Oceti Sakowin hosted tens of thousands of people in North Dakota as part of opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Photo: Oceti Sakowin Camp
Winona LaDuke, a citizen of the White Earth Nation and the founder of Honor The Earth, accuses politicians in North Dakota of spreading lies about the environmental impact of the #NoDAPL movement:
Earlier this month, Governor Burgum and North Dakota authorities peddled a story to the media about the feces and garbage runoff into the river from the Oceti Sakowin Camp, requiring their immediate attention as a public health risk. Rather ironic, since the state long ago removed all sanitation support to the thousands of people who came to live in the l4th largest city in the state of North Dakota. Forced out mid winter, thousands of pounds of food was bulldozed and tossed by federal authorities, stores for a winter camp, which might have gone to people, tents, tipis, the whole is gone. All of this to clean up after “protestors”… The spin continues in North Dakota’s corporate fed media. Let’s be honest. North Dakota does not care about garbage. Nor pollution. In fact, the state this past year, decided that instead of protecting citizens from the radioactive waste from fracking, they would just increase the recommended daily allowance of radiation allowed in the state, from 5 picocuries per gram to 50 picocuries per gram. In Orwellian terms “Technically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials” is really just a word for fracking wastes. Let me remind Governor Burgum, that at no point has radiation become safer for your citizens.” That’s just the beginning of the garbage insanity. Morton County sprayed a lot of unknown toxins onto the Water Protectors; from antifreeze laden water cannons, to mace, into the river. David Meyers, a “rancher” purchased 40,000 pounds of Rozol, a prairie dog poison, on land including the Cannon Ball Ranch, adjoining the Missouri River. An Environmental Protection Agency-led investigation determined 40,000 pounds of Rozol poison had been illegally distributed across more than 5,400 acres on both the Cannonball Ranch and the Wilder ranches.Read More on the Story:
Winona LaDuke: The Filth of North Dakota: The Garbage and Pollution That Was Already There (Indian Country Media Network 3/22)
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