The protest against the Dakota access pipeline continues.
The spirit riders at Standing Rock show support for keeping the Missouri River waters clean.
In the coming weeks or maybe even days, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will issue a decision as to whether or not they will allow the Dakota Access Pipeline, also known as the Bakken Pipeline, to be constructed.
Until then, citizens and allies of the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires of the Great Sioux Nation) will continue to protest the pipeline, urging stakeholders to recognize the devastation that would ensue should the pipeline be built.
“The DAPL poses a threat to our people, cultural and historically significant areas,” said Paula Antonie, Chair of Shielding the People and a Rosebud Sioux tribal citizen. “We will stand by our Hunkpapa relatives in defending against any major environmental, public health and safety hazards within our treaty territory.”
The proposed pipeline would stretch for thousands miles across four states beginning in western North Dakota and ending in Indiana. It would cross the Missouri River mere feet away from the northern border of the Standing Rock Reservation, threatening to contaminate and destroy the waters.
Badly regulated oil pipeline containing extra flammable crude oil crossing Missouri River and dry plains, owned by companies with enough money to bribe most of the relevant politicians and officials. What could go wrong?
Oh, everything. The protest has been a long business, starting with Keystone XL over a year ago. The protests against Dakota access are proving more difficult, it’s been really hard to get any non-Indian politicians involved because DAPL will cross mostly rez land, and they don’t give a fuck about that.
Everything indeed and a little leak in the part crossing Missouri or its tributaries might cause problems way downstream the river.
It’s outrageous that Indians are still considered “not really people”.
Ice Swimmer:
Oh yes, the potential problems are effing enormous in scope. The Oceti Sakowin have been pointing this out, over and over and over and over, repeating that this is not an Indian only problem. The way it looks now though, is if it goes through, nothing will be done until the damn thing breaks and white people end up with serious problems. The rub there is that any problems caused to white folk will be dealt with, one way or another. That’s not so when it comes to any Indian rez involved. People there will be left to fend for themselves.
It is. Even when people bother to think about us, we mostly end up in the savage category, noble or otherwise.