed Dakota Access Pipeline is 1172 miles and will connect oil production areas in North Dakota and Illinois. The DAP is only seven miles shorter than the proposed Keystone XL pipeline (which was defeated).

The Standing Rock Nation has invited indigenous and non-indigenous peoples to join them in solidarity to stand against the Dakota Access Pipeline. The occupation and resistance camps have averaged 2000 to 4000-plus people. Currently 87 tribal nations from across the Dakotas and the U.S. have officially taken action to support Standing Rock’s opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

A combined camp morning meeting included speakers from many nations speaking on the need to protect sacred water and protect Mother Earth. Each spoke passionately and resolutely about the need to continue the encampment and resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline and oil corporations that are greedily seeking to destroy precious land and water for their own profit.

#CannonBallND #IndigenousPeoples #EnvironmentalJustice #SacredStoneSpirit #StandingRockNation #DakotaAccessPipeline