This Little Pipeline Protest

boozeman

28 Years And Counting...
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
121,745
Pipeline protesters vow to stay camped on federal land
Updated: November 26, 2016 — 6:28 PM EST


by JAMES MacPHERSON, The Associated Press


CANNON BALL, N.D. (AP) - Dakota Access oil pipeline protesters will not follow a government directive to leave the federal land where hundreds have camped for months, organizers said Saturday, despite state officials encouraging them to do so.


Standing Rock Sioux tribal leader Dave Archambault and other protest organizers confidently explained that they'll stay at the Oceti Sakowin camp and continue with nonviolent protests a day after Archambault received a letter from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that said all federal lands north of the Cannonball River will be closed to public access Dec. 5 for "safety concerns."

The Corps cited the oncoming winter and increasingly contentious clashes between protesters, who believe the pipeline could harm drinking water and Native American cultural sites, and police.


Standing Rock tribal members believe the land in which the encampment is on is owned by the Sioux through a more than century-old treaty with the U.S. government.

"We are wardens of this land. This is our land and they can't remove us," said protester Isaac Weston, who is an Oglala Sioux member from South Dakota. "We have every right to be here to protect our land and to protect our water."

The vast majority of the several hundred people fighting against the four-state, $3.8 billion pipeline have created a self-sustaining community at the sprawling camp, which is on Corps land in southern North Dakota, and have put up semi-permanent structures or brought motor homes and trailers in advance of the harsh winter.

On the unseasonably warm Saturday, people were chopping wood and setting up tents at the encampment, which is more than a mile from a Missouri River reservoir where the final large segment of the pipeline is yet to be completed due to the Corps consulting with the tribe. Authorities had set up a staging area about a mile away on a hill overlooking the site.

Dallas Goldtooth, a protest organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network, said it is "an atrocious example that colonization has not ended for us here as indigenous people," and that the government's request will escalate already rocky tensions.

Representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers didn't immediately return multiple messages Friday or Saturday seeking comment and verification of the letter. Last month, the Corps said it would not evict the encampment, which started as overflow from smaller private and permitted protest sites nearby and began growing in August.

President Barack Obama raised the possibility of rerouting the pipeline in that area earlier this month, something Kelcy Warren, CEO of Texas-based pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners, told The Associated Press is not an option from the company's standpoint. Obama said his administration is monitoring the "challenging situation" but would "let it play out for several more weeks."

Some of the protests have resulted in violent confrontations - one woman suffered a serious arm injury last weekend - and more than 500 people have been arrested since August.

The Corps' letter, according to Archambault, said that those who stay on the land after Dec. 5 may be prosecuted, and that there'll be a free speech zone south of the river.

Archambault said Saturday that he doesn't believe the Corps will forcibly evict people from the camp, adding that the tribe is working to provide protesters protection from the elements on its reservation, which is south of the Cannonball River, but offered few details.

It's the federal government's job to peacefully close the camp because it allowed people to stay there in the first place, Gov. Jack Dalrymple said in a statement Saturday.

"Our state and local law enforcement agencies continue to do all they can to keep private property and public infrastructure free from unpermitted protest activities, and its past time that the federal government provides the law enforcement resources ... to enforce their own order to vacate," the Republican said.

That sentiment was echoed by Morton County Commission chairman Cody Schulz, who said county and state leaders have been seeking federal law enforcement help for months. "It's now time for the federal government to live up to its obligations" said Schulz.

Republican U.S. Sen. John Hoeven and Democratic U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp said the protesters need to move for public safety.

"The well-being and property of ranchers, farmers and everyone else living in the region should not be threatened by protesters who are willing to commit acts of violence," Hoeven said in a statement Friday. He also called on the Obama administration to let work on the pipeline move forward, saying, "this difficult situation has gone on too long and we need to get it resolved."

Heitkamp said the Corps' order is "a needed step to support the safety of residents, workers, protesters and law enforcement."
------------

In the shadow of all the "protests" and BLM stuff, amazing to me how this gets almost zero national coverage.

Ah, they are just Native Americans. Not important.
 

Cotton

One-armed Knife Sharpener
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
119,705
Maybe I'm missing something, how does this pipeline hurt anyone?
 

townsend

Banned
Joined
Apr 11, 2013
Messages
5,377
Maybe I'm missing something, how does this pipeline hurt anyone?
I'm not a huge expert on this, but what my feed keeps bringingup is that this was some kind of sacred land that it would be desecrating, and that a spill might endanger some water supplies.

As was pointed out this has been covered well enough to get a really good handle on.
 

Cotton

One-armed Knife Sharpener
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
119,705
After reading most of that it seems like a very evenly divided issue. It would be hard to have an opinion on it without exact specifics as to where the pipeline is going and what exactly it would affect. Seems some burial/artifact areas have already been affected. If the rest of it is just crossing burial grounds but not affecting them, I'm fine with it. If it causes the actual disruption of those grounds, I am not.
 

townsend

Banned
Joined
Apr 11, 2013
Messages
5,377
After reading most of that it seems like a very evenly divided issue. It would be hard to have an opinion on it without exact specifics as to where the pipeline is going and what exactly it would affect. Seems some burial/artifact areas have already been affected. If the rest of it is just crossing burial grounds but not affecting them, I'm fine with it. If it causes the actual disruption of those grounds, I am not.
Yeah this strikes me as a nuanced conflict that people shouldn't just jump on one side of. I'm skeptical about a lot of the social media activism that's come up to "oppose" DAPL.

That being said the Sioux have been so fucked over by this country, they deserve some benefit of the doubt.
 

BipolarFuk

Demoted
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
11,464
Pipeline was supposed to go through whitey's land but they raised hell because NO ONE wants a fucking pipeline going through their land with the potential to fuck everything up, so they just diverted it through the redskin's land and now people like NoDak accuse them of terrorism.
 

boozeman

28 Years And Counting...
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
121,745
North Dakota pipeline: Veterans get ready to join protest



By Holly Yan and Sara Sidner, CNN


Updated 4:09 PM ET, Wed November 30, 2016








Near Cannon Ball, North Dakota (CNN) — The frigid North Dakota cold hasn't stopped thousands of protesters from camping outside, trying to halt construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

And they're about to get a boost from hundreds of veterans.

Gov. Jack Dalrymple had ordered the protesters to leave immediately, citing the harsh wintry conditions. But those freezing at the campsite lambasted the governor's claim that he's trying to protect safety.

"If you want to make this safer, then stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. Stop the whole thing completely," said Wicahpi Ksapa, a tribal headsman for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. "You want to poison our people?"


The tribe started the anti-pipeline campaign months ago to protect sacred sites and their water supply. But the protests have ballooned to include celebrities, a former presidential candidate and now the group of veterans offering to come help.

On Wednesday, leaders of "Veterans Stand for Standing Rock" said they're ready to go to North Dakota -- even though it was 29 degrees Fahrenheit there Wednesday afternoon.

"See you all on the ground in Standing Rock," veteran Wesley Clark Jr. tweeted Wednesday. "We are coming with Truth, Justice & the American Way as it was always meant to be. Peace. #NoDAPL"

Clark -- not to be confused with retired Gen. Wesley Clark -- created "Veterans Stand for Standing Rock" along with Michael Wood Jr., a retired Baltimore police officer and Marine Corps veteran.

"If we don't stand up for the oppressed, that's the snowball that starts that leads to everyone else's oppression," Wood said. "It doesn't matter if you are a libertarian, a conservative, or a progressive, this is everyone's fight."

The group's Facebook page told attendees to "Bring body armor, gas masks, earplugs AND shooting mufflers (we may be facing a sound cannon) but no drugs, alcohol or weapons."

And it calls for the group to unite on Sunday -- one day before protesters must leave or face arrest.

But the Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now Coalition, which has supported the pipeline project, said there are veterans on both sides of the debate.

"(T)he notion that some would descend upon Cannon Ball as self-purported 'human shields' is both unnerving and unnecessary," spokesman Craig Stevens said in a statement.

"Protesters have had, and taken, the ongoing opportunity to protest for several months. Only when protesters have broken the law have they been arrested or asked to disperse."


What's next ?

The US Army Corps of Engineers warned last week that come Monday, activists who refuse to leave could be arrested.

But since the statement's release Friday, officials have backtracked, saying they have no plans to forcibly remove those who stay.

More recently, Gov. Dalrymple ordered protesters to clear out immediately, citing a reason other than trespassing: harsh winter conditions.

He said the protesters' temporary dwellings have yet to be inspected and approved, and failure to do so posed serious public safety concerns.

The governor also said first responders would no longer be responsible for providing emergency services to those who remained.

Morton County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Maxine Herr said authorities will "passively" enforce the governor's order for protesters to vacate the area.

She also said law enforcement would immediately start blocking people and supplies from entering the protest campsite. She later amended that statement to say that anyone who enters the area does so at their own risk and will be subject to penalties.

In other words, there will not be a road block, but anyone entering the area will be notified that they are trespassing and penalized accordingly.

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe member Chase Iron Eyes, the initial threats of arrest have brought back memories of the government's past treatment of Native Americans.

"You have a government agency trying to declare us trespassers on our own treaty land and threatening to penalize us, criminally charge us and possibly forcibly round us up if we don't return to the reservation," he said.

The pipeline was originally slated to lie north of Bismarck, North Dakota, in an area that did not cross Native American reservations. The current proposed route, however, would take it through four states, stretching 1,172 miles to connect areas with oil in North Dakota to southern Illinois.

It would cut through the Sioux Tribe's reservation, and the tribe says it could potentially destroy sacred lands and prevent access to clean drinking water.

The Morton County Sheriff's Office said protesters set fires while officers tried to disperse the crowds with tear gas, rubber bullets and water sprayed from hoses attached to fire engines.

Archambault said the accusations against the protesters are false, and that it's police who are being violent.

"They're the ones who are using weapons," he said.

Despite the ongoing conflict, Chase Iron Eyes said he has no immediate plans to leave.

"We are in for the long haul," he said.
 

NoDak

Hotlinking' sonofabitch
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
22,917
Pipeline was supposed to go through whitey's land but they raised hell because NO ONE wants a fucking pipeline going through their land with the potential to fuck everything up, so they just diverted it through the redskin's land and now people like NoDak accuse them of terrorism.
:lol

Been getting your information from internet memes, eh? None of what you wrote is true. Funny, yeah. But not true.
 

jeebs

Brand New Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2013
Messages
670
Pipeline was supposed to go through whitey's land but they raised hell because NO ONE wants a fucking pipeline going through their land with the potential to fuck everything up, so they just diverted it through the redskin's land and now people like NoDak accuse them of terrorism.
Just to be clear, it is only their land in the sense that they don't recognize whiteys claim to it and still say all the land is theirs, but by any other legal measure it is going through whiteys land and bypassing the red man.

That said, the bastards are putting up a hell of a fight and they sure give a shit more about it than the average American. You almost want to wish them luck
 

NoDak

Hotlinking' sonofabitch
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
22,917
That said, the bastards are putting up a hell of a fight and they sure give a shit more about it than the average American. You almost want to wish them luck
The majority of them have no idea what they are protesting about. The pipeline was originally planned to go through about 5 miles of the northern tip of the Standing Rock reservation. In the year leading up to the beginning of construction, not one tribal councilman attending any zoning meetings for the pipeline. The tribe was offered 6 million dollars for the right of way. Dave Archambault and the tribe counter offered 10 million dollars. The counter offer was denied, and it was rerouted just north of the reservation, where all private land owners attended the zoning meetings, voted to approve, and were paid for the right away. Then the protests started, over "Saving Water and sacred lands".

So, are we to believe that for another 4 million dollars, the water and imaginary sacred lands would have been just fine then? Also, the route they are following now to cross the Missouri river follows an ALREADY EXISTING natural gas line that was put in during the 1980s. One that that the tribe is perfectly fine with, and has caused absolutely no problems.

All of this information is a matter of public record, and has been reported locally but for some reason, the national media has decided to just ignore. But then again, I guess that information might keep the morons that get their information from fucking internet memes from actually understanding what is really happening there.
 

L.T. Fan

I'm Easy If You Are
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
21,689
The majority of them have no idea what they are protesting about. The pipeline was originally planned to go through about 5 miles of the northern tip of the Standing Rock reservation. In the year leading up to the beginning of construction, not one tribal councilman attending any zoning meetings for the pipeline. The tribe was offered 6 million dollars for the right of way. Dave Archambault and the tribe counter offered 10 million dollars. The counter offer was denied, and it was rerouted just north of the reservation, where all private land owners attended the zoning meetings, voted to approve, and were paid for the right away. Then the protests started, over "Saving Water and sacred lands".

So, are we to believe that for another 4 million dollars, the water and imaginary sacred lands would have been just fine then? Also, the route they are following now to cross the Missouri river follows an ALREADY EXISTING natural gas line that was put in during the 1980s. One that that the tribe is perfectly fine with, and has caused absolutely no problems.

All of this information is a matter of public record, and has been reported locally but for some reason, the national media has decided to just ignore. But then again, I guess that information might keep the morons that get their information from fucking internet memes from actually understanding what is really happening there.
Thank you.
 

Cotton

One-armed Knife Sharpener
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
119,705
The majority of them have no idea what they are protesting about. The pipeline was originally planned to go through about 5 miles of the northern tip of the Standing Rock reservation. In the year leading up to the beginning of construction, not one tribal councilman attending any zoning meetings for the pipeline. The tribe was offered 6 million dollars for the right of way. Dave Archambault and the tribe counter offered 10 million dollars. The counter offer was denied, and it was rerouted just north of the reservation, where all private land owners attended the zoning meetings, voted to approve, and were paid for the right away. Then the protests started, over "Saving Water and sacred lands".

So, are we to believe that for another 4 million dollars, the water and imaginary sacred lands would have been just fine then? Also, the route they are following now to cross the Missouri river follows an ALREADY EXISTING natural gas line that was put in during the 1980s. One that that the tribe is perfectly fine with, and has caused absolutely no problems.

All of this information is a matter of public record, and has been reported locally but for some reason, the national media has decided to just ignore. But then again, I guess that information might keep the morons that get their information from fucking internet memes from actually understanding what is really happening there.
So, if it's not going through their land, why are they protesting? It's not affecting them. I'm seriously asking.
 

NoDak

Hotlinking' sonofabitch
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
22,917
So, if it's not going through their land, why are they protesting? It's not affecting them. I'm seriously asking.
Honestly, who knows any more. A lot of people think it's being pushed by the tribal chairman, Dave Archambault. It started this past summer with rumors of the pipeline crossing sacred lands. Burial grounds. (proven to be false) Stuff like that. And stories of how the tribes water would be affected by the pipeline. Even though the main inlet for the tribes water comes from way further down stream, near the South Dakota border. And this pipeline would be following an existing pipeline that was put in place in the 80s. And would be buried 90' below the river bed. Once the spark was there, the tribe and outside influences fanned the flames a bit, and here we are.

Also, Archambault owns a convenience store located a few miles from the protest site, and is making a fortune selling gas, propane, food, water, etc... to the protesters. The longer the protest goes, the more money he makes. And he was the driving force in the initial turning down of the offer of 6 million.

The Sioux elders have already voted to stop the protest. Citing the increasing violence from outside people that have absolutely nothing to do with the Standing Rock reservation or it's people. But when you get idiot "celebrities" like Jesse Jackson and such that show up to make their own dollar, the shit just keeps snowballing.

Honestly, if this was just about them being concerned for the safety of their drinking water, I could understand that. But that shit is just a long forgotten talking point now, only used as an excuse to keep the riot going, hidden behind the name of "peaceful protest". And even that has been proven time and time again as a false claim. Only used to get all this shit started.
 

Cotton

One-armed Knife Sharpener
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
119,705
Honestly, who knows any more. A lot of people think it's being pushed by the tribal chairman, Dave Archambault. It started this past summer with rumors of the pipeline crossing sacred lands. Burial grounds. (proven to be false) Stuff like that. And stories of how the tribes water would be affected by the pipeline. Even though the main inlet for the tribes water comes from way further down stream, near the South Dakota border. And this pipeline would be following an existing pipeline that was put in place in the 80s. And would be buried 90' below the river bed. Once the spark was there, the tribe and outside influences fanned the flames a bit, and here we are.

Also, Archambault owns a convenience store located a few miles from the protest site, and is making a fortune selling gas, propane, food, water, etc... to the protesters. The longer the protest goes, the more money he makes. And he was the driving force in the initial turning down of the offer of 6 million.

The Sioux elders have already voted to stop the protest. Citing the increasing violence from outside people that have absolutely nothing to do with the Standing Rock reservation or it's people. But when you get idiot "celebrities" like Jesse Jackson and such that show up to make their own dollar, the shit just keeps snowballing.

Honestly, if this was just about them being concerned for the safety of their drinking water, I could understand that. But that shit is just a long forgotten talking point now, only used as an excuse to keep the riot going, hidden behind the name of "peaceful protest". And even that has been proven time and time again as a false claim. Only used to get all this shit started.
Jesus Christ, man. Our country may actually be fucked.
 

jeebs

Brand New Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2013
Messages
670
So, if it's not going through their land, why are they protesting? It's not affecting them. I'm seriously asking.
I think part of it is the worry that any oil spill on the private land would have negative repercussions for the tribal land that it neighbors.

And I think it is part, fuck the man, he has fucked us in the past, don't trust him and let's chase him out
 

NoDak

Hotlinking' sonofabitch
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
22,917
I think part of it is the worry that any oil spill on the private land would have negative repercussions for the tribal land that it neighbors.

And I think it is part, fuck the man, he has fucked us in the past, don't trust him and let's chase him out
They are hiding behind the claim they are 'water protectors'. And that they are fighting to protect mother earth. And that they are peaceful protesters. Yet they are burning tires, cars, garbage, etc... And dumping raw sewage all over the place. Have destroyed millions of dollars worth of construction equipment. Destroyed a bridge on a state highway, making it impassable. Thrown molotov cocktails at police. Shot at police. And each place they leave, they leave all of their trash and debris behind. Makes it pretty hard to believe that they are concerned about protecting the earth. Or their claim of being 'peaceful protestors'.

But the powers that be are making money by decrying big oil and their desire to rape the land. And their contingent of 'peaceful protesters' are getting to wreck shit, and destroy the land and air while 'saving the water'. So there is that, I guess.
 

L.T. Fan

I'm Easy If You Are
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
21,689
The underlying factor is money. There are probably several factions at play and each has their own money agenda. It's not likely that there are a lot of folks who have innocent reasons to be there although there are always a few that get caught up in some ideology and are will in to join the parade.
 

Cotton

One-armed Knife Sharpener
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
119,705
 
Top Bottom