Dalrymple Attempts Eviction at Standing Rock

The wind is howling outside while I sit warm and snug in my new tipi. Snow is building up by the minute making any outside task difficult and in some cases impossible. People all around me are sheltering where they can with others to conserve heat. Elders and children are all inside being looked after. The men are delivering firewood, gas and food to them. This is what being part of a village was like back before European settlers came. We can hold out as long as supplies can be sent to us from time to time.

Governor Jack Dalrymple has imposed as many inhumane restrictions of the camps as he can in an attempt to evict people from Standing Rock in the dead of the North Dakota winter. A mandatory evacuation was ordered after months of population growth and preparing for winter. Some gave up their homes, jobs and security to come here and stand against the tyranny of big oil and a government who is still breaking treaties at will. How can any rational thinking official think he can evict them in the dead of winter in North Dakota? Winters here are some of the harshest in the country. It will get below 0-F degrees soon. The river is frozen over and roads impassable. I just heard security close all camp roads after 1806 was closed. We are here now.

Today, Bismarck Tribune posted an article saying that people caught bringing in supplies to the camps could be arrested with fines as high as $1,000.00. Hotels told travelers that no rooms would be rented to DAPL protesters! A hardware store told campers he could not sell them propane by order of Morton Co. Sheriff’s office.

These are the same racist traits that existed here when the US Army came to starve the Lakota and others from their lands. First they cut off any trade with the natives then later killed off the buffalo used for food. Hides were used for clothes and building materials for tipis. The bones were made into jewelry or tools. The US government took all of that away from them with no more thought than this governor is showing today. I lay in my teepee and can almost imagine Custer coming across the hills to wipe us out. Today’s Custer is Sheriff Kirchmeier and the  new DAPL gang is the 7^th cavalry.

Recently a class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of the water protectors who were assaulted by the militarized police forces from many different communities. I like to call them the DAPL gang. They are lawless in their tactics using weapons and gases on people who are the rightful owners of this land where the Dakota Access Pipeline crosses. It was never bartered for nor any compensation was given. It was taken under imminent domain when Lake Oahe was built. As a result of the dam's construction the  Standing Rock Reservation lost 55,993 acres (22,660 ha) leaving it with 2,300,000 acres (930,000 ha). Much of the land was taken by eminent domain claims made by the Bureau of Reclamation. Over and above the land loss, most of the reservations' prime agricultural land was included in the loss. The regions where the populations were resettled had soil with a higher clay content, and resources such as medicinal plants were less prevalent.^[4]

The loss of this land had a dramatic effect on the Indians who lived on the reservations. Most of the land was unable to be harvested (to allow the trees to be cut down for wood, etc.) before the land was flooded over with water.^[5] One visitor to the reservations later asked why there were so few older Indians on the reservations, and was told that "the old people had died of heartache" after the construction of the dam and the loss of the reservations' land.^[6] As of 2015, poverty remains a problem for the displaced populations in the Dakotas, who are still seeking compensation for the loss of the towns submerged under Lake Oahe, and the loss of their traditional ways of life.^[7] The Dakota people were given 3 choices. 1. Leave 2. Swim, 3 drown. No consultation or treaty negotiations took place.

Americans need to realize that this is about far more than a pipeline. It’s about a racist governor who is politically linked to the pipeline and his appointed militia desecrating ancestral burial grounds, polluting water, and walking all over the people’s right to be free on their own land.

Most Americans 50 years old or more, remember the civil rights era. It is taught in history books in school as something we should never forget or repeat. Here at Standing Rock Sioux Reservation I am witnessing something far worse that that. Not since the 1800’s has this degree of racism been shown. I pray that history will not be repeated as it was on Dec. 29, 1890 at a little church overlooking Wounded Knee.

Sunday night, Nov.20, 2016 I saw somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 people wounded, hypothermic, gassed, and sprayed with water from a canon in subfreezing weather. It’s a miracle someone wasn’t killed that night. One young lady did lose an arm when a concussion grenade went off near her. Many people were first hand witnesses but according to Morton Co Sheriff’s office it didn’t happen. The second story from them was it happened when she tried to use a homemade bomb that didn’t exist. Then the story from them was it happened somewhere else. They spat out so much misinformation it was almost comical if it wasn’t so serious.

Now the DAPL Gang wants to evict us in the dead of winter with the roads impassable. I ask each of you who read this to contact your local media and demand they cover the story. Contact all of your elected officials and demand an end to the aggression shown by Morton County and the DAPL Gang. Contact your local law enforcement and demand they not participate in the gang’s activities and if they are already here, demand they stand down and go home immediately.

Call, write, email, and fax the Whitehouse to step in and stop the pipeline and demand a full EIS of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Enough is enough!

Turkey Day At Standing Rock

 

The DAPL Gang

Thanksgiving is a day of celebration for millions of Americans. Some even consider it a religious day. For large portion of Native Americans it is something much different. For them the coming of European settlers was the beginning of the largest attempted genocide ever perpetrated.

Treaties are consistently broken to suit the needs of those in power and control of the majority of the country’s wealth. The Standing Rock Sioux reservation is no stranger to it. For years their land has been taken for various reasons without proper attention to the treaties. George Custer was probably the most famous character in history for breaking the very treaty being dealt with today. The Sioux have had enough. Today they are standing their grounds to demand fair treatment.

On this Thanksgiving Day while most families were eating way too much turkey and dressing the camps at Standing Rock went to pray for the victims and wounded from the previous battle.

That Sunday night the scene was very surreal. It looked more like a scene from a war movie than citizens exercising their right to assemble. Fortunately the police did exercise more restraint than in the past. At one time they did try to use a water hose on people in subfreezing weather. Fortunately the people they were trying to spray were too far away to reach so you know they couldn’t have been any threat.

One group of protectors walked along the riverbank and was met by a squad of militia from all over ranging from city police to game wardens. There must have been a couple of dozen armed with everything from pepper spray to lethal semiautomatic weapons. No one else was armed. There was never a need for such a show of force.

It was cold and overcast all day until late afternoon. The clouds broke just as the prayers on Turtle Island came to a close. The police pulled back and the water protectors went back across their bridge for a final prayer. If the police had just allowed us to do that all along there would have never been such violence as shown in the past 6 weeks by the militarized police force I call the DAPL gang.

The next morning DAPL security is suspected of destroying the bridge, stealing and tearing up the canoes owned by citizens with a right to use the river. There was miles of razor wire completely surrounding the beach. We are talking about a waterway of the US and treaty land which they have no true jurisdiction over.

Millions of tax dollars have been wasted in North Dakota protecting an industrial investment that is tied to several North Dakota elected representatives including the governor. No American taxes should ever be spent protecting a project that continues to violate treaties. It’s time America respect, honor, and obey the international laws that supercede the US Constitution.  

It’s your money America… Just Say No!

Inhumane Treatment at Standing Rock

 

Inhumane Treatment at Standing Rock

Once again the Morton County Sheriff has used his office to spread lies and misinformation about the Water Protectors at Standing Rock. He claimed that his troops only used water cannons to “put out fires set by the protestors” #1. There were NO fires at the bridge! Once again he is using this as an excuse to call for over reaction by militarized police officers. 2. They act more like a militia than police officers.

I arrived at Standing Rock Sunday night, Nov. 20, 2016 after the action had all started and could not get to the bridge for security reasons so I went to the river bank to a place where I could see the action and shoot it with telephoto lenses. It was a surreal scene from where I was. I saw a couple of smaller fires set by protectors in a humanitarian effort to give aid to people soaked with water.

A small group held tarps up to shield the fire from the water cannons. It wasn’t a dangerous fire and at no time did the militia come under threat from the Water Protectors. It was one of the most inhumane scenes I have ever witnessed.

Temperatures dropped very quickly as soon as the sun set to well below freezing. By the end of the conflict it was in the 20’s but Morton County kept pouring the water to them. My photos show a line of people silhouetted against the bright lights and multiple sources of water being directed on them from more than one angle. The rest of the scene was dark and no fires at first.

Morton County and other police officers from around the country were called in to serve in the governor’s militia. They came with heavy armament used the water cannons as weapons against people who went to the bridge to pray for the water. Anything said by the sheriff to the contrary is absolutely false.

He also stated that his troops did not use concussion devices. False again. I saw them go off and heard them even from my position. After a bright white light and very loud explosion and shrieks of pain a young girl nearly lost her arm. She may still lose it if the doctors can’t repair it but it will never be the same. They had to take an artery from her leg and use it to repair the damage caused by the DAPL militia. Fragments of the device were removed for evidence. What evidence does the sheriff have to refute that but his discredited word?

Other devices were launched with a rifle launcher or mortar. I have photos seen here that show fire trails leaving the launcher and arcing through the air where they landed among the people on the ground.

You can see the smoke trails and clouds of smoke when they hit. Interestingly enough the weapons launched by the militia set small fires in the grass far outside the water canons reach but there was no action to try and put those fires out.

What I saw and photographed that night Sunday Nov. 20 looked more like a war zone than anything else. With canons firing gas canisters, flash grenades, and water cannons to blast people to the ground it took on an eerie battleground setting.

Morton County militia carried it to an even lower standard by targeting young people who were running in to retrieve the injured. Several people have told me of being shot in the legs while carrying people out of harms way. Shot with rubber bullets and beanbags that are supposed to be “less than lethal”. Firing into a crowd at night is dangerous and irresponsible because clear targets can’t really be seen. Shooting people who are running away carrying wounded is an inhumane act. Nearly 400 people were treated for injuries that night ranging from frostbite to explosion trauma to cardiac arrest. All of this was to protect an industrial investment over the rights of humans and international treaty.

I have one of the shields used on the line that night. There is a dry, yellow powder stuck to it that was either sprayed or stuck to it during one of the explosions. I will be taking samples of it to a lab to see just what this stuff is. An elder told me today that the ice in the creek where this took place is different colors. They polluted the creek with all of their chemicals and should also be held accountable for that.

                                               

The police are people we are supposed to be able to trust to uphold our rights as citizens. In North Dakota it is just not true if you are native and want to live in peace. This land still belongs to the Sioux Nation according to treaty. The part of it in question was taken by the Corps of Engineers to build Lake Oahe. Anyone living in the flood zone was told to leave without consultation or amendment to the treaty. The US Government used imminent domain law to steal it just as they have so many times. There has never been a treaty written with any native nation that has been honored. Every treaty has been broken.

Some want you to believe that this is just about a pipeline, which has been properly permitted and approved and the Water Protectors are just a bunch of riotous protestors who are out of control. It is far deeper than that. It’s about treaty rights that supercede US constitutional law. It is about the right to clean drinking water guaranteed to them for as long as the grass grows, the wind blows, and the river flows.

Over the months I have been here I have been to many of the actions. I can tell you first hand that no Water Protector goes on an action with any weapons. We go with drums, the Canupa (Sacred Pipe), songs and prayers. We have taken willow sprouts and planted them on the right of way, which is trespassing in their eyes but nit when you figure that the land was stolen from the Standing Rock Sioux in the first place.

Trespass is not a reason to mobilize federal troops, police from various cities and counties surrounding Standing Rock,, federal troops and I have even seen a game warden and park ranger called in to control peaceful people. Every act of violence I have sees has been incited by the governors militia in Morton County. He has political and financial ties to this project, which should be considered a conflict of interest. Not in North Dakota, where he has been successful in mobilizing an army headed up by a “jack booted thug” (his words) sheriff to protect his interest.

This has become without doubt, the most lawless operation I have ever seen perpetrated by law enforcement.

Standing Rock Water Protectors

 Standing Rock Water Protectors 

Click Photos to Enlarge

This story needs to be told from inside the camps at Standing Rock. The entire trip was like a two loop roller coaster. Up one minute down the next, always aware of everything going on. Late at night the sound of ancient songs and drums echoed across the Cannonball River. I was taken back to a time when there was nothing but these sounds long before white men came with empty promises.

I felt an air of distrust when I arrived at Sacred Stone Camp there because I was considered media and there had recently been some misguided press coverage. After camp security checked me out and got to know me a bit we became fast friends. After a day or so, security called me Hunka, adopted family to a group of people I didn’t even know existed a week ago. As of this writing the numbers are estimated at nearly 8,000 people representing over 200 nations. Including the letters of support there were over 280 nations involved in the largest gathering in history.

Main camp at Standing Rock

Day 01, Tonya Bonitatibus, Savanna Riverkeeper and I got to take part in a march to sacred grounds where just a day before the pipeline security goons used dogs to attack humans and physically threw women to the ground. This was done while bulldozers pushed through sacred grounds where their ancestors were buried.

The tribe had notified the US Corps of Engineers only two days earlier of several sacred burial sites where their ancestors lay in what should have been resting peace forever. Then on a Saturday during Labor Day weekend when the DAPL (Dakota Access Pipeline #NODAPL) work crews moved heavy machinery over 20 miles I was told to destroy those sites intentionally in my opinion. The scene got very ugly when untrained “security” militia came across state lives with attack dogs to protect the workers from being stopped. Had it not been for Amy Goodman and her camera crew the world would not have seen the horrible scene unfold. Several people were bitten including a small girl that I was told when I left was still in the hospital.

We gathered at the main camp and walked up to the site with around 1,000+ people. Along the way there were horses bearing warriors who had protected the people from the dogs. Behind them came a parade of people stretching a mile long. Songs and prayers were offered on the march to the site but no violence what so ever. When we got to the site you could feel the sadness in the people’s eyes as we entered the place.

We made a big circle and sang Sundance and Canupa songs. (The Sacred Pipe used for prayer. Pronounced Chanupa) We offered tobacco to the ancestors and prayed as a single voice. It was the most moving experience of my life I think. When it was over the mood changed to one of resolve and hope. Resolve to be here for the long run and hope that together we can stop the black snake Black Elk spoke of in his prophecies.

No photos were taken of the actual disturbed site out of respect

Several of the people were gracious enough to allow me an interview about what this actually means to them. It’s way more than a bunch of environmentalists protesting. This was a gathering of people to stop the desecration and rape of our Mother Earth. It’s about treaties being broken that were signed into law in 1867 at Ft. Laramie. ND. Those treaties have all been broken and will continue if the people don’t stand up to it like we did here. It is about the use of eminent domain to steal land from unwilling citizens who are worth less than the profit margin at the bottom of some fat-cats portfolio. While the actual use of eminent was not ordered the farmers and land owners who signed easements said they did so because they knew it would be used as it has in other places. The sacred burials sites that were disturbed were just off of the reservation but still valuable, culturally significant and worthy of protecting. Intentionally digging up the ancestors in inexcusable!
It is crucial to tell what I have learned about BakkenCrude, which is the primary reason for the DAPL. Bakken is the most dangerous of all crude oils. It contains large amounts of expandable gasses such as Methane, Propane, and Hydrogen Sulfide. (h2S) h2S gas is extremely corrosive and deadly to any mammal exposed to it. It will eat away the inside of the steel pipes while the other gasses are pressurizing the line. In the train wrecks I have covered it has led to catastrophic environmental and human damage. 47 people were killed in Lac Magentic Can. When a train derailed blowing up most of the downtown area.

Aliceville Al. 11/14/13 Flight by SouthWings

In Aliceville Al. 26 train cars went in to the swamp. No one was hurt but 4 years later the swamp still has oil floating to the top. It will emulsify when hit with hoses and other methods of corralling the oil for vacuum trucks to suck it up. Chances are it will be there for several more years. A disaster under the Missouri River could be a threat to thousands of water users miles downstream.  (follow my work on Bakken Crude at The Bakken Crude Debate. )

During the interviews I learned about how this all started months ago. Standing Rock occupation isn’t something that just sprang up in the last few weeks. It started as a result of the deaths of several Eagles and as many as 15 Buffalo.

The survey company who was responsible for identifying for the alignment used poison to kill prairie dogs in the Right of Way. (ROW) It was a crystalline chemical they poured into the holes where it soaked up moisture from the soil and giving off deadly gas which killed everything in the hole. Problem was that some of the prairie dogs escaped and died out in the open where they were eaten by Bald and Spotted Eagles. 4 died I was told, 2 were sent to rehab and are still recovering, and 2 more were successfully rehabbed and released at the Standing Rock campground. We still see the Spotted Eagle hanging around.

These animals are revered and respected by the Standing Rock Sioux as well as all Native American cultures. Sacred Stone Camp was set up in protest of killing their cultural icons and breaking yet another treaty written by the US government. The killing of these animals and desecrating graves was a sign of how little respect the company had for them or their ways.

It wasn’t long before the entire nation was looking and the camps started to grow. It the 10 days I was in Sicangu Camp I watched the entire 3 camp community grow from a few thousand to over 8,500 and 280 nations represented. Now the world is looking and the camps are expanding daily to accept nations from around the world standing in solidarity. Not just to stop this Dakota Access Pipeline but to unite globally to stop the abuse of indigenous people and their resources. They came from Peru, New Zealand, Africa, and so many distant countries I couldn’t keep up with it all.

This has been the most inspiring time in my life. I was there when the world’s largest gathering of indigenous people gathered for the first time in history. The sound of prayer songs and drums resonated through the hills all day. At night the sounds came through the shadows like sentinels of the old ways singing to the world to come together for the protection of Mini Wiconi, The sacred Water of Life.

We need more people coming to the camp to bear witness as this unfolds into the harsh winter months. You see, the people have vowed to stay for the duration and are setting up long-term camps to house the Water Protectors and supporters. We need supplies to build hardened structures for cooking and feeding. We need canned and nonperishable foods and warm winter bedding and clothes. More than any of those things, we need your prayers and support. Support in the way of calling elected officials and reps to demand a stop to the taking of indigenous lands against treaties set long ago. The 1867 Ft Laramie treaty gave all of these lands and water to the Sioux Nation for “As long as the grass grows, the sun shines, the sky is blue and the waters flow.”  Now once again the government is using militarized police and National Guard to basically steal from the Sioux again! NO weapons have been seen, used, or confiscated by the water protectors. All militarization and use of weapons has been at the hands of US federal troops, State Troopers and private militia security goons.

Treaty law is international law that supersedes constitutional law. The US government has no right to take from them what was agreed to under international law. Call the UN and demand they take action as well.

As I write this I am packing to go back. Somehow I feel the need to tell more of this historic event as seen from the protectors eyes.  If you go to Standing Rock, do not go just as an observer. Go as a participant in the hopes of relieving some of the over worked helpers. Go to the kitchens and offer help in all of the camps. If able, go with the wood gathering crews for the fires. If you see trash, pick it up. Be a part of the moment not just an observer. Get to know the people and understand their ways. We are not there to tell anyone what to do but if asked we can offer our experience to the effort. It takes the entire village to survive the harsh winter conditions. Come be a part of this newly founded and always growing Village at Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

Aho, Mni Wiconi!