Standing Rock Sioux Chairman: Dakota Access Pipeline “Is Threatening the Lives of My Tribe”

=By= DemocracyNow!

Protest against the pipeline at Standing Rock Reservation. John Heminger.

In North Dakota, indigenous activists are continuing to protest the proposed $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, which they say would threaten to contaminate the Missouri River. More than a thousand indigenous activists from dozens of different tribes across the country have traveled to the Sacred Stone Spirit Camp, which was launched on April 1 by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The protests have so far shut down construction along parts of the pipeline. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has also sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over its approval of the pipeline. For more, we’re joined by Dave Archambault, chairperson of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. He’s in Washington, D.C., where there is a hearing in the tribe’s lawsuit on Wednesday.

TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to look at North Dakota, where indigenous activists are continuing to protest the proposed $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, which they say would threaten to contaminate the Missouri River.

INDIGENOUS ACTIVISTS: Respect our water! Respect our lands! Honor our treaties! Honor our rights!

AMY GOODMAN: More than a thousand indigenous activists from dozens of different tribes across the country have traveled to the Sacred Stone Spirit Camp. The protests have so far shut down construction along parts of the pipeline. Protesters have included Debra White Plume, an Oglala Lakota water rights activist.

DEBRA WHITE PLUME: The need to protect this water has grown way beyond Standing Rock. I’m Oglala and Northern Cheyenne. Many red nations are here. Many more red nations are coming. We put the call out for water protectors to come, land defenders to come. And the word “resistance” is being used. And sometimes we have a problem with the English language, deciding which word to use, but if we just listen to our spirits, we’re here to protect sacred water. People will come from all along the river to protect the river that they belong to.

AMY GOODMAN: Dennis Banks, co-founder of the American Indian Movement, has also taken part in the protests against the Dakota pipeline. Banks also was part of the 1973 Wounded Knee standoff.

DENNIS BANKS: What’s happening here is equally as important, because of the stand that you’re ready to make. When they threaten the environment, they’re threatening you. We are part mountain. We are part ocean. We are part river. We are part flower and grass and tree. All of this, we are part of all of it, so that when they threaten the environment anyplace, they’re threatening you. You have to be in that mindset like that. That’s who you are. That’s who we are. And our culture, our heritage is what has made us warriors.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Dennis Banks. We’re joined now by Dave Archambault, the chair of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, who’s joining us from Washington, D.C.

Chairman, thanks very much for being with us. Can you explain for us what this whole controversy is about?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT: There’s a lot of different components that all lead up to one, and it is a pipeline that is threatening the lives of people, lives of my tribe, as well as millions down the river. It threatens the ancestral sites that are significant to our tribe. And we never had an opportunity to express our concerns. This is a corporation that is coming forward and just bulldozing through without any concern for tribes. And the things that have happened to tribal nations across this nation have been unjust and unfair, and this has come to a point where we can no longer pay the costs for this nation’s well-being. We pay for economic development, we pay for national security, and we pay for energy independence. It is at our expense that this nation reaps those benefits. And all too often we share similar concerns, similar wrongdoings to us, so we are uniting, and we’re standing up, and we’re saying, “No more.”

AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain what exactly the Dakota Access pipeline is and how it ended up going through your land?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT: Dakota Access pipeline is a pipeline that goes 1,200 miles, taking Bakken crude oil from the northwest side of North Dakota down to Illinois. And we were brought—made aware of this in 2014. And our biggest concern was it was—it crossed the Missouri River twice, once north of—once in Lake Sakakawea and once north of our reservation. And right away, when we first learned of it, we said, “We don’t want this. We don’t want it here.” But it’s a private pipeline from a private company out of Dallas, Texas. And so, there’s a big corporation, Energy Transfer Partners, out of Dallas, who are making decisions for the state and for North Dakota, for my reservation, and they have no sensitivity or no acknowledgment of what is in place. All they see is dollar signs and greed. So we are not happy with this private-based company.

There are portions of this pipeline that cross federal lands, like water, and so they have to get permits, but they get easements on private property. And the private landowners who do not approve of the pipeline, there’s the eminent domain taking. So, the landowners where the pipeline crosses kind of have their hands tied. But in the federal permitting process—and it’s like, of the 1,200 miles, 200 waterways, maybe 300 miles are on federal lands. That’s what we’re saying: If we can’t do anything on the private lands, we’re going to ask the federal agencies to reconsider and take a look at this, because we never had the opportunity to express our concerns.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to go back to Debra White Plume, an Oglala Lakota water rights activist, speaking at the Sacred Stone camp.

DEBRA WHITE PLUME: We’re putting a call out for warriors to come here to do direct action, to stop them from boring under this water, because that’s going to contaminate it. We can’t stand for that. We can’t let that happen. I, for one, made a commitment. They’re going to have to kill me, or they’re going to have to lock me in jail, but I’m going to stand to protect the sacred water. And I’m guided by spirit.

AMY GOODMAN: So that’s Debra White Plume, who participated in the 1973 standoff in which members of the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee to demand their treaty rights. She called for focus in the action at Sacred Stone.

DEBRA WHITE PLUME: I understand that rage. I fought with cops before. I’ve been shot at by police. I’ve been shot by police. We got it on with the police on Pine Ridge back in the day. So I understand that rage. But when we’re here together to protect sacred water, let’s do it with dignity, let’s do it with training, let’s do it with unity.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Chairman Dave Archambault, explain what this camp is, where it is, and how many people are coming out to it, and how the state is responding.

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT: This camp is along the Cannonball River, close to the mouth of Missouri River. And the camp is—started out in April of 2016 as a prayer camp. And the prayers have been answered. There has been power in prayer. And it opened the eyes to everybody that, through prayer and unity, great things can happen. Since the—about two—the demonstrations started, more and more people began coming and showing overwhelming support for this, and we had to anticipate large masses of people coming, so we occupied a space just north of the Cannonball River off the Standing Rock Reservation, which is core land, and it’s on a nice flat.

Right now what’s going on is it’s about peace, and it’s about prayer, and it’s about uniting. And there’s a really good feeling, if you were to walk through the camp. There are no guns, no violence, no drugs, no alcohol. And it kind of took a life of its own. It evolved into something very special.

The state, on the other side, has taken action, which there’s no cause for. They created a barricade just south of Mandan, right before you get into Fort Lincoln, Custer’s park. It’s about 25 miles north of the camp. And this barricade creates a hardship for the members who live on Standing Rock. The state also removed its emergency assistance vehicles, that we initially got to establish and accommodate large masses of people.

AMY GOODMAN: You were arrested there, Chairman?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT: Yes, I was.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to play Morton County, North Dakota, Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier’s comments, claims he made that there have been reports of weapons at Sacred Stone Spirit Camp, and get your response.

SHERIFF KYLE KIRCHMEIER: It’s turning into an unlawful protest with some of the things that have been done and has been compromised up to this point. We have had incidents and reports of weapons, of pipe bombs, of some shots fired.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s the sheriff. Dave Archambault, your response?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT: There never was any shots fired. There never were any pipe bombs. There were never any incidents of unlawful activity taking place. When you have a large mass of people in an area, especially with social media, you have Facebook, that can create rumors. And I would ask that the sheriff and the governor validate any rumors that they come across, before they make haste decisions to create a blockade or to declare a state of emergency or to remove any of their emergency assistance vehicles. I understand they have safety concerns, but you just have to be present at the camp, and you’ll see that it’s a peaceful place, and there are happy people who share a common prayer. And that is—

AMY GOODMAN: Chairman, can you explain the lawsuit?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT: So, what we’re filing a lawsuit on is the destruction of our ancestral burial sites and never being given the opportunity to protect them, as well as the nationwide permitting process. Rather than permitting the project as a whole and doing a full EIS, the Corps of Engineers asked that they permit chunks and pieces of it. And they require an EA. Now, the EA is less intensive as the EIS, so they’re able to kind of do unlawful things, that—such as destroy our sites that are sacred to us.

We don’t agree with the fact—they’re going to say they had consulted with us on this matter. To us, consulting doesn’t mean corresponding through letter or mail, or it doesn’t mean presenting us a final draft of what you’re going to do. Consulting, to us, would mean that we need to have deliberation and share our concerns and hope that they hear us and see a reflection of our concerns in the final plan. None of that has taken place. We asked for consultation prior to any final drafts and to survey the routes to make sure that none of the sites that we cherish would be destroyed. It’s not until after they finalized what they want to do, this Dallas-based company who is doing the EA for the Corps of Engineers tells us how or where they’re going to go. Now they come and invite us to do surveys, and we don’t think that’s right. We think it’s unlawful, and we think it’s unjust.

AMY GOODMAN: Dave Archambault, chair of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. When we come back, indigenous rights activist Winona LaDuke will also join us. Stay with us.

There is an excellent report at Indian Country Today by Sarah Sunshine Manning:

In So many Ways We Have Already Won

Colonization tragically forced many indigenous people to forget and forsake our innate connection to Earth. But many of us today are beginning to remember. What is taking place in Standing Rock is awakening what once lied dormant in so many of our people: the Earth is our Mother, and Water is Life.

It was late at night when I drove into the conjoined Oceti Sakowin and Red Warrior camp in Standing Rock. I set up camp in the rain with my sisters, crawled into bed, and eagerly anticipated waking up wrapped in the energy of unity that next morning. That is exactly what happened.

Water defenders on the frontlines on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota on August 17, 2016. Courtesy John Heminger.

We woke up to sounds of joy- laughter, conversation, and warm greetings of “Good Morning.” We woke up to lingering fragrances of camp fires, coffee, and smoldering sage and cedar. Near our camp was the central gathering place, where early risers were already congregating over coffee, while others were making huge amounts of breakfast over open fire.

People of all tribes and many ethnicities gathered. I admit, that I was a little giddy just at the site of a blond gentleman there with his family — a wife and two young children. I admit, that I have been conditioned if not traumatized while living in the Dakotas for the last decade to expect much less than warmth from the majority of non-Natives in the area. But what I immediately saw in the camps at Standing Rock was pure unity of humanity. Unity for Earth, and solidarity for life. And it was beautiful. There were several non-Natives present, standing with the Lakota and Dakota people of Standing Rock as fellow human beings.

Friends and relatives who were there for weeks at the Sacred Stone, Red Warrior, and Oceti Sakowin camps oriented new comers, and shared emotional stories of bravery. They recounted events from the past week when the first non-violent actions of water defending were carried out and the first arrests were made.

We basked in their energy. The powerful energy and joy from those most intense moments endured, even days after the peak of the conflict between water defenders and Dakota Access Pipeline workers. Construction had been halted, and campers stand by guarding the water, awaiting a ruling.

On the weekend of August 19 through 21, the camps in Standing Rock swelled dramatically, nearing three or four thousand, according to some estimates. Caravans of several cars from out of state poured in day and night. Busloads of people, and truckloads of supplies came. The central gathering area drew more and more newcomers, many of whom took to the microphone to read resolutions passed by their respective tribe, or to offer a prayer in their indigenous language from afar.

Young men sang songs from Haudenosaunee territory in the northeast, and Navajo women from the southwest stepped up in numbers to make frybread for the growing camp. Women and men of all nations stirred huge pots of soups and hot dishes on the fire. And as new groups entered and unloaded their donations and expressed their support, that beautiful feeling grew more palpable each and every time.

We showered each other with unity, strength, and love, and the outpour flowed continuously.

What many outsiders might not know, is that the gathering of hearts and minds in Standing Rock is truly an ensemble of some of the most brilliant indigenous intellects, the most respected of spiritual leaders, the most seasoned organizers and environmentalists, and solid organizations known for defending the sacred.

It was a great surprise that I even ran into a beloved college professor, whom I hadn’t seen in over a decade. Indigenous lawyers and paralegals were there, too, teachers, youth, and college students, veterans, government employees, entrepreneurs, medical doctors, athletes, runners, writers, journalists and photojournalists, musicians, artists, and entertainers. They were all there, and many still are. Mothers and grandmothers, children and even precious, tiny babies. Grandpas with their horses, and young men helping individual family camps with everything under the sun, from gathering wood, to delivering supplies.

Water defenders gather along the banks of the Missouri River on August 20, 2016. Courtesy John Heminger.

You couldn’t have assembled a more powerful and able group. Today, we are stronger and more capable than ever to stand up to corporate greed and American attacks on all that we hold most precious. These are the defenders who stand together in Standing Rock.

Tribes from coast to coast were everywhere in the camps, flying their tribal flags and making new relatives. And I was delighted to run into relatives from across the Rocky Mountains, fellow Shoshone and Paiute people, coming together in the land of the Lakota and Dakota.

After spending only a few days there, I regrettably returned home to tend to “life on the outside,” as some have called it. I left deeply imprinted with the love and passion of thousands. I left changed, and like many, I am still adjusting to being away, leaving behind a power unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.

Standing Rock Chairman, Dave Archambault II, articulated that feeling of longing and bitter sweet separation that so many of us can relate to as we departed camp. In a message shared on the Standing Rock Sioux Facebook page, he wrote, “it was like coming out of the Sundance; I didn’t want to go.”

Chairman Archambault closed his message, “I just kept thinking about the camp and I’d close my eyes and pray for everyone there and the future of our people. Praying for good long lives for all our nations.”

The Sacred Stone, Red Warrior, and Oceti Sakowin camps mark a place of strength and prayer. A bona-fide place of power. Water defenders and prayerful warriors hold the post, still, along the Missouri River in Standing Rock. Many caravans continue to come and go. Supplies and bodies are still needed. Prayers must remain constant.

When I close my eyes, I can still see the mist in the camp in the morning and feel the power in the shaking voices of the women who stormed in front of moving machinery to stop the pipeline construction as they told their stories late into the night.

Standing Rock has changed us forever. Our hearts are with the water, the land, and with each other. Today, we stand armed with the medicine of unity and prayer, and the strength of our ancestors. Still standing for water. Still standing for life.

In so many ways, we have already won.

Sarah Sunshine Manning (Shoshone-Paiute, Chippewa-Cree) is a mother, educator, activist, and an advocate for youth. Follow her at @SarahSunshineM.

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