The Indigenous-led resistance against Energy Transfer Partner\u2019s (ETP\u2019s) Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) was a watershed moment for the ongoing struggle for Indigenous rights, environmental and climate justice, and the protection of sacred lands in the United States. The willingness of the government and their corporate masters to prioritize fossil fuel profits over humans and the water we are all inextricably interwoven with and dependent upon will go down in the long line of historic, shameful harm this country has wrought on Indigenous peoples. Further, at a time when the world\u2019s scientists are warning of the grave existential threats of global climate change, the idea of constructing yet another fossil fuel pipeline is patently irrational.<\/p>\n
This week, CLDC marks the 8th<\/sup> anniversary of the eviction of the #NoDAPL encampment that bravely fought the ugliest forms of violent state repression in the name of protecting the sacred \u00a0land and life-giving water of the Missouri River (Mni\u0161\u00f3\u0161e).<\/p>\n On February 23, 2017, state and federal law enforcement, alongside the National Guard, deployed turreted armored personal carriers and automatic weapons to forcibly remove the remaining water protectors from the #NoDAPL protest encampment. The camp had grown steadily in attendance and exposure following the Standing Rock Sioux\u2019s lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in August of 2016. The violent eviction of elders and other water protectors was the final straw in a long series of coordinated attacks taken by the state, the feds, and TigerSwan — the private mercenary\/security forces hired by ETP. ETP and TigerSwan unleashed unmitigated terror and physical violence to send a clear message: that the oil industry\u2019s financial gain far is more important than the sovereignty of the tribes whose connection to their ancestral lands and waters have existed since time immemorial. The brutal and illegal methods that were used to enforce this madness are a cautionary tale of what oppressive governments are willing to carry out when people band together to fight for the planet . . . and their human rights.<\/p>\n In the case of CLDC client, Comanche Water Protector, and videographer, Eric Poemoceah, his peaceful resistance and pleas for an opportunity to negotiate the exit of elders from the Water Protector encampment were met with an unprovoked attack by law enforcement that resulted in a cop breaking his pelvis and then forcing him to walk with his horrendous injury.<\/p>\n His words to law enforcement just prior to the attack were:<\/p>\n \u201cI know you have a job to do and a family to provide for, but why do it with protecting oil? That\u2019s all we\u2019re trying to do, sir, is protect\u2013protect the water. I know\u2013I know you\u2019re looking at me and I know you just shook your head yes because you have a heart. You have a soul. And I know\u2013you look like a very prayerful man. Why don\u2019t\u2026you be honorable and set down your badge right now in front of 6,100 people.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Another CLDC client, Sophia Wilansky, nearly lost her left arm during the Standing Rock protests after defendant-Officer Jonathan Moll intentionally shot Sophia with an explosive \u201cflash-bang\u201d loaded into a 12-gauge shotgun, firing directly at her from atop a Humvee. This occurred while Wilansky was actively fleeing law enforcement and shouting:<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m leaving. Please don\u2019t shoot.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Sophia was just 21 years old when she gathered with other Water Protectors on the Backwater bridge, north of the Standing Rock encampment in North Dakota. She had come to the Oceti Sakowin camp in solidarity with the Indigenous-led movement to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline from destroying the Missouri River and exacerbating the human-caused climate catastrophe affecting the entire planet.<\/p>\n To add profound insult to injury in Sophia\u2019s case, a judge dismissed her federal excessive force lawsuit in 2024, citing qualified immunity for the officer who had fired directly at her. He was congratulated by his laughing fellow officers for his \u201cmarksmanship<\/strong>.\u201d The recording of this exchange dispelled the ridiculous claim that Moll was only trying to get Wilansky and her fellow protestors to disperse. This case is currently on appeal.<\/p>\n Hundreds of Water Protectors were subjected to cruel and illegal police violence, including the use of water cannons in sub-zero temperatures, rubber bullets and other munitions, as well as copious amounts of tear gas, mace, and other chemical weapons.<\/p>\n More than 300 people are estimated to have been injured, but the methods law enforcement and private \u201csecurity\u201d forces used to put an end to the DAPL protests were not limited to abject violence. Energy Transfer hired the private mercenary group TigerSwan, which had honed its skills of disruption and violence fighting insurgency movements in Iraq. TigerSwan deployed undercover infiltrators to break into tents and teepees and steal Water Protector property as well as infiltrating the movement to report on the resistance. This information was not only shared with their bosses at ETP through daily briefings, but was also given to state and federal law enforcement to bolster their intelligence-gathering. What government agents would not be legally allowed to collect, they received from the private mercenaries who illegally obtained it. This came to be known as the \u201cStanding Rock Model\u201d of policing by Morton County, ND, Sheriff Paul Laney, who coordinated much of the law enforcement response to the #NoDAPL movement and then went on to advertise his \u201cStanding Rock\u201d model of violent law enforcement through National Sheriff Association-funded webinars and Sheriffs\u2019 Association media focused on pro-DAPL messaging.<\/p>\n Although today there are currently 500,000-750,000 barrels of oil flowing through the Dakota Access Pipeline, legal challenges persist, and according to lawyers and scientists,<\/a> these barrels are flowing illegally.<\/strong> The pipeline lacks the required easement to flow under the sacred Lake Oahe. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is conducting an environmental and safety review to determine whether the pipeline poses a threat to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and to decide on its future operation. See EENEWS’s article<\/a> for more.<\/p>\n Fresh water all over the United States remains under threat by the oil and gas industry in many places they operate. The Indigenous-led resistance to the Enbridge Pipeline resulted in the Stop Line 3 protests in Minnesota and resulted in almost one thousand arrests. Line 3 protests, along with Standing Rock and many other resistance movements, have brought the issue of protecting our most important natural resource — clean water — Water is Life — to the forefront of many people\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n The dirty secret of the oil and gas industry is that pipeline spill accidents are much more common than they\u2019d like us to believe. In December 2022 over 500,000 gallons of crude were spilled in Washington County, Kansas, when the Keystone pipeline cracked<\/a> (Hammel, 2023). It\u2019s estimated that since the late 80\u2019s, over 3 million gallons of oil and gas have been spilled across the American landscape.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the strong-arm tactics employed by the cozy, state\/corporate\/private mercenary death cult are not the only way they attempt to crush dissent in this country. For the sake of public relations, this many-headed-hydra would prefer to chill climate adversaries in the courtroom then on the field of conflict. ETP filed a $300 million SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) against Greenpeace USA and Greenpeace International for actions related to the Standing Rock protests. Deepa Padmanabha, a senior legal advisor to Greenpeace USA explained<\/a>, \u201cWhat they are trying to do is create this idea of collective protest liability where if you have any involvement with, for example, training at a protest, you can be held accountable for anything that happens there by unknown people.\u201d The result of this lawsuit will either strongly rebuke the use of SLAPPs and lawfare by corporate bullies or send a message to well-funded environmental organizations that the courts have bent a knee to the corporations that hold the purse strings of power. This case, filed in North Dakota, goes to trial on February 24, 2025.<\/p>\n Reflecting upon the painful day of remembrance for the eviction of the Oceti Sakowin Camp that existed between the beautiful Cannonball River and Backwater Creek, we can look to our Indigenous allies who have endured hundreds of years of cultural, environmental, and violent oppression at the hands of the United States government and the capital that government serves. The fact that over one hundred tribes from around the continent came together to pray and resist together on tribal land in North Dakota is a model of true solidarity that will be required in order to face the impending environmental onslaught underway in the U.S.<\/p>\n CLDC feels incredibly honored and grateful to continue to work in this struggle for our planet and all living things at a time that feels so precarious. We ask that you continue to stand with us so we may continue to stand with you as the threats to all of our existence increase. Thanks for having our back, as always \u2026 we\u2019ve got yours.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Indigenous-led resistance against Energy Transfer Partner\u2019s (ETP\u2019s) Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) was a watershed moment for the ongoing struggle for Indigenous rights, environmental and climate justice, and the protection of sacred lands in the United States. The willingness of the government and their corporate masters to prioritize fossil fuel profits over humans and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18792,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15471\/revisions\/18792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}>>Water is life — Mn\u00ed Wi\u010d\u00f3ni<<<\/h3>\n
\n
\n