Feds to shutdown NoDAPL camp

SUBHEAD: Obama to let Army Corp to give Water Protectors until December 5th for their own good.

By Michael McGlaughlin on 25 November 2016 for Huffington Post -
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dakota-access-pipeline-protest-camp_us_5838d7a0e4b09b605600891b)


Image above: From ().

The federal government on Friday revealed plans to shut the largest camp in North Dakota where protesters have gathered for months in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in a letter to a Native American tribe leading the opposition against the pipeline that it will close the area on Dec. 5, after a series of clashes between law enforcement and protesters.

“This decision is necessary to protect the general public from the violent confrontations between protestors and law enforcement officials that have occurred in this area, and to prevent death, illness, or serious injury to inhabitants of encampments due to the harsh North Dakota winter conditions...

The necessary emergency, medical, and fire response services, law enforcement, or sustainable facilities to protect people from these conditions on this property cannot be provided.”

The protesters’ presence also interferes with the commercial activities of private individuals who have grazing and haying rights on the land, Henderson wrote.

Anyone staying in the area after the deadline may be subject to prosecution, Henderson warned in the letter. He added that an alternate “free speech zone” for protesters is in place on the other side of the Cannonball River. Police, firefighters and medical professionals can more easily access that area.

The Morton County Sheriff’s Department has arrested more than 500 protesters and alleged that its officers were endangered by activists throwing debris and starting fires. Protesters, meanwhile, claim they’ve been injured by tear gas, rubber bullets, water hoses and other so-called non-lethal weapons used by police.

One woman may have an arm amputated after witnesses said she was hit with a percussion grenade thrown by police during protests Sunday night. Police deny using such a weapon and suggested that other protesters wounded the woman with homemade explosives.

An encampment of Standing Rock Sioux and their allies, sometimes numbering in the thousands, has occupied the area north of the Cannonball River for months.

The Sioux fear the 1,172-mile pipeline could contaminate the drinking water for their nearby reservation and argue that granting a permit to developer Energy Transfer Partners to build beneath Lake Oahe would violate an 1851 treaty.

Archambault expressed disappointment at the Army Corps’ announcement, but didn’t say whether he would obey orders to vacate the land.

“Our Tribe is deeply disappointed in this decision by the United States, but our resolve to protect our water is stronger than ever.

The best way to protect people during the winter, and reduce the risk of conflict between water protectors and militarized police is to deny the easement for the Oahe crossing, and deny it now,” Archambault said in a statement.

The Obama administration said in September that it will withhold the permit for building the pipeline under Lake Oahe while it reviews the tribe’s concerns.

See also:
Ea O Ka Aina: NoDAPL people are going to die 11/23/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Hundreds of vets to join NoDAPL 11/22/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Obama must support Standing Rock 11/21/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Trump's pro oil stance vs NoDaPL 11/15/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Kauai NoDAPL Demonstration 11/12/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Obama to Betray Standing Rock 11/12/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Trump impact on Standing Rock 11/12/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Ann Wright on Standing Rock 11/8/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Turning Point at Standing Rock 11/6/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Jackson Browne vs DAPL owner 11/5/16
Democracy Now: Boycott of DAPL Owner's Music Festival
Ea O Ka Aina: World responds to NoDAPL protests 11/5/16
Ea O Ka Aina: NoDAPL victory that was missed 11/5/16
Ea O Ka Aina: DAPL hid discovery of Sioux artifacts 11/5/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Dakota Access Pipeline will leak 11/5/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Route of the Dakota Access Pipeline 11/4/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Sanders calls for stopping DAPL 11/4/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Obama hints at DAPL rerouting 11/3/16
Ea O Ka Aina: New military attack on NODAPL 11/3/16
Ea O Ka Aina: How to Support NoDAPL 11/3/16
Unicorn Riot: Tweets from NoDAPL 11/2/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Standing Rock & the Ballot Box 10/31/16
Ea O Ka Aina: NoDAPL reclaim new frontline 10/24/16
Ea O Ka Aina: How far will North Dakota go? 10/23/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Amy Goodman "riot" charge dropped 10/17/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Amy Goodwin to face "Riot Charge" 10/16/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Shutdown of all tar sand pipelines 10/11/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Why Standing Rock is test for Oabama 10/8/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Why we are Singing for Water 10/8/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Labor's Dakota Access Pipeline Crisis 10/3/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Standing Firm for Standing Rock 10/3/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Contact bankers behind DAPL 9/29/16
Ea O Ka Aina: NoDAPL demo at Enbridge Inc 9/29/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Militarized Police raid NoDAPL 9/28/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Stop funding of Dakota Access Pipeline 9/27/16
Ea O Ka Aina: UN experts to US, "Stop DAPL Now!" 9/27/16
Ea O Ka Aina: No DAPL solidarity grows 9/21/16
Ea O Ka Aina: This is how we should be living 9/16/16
Ea O Ka Aina: 'Natural Capital' replacing 'Nature' 9/14/16
Ea O Ka Aina: The Big Difference at Standing Rock 9/13/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Jill Stein joins Standing Rock Sioux 9/10/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Pipeline temporarily halted 9/6/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Native Americans attacked with dogs 9/5/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Mni Wiconi! Water is Life! 9/3/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Sioux can stop the Pipeline 8/28/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Officials cut water to Sioux 8/23/16   

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Officials cut water to Sioux

SUBHEAD: Officials pull water supply as Dakota Access Pipeline protesters swell in numbers and spirit.

By Lauren McCauley on 23 August 2016 for Common Dreams -
(http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/08/23/officials-pull-water-supply-dakota-access-protest-swells-number-and-spirit)


Image above: Standing Rock spokesman Steven Sitting Bear said he's received notifications from tribes all over the country that have caravans in route to this demonstration that recognizes that "Water is Life". Photo by 350.org. From original article.

Thousands join protest camp as supporters are holding a rally in Washington D.C. on Wednesday outside of Army Corps hearing.

Growing in number and spirit, the Standing Rock Sioux protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline is swiftly gaining strength ahead of a federal hearing on the controversial project. Support has spread across the country, and thousands have descended on the peaceful "prayer camps" in recent days, prompting state officials on Monday to remove the demonstrators' drinking water supply.

North Dakota homeland security director Greg Wilz ordered the removal of state-owned trailers and water tanks from the protest encampment, despite the sweltering heat, because of alleged disorderly conduct, according to the Bismarck Tribune, including reports of laser pointers aimed at surveillance aircraft.

"People are getting overheated now already," said Johnelle Leingang, the tribe's emergency response coordinator, as temperatures hovered around 90º F on Monday. "It's very hurtful."

Tribal activists say the state's response, which includes surveillance, road blockades with military checkpoints, and a state of emergency declaration, has been overly aggressive and manipulative.

"It is deeply ironic that the Governor would release emergency funds under the guise of public health and safety, but then remove the infrastructure that helps ensure health and safety in the camp," said Tara Houska, national campaigns director for Honor the Earth.

The supplies were provided last week by the North Dakota Department of Health at the tribe's request to support the roughly 2,500 people now gathered along the Standing Rock reservation's border on the Cannonball River, near where the pipeline is slated to cross.

LaDonna Allard, director of one of the prayer camps, said, "The gathering here remains 100 percent peaceful and ceremonial, as it has from day one. We are standing together in prayer...Why is a gathering of Indians so inherently threatening and frightening to some people?"

"This is nothing but repression of our growing movement to protect our water and future generations," Houska added.

Standing Rock spokesman Steven Sitting Bear said he's received "notifications from tribes all over the country that have caravans in route, so it’s continuing to grow."

On Wednesday, high profile activists and supporters are rallying in Washington D.C. outside the U.S. District Court, where members of the Standing Rock Sioux will argue that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted Energy Transfer Corporation approval for the 1,172-mile pipeline without tribal consent.

The tribe says that the pipeline—which will carry up to 570,000 barrels of fracked Bakken oil daily across four states to a market hub in Illinois—puts the sacred waters of the Missouri River at great risk.

Climate campaigner and 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben penned an op-ed on Monday offering a vision of "what it might mean if the  if the Army Corps, or the Obama administration, simply said: 'You know what, you're right. We don’t need to build this pipeline.'"

"It would mean that after 525 years, someone had actually paid attention to the good sense that Native Americans have been offering almost from the start," he continues:

One has the ominous sense of grim history about to be reenacted at Standing Rock. North Dakota authorities—who are in essence a subsidiary of the fossil fuel industry—have insisted that the Sioux are violent, that they have "pipe bombs." There are rumors about calling in the National Guard. The possibility for renewed tragedy is very real.

But the possibility for a new outcome is there as well. The Army Corps of Engineers might back off. The president might decide, as he did with Keystone, that this pipeline would "exacerbate" climate change and hence should be reviewed more carefully. We might, after five centuries, actually listen to the only people who've ever successfully inhabited this continent for the long term.

Construction on the pipeline remains halted after developers paused the project last week in anticipation of the Wednesday hearing.

Meanwhile, a U.S. District Court hearing on whether a preliminary injunction should be issued against the protesters has been rescheduled from Thursday to Sept. 8, although a restraining order against the demonstrators has also been extended until then. Filing the order on Monday, U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland wrote that factions are '"strongly encouraged to meet and confer in good faith' to try and resolve the dispute out of court," the Tribune reported.

Updates are being shared on social media with the hashtags #NoDAPL and #RezpectOurWater.


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