Standing Rock, November 2

The #NoDAPL water protectors in North Dakota are right now being pepper sprayed and shot with rubber bullets while trying to protect sacred sites (including at least two graves) and prevent drilling underneath a body of water. Some say it's a creek, others are calling it a lake.

NoDAPL 11.2.JPG

This photo is from Unicorn Riot, which reports that the white residue floating on the water is from the chemicals that have been sprayed at the water protectors.

One reporter has been shot in the back with a rubber bullet: @ErinSchrode. We don't know who else has been harmed.

Meanwhile, the sheriff has "returned" the people's possessions that were illegally seized the other day during the invasion of the north camp. Here is a 40-second video of the authorities using dump trucks to simply leave piles of possessions by the side of the road. There are reports that some of the stuff, including ceremonial items, are splattered with fresh paint and mouse droppings. This is a graphic example of the dehumanization and disrespect aimed at the Native people. https://www.facebook.com/eva.vincent1/posts/10154711268374846

The best twitter feed I've seen about today's events is Jacqueline Keeler: https://twitter.com/jfkeeler She's not at today's protest, but she seems to have really good sources.

I've seen numerous livestream links, but I haven't been able to get any of them to work for more than a few seconds. There is this firsthand report though. https://www.facebook.com/jacqueline.keeler/posts/10154620585573446 (3 mins)

By now, you've probably heard that President Obama doesn't seem to think this is urgent, and he is still not opposing the pipeline or standing up for the people. He wants to "let the situation play out for the next few weeks," which is absolutely appalling, given the violence being perpetrated by the cops and national guard. And he is talking about rerouting the pipeline, which of course would just push the danger of pollution downstream. The DAPL and all pipelines must be stopped, not simply moved somewhere else. Right now, the pipeline construction is within a few yards of the Missouri River, and the drilling pad is ready to go. Supposedly, the company has not been given permission to drill under the river, but I think they're going to do it anyway.

The current direct action is so close to the main camp that children and elders have been moved. The reports that the main camp was being invaded have been denied. (Again, my source is Jacqueline Keeler)

Red Owl Legal Collective has debunked the claim that a huge donation ($2.5 million) was made for bail, etc. You can read their statement here (and you can also donate at the same link). https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/11B5z8

After significant protest by local people, it looks like Hennepin County (Minnesota) has decided to recall its troops from ND. Putting pressure on the municipalities that are participating in the repression is a good way for those of us who are not in ND to help. Here's a good list of names and contact info of cops and sheriffs' departments that are denying people's civil rights. Give 'em a call! http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/dial-a-cop-20161031

Finally, below is a map that shows the Sioux Nation's current reservation, the extent of its treaty lands according to the 1851 treaty, and the route of the DAPL. The map is already slightly dated because the frontline has moved much closer to the river, but this map is the basis for the Sioux's claim that this is their land. They are not "trespassing" on private property, but really the cops and the corporation are trespassing on their land. They have claimed eminent domain as the original protectors of the land, and since the people who say they "own" it have destroyed and desecrated it, the Sioux Nation is taking it back -- for the land's protection and actually for the protection of us all.

Sioux treaty lands_0.JPG

If you have other information, pls. post it in the comments.

**personal note as of 4:30pm AZ time: I'll be away from all electronics for 5 or 6 days starting in a few hours (lucky me!). I hope that many of you here will continue to watch what's going on in ND and post videos and links as they are available. Our cyber-presence is actually very important to the Standing Rock Sioux and all the other indigenous water protectors. See you next week!**

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Citizen Of Earth's picture

The courage of the water protectors in the face of these Violent Fascist Pigs is remarkable. The US govt and its thugs have acted brutally and shamefully.

And the pipeline explosion in GA this week proves this is a real and critically important issue.

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

Citizen Of Earth's picture

Length: 16 secs

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

Bisbonian's picture

I appreciate the perspective.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

campaigning for his legacy.

Fuck the hope of the Natives all they get is the change. Change from life to death.

I could not be more disgusted.

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Amanda Matthews's picture

doesn't it??

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Centaurea's picture

POTUS is probably the same place he's been while black people have been murdered by law enforcement. Nowhere to be found. Along with the head of his DOJ, Attorney General Lynch.

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"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi

"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone

Mark from Queens's picture

At a time of deep disgust and anger coursing through the country about this election, #NoDAPL could be the nexus in which unbridled crony capitalism, perennial mistreatment of minorities, the genocide of indigenous people, the militarization of police forces and the routine crushing of 1st Amendment Rights coalesce to break people out of their passive stupor. I really hope so.

Since Occupy I've been hoping and anticipating a cataclysmic event to pick up where we left off. As Chris Hedges always says you never can predict what that event will be, but when the tinder is piled so high it doesn't take much. This is much, and the indignation is far and wide and seems to be growing.

From Counterpunch, "As Pipeline Construction and Repression Grows, DAPL Protest is Looking More Like a Mass Movement"

Despite the mainstream media blackout, in fact, the stop DAPL protests have arguably snowballed into a mass movement, spanning both physical and digital space, and strategically targeting different elements of the pipeline.

Not a week has gone by without solidarity actions across the country since the labor day weekend video of protestors being attacked by private security went viral.

On Monday, for example, twelve people were arrested for blockading elevators at the San Francisco headquarters for Citibank, the pipeline’s lead lender and arranger. Similar actions have taken place at headquarters and local branches for Wells Fargo, TD, and other financial institutions backing the $3.7 million dollar venture.

On the law enforcement front, local governments outside North Dakota are being pressured to pull back help to the Morton County Sheriff’s Department.

Following news of the Thursday’s camp raid, hundreds of people packed Minneapolis City Hall on Friday, the second day of demonstrations that week, to demand the Hennepin County sheriff recall the thirty officers they had sent over to police pipeline sites.

Earlier this month, the sheriff for Dane County, which covers my home of Madison, Wisconsin, ordered deputies to come home from North Dakota after facing intense public pressure following the arrest of Madison alderwoman Rebecca Kemble at the camp. Officials in dozens of cities, including Cleveland, Seattle, Oakland, and other places, have pushed to pass local resolutions in support of the water protectors.

There have also been more actions recently tied to this year’s election. On Thursday, while cops were raiding the camp in North Dakota, a group of 11 young activists from Standing Rock were knocking on the doors of Hilary Clinton’s campaign headquarters in Brooklyn, hoping to pressure the woman likely to be our next president to speak out on DAPL for the first time.

Similar demonstrations took place in Virginia Friday, where groups from four universities stormed local Clinton campaign offices to demand the secretary of state come out against the pipeline.

Not surprisingly, the best they could get from the Clinton machine was a well-manicured PR concoction reeking of false equivalencies that “literally said nothing,” in the words of Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org.

The DAPL protests are also attracting celebrity input. The reverend Jesse Jackson and actor Marc Ruffalo joined protectors at the camp just over a week ago; Ruffalo has given solar panels and other help to the camp and spoke glowingly of the movement in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper. Shailene Woodley has made several trips to the camp, getting arrested on her last one in early October. Hollywood A-listers including Ben Affleck, Leo Di Caprio and others have also voiced support for the tribes.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

It's amazing how people are not holding him accountable for this. He's the one behind this drilling, he's the only one who can stop it, and he can do so very easily.

He's the one allowing the abuse of protestors. Why is no one holding him accountable?

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

blazinAZ's picture

Democrats are getting a pass because the Republican bogeyman is so very scary. But Dems are able to accomplish horrible things that Republicans would never get away with. And this is one of them.

Obama doesn't care about Native people or the environment. Neither does Clinton and most other Dems. They are all bought and paid for by the oil companies and other mega-corporations. See: TPP, NAFTA, etc., etc.

#NeverHillary #NeverTrump

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There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka

elenacarlena's picture

AFAIAC, this might decide the election. If they won't stand up for the people when the corporate thievery is this blatant, then they are making it clear that they are useless and just Repugs in Dems' clothing.

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divineorder's picture

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/02/dakota-access-pipeline-p...
SNIP

The comment signals how aggressively police are responding to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and thousands of their supporters who have set up camps for months to try and stop construction of a $3.7bn oil pipeline that they say is destroying sacred lands and threatens their water supply.

Given the recent escalation of violence by protesters, letting the situation ‘play out’ is ... putting lives in danger
Cody Schulz

The US army corps of engineers has temporarily delayed permits to allow Energy Transfer Partners, the pipeline operator, to dig on federal land near or under the Missouri river. Activists have since criticized Obama for staying silent as construction has moved very close to the banks of the river and the protest camps, and some were disappointed by remarks in an interview with news site NowThis.

On Tuesday night, the president said: “We’re monitoring this closely and I think as a general rule, my view is that there is a way for us to accommodate sacred lands of Native Americans, and I think that right now the army corps is examining whether there are ways to reroute this pipeline.”

Some Native American protest leaders said they were skeptical that the federal government could find a way to change course at the last hour. They said they were were also upset that Obama did not condemn the police for conducting mass arrests and using pepper spray, bean bags and army tanks in a highly militarized response to unarmed demonstrators.

The remarks from Schulz, who did not immediately respond to a request for an interview, also reveal growing tensions between the federal government and North Dakota, which has brought in police officers from around the country to assist.

Despite the army corps’ request that the pipeline “voluntarily pause all construction activity” within 20 miles of the federally controlled water, the company has continued rapid construction in North Dakota. At the same time, local police have set up strictly enforced road blockades to protect the sites from protesters and the general public.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

When a corporatist felatrix like Barry has yet to rise from his knees after over 7 years, there is no point appealing for assistance. He only hears money speak when it gets dropped into his LIEbury construction fund, and he only notices We the People when his masters want him to kick the fucking hippies -and Native Americans- to the curb.

It will get worse if anyone but Jill Stein wins, and sadly, I know that isn't likely to happen.

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

felatrix. Sorry, but I just love that and it so fits and I may have to steal that one. It's the betrayal that makes me the sickest with these people. God, how sad and sick that even Sarah Fucking Palin had a good point about that "hopey-changey" isn't it? He's slicker than Willy in many ways all his own.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

elenacarlena's picture

and twice as stupid and denying science while pouring all our money into the pockets of the 1%.

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horror, as was John McCain who should never be forgiven for introducing her and her loons to the American people. I cannot stand her, and that is why when I think about her smirking face asking that with what we know now, it makes me just sick! My own mother once asked me "why don't you like Sarah?" As if that idiot was a family member or something. No, no repugnant gets quarter with me, no way, no how. I hold them mostly responsible for driving a relentless agenda to corrupt the Dems by pandering for so long against the New Deal and Communism. I grew up with hard right wing anti-commie loons, they get no respect from me.

Sorry for the length, but I'm in a ranting mood!

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

He continues to remind me of a cross between W and Reagan. Not nearly as smart as advertised, a good communicator, a lazy POTUS who let's others do the work and make decisions.

And very, very corrupt. The fact that he was letting Wall Street pick and choose his Cabinet and exec leadership even before the inauguration says everything you need to know about him.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

Consider it a gift. Use it well.

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

Hawkfish's picture

But fellatrix is feminine. You want "fellator" Wink

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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg

He's a pussy that Trump would grab in a heartbeat. He never stood up for anything that he should have.

PUSSY! FELATRIX!

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

You must be kidding.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Daenerys's picture

We've been trying to hold him accountable through his entire presidency.

Occupy: crickets
Fight for 15: some half-assed noise about raising the minimum wage to $11
Ferguson/police brutality/BLM: crickets
Flint: crickets
DAPL: crickets

He may not be the worst president ever, but he is definitely the most impotent. And with every passing day he refuses to take a stand of anything of substance makes him look worse and worse.

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This shit is bananas.

Lenzabi's picture

He is a corporatist.

So he has to answer to the Plutarchs and Oligarchs who run things while tricking us all into thinking we have a democratic-republic, not the police state we are seeing exposed for what it is. It would not take much more before they go full on Nazi-style as even peaceful protests are sought to be labeled terrorism by the corporates, and thus that label presently means no rights for those thusly labeled.

We live in the Corporate States of Oligarchia don't you know?

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So long, and thanks for all the fish

blazinAZ's picture

Unicorn Riot is reporting that more than 100 people have been injured in today's action. If you scroll down on the righthand side of this link, you can see their tweets and videos.
http://www.unicornriot.ninja/

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There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka

Bisbonian's picture

in all that "escalating violence" from the water protectors?

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

blazinAZ's picture

It's not confirmed,but I heard a report that one cop fainted -- I don't know why -- and had to be carried off the field.

It's hard to feel any empathy

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There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka

Lily O Lady's picture

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

elenacarlena's picture

If you are on Facebook, you can check in as being in Standing Rock in support, as I did here (hope this works):

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Jill of course.

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“The first duty of a man is to think for himself”

divineorder's picture

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Bollox Ref's picture

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

blazinAZ's picture

I put this in the blog itself, but since I know some folks won't reread what they've already looked at, I'm reposting in the comments too.

**personal note as of 4:30pm AZ time: I'll be away from all electronics for 5 or 6 days starting in a few hours (lucky me!). I hope that many of you here will continue to watch what's going on in ND and post videos and links as they are available. Our cyber-presence is actually very important to the Standing Rock Sioux and all the other indigenous water protectors. See you next week!**

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There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka

elenacarlena's picture

Vacation? Volunteering with Jill?

Will keep looking for Sioux stories, but we'll miss you! I can't imagine being away from electronics that long, especially now! 6 days and the election will be over.

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lotlizard's picture

that giant exhaling sound you’ll hear next Wednesday . . . is the world breathing a sigh of (only temporary, I grant you) relief.

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elenacarlena's picture

No matter who wins. Amazing that the polls are so close.

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Lenzabi's picture

Hellery wins or Trump wins? the Corporates win, we lose

Johnson wins? please see above

Jill wins, we stop losing.

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So long, and thanks for all the fish