Dr. Sarah Jumping Eagle was one of several pipeline resisters arrested August 12, 2016, with Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chair David Archambault II and tribal council member Dana Wasinzi in an action to prevent construction of the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline. Photo courtesy Shauna M. Long
Tribal officials arrested at pipeline protest
Resistance builds against startup of Dakota Access Pipeline
By Talli Nauman
Native Sun News
Health & Environment Editor
nsweekly.com CANNON BALL, N. D. –– After Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chair David Archambault II, tribal council member Dana Wasinzi and several other Dakota Access Pipeline resisters got arrested during a direct action to impede the construction startup on the project here, they set Aug. 20 for another action: A Missouri River water crossing to raise support for the cause. The actions are among a number leading up to an Aug. 24 hearing on the tribe’s lawsuit to prevent the construction and to strike down the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers’ permits for the private frack oil line to cross 1851 and 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty territory. “ALL BOATS ON DECK!!!!” says the announcement of the coming action. “The Camp of the Sacred Stones calls ALL canoeists, kayaktivists, paddlers, and water warriors to bring their boats and courage and join us on the Missouri River on Saturday, Aug. 20,” it says. “Please stand with us on the front lines! This pipeline threatens the longest river on Turtle Island and the drinking water of many millions of people.” The physical base for the actions, which have attracted hundreds of supporters and celebrity backers, such as Shailene Woodley, from throughout the Oceti Sakowin and the world, is the Camp of the Sacred Stones, a tipi encampment for prayer gatherings erected with crowdfunding near the place where the pipeline would cross the Oahe Reservoir on the Missouri River. “The threats this pipeline poses to the environment, public health, and tribal and human rights are strikingly similar to those posed by the Keystone XL,” organizers said on Aug. 7, as youth relay runners finished a nearly 2,000-mile journey from here to the White House to raise awareness about DAPL. The Administration denied a permit to TransCanada Corp. for the Keystone XL tar-sands crude pipeline through Lakota Territory earlier this year, after indigenous and land-based people, as well as climate justice activists, rallied for months against it. The Dakota Access (or Bakken) Pipeline project is similar in size to the failed Keystone XL project. Since April 1, campers have been marshalling to defend against the Dakota Access Pipeline, or DAPL, which would carry frack oil from the Bakken Formation centered at the Mandan Hidatsa & Arikara Nation on the Ft. Berthold Indian Reservation, through North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa to Illinois.
Read the rest of the story on the all new Native Sun News website: Tribal officials arrested at pipeline protest (Contact Talli Nauman at talli.nauman@gmail.com) Copyright permission Native Sun News
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