North Dakota activates National Guard to protect the pipeline instead of our tribes

[niyad]

North Dakota activates National Guard to protect the pipeline instead of our tribes


?1473374610
BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA: Gov. Jack Dalrymple announced Thursday that the Morton County Sheriff's Department activates the North Dakota National Guard as well as sheriff & officers throughout the state to help deal with the ongoing protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline.





North Dakota’s Gov. Jack Dalrymple held a press conference today activating the National Guard. In this press conference, below, please note that there are no American Indian journalists except for Chase Iron Eyes who expresses concern about escalating violence as a result of the governor’s decision. The rest of the press corps ask questions that, in my opinion, carry water for the Dakota Access Pipeline. This is a one-sided presentation to the media and our tribes will continue to press our message of why this pipeline needs to be stopped.



On Saturday, Sept (correction mine) 3rd, while most Americans were relaxing into a 3-day Labor Day weekend, an oil company’s private security force loosed dogs upon peaceful Native American protesters trying to stop the destruction of burial sites on the northern border of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. This happened just one day after the tribe’s historic preservation officer had filed in court the location of the archaeological site on private land located in the pipeline corridor. The next morning the Dakota Access Pipeline crew were observed moving their heavy construction equipment 15 miles to the site identified in the federal court filing and began to dig and bulldoze the site containing stone cairns with Native American remains. An estimated crowd of 300 followed the crew to the site and were met by a private security force and attack dogs. Eyewitness accounts report that the dogs were so vicious and out of control that they bit pipeline workers and their own handlers, which is why at least one let go of the leash and loosed the dog upon the crowd.

. . . . . .

Today, the governor of North Dakota, Jack Dalrymple, held a press conference and announced he was calling in the National Guard. He chastised demonstrators to obey the law and not “tarnish your message” but made no mention of the well-documented use of vicious dogs on the peaceful Native American people and their allies or the bulldozing of burial sites by Energy Transfer Partners of Texas, owners of the Dakota Access Pipeline. "If these allegations against the pipeline company are true,” declared Daniel E. Estrin, general counsel & legal director, of Waterkeeper Alliance in a press release, “in the 23 years that I have practiced and taught environmental law, I have never seen such an outrageous, unconscionable, and bad faith abuse of the legal process. It also plainly demonstrates that contrary to the pipeline company’s spin, it is the company, not the tribe, that is the aggressor here.”

Standing Rock Sioux Tribal chairman Dave Archambault was unequivocal in his assessment of the situation when he told the Bismarck Tribune, “They wanted to destroy the proof and evidence; the company knew those sites were there. They don’t normally work on Saturday and Sunday; we know because we’ve been watching them. They desecrated all the land where the landowner gave us permission to look.”

. . . . .




The tribe also relayed that Chairman Archambault had spoken to the governor and been assured the National Guard would not enter the camps of Water Protectors on tribal land.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/9/8/1568081/-North-Dakota-activates-National-Guard-to-protect-the-pipeline-instead-of-our-tribes?detail=email&link_id=16&can_id=dbb0d69c584cc3d0a04f63b55f76c85f&source=email-even-nbc-execs-realize-matt-lauer-was-a-disaster&email_referrer=even-nbc-execs-realize-matt-lauer-was-a-disaster&email_subject=even-nbc-execs-realize-matt-lauer-was-a-disaster