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Border Issues in Tohono O'odham Indigenous Environmental Network - 02 JUN 2017
This month Indigenous Rising Media visited the Tohono O’odham
Nation to learn more about the ways Indigenous Peoples are being
impacted by border issues. In our brief time there we learned that
the threats to the People and their culture/traditional ways of life
are both blatant and hidden. While there are very obvious
infringements on People’s rights like the harassment of Indigenous
Peoples by border patrol and the desecration of sacred lands, there
are also less obvious forms of militarization, like constant drone
surveillance and the feeling that people cannot move freely on their
own ancestral lands.
Thanks to organizations and coalitions like Indivisible
Tohono , TOHRN, and Indigenous Alliance Without Borders the Tohono
O’odham and Yaqui are rising up to protect their rights as
Indigenous Peoples. One effort most groups are focused on is to
educate the community about their rights when they come into contact
with border patrol. Please support and follow these groups.
Lastly, special shout out to Sovereign Sounds Project for
collaborating with us on this project. In early May we teamed up to
give a "Audio/Video" workshop to youth in Tohono O'odham so that
youth have the tools and the skills to document their experience and
to share their stories. Please support Sovereign Sounds so more
equipment and training can get to Indigenous frontline
communities....
Tidal
saltmarsh in coastal Washington. (Photo: U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service)
Trump Administration to Propose Repealing Rule Giving EPA Broad
Authority over Water Pollution
by Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post
- 27 JUN 2017
President Trump’s administration will revoke a rule that
gives the Environmental Protection Agency broad authority over
regulating the pollution of wetlands and tributaries that run into
the nation’s largest rivers, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said
Tuesday.
Testifying before Congress, Pruitt — who earlier said he
would recuse himself from working on active litigation related to
the rule — said that the agency would “provide clarity” by
“withdrawing” the rule and reverting standards to those adopted in
2008.
Pruitt, as Oklahoma attorney general, had sued EPA over the
regulation, saying it “usurps” state authority, “unlawfully
broadens” the definition of waters of the United States and imposes
“numerous and costly obligations” on landowners.
A withdrawal was expected, based on the executive order Trump
signed in February targeting the rule. But this is the first clear
signal of how the EPA will act on the president’s order...
Energy
Secretary Rick Perry speaks during a briefing at the
Whtie House on Tuesday.
(Susan Walsh / AP photo)
Trump’s Pitch for U.S. ‘Energy Dominance’ Is Dominated by Misleading
Claims
by Steven Mufson and Chris Mooney, The Washington Post
- 29 JUN 2017
The White House has branded this week “energy week,” rolling
out a buzzword, “dominance,” and replaying lines from last year’s
Trump campaign in an effort to portray the United States as a global
energy superpower — and to label previous administrations as
obstacles to energy growth.
President Trump is expected to sound these themes Thursday in
an address on energy, picking up from Energy Secretary Rick Perry,
who said Tuesday: “We’re ending the bureaucratic blockade that has
hindered American energy creation.”
But analysts say that many of the administration’s claims
about American “dominance” are overstated and that authoritative
energy statistics do not line up with those cited by the
administration....
Hello Relatives,
My name is Myron Dewey M.A Journalist and owner of Digital
Smoke Signals a Social Media & film Drone company documenting since
Mid-August 2016 at Standing Rock North Dakota.
On October 8, 2016 I was documenting Dakota Access Pipeline
working within the 20 mile buffer zone from the Missouri River, when
I noticed several vehicles approaching fast from a 5 mile radius. As
we got pulled over, I noticed all of the a total of 17 officers had
no badges or identification on their uniforms. A clear red-flag that
I may not make it out of there safely and I was at the time in fear
of my life. It was like a bad movie and I was the key character....
The fundrazr funds will be used to continue to document the
human rights and constitutional violations against the Water
Protectors exercising their first amendment, as well as my right to
document and journalize.
Thank you for all your continued support, we still have lots
of work to do together as this was the start of many more human &
constitutional rights violations by Morton County, assisting
agencies and hired Dakota Access Pipeline mercenaries called
TigerSwan.
Myron's court date is 12 JULY 2017 in Bismarck, North
Dakota...
Trump Administration Makes Key Decision That Threatens Water Supply
of Millions (Video)
Repealing the Clean Water Rule will make it easier
for polluters to contaminate the water supply for millions of
Americans.
by Reynard Loki, AlterNet - 27 JUN 2017
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is reportedly
issuing a proposed rule to undo the Clean Water Rule that was
enacted in May 2015, under President Obama’s last term. The rule
protects the water supply for more than 117 million Americans.
Also known as the Waters of the United States (WOTUS), the
Clean Water Rule puts limits on pollution in the wetlands, rivers
and streams that feed the nation's larger waterways. Those limits
are essential for protecting the safety of the drinking water on
which millions of American rely.
The rule also safeguards those waters for swimming, fishing
and other activities. In addition, the rule helps to maintain the
biological integrity of those smaller waterways, in turn protecting
wildlife by keeping aquatic ecosystems healthy....
SIGN: Tell
EPA to Protect Water Supply and Uphold Clean Water Rule AlterNet - 27 JUN 2017
President Trump has signed an executive order directing the
EPA and the Army Corps to begin the process of repealing the Clean
Water Rule, which protects the water safety of more than 117 million
Americans.
By rescinding the rule, Trump not only puts the health of so
many Americans at risk, he endangered the fish and wildlife that
rely on healthy aquatic ecosystems and makes it easier for polluters
to contaminate the nations waterways.
Tell the EPA that you disagree with this move to repeal the
Clean Water Rule and to uphold it to protect America's waterways and
the health of millions....
Dakota Access Pipeline Security Didn't Have a Permit, and ND
Officials Say They Didn't Know
by James MacPherson and Blake Nicholson, Associated Press;
Billings Gazette - 28 JUN 2017
BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota's governor, top law officer and
military leader all said Wednesday they were unaware that a private
security firm hired by the developer of the disputed Dakota Access
oil pipeline has been operating illegally in the state without a
license.
North Dakota's Private Investigative and Security Board first
notified TigerSwan in September it was unlicensed, and in December
rejected its application, citing the alleged criminal history of the
company's president.
Despite that, TigerSwan remained an integral part of the
pipeline developer's security operation and assisted law officers.
Internal company documents published by online news outlet The
Intercept last month make references to planning and communication
with law enforcement, the placing of a company liaison in the law
enforcement joint operations center, and a meeting with the state
attorney general's office's Bureau of Criminal Investigation
"regarding video and still photo evidence collected for
prosecution."
Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, the state's top law
enforcement officer, said he did not "recall being made aware" of
TigerSwan's involvement or lack of a license....
Digital Smoke Signals T-Shirts
Help Support Digital Smoke Signals
Booster Fundraising with CustomInk - 29 JUN 2017 About this campaign
Buying a shirt helps Digital Smoke Signals to continue
filming through Indigenous Eyes.
Help
Support Myron Dewey and Digital Smoke Signals "Numuga"
Myron Dewey, Digital Smoke Signals - 29 JUN 2017
Nu Naw-Nea (My name is) Nu-Agui-Dicutta, Numu/Newe (I am
Trout-Eater, Paiute/Shoshone) Myron Dewey owner of Digital Smoke
Signals a social media & film company bringing digital storytelling
and technology solutions throughout Indian Country.
I am seeking your help to edit the 2nd part of my journey to
Standing Rock. 10 months of filming, interviews and drone footage.
The first part of the documentary will started with several
mini documetnaries weekely and sometimes daily.
This is the 2nd phase documentary that will move to the 3
phase documentary, the 4th phase documentary drone footage and the
5th stage is 360 video.
The overall documentaries will be educational and
informative.
I humbly thank you for your support.
Myron Dewey (Paiute/Shoshone)
Digital Smoke Signals
White
Plume Tiyospaye Host 2017 Victory Day Celebration by Natalie Hand,
Lakota Country Times (LCT) Correspondent; Censored News
- 29 JUN 2017
Owe Aku is a grassroots organization of Lakota people and our
allies founded to promote the protection of sacred water and
preservation of our territorial lands. Our actions for environmental
justice rely upon cultural revitalization as our major tool in
achieving our goals....
2017 Victory Day Horse
Races
Expert horsemen and horsewomen alike, converged on Kiza Park
this past weekend to compete in various races at the annual Victory
Day Horse Races.
Sponsored by the White Plume Tiospaye, this event is to
celebrate the victory at Little Big Horn (aka Greasy Grass Battle).
The gathering brings together horse lovers of all ages to promote
cultural identity and revitalization.
"The Lakota and allies from the Arapahoe and Cheyenne nations
joined forces at the Greasy Grass to take down Custer and the U.S.
7th Calvary. Our ancestors taught us that when we work together, we
can accomplish great things. We instill this in our youth," stated
Alex White Plume....
38th Uranium Tailings Spill Commemoration 2017 Flyer Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment -
28 JUN 2017
Saturday, July 15th, 2017 7 am to 3 pm at the Red Water Pond
Road Community
12 miles North of Red Rock State Park near Church Rock on
Navajo Nation
For information contact Jackie Jefferson 505-905-0022 & Annie
Benally 505-905-1288...
TigerSwan Faces Lawsuit Over Unlicensed Security Operations in North
Dakota
TigerSwan Tactics, Part 5
by Alleen Brown, Will Parrish, Alice Speri, The Intercept
- 28 JUN 2017
TigerSwan, the private company behind a months-long,
multi-state surveillance operation targeting opponents of the Dakota
Access Pipeline, illegally provided security and investigative
services to the pipeline’s parent company, Energy Transfer Partners,
despite being denied a license to do so, a new civil lawsuit
alleges. Even after oil began to flow through the contested
pipeline, and long after the crowded Dakota Access resistance camps
gave way once again to empty prairie, TigerSwan continued its
unlicensed security operations in North Dakota.
The allegations are part of a lawsuit the North Dakota
Private Investigation and Security Board filed against TigerSwan and
its founder James Reese on Tuesday. Violating the license law is a
class B misdemeanor in North Dakota, though local prosecutors have
not filed criminal charges.
The complaint against TigerSwan requests an injunction
against the firm and its founder, which would prevent them from
continuing to illegally operate as a security company in the state.
At the time of the lawsuit, TigerSwan continued to deploy personnel
“armed with semiautomatic rifles and sidearms” in North Dakota and
was still monitoring “persons affiliated with the DAPL protests,”
according to the court filing....
Lawsuit Against Private Security Firm Hired by DAPL Developer
by Bo Evans, KFYR-TV - 28 JUN 2017
North Dakota regulators say a private security firm hired by
the developer Dakota Access pipeline operated in the state without a
license and has continued doing so since being denied one.
North Dakota's Private Investigative and Security Board is
suing to block North Carolina-based TigerSwan's armed workers from
continuing to monitor the pipeline system.
The board also is seeking unspecified administrative fines
and attorney fees from the company for operating without a license,
a misdemeanor under state law....
A
canoe sits beached across from the famous White Cliffs
of the Missouri River in October, 2016. U.S. Interior
Secretary Ryan Zinke said Tuesday, 27 June, he plans to
recommend the Upper Missouri Breaks retain its status as
a national monument, effectively taking it off the list
of monuments nationwide that could lose their status.
Kurt Wilson, Missoulian
Zinke: Upper Missouri Breaks Will Keep Its National Monument Status [NOTE: Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument is in
Zinke's home state of Montana, so naturally it will be exempt
from Dictator Trump's order to remove the protected status from
national monuments. Odd how that works, isn't it? —
SENAA International]
by Perry Backus, Missoulian - 27 JUN 2017
WHITEFISH — U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Tuesday
he plans to recommend the Upper Missouri Breaks retain its status as
a national monument, effectively taking it off the list of monuments
nationwide that could lose their status.
“My likely recommendation will be to leave the Missouri
Breaks as is,'' Zinke said. "I think it’s settled to a degree that I
would rather not open up a wound that has been healed.''
Zinke made his remarks at a press conference following his
appearance at the Western Governors’ Association meeting.
Zinke was tasked earlier this year by the Trump
Administration to review national monuments over 100,000 acres
designated after 1996. Following his recommendation to reduce the
size of the Bear’s Ears National Monument in Utah earlier this
month, there has been a concern the same could happen for the Upper
Missouri.
Zinke said after talks with local, state and federal
officials, he had decided there was no need to review the
377,000-acre Montana monument designated in 2001....
U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Hear Arguments in Colorado-New Mexico
Mine Spill Suit
Justices did say New Mexico could pursue its claims
in a lower court
AP, The Denver Post - 26 JUN 2017
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear
arguments on a New Mexico lawsuit against Colorado over a 2015 mine
waste spill that polluted rivers in both states and Utah.
The nation’s high court made the announcement Monday. But the
justices did say New Mexico could pursue its claims in a lower
court.
Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman praised the
decision and said New Mexico should not have sued Colorado because
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency caused the disaster....
Where Protests Flourish, Anti-Protest Bills Follow
by Lee Rowland & Vera Eidelman, ACLU - 17 FEB
2017 (Reposted 28 JUN 2017)
Over the past year, a historic level of activism and protest
has spilled out into our nation’s parks, streets, and sidewalks —
places where our First Amendment rights are at their height. The
January 21 Women’s March, anchored in D.C. with echoes across the
nation, was likely the single largest day of protest in American
history. And yet, legislators in many states have followed up on
this exuberant activism with proposed bills that are not only far
less inspiring, but also unconstitutional.
A few examples illustrate this pattern all too well....
Anti-Protest Bills Around the Country
ACLU - 23 JUN 2017
In response to epic protests around the country, state
legislators in nearly 20 states proposed bills in 2017 that would
restrict people’s right to protest. The ACLU fought back and many of
the bills died or were amended to remove unconstitutional language.
For those that passed, we’re hopeful that protestors will exercise
their right to dissent and courts will prevent the use of these laws
to unconstitutionally burden protest activity. This map is current
as of June 23, 2017. Learn More (https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/where-protests-flourish-anti-protest-bills-follow)
ND Board Files Civil Action Against TigerSwan
by C.S. Hagen, HPR - 22 JUN 2017
BISMARCK - One day after law enforcement cleared the “Treaty
Camp” on October 27, 2016, hundreds of activists defending Native
American treaty rights, water rights, and land rights, lined up
north of three smoldering vehicles. Fifty yards away, construction
trucks set the first cement blocks in a line, forming the second
barricade on Highway 1806.
Weeks earlier and under emergency orders issued by former
Governor Jack Dalrymple, the North Dakota National Guard manned the
first barricade, more of a checkpoint for passing cars.
Tensions brewed at the frontline that day. Police or security
personnel taunted activists through a megaphone, teasing them about
being cowards behind masks. At their line sat military Humvees, a
tan armored vehicle equipped with a sound cannon. Activists
brandished plywood shields, and refused to budge. Most activists
shouted peaceful messages; one man hurled insults at the police.
After police issued a final warning, law enforcement from
five states decked out in sheriff deputy uniforms, riot gear, and
armed with mace, pepper spray, rubber bullets, zip ties and clubs,
some with live ammunition, formed a Roman-style phalanx and marched
down the highway toward Backwater Bridge. Activists smudged each
other with burning sweetgrass and sage. One woman sat amidst the
crowd praying, crying so hard her shoulders shook. Two women hugged
each other tightly as the marching police neared.
The day was saved by one man with snowy-white hair, smoking a
pipe, and wearing a jogging suit, Miles Allard, an elder from
Standing Rock. After negotiations, both sides backed down, but the
near-altercation was a sign of bigger events to come....
Dakota Access Builder Now Bungling $4.2 Billion Pipeline in Ohio
by Catherine Traywick, Bloomberg News; AgUpdate
- 22 JUN 2017
Energy Transfer Partners LP is making a mess of its biggest
project since the Dakota Access pipeline.
Construction of the $4.2 billion Rover natural gas line has
caused seven industrial spills, polluted fragile Ohio wetlands and
angered local farmers. The company owes $1.5 million in restitution
after demolishing an historic house. The Ohio Environmental
Protection Agency is furious and a federal energy regulator has
launched a rare public investigation that threatens to delay the
pipeline’s scheduled Nov. 1 completion.
“We’ve not seen a project in Ohio with spills at this size
and scale, and if we can’t even trust Rover to construct this
pipeline, how can we trust them to operate it when it’s complete?”
said Heather Taylor-Miesle, executive director of the Ohio
Environmental Council.
Energy Transfer, the Dallas-based company led by billionaire
Kelcy Warren, promised part of the 713-mile (1,147-kilometer)
pipeline would open in July, but work is stalled on key segments
until the company’s responsibility for the spills can be assessed by
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC.
“We are working with FERC and the OEPA to resolve these
issues in a manner that is satisfactory to everyone involved, and
most importantly ensures the complete remediation of these areas,”
said Energy Transfer spokeswoman Alexis Daniel. Recent developments
have not affected the project’s timeline, Daniel said....
DAPL Whistleblower in Hiding After Receiving Threats
by C.S. Hagen, HPR - 22 JUN 2017
BISMARCK - Former DAPL security employee turned
whistleblower, Kourtni Dockter, is in hiding. Threats from
“concerned citizens” have been made against her; a black truck with
no license plates is surveilling her parents’ house.
“They have threatened me, claiming that I’m a junkie drug
addict and they want to come beat my ass,” Dockter said. “When we
get evidence of that, that could be considered tampering with a
federal witness.”
Despite her checkered past and brushes with the law, she is
not reneging her stance, and is prepared to testify in court to what
she calls illegal actions of TigerSwan and other security companies
involved in protecting the Dakota Access Pipeline....
Exclusive: PA Lawmaker Working to Curb Pipeline Protestors Tied to
Shadow Lobbyists for Company Behind Project
by Itai Vardi; DESMOG - 22 June 2017
A recent intensification in protests against Williams
Partners’ planned Atlantic Sunrise pipeline in Pennsylvania prompted
a state senator to propose legislation aimed at limiting
demonstrations.
Last month, Pennsylvania Republican Senator Scott Martin
announced his intention to introduce legislation that would pass the
costs of law enforcement responding to protests onto the
demonstrators. Martin also helped introduce a different bill that
would criminalize protests at natural gas facilities.
A DeSmog investigation has found, however, that Martin is
intimately tied to an obscure group of lobbyists recently hired by
Williams Partners.
State Legislators Against Pipeline Protestors
The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Williams Partners plans to
construct the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline through its subsidiary,
Transco. The $3 billion 200-mile project, which would transport
fracked gas from the state’s northern shales southward to the
company’s interconnecting pipeline systems, received federal
approval earlier this year but still requires several state permits.
Grassroots and citizen opposition to the pipeline, which has
been ongoing since the project’s original proposal in 2014, has
intensified in recent months. In February, activists built an
encampment on the planned route near Conestoga in Lancaster county,
which Scott Martin represents.
Led by the group Lancaster Against Pipelines, they signaled
their willingness to engage in nonviolent direct action.
Yet in early May, a day after arranging a conference call
between local first responders and North Dakota law enforcement
officials who dealt with the Dakota Access pipeline protests,
Senator Martin published a legislative memo detailing his plan to
propose a bill penalizing protestors. The memo, which directly
referenced the Dakota Access pipeline demonstrations, is aimed at
“shielding taxpayers against the additional costs resulting from
protests.” Martin is currently seeking cosponsors for his
legislation.
Two weeks earlier, Martin was among a group of senators
advancing a bill sponsored by Republican Senator Mike Regan seeking
to essentially criminalize civil disobedience and other forms of
demonstrations at critical infrastructure sites, including gas
pipelines and facilities. According to the bill, those who “impede
or inhibit” the operations of the facility will be charged with a
felony, face imprisonment, and pay hefty fines....
Congressman Rob
Bishop of Utah wants to transfer federal land to the
states, gut the Endangered Species Act, and eliminate
the Antiquities Act—and D.C. is starting to listen
Environmentalists' Public-Lands Enemy Number One
by Christopher Solomon, OutsideOnline - 16 JUN
2017
On a sunny day in early May, Secretary of the Interior Ryan
Zinke hiked in southeast Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument as part
of a presidential order to revisit the fates of dozens of monuments
nationwide. At his right strolled a man dressed in shorts, loafers,
and an uncollared shirt. With his snowy white hair, the man could
have been mistaken for a snowbird who’d wandered from his RV to
check out the commotion—until he turned to a television camera.
“Bears Ears is a symptom of the problem,” the man said
tartly. “The disease is still the Antiquities Act.”
The man was Republican Congressman Rob Bishop of Utah, one of
the biggest fans on Capitol Hill today of handing federal public
lands over to the states and reducing environmental protections on
them.
Bishop is chairman of the House Committee on Natural
Resources, which oversees legislation related to everything from
energy production and mining to wildlife and irrigation on America’s
640 million acres of public lands—30 percent of the country’s
estate. With Republicans in control of both houses of Congress, and
with a receptive president in the White House, Bishop—who has been
trying to advance these policies for years—is in a better position
now than ever before to achieve his goals....
Religious Freedom Isn’t Just for Hobby Lobby — It’s for Indigenous
Rights, Too
The fight against DAPL continues
by Kartik S. Madiraju, Grist; SALON - 22
JUN 2017
Last week, the Standing Rock Sioux celebrated what they
believe is a ground-breaking legal victory in the protracted fight
against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers violated the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA) in its expedited review of the pipeline, which was ordered by
President Trump shortly after taking office. According to Judge
James Boasberg, the Army Corps “did not adequately consider the
impacts of an oil spill on fishing rights, hunting rights, or
environmental justice.”
On Wednesday, the parties in the DAPL case will appear in
court for a hearing about how to respond to the NEPA ruling. Oil
could stop the flowing under Lake Oahe, the fourth-largest dam
reservoir in the Dakotas. But that stoppage would be temporary.
If the Army Corps does revise its environmental assessment,
the court could allow the pipeline to resume operation. The court
and the Army Corps would have “served” environmental justice under
NEPA — merely by paying lip service to the struggle for indigenous
rights in the United States.
Lake Oahe stands at the center of a painful, decades-long
story regarding the marginalization of Native Americans. In 1958,
the Army Corps took over 200,000 acres from the Standing Rock and
Cheyenne River Sioux, forcing them from their homes and sacred
religious sites, so it could build a dam. Fast-forward nearly 60
years, and the reservoir created by the dam draws a million yearly
tourists to its more than 50 recreational sites. It’s under the
Sioux’s once hallowed ground — now at the bottom of Lake Oahe —
where the Army Corps decided to route part of the Dakota Access
Pipeline.
Earlier this year, as I was completing my law degree at New
York University, President Trump fast-tracked the project’s
completion. In the legal battles that ensued, teams of lawyers —
both large and small — took up the cause of the tribes and the
thousands of pipeline activists that joined them, collectively known
as “water protectors.”
Benjamin Eichert, director of the grassroots movement
Greenpower, formed the Lakota People’s Legal Project to highlight
the statutory issues regarding the construction of the pipeline. I
joined the effort as legal researcher.
The oil flowing under Lake Oahe is not only a potential
environmental calamity, it is a dagger through the heart of the
Sioux tribes — and the NEPA ruling, while certainly a win, will not
offer meaningful justice to those at Standing Rock.
One unlikely legal strategy that nearly did — and could loom
large in future fights to protect indigenous land — is the Religious
Restoration Freedom Act, a fan-favorite amongst the religious
right....
Water Protectors Rally in Support of Efforts to End the Dakota
Access Pipeline
Following a federal court’s ruling last week on
unlawful permits, Indigenous leaders continue push to end Dakota
Access Pipeline
by Jade Begay, Nina Smith; Indigenous Environmental Network
- 22 JUN 2017
Washington, D.C. – The Indigenous Environmental Network, in
coordination with the D.C.- based Rising Hearts Coalition, the Hip
Hop Caucus, and Earth Justice, among other Water Protectors rallied
today at the U.S. District Courthouse in support of Standing Rock
Sioux and Cheyenne Sioux Tribes, as they seek to end Dakota Access
Pipeline.
A U.S. district court judge ruled last week that the Army
Corps of Engineers failed to complete a thorough environmental
review and that the agency unlawfully expedited permits needed to
finish the pipeline. In the historic ruling, the judge cited
environmental justice arguments made by the Standing Rock Sioux
Tribe and its allies that the Corps failed to consider oil spill
impacts on treaty fishing and hunting rights and therefore violated
environmental laws and treaty rights.
Jordan Marie Daniel, Rising Hearts, founder & organizer
emceed the event and commented, “We stand resolute in our support
for Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes in their fight to
protect indigenous rights, and our planet. Their battle is on behalf
of all of us who share this planet. As the fight against placing
corporate interests above the health, safety and well-being of
entire communities and the quest to end the assault against the
earth we share moves forward. We stand with these Nations, and the
millions who have supported them, in solidarity. The Standing Rock
and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes battle for justice, and responsible
stewardship of lives and resources is on behalf of us all. The fight
is not over and will continue to generate awareness and push for
alternative, clean renewable just solutions. We support the Standing
Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes, 100 percent.”...
Red Warrior Camp Speaks
Brenda Norrell's Censored News - 21 JUN 2017
"Mni Sose' called our Spirits. From the four directions, we
traveled alone or in caravans, to gather at the river banks. We
formed a self-sufficient camp and lived together with love, ethics,
principles, and protocols guided by ceremony, prayers and medicine.
Our focused, singular, collective goal was to manifest our training
and energy to protect sacred water. We committed ourselves to the
tactic of non-violent direct action to slow or halt the construction
of the Dakota Access Pipeline north of the Standing Rock Reservation
while the tribes and lawsuits moved forward. In acknowledgment of
the 500 years of genocide, treaty breaking, and human rights
violations against our people by the United States government in
favor of resource extraction and land thefts, we knew we must have a
strong frontline. We gathered allies from proven social justice
movements. We protected our work through principles of security
culture, knowing the corporation would stop at nothing to realize
their financial investment and future profits. Tactics of
infiltration, dissension, rumors, divisiveness, and lies
orchestrated by DAPL and its hired guns soon began to weaken the
solidarity of all the camps. Their tactics continue today. All the
camps moved, were burned or torn down. People scattered to the four
directions. We have people still engaged in the judicial process,
going to court. Many charges were dismissed. We carry on with water
and land defense work, cultural revitalization, decolonization. We
come from all walks of life, races, ages. Our collective experience
is a powerful weapon we took to Standing Rock to share with others
to help stop DAPL. We are Red Warriors," Stated Debra White Plume.
We represent 27 tribal nations and 10 countries with no
regard to the United States' imaginary borders, to defend the land
and protect the water through Non-Violent Direct Action.
Collectively, known as Red Warrior Society, we have decades of
experience in grass roots, community-based organizing to protect our
natural resources.
Red Warriors are highly disciplined, principled individuals
who encompass a unique skill set to provide non-violent
direct-action trainings, decolonization tools and organize actions
to primarily youth with an emphasis on security culture.
There are many definitions of security culture. Every
movement and resistance group and camps should carefully set their
standard accordingly to ensure the safety of those involved in the
protection of all that is sacred.
Red Warriors are self-sufficient, with minimal impact to the
land and resources. These principles are utilized in our actions,
both at the NoDAPL direct action in North Dakota and other actions
and trainings throughout Turtle Island.
The recent array of propaganda films being released on the
NoDAPL camps are reminiscent of the U.S. Government-led COINTELPRO
tactics employed against indigenous resistance movements in the
1970's....
Water Summit Announced for the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe
by Staff, Native News Online - 22 JUN 2017
EAGLE BUTTE, SOUTH DAKOTA – Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal
Chairman Harold Frazier announces a Water Summit, Wednesday, June
28th, at the College Auditorium in Eagle Butte, South Dakota.
Registration starts at 8:00 am and the program begins at 9:00 am.
There is no registration fee and lunch will be provided.
“Cheyenne River is leading the way to protect our water
sources for many years to come,” said Frazier. “There are many
threats to our water and we plan to make sure our people have clean
and abundant water for all our needs.”...
BY THE TIME law enforcement officers began evicting residents
of the Oceti Sakowin Dakota Access Pipeline resistance camp near the
Standing Rock Sioux reservation on February 22, the brutal North
Dakota winter had already driven away most of the pipeline
opponents. With protesters’ numbers dwindling, along with nationwide
attention to their cause, it would have been a natural time for the
private security company in charge of monitoring the pipeline to
head home as well. But internal communications between TigerSwan and
its client, pipeline parent company Energy Transfer Partners, show
that the security firm instead reached for ways to stay in business.
“The threat level has dropped significantly. This however
does not rule out the chance of future attack,” states a document
dated February 24, two days after the eviction began. “As with any
dispersion of any insurgency, expect bifurcation into splinter
groups, looking for new causes.”
Indeed, TigerSwan appeared to be looking for new causes, too.
As The Intercept has reported, the security firm’s sweeping
surveillance of anti-Dakota Access protesters had already spanned
five months and expanded into Iowa, South Dakota, and Illinois. More
than 100 leaked situation reports provided to The Intercept by a
contractor working for TigerSwan describe in detail the firm’s
observations of the NoDAPL movement; information obtained via
invasive surveillance tactics such as infiltration of protest
groups, aerial surveillance, and radio eavesdropping; and efforts to
track the movements of individual pipeline opponents....
Inside Chris Cornell's Moving, Refugee-Themed Final Video
"The Promise" director and producer discuss the late
songwriter's "focused but excited" mood during the making of the
clip
by Jason Newman, Rolling Stone - 20 JUN 2017
Earlier this year, video director Meiert Avis was talking to
Chris Cornell about their latest collaboration: a video for "The
Promise" that Cornell had written and recorded for the 2016
historical film of the same name examining a love triangle in the
wake of the Armenian genocide.
A lyric video released in March already featured scenes from
the movie. For the official video, Cornell, directors Stefan Smith
and Avis and the film's producer Eric Esrailian wanted to widen the
scope both geographically and temporally, showing actual footage of
fleeing refugees and war-torn cities from Libya, Syria and other
countries alongside historical atrocities.
Avis would send rough cuts back and forth to Cornell for
feedback, with the songwriter providing one main suggestion: Make it
less depressing and more optimistic.
"It's very hard to put the pieces together for me," Avis
tells Rolling Stone. "I've had many people break down when they
watch the video. They either cry or are silent for 10 minutes."
Avis had no idea "The Promise" would end up being Cornell's
final music video, released one month after the Soundgarden and
Audioslave musician died by suicide. But the clip, featuring a
performance Cornell recorded in Brooklyn in March, doubles as a
fitting testament to the musician's lesser-known altruistic side.
"He was always curious about how others were feeling and he
had an interest in learning about their lives," Esrailian, a
philanthropist and close friend of Cornell's who brought him onto
the project, tells Rolling Stone. "He was always asking how he could
help me with some of the different non-profit projects I was working
on."...
Dakota Access-Style Policing Moves to Pennsylvania's Mariner East 2
Pipeline
by Alleen Brown, Will Parrish, Alice Speri, The Intercept - 21 JUN
2017 TigerSwan Tactics; Part 4
AFTER MONTHS OF employing military-style counterinsurgency
tactics to subvert opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline in North
Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, and South Dakota, the private security firm
TigerSwan is monitoring resistance to another project — the
controversial Mariner East 2 pipeline.
Like DAPL, Mariner East 2 is owned by Energy Transfer
Partners. The pipeline is slated to run for 350 miles, transporting
ethane, butane, and propane through Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West
Virginia to a hub near Philadelphia for shipment to both domestic
and international markets. Internal TigerSwan documents reviewed by
The Intercept suggest the company has had a presence in Pennsylvania
since at least April.
On April 1, the Mariner East 1 pipeline, which runs parallel
to the proposed path of ME2, spilled 20 barrels of ethane and
propane near Morgantown, Pennsylvania. On the day of the incident,
an email provided to The Intercept by a TigerSwan contractor shows
the firm was watching social media for signs the spill would become
a rallying point for pipeline opponents.
“At this time the incident has NOT gained any public
interest,” a TigerSwan operative wrote in the email.
TigerSwan founder James Reese replied, “We nees [sic] to
monitor social media for blow baxk [sic] on the leak.”
The company had been monitoring Dakota Access opponents’
social media for months and analyzing press coverage related to that
pipeline fight, according to more than 100 internal situation
reports leaked to The Intercept. The documents routinely referenced
counterinformation efforts to produce and distribute propaganda
favorable to the pipeline.
TigerSwan apparently carried at least some of these practices
to Pennsylvania. It would be weeks before the public learned of the
leak of highly explosive natural gas liquids. According to a source
with direct knowledge of TigerSwan’s operation, making sure nobody
found out about the incident was part of TigerSwan’s mission on the
project. Nearby residents were kept in the dark until April 20, when
Sunoco, which recently completed a merger with Energy Transfer
Partners, confirmed to a local media outlet that the leak had
occurred....
Hear From the Bold Nebraskans Who Won't Give Up Fighting Keystone XL
Pipeline
by Nicole Greenfield, EcoWatch - 21 JUN 2017
When TransCanada began knocking on doors throughout Nebraska
in 2008, most residents didn't know much about its Keystone XL
pipeline or the dirty tar sands oil it would be transporting. The
energy company was negotiating easements with local landowners in
order to secure a route for its multibillion-dollar project—which
would run north to south through the state, directly through the
Ogallala Aquifer and across hundreds of Nebraskan rivers and
streams. TransCanada threatened landowners with eminent domain if
they didn't comply.
Although the company had some early takers, many Nebraskans
along KXL's proposed route questioned the pipeline's safety, the
risks to their water supply, and the legality of TransCanada's
tactics. With the help of an organizer named Jane Kleeb, they banded
together as Bold Nebraska to forge a unified resistance to Keystone
XL [KXL].
Following years of protest and courtroom battles, a rigorous
U.S. State Department environmental review that echoed the concerns
of pipeline resisters, and the conflicting decisions of President
Obama to reject it and President Trump to later reauthorize it, the
bold Nebraskans haven't given up. After all, as Anthony Swift,
director of NRDC's Canada project, said, "There's no question that
Nebraskans know more than most people how high the stakes are with
regard to Keystone XL."
So, on the KXL front lines in the Cornhusker State, it's now
up to the Nebraska Public Service Commission (PSC) to approve or
deny TransCanada's permits for construction. (The battle is
simultaneously playing out in federal court in Montana, where NRDC
is suing the Trump administration for unlawfully approving the
project.)
Without a route though Nebraska, Keystone XL can't move
forward, and landowners are making sure the five-person commission
hears their objections. Many testified during public hearings held
this spring, and some will return to the podium as registered
interveners in August, when five days of formal arguments will
precede an official decision on the pipeline as soon as September.
Below, several of the interveners share their stories of
resistance:...
Kayenta Solar Project Operational: Sending Power to the Grid
by Staff Writers, Native News Online - 17 JUN
2017
FORT DEFIANCE, ARIZONA –The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority
(NTUA) and its wholly-owned subsidiary NGI-Kayenta, Inc. are very
proud to announce that the Kayenta Solar Facility is sending power
to the transmission grid in Kayenta, Arizona. This wholly owned
Navajo project, is the first-of–its-kind utility-scale solar project
within the Navajo Nation and will enhance clean energy initiatives
of the Navajo Nation and NTUA.
“The completion of this project demonstrates that the Navajo
Nation is ready for large scale renewable energy production,” said
NTUA General Manager Walter Haase. “This is a huge step into the
area of energy production and sales, as well as a gigantic first
step toward enhancing the green economy for the Navajo Nation.”...
Urgent Call
for Volunteer Sheepherders at Black Mesa
New impoundment threats issued Mailchi.mp - 18 JUN 2017
Over this past week, law enforcement and Hopi land management
officers entered Sovereign Dineh Nation territories at Big
Mountain/Black Mesa, Arizona with orders to count Dineh livestock.
They issues 5-day notices to Dineh families, threatening to impound
so-called "trespassing" sheep, goats, and cattle.
"In times like these it's hard for me to eat or sleep,"
stated elder matriarch Glenna Begay. "I lay up at night worried for
my animals. The sheep are my children. The horses too are relatives.
They have been with us since the beginning."
Families and elders resisting forced relocation policies on
their ancestral homelands are urgently requesting volunteers to
assist with maintaining the daily struggle. This primarily involves
herding sheep throughout the day and doing basic chores. In this
time of escalated police activity, supporters are also asked to be
observant and record police or government actions....
Navajo Generating Station Owners Deny Deadline Extension
by Associated Press, KUTV - 16 JUN 2017
GALLUP, N.M. (AP) — The owners of a coal-fired power plant in
northern Arizona have rejected the Navajo Nation's request for a
30-day extension of a July 1 deadline for the tribe to decide
whether to extend the owners' lease for the site.
The Gallup Independent reports the Navajo Generating Station
owners rejected the extension on Wednesday.
The owners have said the plant must shut down by the end of
2017 if a longer lease is not approved by July 1 to provide time to
remove the plant by the end of its current lease....
Resistance That Won’t Quit: A Timeline of the Keystone XL Pipeline Despite a Trump executive order undoing nearly
nine years of defiance, the story of the-pipeline-that-won’t-die
isn’t over.
by Valerie Schloredt, Yes! Magazine - 15 JUN 2017
Illustrations by Jennifer Luxton
In July 2008, TransCanada Corporation announced plans for
what would be known as Keystone XL, a 2,030-mile-long oil pipeline
from Alberta to U.S. refineries on the Gulf Coast.
The pipeline would transport 830,000 barrels of tar sands oil
a day. The State Department estimated Keystone XL alone could add up
to 27 million tons of CO2 to the atmosphere per year. More recent
studies place the potential at 100 million tons.
Opposition began with Indigenous activists who were joined by
the environmental movement. The resistance grew bigger, bolder, and
more united in the process.
Because the 1,700-mile northern section of the
pipeline—Keystone XL proper—enters the U.S. over the international
border with Canada, it required approval by the U.S. State
Department. In Nebraska, farmers and ranchers challenged
TransCanada’s eminent domain in court, and kept the pipeline at bay
for seven years.
“It was the landowners who opposed granting easements who
made it possible for Obama to veto Keystone XL,” rancher and
organizer Ben Gotschall said.
That hard-won veto was undone by executive order during
President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. But the story of
Keystone XL isn’t over. Resistance-that-won’t-quit has been holding
back the-pipeline-that-won’t-die for nearly nine years. This is how
we got here: ...
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Regarding Trump Statement
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Facebook - 15 JUN 2017
"During President Trump’s speech in Ohio, the president
addressed the completion of #DAPL and proudly stated, “ I just
closed my eyes and said ‘do it.’”
Well we will not close our eyes and turn away in the face of
injustice. It takes "guts" to stand up for mother earth, and our
collective rights – which is something we plan to do as we continue
our battle against #DAPL."...
Prolific TheRapper on Facebook Regarding Federal Judge's Decision in
Favor of the Tribes on DAPL
Prolific TheRapper, Facebook - 15 JUN 2017
"AWESOME DAPL NEWS!!!!! Federal judge just ruled in favor of
tribes on 3 issues, this is a huge win!!! I don't know where this
will lead but a shutdown of the pipeline is possible depending on
how future proceedings go."
"KEEP PRAYING, STAY IN PRAYER, MIRACLES ARE POSSIBLE BUT IT'S
ONLY US THAT CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN BY WALKING WITH ALL THOSE PRAYERS,
STAYING DEDICATED TO THEM."...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
14 June 2017... IEN Statement on Federal Court Ruling to Revisit DAPL
Environmental Analysis
Bemidji, MN — Today, Indigenous peoples and Water Protectors
marked a crucial victory in the fight against the Dakota Access
Pipeline.
A federal judge ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers failed
to complete a proper environmental examination and that the permits
issued for the Dakota Access Pipeline were issued in haste. The
judge ordered the agency to reconsider parts of their final
environmental analysis.
In response, members of the Indigenous Environmental Network
released the following statements....
In [a]
Victory for Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Court Finds That Approval of
Dakota Access Pipeline Violated the Law
Victory: Ruling: Trump administration shortcut
environmental review; Court seeks additional briefing on whether to
shut down pipeline
by Jenni Monet, EarthJustice - 14 JUN 2017
Washington, D.C. — The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe won a
significant victory today in its fight to protect the Tribe’s
drinking water and ancestral lands from the Dakota Access pipeline.
A federal judge ruled that the federal permits authorizing
the pipeline to cross the Missouri River just upstream of the
Standing Rock reservation, which were hastily issued by the Trump
administration just days after the inauguration, violated the law in
certain critical respects.
In a 91-page decision, Judge James Boasberg wrote, “the Court
agrees that [the Corps] did not adequately consider the impacts of
an oil spill on fishing rights, hunting rights, or environmental
justice, or the degree to which the pipeline’s effects are likely to
be highly controversial.” The Court did not determine whether
pipeline operations should be shut off and has requested additional
briefing on the subject and a status conference next week.
“This is a major victory for the Tribe and we commend the courts
for upholding the law and doing the right thing,” said Standing Rock
Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II in a recent statement. “The
previous administration painstakingly considered the impacts of this
pipeline, and President Trump hastily dismissed these careful
environmental considerations in favor of political and personal
interests. We applaud the courts for protecting our laws and
regulations from undue political influence and will ask the Court to
shut down pipeline operations immediately.”
The Tribe’s inspiring and courageous fight has attracted
international attention and drawn the support of hundreds of tribes
around the nation....
http://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/DAPL-order.pdf
NOTE: See Link Below
for a non-PDF copy of the judge's DAPL order.
Chief Counsel Daniel Sheehan: DAPL and TigerSwan Exposed Lakota People's Law Project - 14 JUN 2017
As Lakota People's Law Project Chief Counsel Daniel Sheehan
continues to prepare for Chase Iron Eyes' upcoming court case,
further details continue to come out about the private security firm
TigerSwan and their actions surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Learn more at
www.lakotalaw.org
New
Documentary Film "More Than a Pipeline"
Watch the trailer, watch the complete documentary,
and donate to help offset production costs. More Than a Pipeline, online - 13 JUN 2017
Hearing Reveals Strong Divisions about Enbridge Line 3
by Ron Brochu, BusinessNorth - 13 JUN 2017
A Tuesday public hearing at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community
College suggested the American Indian community does not support the
Line 3 replacement proposed by Enbridge Energy Partners.
Some of the same persons who protested the Dakota Access
pipeline in North Dakota testified against Line 3, which would
replace a 34-inch petroleum line constructed in the 1960s with a new
36-inch pipe along most of its route. A draft environmental impact
statement (DEIS) for the project, which included testimony collected
at 27 meetings, was released last month. Enbridge executives say the
new line will be safer than the aging one. Other supporters say it
will stimulate the economy in the short and long term....
Letter to the Editor: Navajo Generating Station Replacement Lease
Needs Visionary Leadership to Make Agreement Stronger nhonews - 13 JUN 2017
To the editor:
When I was growing up on Black Mesa, the land was rich with
grass and natural springs, fed by ancient waters of the Navajo
Aquifer. In a stark land that gets fewer than 10 inches of rainfall
a year, we still had enough to live as our ancestors had for
generations, planting and dry farming corn from seeds grown for
centuries and relying mainly on rainfall and late summertime
monsoons.
Today is a different story. The springs don’t run any longer.
They have dried up as the N-Aquifer has been sucked dry to supply
Peabody Energy’s Kayenta coal mine. The grass is short and dry, and
there is little coverage. Our sheep are thin, and we can no longer
count on now unpredictable weather that once reliably brought our
corn to harvest.
The culprit behind this damage is coal — mined from Black
Mesa for the past 45 years and then burned in the largest
coal-burning power plant in the West, Navajo Generating Station (NGS)
— which in a sad irony was built on Navajo land to pump life-giving
water to the rest of Arizona.
Coal is going away now, the owners of NGS having decided that
burning it to generate electricity can no longer make them money.
They have presented the Navajo Nation tribal council with a deal
that would keep the plant open until the end of 2019. If council
delegates sign the agreement, the tribe will get to keep jobs and
revenue from the plant and mine for another two years. But they will
make costly concessions in the process...
Activist Prepared to Take Dakota Access Oil Pipeline Protest Case to
Trial
by Blake Nicholson, Denver Post - 13 JUN 2017
BISMARCK, N.D. — An American Indian activist and former U.S.
congressional candidate accused of inciting a riot during protests
against the Dakota Access oil pipeline says he has no qualms about
taking the case to trial, even though he could face more than five
years in prison if convicted.
Chase Iron Eyes maintains his innocence and pleaded not
guilty in March to the felony charge and also misdemeanor criminal
trespass. He is scheduled for a one-day trial on Feb. 8, 2018, in
Mandan, just west of Bismarck.
Iron Eyes’ attorney also represented Hollywood actress
Shailene Woodley, who signed a plea deal earlier this year that kept
her out of jail in another high-profile protest case. Unlike
Woodley, Iron Eyes said, he still lives and works in the area where
the protests occurred and has “a huge and sincere concern about the
administration of justice.”
“If it takes that we have to go to trial to achieve those
goals, then that’s a good thing,” he said. “That’s what our system
of justice is designed to do.”...
Goldman Sachs-backed Firm Invests Big in Shipping Tar Sands by Train
Along Keystone XL Route
by Steve Horn, Desmog - 12 JUN 2017
USD Partners, a rail terminal operator owned in part by Wall
Street giant Goldman Sachs, has signed a nearly three year deal to
facilitate moving tar sands by train from where it is extracted in
Alberta, Canada, to an offloading terminal in Stoud, Oklahoma, in a
route mirroring that of the Keystone XL pipeline.
From Stroud, the heavy oil can be sent via pipeline to the
nearby oil storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma. USD's announcement,
which said the company could transport up to 70,000 barrels per day
of tar sands in rail cars, came in a June 2 filing with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The deal, centering around the purchase of the Stroud
terminal, also included the acquisition of 300,000 barrels of
storage space in Cushing, a town known by oil and gas industry
observers as the “pipeline crossroads of the world.”...
Northern Minnesotans Concerned over Proposed Line 3 Replacement
Pipeline
by Kassandra Tuten, Herald-Review - 10 JUN 2017
Called “the largest project in our history” by Enbridge
Energy, the Canadian-based company is seeking Minnesota’s approval
to build a new pipeline to carry crude oil from Canada to Superior,
Wis. Approximately 337 miles of the proposed new line, which would
expand capacity and carve a new path for pipelines across the state,
will cross through Minnesota, following a new path between
Clearbrook, Minn., and Superior.
The new pipeline’s intended purpose is to replace the
original Line 3, a 1,097-mile crude oil pipeline built between 1962
and 1967, which runs through portions of Itasca County, a project
which many residents of Northern Minnesota were against from the
beginning.
Of concern to many pipeline opponents is Enbridge’s proposal
to simply abandon Line 3 in favor of the new line, leaving the
former in the ground. If this were to occur, it would be the first
major crude oil pipeline to be abandoned in the state....
“If you ask me, if you're Enbridge, saying ‘we are operating
a line and it’s very unsafe, can we build another,’ is not a great
argument for building a new pipeline,” said Andy Pearson, a member
of the organization MN350....
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Receives Prestigious Award + $1 Million
Investment to Transition Away From Fossil Fuels
by Wallace Global Fund, on EcoWatch - 08 JUN 2017
The Wallace Global Fund awarded the inaugural Henry A.
Wallace Award and a $250,000 prize to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
for its unyielding courage in the fight against the Dakota Access
Pipeline, and its dedication to transitioning to renewable energy.
In addition to the $250,000 prize, the tribe will receive up to a $1
million investment from the Wallace Global Fund to support its
transition toward fossil fuel independence.
The award was presented to Tribal Chairman David Archambault
II at an award ceremony in New York on Thursday; a donor and
investor lunch briefing followed the ceremony to highlight solar and
wind energy projects underway at the Standing Rock Reservation.
The Henry A. Wallace Award was established in 2017 by the
Wallace Global Fund to lift up the extraordinary courage and will it
takes to stand up to oppressive corporate and political power. Henry
A. Wallace was a visionary and progressive advocate who served as
the 33rd vice president of the U.S. under President Franklin D.
Roosevelt.
"Our foundation is guided by my grandfather's framing of a
mighty struggle that continues to this day: protecting the interests
of what he called the 'common man'—ordinary people—against the
oppressive combination of corporate and governmental power.
Democracy, he said, 'must put human beings first and dollars
second,'" said Scott Wallace, co-chair of the Wallace Global Fund.
"This award in his honor is intended to recognize the type of
extraordinary courage that ordinary people can summon to fight such
abuses of power. No one represents such courage better than the
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. And never has such courage been more
essential to the health of our democracy than right now."...
Former DAPL Security Speaks Out, Damning TigerSwan Tactics
by C.S. Hagen, HPR - 08 JUN 2017
CANNON BALL - Speaking from a nondescript hotel room, a
former DAPL security employee revealed secret agendas, illegal
activities, and widespread drug use among private security employees
hired by Energy Transfer Partners to protect the company’s interests
along to the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota.
Describing an agenda that included setting company vehicles
on fire, stealing equipment, and intentionally riling up protesters,
Kourtni Dockter, 22, of Bismarck, exposed that the security firms
involved actively attempted to pin illegal activities on
activists....
TigerSwan and Government Twist Narrative over Dakota Access Pipeline
by C.S. Hagen, HPR - 06 JUN 2017
CANNON BALL - As at Wounded Knee in 1973, the Federal Bureau
of Investigation used informants to infiltrate the anti-Dakota
Access Pipeline camps, according to government emails leaked to
media outlet The Intercept.
The claim was widely believed true by activists in the
Standing Rock camps against the Dakota Access Pipeline, but was
never proven until now. Law enforcement from five different states,
the North Dakota National Guard, the National Sheriff’s Association,
and TigerSwan security personnel hired by Energy Transfer Partners,
the parent company of the Dakota Access LLC, also depended upon
extracting information from social media feeds.
Leaked emails stemming from the November 21 standoff on
Backwater Bridge after militarized law enforcement used water
cannons to force back hundreds of activists in freezing
temperatures, reveal government agencies’ attempts to control the
narrative. Hundreds of activists were reportedly injured, one
seriously - Sophia Wilansky - was hospitalized with life-threatening
injuries after an explosion nearly ripped off her arm.“Everyone
watch a different live feed,” Bismarck Police Officer Lynn Wanner
wrote in an email, which was seen by FBI agents, the Bureau of
Indian Affairs, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office....
ON A FREEZING NIGHT in November, as police sprayed nonviolent Dakota
Access Pipeline opponents with water hoses and rubber bullets,
representatives of the FBI, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, North
Dakota’s U.S. Attorney’s Office, and local law enforcement agencies
frantically exchanged emails as they monitored the action in real
time.
“Everyone watch a different live feed,” Bismarck police
officer Lynn Wanner wrote less than 90 minutes after the protest
began on the North Dakota Highway 1806 Backwater Bridge. By 4 a.m.
on November 21, approximately 300 water protectors had been injured,
some severely. Among them was 21-year-old Sophia Wilansky, who
nearly lost her arm after being hit by what multiple sworn witnesses
say was a police munition.
The emails exchanged that night highlight law enforcement
efforts to control the narrative around the violent incident by
spreading propaganda refuting Wilansky’s story, demonstrate the
agencies’ heavy reliance on protesters’ social media feeds to
monitor activities, and reveal for the first time the involvement of
an FBI informant in defining the story police would promote.
The exchange is included in documents obtained by The
Intercept that reveal the efforts of law enforcement and private
security contractors to surveil Dakota Access Pipeline opponents
between October and December 2016, as law enforcement’s outsized
response to the demonstrators garnered growing nationwide attention
and the number of water protectors living in anti-pipeline camps
grew to roughly 10,000. Although the surveillance of anti-DAPL
protesters was visible at the time — with helicopters circling
overhead, contingents of security officials watching from the hills
above camp, and a row of blinding lights illuminating the horizon
along the pipeline’s right of way — intelligence collection largely
took place in darkness.
In addition to the email communications, The Intercept is
publishing 15 internal situation reports prepared by the private
security firm TigerSwan for its client, Dakota Access parent company
Energy Transfer Partners, as well as three PowerPoint presentations
that TigerSwan shared with law enforcement. The documents are part
of a larger set that includes more than 100 internal TigerSwan
situation reports that were leaked to The Intercept by one of the
company’s contractors and more than 1,000 Dakota Access-related law
enforcement records obtained via public records request....
Native Nations Support the Paris Climate Change Agreement Stand With Standing Rock - 04 JUN 2017
Cannon Ball, ND, Hoquiam, WA, La Conner, WA and Juneau, AK
June 3, 2017– Four Native Nations from across North America
announced today that they will continue to uphold and support the
Paris Climate Change Agreement. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the
Quinault Indian Nation, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, and
the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska
have committed to aggressively address climate change in their
respective homelands in response to the US decision to withdraw from
the Agreement.
Since time immemorial Native Americans, the First Americans,
have responsibly cared for Mother Earth. Chairman Cladoosby
affirmed, “As sovereign nations, we stand with the countries around
the world to support the Paris Climate Change Agreement and we join
with them to protect this precious place we all call home.”
The failure of the US to confront the urgent and existential
threat of climate change makes it a moral and practical necessity
for tribal, state, and local governments, in collaboration with
average citizens everywhere, to fill the leadership vacuum and
redouble their climate change avoidance, mitigation, and resiliency
efforts. Every domestic climate change initiative launched must be
bold, aggressively funded, comprehensive, and tailored to confront
the dire scientific forecasts of the challenges we face, not the
political establishment’s consensus of what is reasonable....
America's Freedom to Protest Is Under Attack
A UN special rapporteur was shocked to find abusive
employers, anti-protest bills, and other signs of a weakening of
democracy.
by Michelle Chen, The Nation - 06 JUN 2017
It’s no secret that America’s star is fading on the world
stage these days, under a president whose authoritarian tactics have
outraged allies and enemies alike. But a recent audit by an
international human-rights monitor reveals that, even before Trump’s
buffoonery took over the White House, Washington was failing
dramatically to live up to its reputation as a beacon of democracy.
UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Assembly Maina Kiai’s dissection
of the nation’s systematic betrayal of basic human rights centers on
America’s shrinking public square.
Based on a year-long observation of the country’s governance
and civic life that stretches from mid-2016 through the start of the
Trump administration, Kiai, whose post recently ended with the
publication of the report, sees a massive erosion of the right to
freedom of assembly. The concept encompasses the right to organize
and protest and other essential forms of civic and public activism.
Though it is formally inscribed in the Bill of Rights, the precept
has come under assault under the Trump administration, Kiai says,
stoked by the president’s “hateful and xenophobic rhetoric during
the presidential campaign” and blatant flouting of civil liberties
in his policies and governing style.
Kiai concludes that over the past year a growing swath of
communities of color, workers and immigrants, and other marginalized
groups have felt deterred from engaging in social movements, staging
protests and other forms of citizen action, or campaigning to defend
community and workplace rights....
Provided video
footage of Ohio State Highway Patrol Troopers at the
Standing Rock protest, in North Dakota, in November
2016. Provided
Ohio Judge Orders State Police to Release North Dakota Records
by James Pilcher, Enquirer; Cincinnati.com -
05 JUN 2017
An Ohio court upheld a previous ruling that the Ohio State
Highway Patrol improperly withheld records specifying the names of
troopers sent to North Dakota to help local law enforcement with
protests over an oil pipeline there.
The Enquirer in January requested the names of the 37
officers deployed to North Dakota.
North Dakota was the site of several violent clashes last
year between Native American protesters and law enforcement over the
building of a new pipeline through sites considered to be religious
by local tribes.
Protesters were also concerned about the possible impact of
the Dakota Access pipeline on the local water supply.
State officials denied The Enquirer's request filed under the
Ohio Open Records Act, as well as requests for internal
communications about the deployment.
Previously a special master ruled that the state should turn
over the names of the troopers, but that the request for the
communications was "too broad."
In his ruling issued May 30, Court of Claims Judge Patrick M.
McGrath upheld the magistrate's ruling that the state should have
turned over the troopers' names....
The Culture Walk
on Earth Day April 22, 2012, where the Moapa Band of
Paiutes and its allies walked 50 miles from the coal
power plant to the federal building in downton Las
Vegas.
How One Small Tribe Beat Coal and Built a Solar Plant
by Yessenia Funes, Colorlines; Navajo-Hopi Observer -
06 JUN 2017
MOAPA, NV — Tucked between scattered red desert rocks, the
Moapa Band of Paiutes dwells on a little over 70,000 acres in
southeastern Nevada. It’s a small tribe with a population of no more
than 311, but those numbers haven’t stopped its members from
shutting down a giant coal generating station to protect their
health and land.
While President Donald Trump is attempting to revive the coal
industry, the Moapa Band has proven how dangerous that industry can
be to health. Tribal members suffer from high rates of asthma and
heart disease, though the tribe›s small size makes it difficult to
accurately quantify. The coal-fired Reid Gardner Generating Station
sits outside the Moapa River Indian Reservation, just beyond a fence
for some tribal members who have had to deal with the repercussions
of its air pollution and toxic coal ash waste for 52 years.
“The whole tribe was suffering from it,” says Vernon Lee, a
tribal member and former council member who worked at the plant 15
years ago. “It’s just bad stuff. We all knew that.”
Coincidentally, the day after the station last stopped
operating (on March 17), the Moapa Band of Paiutes launched the
Moapa Southern Paiute Solar Project, the first-ever solar project
built on tribal land, in partnership with large-scale solar operator
First Solar. Companies started approaching the tribe about leasing
its land around the same time their organizing took off, and things
essentially fell into place....
Water Hole: No Running Water on Navajo Nation Reservation
Some Navajo ask if the cost of running water is worth
the risk to their traditional way of life
by Ethan Millman, Cronkite News; Navajo-Hopi Observer - 06 JUN 2017
MONUMENT VALLEY — On the outskirts of Monument Valley,
touching the Arizona-Utah border, a water well is encased in a brick
building behind a barb-wired fence. A few cattle graze nearby,
mooing to occasionally pierce the quiet.
Residents say the well is one of two in the area, a couple
miles from a small town on the Navajo Reservation. One well is a
direct line to hotels. This one, leading to a one-spigot watering
hole a few miles away, is the main water supply for about 900 people
living nearby.
The first residents of the day, with big plastic bottles and
buckets lining truck beds and packed into car trunks as they drive
along miles of rock-strewn, dirt roads, start to arrive.
Lack of running water
Verna Yazzie, who runs an Airbnb in Monument Valley, takes an
18-mile round trip when she needs water. She goes to the watering
hole a few times a week and said she has to go off-roading for six
miles to get to the nearest water source.
“We’ve never had running water for as long as I remember,”
Yazzie said. “I usually haul water about three times a week for
ourselves, for our livestock and for our planting. The difficulties
are mostly the rough roads that we have to drive. It’s about nine
miles one way from my house to the nearest water hole.”
Leaders of the Navajo Water Project, a non-profit working to
bring more running water to Navajo homes in New Mexico and clean
water to an Arizona school for youths who are disabled, estimate
about 40 percent of Navajo Nation members don’t have access to
running water in their homes....
During my week-long visit to Standing Rock in January 2017, I
listened to many water protectors speak about the shady tactics used
against them by private security contractors and local law
enforcement to undermine their protests against the Dakota Access
Pipeline.
I heard stories about DAPL security companies trying to infiltrate
protest camps and instigate rifts between activists. I heard about
organizers being followed and indigenous activists seeing planes,
helicopters, and drones above their camp, surveilling their protests
and recording their movements and activities at all hours.
I heard indigenous people describing their home being turned into a
war zone. Local law enforcement agencies, led by the Morton County
Sheriff’s Department, aggressively deployed militarized gear and
weapons — designed for use in war — to intimidate peaceful
protesters and violently crack down on a historic indigenous-led
movement.
Now, these stories and testimonies have been confirmed by newly
released documents, some of which were leaked to the press by a
contractor from TigerSwan — the security agency hired by the
pipeline company, Energy Transfer Partners — to suppress the
protests....
TigerSwan
Counterterrorism Tactics Used to Defeat Dakota Access Pipeline
“Insurgencies”
by C.S. Hagen, HPR - 30 MAY 2017
CANNONBALL - Documents leaked to media outlet The Intercept
showed private security firm TigerSwan worked closely with law
enforcement from five different states, and used military-style
counterterrorism measures against the movement opposed to the Dakota
Access Pipeline.
Activists were identified, then tracked by name through
sightings, Tweets, and Facebook posts. Protest sites were allocated
numbers, and detailed accounts of day-by-day actions were monitored
and reported to Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company of
Dakota Access, LLC. Police officers in areas along the pipeline
route who were unwilling to make arrests were dealt with, according
to documents, and TigerSwan mercenaries daily planned operations
with local police.The result led to a massive misinformation
campaign, the arrests of 761 activists, journalists, and Native
Americans, and more than $38 million the state spent during the
emergency state declared by former Governor Jack Dalrymple. In
addition, at least three activists who joined the movement against
the Dakota Access Pipeline, have been targeted by the FBI’s Joint
Terrorism Task Force.
TigerSwan communications described the movement as “an
ideologically driven insurgency with a strong religious component,”
comparing anti-pipeline activists to jihadist fighters, and stating
the agency expected a “post-insurgency model after its collapse,”
according to the documents....
Indigenous Environmental Network On Exit From Paris Agreement
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 01 JUNE 2017
Contact:
Jade Begay, jade@ienearth.org,
505-699-4791
Nina Smith,
nina@megaphonestrategies.com, 301-717-9006 Indigenous Environmental Network - 01 JUN 2017
Bemidji, MN — Following reports that Donald Trump will end
the U.S.’ participation in the Paris Agreement, the Indigenous
groups that make up the Indigenous Environmental Network are
responding, denouncing the move and calling for continued resistance
to Trump’s disastrous environmental policies. Tom BK Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous
Environmental Network, issued the following response:
“Donald Trump is showing us the art of breaking a deal. By
abandoning the Paris Agreement, this administration will further
perpetuate environmental racism and climate injustice against
Indigenous peoples experiencing the worst effects of climate change
across the globe....
22 Awesome Responses to Trump's Announcement on Paris Agreement
by Stefanie Spear, EcoWatch - 01 JUN 2017
As you've probably already heard, President Trump announced
today that he will withdrawal the U.S. from the Paris climate
agreement.
The 2015 accord, signed by nearly 200 countries, commits
nations to voluntarily cut greenhouse gas emissions to limit global
warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels to prevent
catastrophic climate change.
In anticipation of Trump's withdrawal from the agreement,
world leaders reaffirmed their support to reduce global emissions
and lead on climate action. Now, the U.S. joins Syria and Nicaragua
as the only countries not to back the accord.
Trump's remarks, which he made from the White House Rose
Garden, included:
"In order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America and
its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate
accord but being negotiations to reenter either the Paris accord or
an entirely new transaction under terms that are fair to the United
States. We're getting out. And we will start to renegotiate and
we'll see if there's a better deal. If we can, great. If we can't,
that's fine.
"The United States will cease all implementation of the
nonbinding Paris accord. As someone who cares deeply about our
environment, I cannot in good conscience support a deal which
punishes the United States. The Paris accord is very unfair at the
highest level to the United States.
"The agreement doesn't eliminate coal jobs, it just transfers
those jobs out of the United States and ships them to foreign
countries. This agreement is less about the climate and more about
other countries gaining a financial advantage over the United
States."
Watch Trump's announcement
here (starts 37 minutes into the video).
Here are my 21 favorite responses to Trump's announcement.
Share your response in the comments:...
NORTH DAKOTA'S PEACE OFFICER CODE OF CONDUCT AND OATH by Al Swilling, SENAA International
- 24 OCT 2016
North Dakota Law Contains a Detailed Code of Conduct and Oath of
Office That Its Peace Officers Must Vow to Uphold--That Applies to
the Morton County, ND, Sheriff, His Deputies, and Reinforcements
from Other Sheriff's Departments Who Are Working Temporarily for the
Morton County Sheriff, or for any other Law Enforcement entity in
the state of North Dakota....
A Word About Brenda
Norrell and Censored News Al Swilling, SENAA International - 14 FEB 2015 For those wondering why the vast majority of shared
posts on SENAA International's Web site and Facebook page are from
Brenda Norrell's Censored News, it's very simple—and very complex. For
many years, Brenda Norrell was a major journalist for (forgive me,
Brenda) Indian Country Today (ICT) until they censored Brenda's articles
and terminated her without cause. After leaving Indian Country Today,
Brenda created the appropriately
named Censored News.
While at
ICT, Brenda was a voice for the Dineh (Navajo) people at
Black Mesa, Arizona, where bed partners Peabody Coal and the BIA were trying to
forcibly remove Dineh residents from their ancestral homes in order to
strip mine the land of its coal. That greed took the form of a
contrived, fictional "land dispute" between Dineh' and Hopi....
Censored
News by Journalist & Publisher Brenda Norrell Censored News - 12 FEB 2015
Censored News was created in 2006 after staff reporter Brenda
Norrell was censored repeatedly, then terminated by Indian Country
Today. Now in its 9th year, with 3.7 million page views around the
world, Censored News is published with no advertising, grants or
sponsors.
Today, Censored News maintains a boycott of Indian Country Today,
whose reporters have relied on plagiarism of others' hard work for
years, instead of being present to cover news stories. Now, with a
collective of writers, Censored News focuses on Indigenous Peoples and
human rights.
www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Please Donate to and Support this important voice for Indigenous
people and human rights. --Al Swilling, Founder, SENAA International
Worldwide Prayer Gatherings Will Resume Weekly
by SENAA International - 28 OCT 2014 What Is a Worldwide Prayer
Gathering?
Though the specific details may vary from one support group to
another, and from one geographical location to another, the essential
concept remains the same.
A Worldwide Prayer Gathering is not so much a physical gathering into
one physical location as it is the spiritual gathering of individuals
and groups from around the world who are of one mind and one accord into
one spiritual place for a common purpose, which is to ask for the
Creator's help to bring about the circumstances that will accomplish our
common goal according to His promise.
TUTORIAL
LSO MANAGEMENT: What They Are
and What to Do About Them SENAA International - 16 FEB 2010
Introduction
The computing public is becoming increasingly aware
of the existence of Local Shared Objects (LSOs),
also called "Flash cookies" or "Persistent
Identification Elements" (PIEs), the dangers they
pose, and the unethical ways that they are placed on
our machines. LSOs are the busybodies of the
Internet, sticking their
noses in your personal
business at every opportunity without
your knowledge or consent; and like most
busybodies, they're being found out.
With growing public awareness of LSOs comes a growing
demand for effective, real time control of them. Most
LSO management solutions offer management or deletion of
LSOs after potentially malicious ones have had time to
do their damage. Stand-alone LSO management utilities do
not offer real time protection, either. This tutorial
provides real-time management of LSOs....
IF YOU DON'T KNOW YOUR
CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS, LEARN THEM! READ THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS!
Transcripts of the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of
Rights (1st 10 amendments), and other Constitutional Amendments for your
perusal. A public service endeavor of SENAA International.
$431,987 of $500,000
goal
Raised by 14,923 people in
6 months
GoFundMe - 21 NOV 2016 Sophia Wilansky is a water protector from New York.
She left New York City several weeks ago to help with the struggle
at Standing Rock. She been an active participate and family to the
activist groups NYC Shut It Down and Hoods4Justice. Sophia has
always been committed to confronting injustice through vigilance and
resistance.
Sophia was giving out bottles of water to protectors holding
down the space when she was shot with a concussion grenade. The
explosion blew away most of the muscles, femural and ulnal
arteries were destroyed, and one of her forearm bones was
shattered. She
was air lifted to County Medical Center in Minneapolis were she’s
currently undergoing a series of extensive, hours-long surgeries from
the injuries
sustained from the blast.
We
must to support our comrades when they need us the most. She needs
all of us right now. After all she is our family.
Please consider donating to help pay for her treatment.
Vanessa has been on the front lines fighting DAPL and working
security for Oceti Sakowin since September 11. During the action on
November 20 at the Backwater bridge, she was intentionally shot in the eye with a
tear gas canister from 6 feet away. It was aimed directly at her face by
a Morton County officer. She was seen at Bismarck Sanford hospital
and released because she had no insurance. She has a detached retina
and needs surgery to ensure her vision. She is now seeking medical
attention in Fargo. Donations will be used for the cost of the 2 ER
visits, surgery, medications, and recovery.
The PATRIOT Act's Impact on Your Rights - ACLU
The
ACLU’s National Security Project is dedicated to ensuring
that U.S. national security policies and practices are
consistent with the Constitution, civil liberties, and human
rights.
