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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:...
Stingray Tracking Devices ACLU - 31 MAY 2017
Stingrays, also known as “cell site simulators” or “IMSI
catchers,” are invasive cell phone surveillance devices that mimic
cell phone towers and send out signals to trick cell phones in the
area into transmitting their locations and identifying information.
When used to track a suspect’s cell phone, they also gather
information about the phones of countless bystanders who happen to
be nearby.
Law enforcement agencies all over the country possess
Stingrays, though their use is often shrouded in secrecy. The ACLU
has uncovered evidence that federal and local law enforcement
agencies are actively trying to conceal their use from public
scrutiny, and we are continuing to push for transparency and reform.
In order to protect both privacy and First Amendment rights,
the law needs to keep up with technology. The government must be
open about the use of these powerful tools and put rules on their
usage in place to protect people’s Fourth Amendment rights and
prevent abuse....
PSC Issues Dakota Access Hearing Notices
Fox News - 31 MAY 2017
BISMARCK, N.D. - Dakota Access discovered possible Native
American artifacts in October 2016 and didn't notify the Public
Service Commission. The PSC issued a notice of a hearing for that
complaint and one other at Wednesday's meeting.
The PSC also issued a hearing on charges that Dakota Access
cleared more trees and shrubs then they were allowed to, but the
unanticipated discovery last fall made headlines across the country.
The commission was not notified when workers found a series
of rock cairns consistent with other Native American artifacts along
the route.
Contractors then began to reroute the pipeline around the
discovery but again failed to notify the PSC. Dakota Access did
however notify the State Historic Preservation Office, but not the
PSC until the commission's inspectors found the discovery
themselves....
Stingray Tracking Devices: Who's Got Them? ACLU - 31 MAY 2017
The map below tracks what we know, based on press reports and
publicly available documents, about the use of stingray tracking
devices by state and local police departments. Following the map is
a list of the federal agencies known to have the technology. The
ACLU has identified 72 agencies in 24 states and the District of
Columbia that own stingrays, but because many agencies continue to
shroud their purchase and use of stingrays in secrecy, this map
dramatically underrepresents the actual use of stingrays by law
enforcement agencies nationwide.
Stingrays, also known as "cell site simulators" or "IMSI
catchers," are invasive cell phone surveillance devices that mimic
cell phone towers and send out signals to trick cell phones in the
area into transmitting their locations and identifying information.
When used to track a suspect's cell phone, they also gather
information about the phones of countless bystanders who happen to
be nearby....
Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman David Archambault Found Not
Guilty of Disorderly Conduct Fox News - 31 MAY 2017
MORTON COUNTY, N.D. - Claps and sighs of relief in a Morton
County courtroom, where a jury acquitted Standing Rock Tribal
Chairman Dave Archambault and Tribal Council member Dana Yellow Fat
of disorderly conduct charges.
Alayna Eagle Shield was also acquitted.
The cases go back to a protest near a Dakota Access Pipeline
site last August.
Both men testified at Wednesday's hearing and are satisfied
with the outcome.
It was one not guilty verdict after another involving very
prominent figures with the Dakota Access Pipeline protest.
"I feel relieved you know, this is something that has been
hanging over my head for a long time for almost a year now and not
knowing when this was ever going to end is kind of an uneasy feeling
and now that it's done I'm thankful," said Archambault....
Leaks and Militarized Policing: Water Protectors are Proven Right
by Michael J. Sainato, CounterPunch - 30 MAY 2017
The water protectors’ efforts to stop the Dakota Access
Pipeline were a historic mobilization of Native American tribes from
all across the country coming together in solidarity for the
Standing Rock Sioux. The original route of the pipeline was moved
from Bismarck, North Dakota, onto Standing Rock Sioux reservation
land and sacred tribal grounds.
Despite the overt violation of treaties between the federal
government and the Standing Rock Sioux, the pipeline’s construction
persisted while mainstream media outlets and Democratic Party
leaders all virtually remained silent on the issue.
The void in media coverage was filled by alternative media
outlets and citizen journalists. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) and
Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) were two of the small handful of
elected officials willing to speak out on behalf of the NoDAPL
fight.Throughout months of living at the Standing Rock camps, water
protectors endured constant abuse, violence, and a propaganda
campaign from the Morton County Sheriff’s Office and hired security
contractors.
On May 27, the Intercept reported, “a SHADOWY INTERNATIONAL
mercenary and security firm known as TigerSwan targeted the movement
opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline with military-style
counterterrorism measures, collaborating closely with police in at
least five states, according to internal documents obtained by The
Intercept.”...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bemidji, MN – Early this morning the Intercept published an
article revealing leaked documents that prove Energy Transfer
Partners (ETP), the parent company of the Dakota Access Pipeline,
and law enforcement from five states were using counterterrorist
tactics during the time the #NoDAPL camps were operating. A
contractor who worked with TigerSwan, the security company hired by
ETP, leaked over 100 internal documents revealing that “TigerSwan
spearheaded a multifaceted private security operation characterized
by sweeping and intrusive surveillance of protesters.” The documents
also show that the security company compared the Water Protectors to
jihadist fighters.
The following are statements from the Indigenous
Environmental Network: ...
The Keystone XL Pipeline Fight Continues
by Adam Wernick, PRI - 27 MAY 2017
President Donald Trump has given TransCanada a permit to
continue construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, but
a coalition of citizens, farmers, ranchers, Native American tribes
and environmental groups have united to oppose the pipeline’s route
through Nebraska’s Sandhills area.
President Barack Obama had rejected the pipeline on the
grounds that it would aggravate global warming, but the Trump State
Department overturned that ruling. The Natural Resources Defense
Council, the Center for Biological Diversity and Bold Alliance/Bold
Nebraska have sued the administration, alleging that the move
violated the law.
TransCanada also needs a permit from the state of Nebraska,
but activists there say the pipeline would be harmful to Native
American communities and would threaten the Sandhills ecosystem. The
Sandhills is a fragile part of the prairie, where water recharges
the massive Ogallala Aquifer. The aquifer stretches from West Texas
to South Dakota and serves 30 percent of irrigated crops in the US.
“The great news,” says Jane Kleeb, president of Bold
Alliance/Bold Nebraska, “is that in our country, we still have
something called states’ rights, [and] oil pipelines are permitted
at the state level. So, TransCanada still has to get a state-issued
permit to cross into our state for the Keystone XL route. It's a
very rigorous process. It'll actually be the first time that the
Public Service Commission reviews an oil pipeline route in
Nebraska.”
Nebraska politics are unusual because the state has a
unicameral, nonpartisan legislature. There is no party
identification on the ballot when citizens vote. The Public Service
Commission, however, is a partisan political body, Kleeb
explains....
Stand With Nebraska and Fight the Keystone XL
NRDC - 27 MAY 2017
The Trump administration gave the Keystone XL pipeline the
green light, but the pipeline can't move forward without an approved
route through the state of Nebraska. This disastrous tar sands
pipeline poses a grave threat to our land, water, communities and
climate — but the state of Nebraska has the power to stop it in its
tracks. Stand with the people of Nebraska who are united against the
Keystone XL and urge the Nebraska Public Service Commission to block
the pipeline....
Leaked Documents Reveal Counterterrorism Tactics Used at Standing
Rock to “Defeat Pipeline Insurgencies” TigerSwan Tactics, Part 1
by Alleen Brown, Will Parrish, Alice Speri; The Intercept
- 27 MAY 2017
A shadowy international mercenary and security firm known as
TigerSwan targeted the movement opposed to the Dakota Access
Pipeline with military-style counterterrorism measures,
collaborating closely with police in at least five states, according
to internal documents obtained by The Intercept. The documents
provide the first detailed picture of how TigerSwan, which
originated as a U.S. military and State Department contractor
helping to execute the global war on terror, worked at the behest of
its client Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the Dakota
Access Pipeline, to respond to the indigenous-led movement that
sought to stop the project.
Internal TigerSwan communications describe the movement as “an
ideologically driven insurgency with a strong religious component”
and compare the anti-pipeline water protectors to jihadist fighters.
One report, dated February 27, 2017, states that since the movement
“generally followed the jihadist insurgency model while active, we
can expect the individuals who fought for and supported it to follow
a post-insurgency model after its collapse.” Drawing comparisons
with post-Soviet Afghanistan, the report warns, “While we can expect
to see the continued spread of the anti-DAPL diaspora … aggressive
intelligence preparation of the battlefield and active coordination
between intelligence and security elements are now a proven method
of defeating pipeline insurgencies.”
More than 100 internal documents leaked to The Intercept by a
TigerSwan contractor, as well as a set of over 1,000 documents
obtained via public records requests, reveal that TigerSwan
spearheaded a multifaceted private security operation characterized
by sweeping and invasive surveillance of protesters.
As policing continues to be militarized and state legislatures
around the country pass laws criminalizing protest, the fact that a
private security firm retained by a Fortune 500 oil and gas company
coordinated its efforts with local, state, and federal law
enforcement to undermine the protest movement has profoundly
anti-democratic implications. The leaked materials not only
highlight TigerSwan’s militaristic approach to protecting its
client’s interests but also the company’s profit-driven imperative
to portray the nonviolent water protector movement as unpredictable
and menacing enough to justify the continued need for extraordinary
security measures. Energy Transfer Partners has continued to retain
TigerSwan long after most of the anti-pipeline campers left North
Dakota, and the most recent TigerSwan reports emphasize the threat
of growing activism around other pipeline projects across the
country....
Faulty Weld Behind Dakota Access Leak
Commissioning process identified fault before line
went into service
by Renée Jean, Williston Herald - 26 MAY 2017
A faulty weld on the Dakota Access pipeline was responsible
for a 20-gallon leak reported March 5 at an above-ground station in
Mercer County, while an 84-gallon spill at a pipeline terminal in
Watford City on March 3 was actually owned and operated by a
different company, Caliber Midstream — though ultimately the line
will feed oil into the Dakota Access system.
The faulty weld that caused the 20-gallon leak on the Dakota
Access line in Mercer County was identified during a standard
commissioning process designed to identify problems before a
pipeline is put into service, ensuring a line’s integrity before it
begins operation. The spill was not reported to North Dakota, but
was reported to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety
Administration, as required.
“Our crews were on site at this valve site as the
commissioning process was under way, so it was immediately
remediated,” Vicki Granado, a spokeswoman for Dakota Access, said.
“It occurred during the process of getting the pipeline ready to go
into service.”
Caliber Midstream CEO Dave Scobel confirmed their company was
also engaged in a commissioning process for their line, which will
tie into Dakota Access in Watford City once it is put in service....
Standing Rock: Where the Movement Is Now, From First Protester on
the Front Lines
by Josh Schlossberg, Westword - 26 MAY 2017
LaDonna Brave Bull Allard is a Lakota historian and member of
the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota. In April 2016 she
started the Sacred Stone Camp, the first occupation to oppose the
Dakota Access Pipeline.
Allard was named 2017’s Rebel With a Cause Honoree at
Conservation Colorado’s Rebel With a Cause Gala on May 24 in Denver.
Westword sat down with her to get her perspective on the NoDAPL
movement, renewable energy, and the future of life on Earth.
Westword: What does it mean for you that 300 Native American
tribes planted flags at Standing Rock? Does this signal a new dawn
for Native American movements? The environmental movement?
LaDonna Brave Bull Allard: It’s a new movement for the world.
It was not only 300 tribal nations; it was the Sami from Norway and
Sweden, the Mongolians from China and Russia, Aboriginals from
Australia, many African nations, aboriginals from India, the Maori
from New Zealand. But as far as American history goes, this was the
largest tribal gathering ever. This is the first time we stood among
our enemies as allies...
Canada's PM Trudeau claims climate champion role while embracing Big
Oil?
by Brian Mann (Adirondack Bureau Chief) in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada;
North Country Public Radio - 23 MAY 2017
May 23, 2017 — Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has
offered himself as a global leader on climate change, unveiling an
ambitious new environmental plan that includes phasing out
coal-fired power plants, a tax on carbon, and big investments in
renewable energy.
But at the same time, Trudeau has promised to help expand
Canada’s role as an energy exporter.
He’s backed controversial pipeline projects including
Keystone XL that would cross into the United States and is pushing
for big new investments in the tar sands oil fields of northern
Alberta.
Trudeau insists that he’s striving for a kind of third way,
embracing big oil while also acknowledging the imminent threat of
climate change and respecting aboriginal sovereignty. Critics say
he’s making promises that contradict each other and risks alienating
the progressive voters who elected him in 2015.
Trudeau the climate champion
Speaking last year before the United Nations assembly in New
York City, Prime Minister Trudeau made the case that swift action is
needed to curb carbon pollution, especially by prosperous developed
societies like Canada.
“We know that it will be the world’s poorest citizens who
will be hardest hit by climate change, displace by rising sea
levels, left hungry by failed crops, more vulnerable to disease,”
Trudeau said...
A team from the
University of Arizona collects water samples from the San
Juan River. Karletta Chief
Scientists Tell Navajo Farmers Their Water Is No Longer Contaminated
Navajo farmers have been wary of the San Juan river ever since a
mine spill in 2015 turned the water bright yellow. Data just
presented to them shows that lead and arsenic levels meet the EPA’s
drinking water guidelines.
by Nidhi Subbaraman, BuzzFeed - 24 MAY 2017
On August 5, 2015, a crew of EPA workers and contractors surveying
the abandoned Gold King Mine in Colorado dislodged a plug at the
site, letting 3 million gallons of trapped water — containing
arsenic, mercury, lead, and more — wash into a tributary of the
Animas River.
The river carried the sludge southwest, and within days the Animas
and San Juan rivers turned an alarming shade of yellow. After two
weeks, the EPA announced an investigation into the causes of the
event and the agency’s response to it.
Downstream in New Mexico, in the Navajo community of Shiprock,
farmers use river water to irrigate corn and cantaloupe, and raise
sheep and goats. The spill caught farmers in the middle of their
growing season.
Navajo Nation community health representative Mae-Gilene Begay
mobilized a crew to warn residents to steer clear of the river
water. “A lot of them were concerned because they go fishing in the
river either for recreation for livestock or for farming,” she told
BuzzFeed News.
The community closed the irrigation canals for eight months, until
April 2016. A few months later, the Navajo Nation sued the EPA and
mine owners and operators, claiming that the parties' negligence
caused an accident they should have foreseen and prevented.
Over the last year and a half, a group of scientists from the
University of Arizona has been working to help the Navajo understand
the impact of the spill, by presenting data about contaminant levels
to the community so that they feel empowered to decide whether to
start using river water again....
DAPL
Springs 3rd Oil Leak Before Going Operational RT America - 23 MAY 2017
Bears Ears 'Review' a Sham, Against the Law?
Help Save Bears Ears National Monument -- Take Action EcoWatch - 23 MAY 2017
An anti-public lands official in Utah said Interior Sec. Ryan
Zinke has already made up his mind to repeal Bears Ears National
Monument, a move experts say could be against the law.
According to a report from E&E News, Zinke has already told
some officials in Utah that he will recommend revoking Bears Ears
National Monument's protected status. This suggests the Trump
administration has already made up its mind about the outcome of its
so-called "review" of national monuments created under the
Antiquities Act, for which it is ostensibly soliciting public
comments.
The Department of the Interior is claiming no decision has
been made about Bears Ears, but the E&E report dovetails with news
that Zinke mostly met with opponents of the monument while in Utah,
as well as the Trump administration's presumptive goal of stripping
its protected status.
Meanwhile, a new paper from legal scholars concludes that
President Trump's abolition or diminution of a national monument
would be against the law. Such a move would also undermine tribal
sovereignty and undercut the appointment of official tribal
representatives to the newly created Bears Ears Commission, which is
supposed to help govern the management of the monument....
Police face off
against Water Protectors occupying a bridge immediately
north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in Cannon
Ball, North Dakota, October 28, 2016. (Photo: Angus
Mordant / The New York Times)
Footing the $15 Million Bill for the Dakota Access Pipeline's
Private Army
by Ruth Hopkins, ICTMN; Truthout - 23 MAY
2017
Last fall, the eyes of the world were fixated on Standing
Rock.
Among the images burned into the brains of so many abroad
were those of Morton County sheriff's department, joined by law
enforcement officers from across the country, bedecked in military
gear and armed to the teeth, brutalizing defenseless water
protectors for expressing their first amendment rights and freedom
of religion. Eyes were opened when mercs sicced vicious attack dogs
on women and children guarding sacred burial grounds with their
lives. Folks thousands of miles away watched in horror as they
witnessed concussion grenades being thrown into crowds and elders
being maced in the midst of sweat lodge raids. People will never
forget live stream video picked up by mainstream media, showing
hundreds of civilians being shot with water cannons in subzero
temperatures by a corporate police state army. Some photos of
injuries were judged too graphic to post by social media, as they
revealed a young woman with a near severed limb and another who'd
been blinded in one eye.
This was not Iraq or Afghanistan. There was no foreign enemy
invading our shores. These events occurred in the middle of the
United States, on Lakota treaty lands; and the only thing these
innocent people had done was dare to stand in the way of the Dakota
Access Pipeline, the same one Bismarck, North Dakota residents
rejected due to fears it would contaminate their water supply. This
war zone created by Dakota Access and Morton County was meant to
subdue Standing Rock residents and water protectors and force them
to accept an unwarranted risk to their fresh water and the
desecration of ancestral graves, under the barrel of a gun.
Here in the states, hundreds of Native Nations and the
American public sided with Standing Rock. Scores came to camp along
the shores of the Mni Sosa (Missouri River). Others rallied in the
local cities, signed petitions, and called the White House. Millions
were outraged by the injustice.
Yet who is paying for the corporate police state brutality I
just mentioned? You are....
North Dakota Again Passes Discriminatory Voter ID Law Native American Rights Fund - 09 MAY 2017
On April 24, 2017, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum signed
House Bill 1369. This restrictive voter ID law continues to put
North Dakota beyond the norms of voter ID laws and violates the
constitutional rights of the state’s citizens. Just like North
Dakota’s previous law, which was found unconstitutional by a federal
court last year, this law makes it harder for some
citizens—specifically Native American citizens—to exercise their
right to vote.
What happened last year?
North Dakota has had a voter ID law since 2004. For years,
the law functioned without issue. During that time, the law required
voters to show identification, but allowed a voter without ID to
cast a ballot if either:
- A poll worker could vouch for the voter’s identity as a
qualified voter; or
- The voter signed an affidavit under penalty of perjury that
he or she was qualified to vote.
In 2013, the North Dakota legislature greatly narrowed the
law by restricting the acceptable forms of ID and eliminating the
voucher and affidavit fail-safes. The following session, the
legislature amended the law again to even further restrict the forms
of acceptable ID.
In 2016, eight Native Americans filed suit to block the voter
ID law, alleging that it disenfranchised Native American voters and
violated both state and federal constitutions as well as the Voting
Rights Act....
2 More Leaks Found Along Dakota Access Pipeline
by Blake Nicholson, Associated Press, Missoulian -
22 May 2017
BISMARCK, N.D. — The Dakota Access pipeline system leaked
more than 100 gallons of oil in North Dakota in two separate
incidents in March — the second and third known leaks discovered as
crews prepared the disputed $3.8 billion pipeline for operation.
Two barrels, or 84 gallons, spilled due to a leaky flange at
a pipeline terminal in Watford City on March 3, according to the
state's Health Department. A flange is the section connecting two
sections of pipeline. Oil flow was immediately cut off and the spill
was contained on site. Contaminated snow and soil was removed. No
people, wildlife or waterways were affected, according to the
department's environmental health database.
A leak of half a barrel, or 20 gallons (75 liters), occurred
March 5 in rural Mercer County, data from the federal Pipeline and
Hazardous Materials Safety Administration show. Contaminated soil
was removed, and no waterways were affected. There were no reported
injuries to people or wildlife. The administration is part of the
Department of Transportation.
The online report says an above-ground valve failed due to a
manufacturing defect, causing the leak. Upstream and downstream
valves were closed to isolate the leak. Later, all other such valves
on the line were inspected and found to be OK.
The federal database shows no leaks along the pipeline in
Iowa or Illinois.
The Associated Press reached out to Texas-based pipeline
developer Energy Transfer Partners for comment Monday. The company
maintains the pipeline is safe, but the Cheyenne River, Standing
Rock, Yankton and Oglala Sioux tribes in the Dakotas fear
environmental harm and are fighting in federal court, hoping to
convince a judge to shut down the line.
The Dakota Access pipeline will move North Dakota oil 1,200
miles (1,930 kilometers) through South Dakota and Iowa to a
distribution point in Illinois. ETP plans to begin commercial
operations June 1....
Protect America's National Monuments Audubon - 22 MAY 2017
Send your public comments to urge the Department of the
Interior to reject any changes to our national monuments.
For more than one hundred years, presidents of both parties
have protected sensitive habitat and historic sites as national
monuments. Now, a new executive order has placed millions of acres
of these iconic lands and waters at risk by threatening to eliminate
or shrink as many as thirty national monuments. Note: Your comment, including your name and optional
zip code, will become part of the public record. Photo: Daniel O'Donnell/Audubon Photography Awards
Rover Pipeline Owner Disputing Millions Owed After Razing Historic
Ohio Home
Energy Transfer Partners finds itself embattled anew
over the preservation of historic sites, this time in Ohio.
by Steve Horn, Nation of Change - 22 MAY 2017
After taking heat last fall for destroying sacred sites of
the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the owner of the Dakota Access
pipeline finds itself embattled anew over the preservation of
historic sites, this time in Ohio.
Documents filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC) show that Energy Transfer Partners is in the midst of a
dispute with the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office over a $1.5
million annual payment owed to the state agency as part of a
five-year agreement signed in February.
Energy Transfer Partners was set to pay the preservation
office in exchange for bulldozing the Stoneman House, a historic
home built in 1843 in Dennison, Ohio, whose razing occurred duing
construction of the Rover pipeline. Rover is set to carry natural
gas obtained via hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) from the Utica
Shale and Marcellus Shale – up to 14 percent of it – through the
state of Ohio. The pipeline owner initially bulldozed the historic
home, located near a compressor station, without notifying FERC, as
the law requires.
FERC provides regulatory and permitting oversight for
interstate pipeline projects like Rover, and as a result, is tasked
with performing an environmental and cultural review. Because Energy
Transfer Partners didn’t notify the commission of the plan to tear
down the historic home, citizens and other concerned stakeholders,
including the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office, did not have
the ability to file a formal protest of the action.
In May 2015, Energy Transfer Partners purchased the Stoneman
House from the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office for $1.3
million and bulldozed it just two weeks later, according to FERC
documents. The $1.5 million annual payment owed to the Ohio State
Historic Preservation Office was in addition to the initial cost of
purchasing the home....
Photo Illustration by
Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast
The Next Standing Rocks: 4,800 Miles of Oil Pipelines Planned Under
Trump
U.S. companies are set to carve up Native American
and private lands in more than a dozen states in order to sell
petroleum and natural gas overseas. Activists are gearing up.
by Sandy Tolan, The Daily Beast - 22 MAY 2017
This story is cooperation with Reveal from The Center for
Investigative Reporting.
A high-stakes battle is underway on multiple front lines
across America, as Native American and climate change activists
square off against oil and pipeline companies racing to lay as much
infrastructure into the ground as quickly as possible.
The U.S. oil industry is enjoying a surge in production,
which has shot up 86 percent since 2008. Unshackled by Congress and
enabled by the most oil-friendly president in decades, the industry
aims to transform the American landscape with tens of billions of
dollars in new pipelines, storage depots, and export terminals.
That includes the Dakota Access pipeline, scene of the
yearlong protests at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, which was
slated to begin transporting oil on Sunday.
Yet despite oft-repeated claims by politicians and oil
executives about the danger of relying on foreign oil, this U.S.
petroleum renaissance never was designed to make America energy
self-sufficient: A growing amount of that oil will end up in China,
Japan, the Netherlands, even Venezuela....
An elderly woman is escorted to a transport van after being arrested
by law enforcement at the Oceti Sakowin camp as part of the final
sweep of the Dakota Access pipeline protesters in Morton County,
Feb. 23, 2017, near Cannon Ball, N.D. (Mike McCleary/The Bismarck
Tribune)
The Federal Government Wants To Imprison These Six Water Protectors
These cases likely mark the first time that United States
authorities have pursued felonies against individuals involved in
demonstrations against fossil fuel infrastructure.
by Will Parish, Mint Press News - 22 MAY 2017
Published in partnership with Shadowproof.
In February, a federal grand jury issued indictments of four
Standing Rock water protectors on charges of Federal Civil Disorder
and Use of Fire to Commit a Federal Crime.
The federal investigators accused the four men—James White,
Brennan Nastacio, Dion Ortiz, and Brandon Miller-Castillo—of
involvement in setting three highway barricades on fire, which
obstructed police during a highly-militarized October 27 raid of the
“Front Line Camp” just north of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation.
Another water protector, Michael Markus, was indicted on
identical charges on January 24, and his case has been combined with
those of the other four men. Prosecutors are also pursuing three
federal felonies against a 38-year-old Oglala Sioux woman named Red
Fawn Fallis. They accuse her of firing a gun during her arrest, even
as multiple police officers had her pinned face-down on the ground.
Fallis’ arrest also occurred on October 27.
These cases likely mark the first time that United States
authorities have pursued felonies against individuals involved in
demonstrations against fossil fuel infrastructure.
All six people facing the charges are indigenous. Under
sentencing guidelines, Red Fawn Fallis faces 25 years or more in
prison. The other federal defendants—Markus, White, Nastacio, Ortiz,
and Miller-Castillo—face up to fifteen years....
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit Friday filed by Dakota
Access LLC against five activists for their opposition to the
company's controversial pipeline . File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI |
License Photo
Judge Tosses Dakota Access Pipeline's Suit Against Protesters
by Doug G. Ware, UPI - 19 MAY 2017
May 19 (UPI) -- A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a civil
lawsuit by the owner of the Dakota Access Pipeline against several
activists who opposed the project.
Dakota Access LLC argued in their suit that members of the
Standing Rock tribe and other protesters interfered with the
pipeline's construction, endangered the safety of its workers and
cost the company more than $75,000 with their weeks-long
demonstrations.
North Dakota-based U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland
disagreed that five of the defendants -- which included Standing
Rock Indian Reservation tribal chairman Dave Archambault -- caused
fiscal disruptions that exceeded $75,000, which is the minimum limit
required for federal civil cases.
The judge said the court did not have jurisdiction over the
case.
"Dakota Access cannot aggregate the alleged harm from all
pipeline protesters in calculating the value of an injunction
against individuals acting independently," Hovland wrote....
"In the River: A Protest Song for Standing Rock" by Raye Zaragoza
Raye Zaragoza, Facebook - SEPT 2016
There is something especially beautiful and moving about the
simple presentation of just a beautiful voice and a guitar. It is
art in its purest form. It is pristine, honest, raw; and it is a
soul-baring experience for the artist. It is the performing arts
equivalent of standing naked before the world and saying, "Here I
am. This is who I am, and this is what I have to offer the world. I
share with you the gifts that Creator has seen fit to bestow upon me
in hopes that you will get a
blessing from this offering. Love me or hate me, but take the time
to see and appreciate this glimpse into my heart."
SENAA
International supports and encourages all young Indigenous
artists in all art forms as our way of showing the world that
the Indigenous People of Turtle Island (the big Turtle Island)
are among the most talented people on the planet, and that they
choose to use their gifts to support their people and to bring
attention to important indigenous issues.
We are happy to introduce Raye Zaragoza in her video "In the
River: A Protest Song" that she wrote and recorded in support of
the efforts to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline that became the
Standing Rock
#NoDAPL
movement.
This is just one of the songs that will be on her coming
debut album. This song will be on her debut album twice; once as
a fully orchestrated version, and again with just Raye and her
guitar.
We ask that you recognize and support this talented young
artist by purchasing one or more copies of her
soon-to-be-released debut album. More can be learned about her
first album on her Facebook page. Just click her name link in
the header of this post to visit her page. While you're there,
click "Follow" to follow her, and choose the "See First" option
to be sure and get any updates regarding the release date for
her debut album.
This song is from Raye Zaragoza's soon-to-be released debut
album.
Check back here or on SENAA International's Facebook page often for
the release date of Raye Zaragoza's premier album, or click the
title link above, log on at Facebook, follow Raye, and choose the
"See First" option to be sure to get her updates.
North Dakota Pipeline FORCED To Be Shut Down After LEAKING In The
Mississippi River Just Like Standing Rock Protesters Warned Alternative Media Syndicate - 27 FEB 2017
This is why water protectors continue to protest the Dakota
Access Pipeline, despite freezing temperatures and winter storms.
In case you missed it, “water protectors” have been camped
out near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, since April in protest of the
four-state Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL). The pipeline threatens to
uproot burial ground, as well as contaminate the Missouri river.
It’s because of this that activists have put their lives on the
line.
In recent months, protestors of the DAPL have been maced,
tased, shot with rubber bullets, beaten with batons, and even hosed
down in freezing temperatures with water cannons. Now, even when
it’s below 0 degrees F and snowstorms threaten to take lives,
protestors – along with thousands of veterans – remain on the plains
to prevent Energy Transfer Partners from continuing the pipeline’s
construction....
As Police Evict Water Protectors, Tribes Vow to Continue the Fight
“This isn’t the end by any means. This is the spark.
The whole world is waking up now.”
by Jenni Monet, Yes! Magazine - 24 FEB 2017
On Thursday, as North Dakota police moved in with a fleet of
bulldozers, Humvees, and armored MRAP vehicles, Gov. Doug Burgum
signed into law four bills that would bring harsher punishment for
protest-related activity in the state. The bills, his press
statement said, were meant to protect landowners’ rights. But for
the 46 people arrested that day, their stand was about defending
historic treaty territory.
“We’ve always been around this river, and that’s why we’re
here to protect this river,” said Harold Frazier, chairman of the
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, the sister nation to Standing Rock.
“That river brings life to the people.”
Frazier has become a vocal supporter in the ongoing yet
shifting movement to stop the Dakota Access pipeline. Despite
Thursday’s razing of the main demonstration camp, Oceti Sakowin, he
and dozens of water protectors, or protesters, have vowed to
continue the fight to guard the Missouri River from a potential oil
spill—if and when the pipeline is completed....
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.
