https://livestream.com/unicornriot/events/7046185
The amount of tanks and riot-gear-clad cops and National Guard, etc., is astonishing. There are still people in the camps, and there are concerns for their safety. Helicopters circling. Things are tense.
Please share and witness.
**livestream camera 1: https://livestream.com/unicornriot/events/7046185
camera 2: https://livestream.com/unicornriot/events/7046188
Government and military authorities, working on behalf of an oil company, have issued an ultimatum to the water protectors at Standing Rock. Leave the Oceti Sakowin camp today (February 22) by 2pm Central Time or be forcibly removed (which probably means arrested). Chase IronEyes posted some evacuation resources yesterday:
For those who choose to not be arrested after 2pm 2.22.2017.
Evacuation resources:
Buses will be at cannon ball bridge today at 8 am til feb 22, 2017@ 2 pm.
Motels provided
Bus tickets provided
Wellness and holistic provided
Gas cards
Please contact melaine 701-339-7896
Yesterday, a group of water protectors set up a small new camp on Lakota Sioux treaty land -- and within hours, the cops and mercenaries came through in force and arrested more than 70 people, including Chase IronEyes. I watched quite a lot of livestream yesterday and there are numerous videos of the invasion and the capture of the people standing up for clean water and their treaty rights as a sovereign nation. Since the water protectors often post unedited video, many are quite long, and I therefore haven't watched everything I'm posting today. If you have time, please bear witness to what is being done to Native people again.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR1Mk2VjSQQ]
The federal and North Dakota governments are not complying with their own regulations and laws. One part of the army has written to another part of the army and asked for the easement to be granted so that Energy Transfer Partners can install pipe under Lake Oahe. In response, Senator John Hoeven (R-ND) has started a disinformation campaign, claiming that construction has been approved. Construction has not been approved and the comment period for the Environmental Impact Statement is open until February 20 (scroll down to the section "Do What You Can" for how to add your comment). Construction isn’t legally approved, but it isn’t stopped either. The collusion between the government, the cops, and ETP has allowed the illegal pipeline construction to continue.
Until the Dakota Access Pipeline is stopped, there are close to a thousand water protectors who have committed to remain at the camps at Standing Rock. And if you're able-bodied, self-sufficient, and unafraid, you are invited to join them now.
Sacred Stone [camp] is not closing. We will be standing, and we ask you to continue to stand with us. All of you are welcome to my home and my land.
You are welcome to come back to stand with us.
Listen to Lakota leader LaDonna Tamakawastewin Allard (4:14, posted Jan. 25, 2017)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s80FkNCHIZk]
The Indigenous Environmental Network responds to Trump’s support for the KXCL pipeline and DAPL (my bold):
These actions by President Trump are insane and extreme, and nothing short of attacks on our ancestral homelands as Indigenous peoples. The executive orders demonstrate that this administration is more than willing to violate federal law that is meant to protect Indigenous rights, human rights, the environment, and the overall safety of communities for the benefit of the fossil fuel industry. These attacks will not be ignored, our resistance is stronger than ever before and we are prepared to push back at any reckless decision made by this administration. #NoDAPL
While mainstream media decried a little property destruction during the inauguration (see #disruptj20 for tweets, images, and videos), they simultaneously ignored the unrelenting aggression directed at the protesters in DC and at the water protectors in Standing Rock. The uniformed thugs acting as agents of the oligarchy continue to deploy teargas, pepper spray, water cannons, percussion grenades, rubber bullets, and other “less-lethal” tools in attempts to shut down the people’s voices and to prop up authoritarianism.
This is big news. We heard yesterday that the official filing for the “Notice of Intent” was being considered, and today Energy Transfer Partners (the owners of the Dakota Access Pipeline) is in court trying to stop the Environmental Impact Statement investigation from proceeding. Among the things ETP wanted was for the Army Corps of Engineers to not officially publish the document in the Federal Register. We don’t know the outcome of the court hearing yet, but the official publication has happened. This is a significant victory in the struggle to stop the DAPL.
On Martin Luther King Day at Standing Rock, there were actions both at Turtle Island (the small hill where ancestors are buried) and the Highway 1806 bridge, which is a public road that is still illegally blockaded by the forces protecting the pipeline company. In both locations, the cops, mercenaries, and National Guard attacked the water protectors with mace and teargas, and fired rubber bullets at point-blank range directly at people who were only a few yards away from them.
I've been noticing an increase in the number of fake accounts posting on various websites and Twitter, and I've noticed what seems to be a coordinated media effort, especially among local outlets in ND (print and broadcast), to disparage and undercut the water protectors and stir up resentment and racism toward them. It's been happening all along, but it seems to be getting worse.
