On Wednesday, the Red Warrior Camp and the Sacred Stone Spirit Camp issued a press release calling for “Global Weeks of Solidarity Action” aimed at targeting the banks and corporations behind the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Since early August activists, protesters, protectors, and members of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation have been opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline project. The opposition has come in the form of protests, rallies, prayers, Internet campaigns, petitions, and direct action. The opponents of the pipeline say that the project will put the Missouri River and other bodies of water at risk, as well as disturb important cultural sites.
The DAPL, alternatively known as the Bakken Pipeline, is owned by Dallas, Texas based corporation Energy Transfer Partners, L.P., which created the subsidiary Dakota Access LLC. The pipeline will stretch 1,172 miles upon completion and transport crude oil from the Bakken fields of North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois. The project is set to cross the Missouri River not far from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. The Sacred Stone and Red Warrior Camp’s were formed in opposition to the DAPL.
The press release from the Red Warrior Camp called for all allies to stand in solidarity with the pipeline resistance from September 3rd through 17th. The “Global Weeks of Solidarity Action” will target the pipeline companies behind the pipeline, as well as the banks funding the companies.
Water is a necessity for all life. Water is life. Now is the time for all people from all walks of life to join together to stop the desecration and destruction of water, land and life! Please join our Indigenous led movement to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline by planning or joining an action near you!
The pipeline companies behind the DAPL include:
- Energy Transfer Partners (owns a 45% stake in the project)
- Sunoco Logistics Partners (owns a 30% stake)
- Phillips 66 (owns a 25% stake)
The Red Warrior Camp also notes that Enbridge Energy Partners is closing a deal for 28% stake in the project and Marathon Petroleum Corp is seeking a 9% stake. These pipeline companies have received a $2.5 billion loan from a collection of banks that includes Citigroup, TD Securities and Mizuho Bank.
“But the pipeline companies can only access $1.1 billion of this loan until certain progress is made on the pipeline project,” the Red Warrior Camp writes. “So we are calling on these lenders to cut off this line of credit to the pipeline companies and to stop funding the DAPL.”
For more information on targets for the week of action, or to join an action visit NoDaplSolidarity.org. There are also peaceful rallies for Friday September 2nd in Dallas and Houston, Texas. Dallas is the headquarters of Energy Transfer Partners and Houston has a field office. (More details on Dallas and Houston)
As the protectors prepare for direct action the courts are also deciding what to do next. On Wednesday August 24, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C. decided to delay a decision on whether or not to issue an injunction that would further halt construction on the pipeline. The Bismarck Tribune reported that Boasberg told the court he needed more time to look at the issues at hand. While supporters at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation held prayer and ceremony to prepare for the courts decision, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the D.C. court.
The Standing Rock Sioux claim that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the National Historic Preservation Act by not properly consulting them before approving the project. Earthjustice is representing the tribe in their lawsuit against the Corps of Engineers. “The construction and operation of the pipeline, as authorized by the Corps, threatens the Tribe’s environmental and economic well-being, and would damage and destroy sites of great historic, religious, and cultural significance to the tribe,” the lawsuit states. Judge Boasberg said he will make a decision by September 9, with an appeal hearing possible on September 14.
According to the Sacred Stone Camp website:
On April 1st, 2016, tribal citizens of the Standing Rock Lakota Nation and ally Lakota, Nakota, & Dakota citizens, under the group name “Chante tin’sa kinanzi Po” founded a Spirit Camp along the proposed route of the bakken oil pipeline, Dakota Access.This Spirit Camp is called Iŋyaŋ Wakháŋagapi Othí, translated as Sacred Rock, the original name of the Cannonball area. The Spirit Camp is dedicated to stopping and raising awareness the Dakota Access pipeline, the dangers associated with pipeline spills and the necessity to protect the water resources of the Missouri river. We reject the appropriation of the name “Dakota” in a project that is in violation of aboriginal and treaty lands. The word Dakota means “the People” in the Dakota/Lakota/Nakota language and was never intended to be used in a project which violates traditional ceremonial areas.
The movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline has mass support and is in this fight for the long haul. The fight has also helped unite tribal nations and Americans of European origin in a larger battle against the violations of liberties perpetuated by the U.S. government. It’s time to put aside petty differences and begin uniting our disparate movements into a larger coalition of interests and common ground. Only as a people united in defense of liberty and all life can we achieve true lasting change.
Derrick Broze is an investigative journalist and liberty activist. He is the Lead Investigative Reporter for ActivistPost.com and the founder of the TheConsciousResistance.com. Follow him on Twitter. Derrick is the author of three books: The Conscious Resistance: Reflections on Anarchy and Spirituality and Finding Freedom in an Age of Confusion, Vol. 1 and Finding Freedom in an Age of Confusion, Vol. 2
Derrick is available for interviews. Please contact Derrick@activistpost.com
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I’m sure Mr. Broze is a compassionate individual. I therefore encourage him to notify these red terrorists (who now openly threaten school children) that their failed culture has been obsolete and irrelevant for well over 100 years now.
The wiser of the tribe members have assimilated into productive independence. The remaining have chosen parasitic dependence, shepherded by their Great White Father (or half white one) who they claim to detest. Mr. Broze should warn them that this direction will only bring their inevitable self-extinction, regardless their faith in goofy superstitions.
If they insist on the path of self-extinction, they should at least be encouraged to meet their cultural demise with some dignity.
They are NOT insisting on a path of extinction and their way of life is not failed or outdated. Their culture and people were killed by white people committing genocide. The racism against Native Americans is disgusting, Ive seen it myself.
You know nothing of their way of life, which is focused on living in harmony with all other life, and is focused on a PEACEFUL way of living. The protesters have said this is PRAYER and have committed no violence, as is their tradition. Don’t believe the mainstream media, which is firmly on the side of corporations and doesn’t report the truth, but propaganda instead.
I’ve followed this whole Lakota protest, not one person has committed any violence, that is a lie.
I’m a white person who is getting really sick of tone-deaf, ignorant white people who know nothing about Native American culture yet are full of hate and ignorance and arrogance, looking down on a people THEY KNOW NOTHING ABOUT.
And whether you realize it or not, your post is FULL OF HATE. Take a look at yourself first before condemning and judging others.
Terrorists? Assimilated? You are despicable.
#NoDAPL. Ever.