MelindaTuhus.net
Connect with me on Social Media
  • Home
  • Body of Work
  • Blog
  • Contact

Standing Rock is All of Us

10/30/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Go to the end for important links.

It seems like everyone’s going to Standing Rock. And I’m torn between trying to get there myself to directly protest construction of the 1,100-mile Dakota Access fracked oil pipeline (DAPL) and continuing to organize local support actions, which the “water protectors” among the Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota and their allies are beseeching people to do. They say, "If you drink water and breathe air, this is your fight, too."

Many of the young people I met in 2014 who walked across the country as part of the Great March for Climate Action are already there and more are going. In New York City this week for a protest against the fracked gas Spectra AIM pipeline, I spent the night at a friend’s with Kelsey, who was leaving the next day on a Greyhound bus for Standing Rock – a more than 30-hour trip. I’ve been known to schlep my gear – tent, sleeping bag, blow-up pad, clothes, toiletries, books and my recording equipment – by bus and train to cover climate stories like Hurricane Katrina and mountaintop removal coal mining, but I couldn’t believe how much gear she was schlepping to enable her to camp out in the frigid Dakota nights.

My Catholic Worker friend Mark and his 20-something daughter are driving out this weekend to participate in an action there being organized by faith-based supporters. I was hoping to tag along, but the car is only a two-seater.

I’ve heard about other folks from Connecticut who might be heading out, and I’m going to check the ride board set up by Standing Rock supporters.

I organized a second local demo last week, this time at Wells Fargo bank, which has invested a scandalous $467 million in DAPL. We were at a busy downtown New Haven intersection, and passed out lots of flyers to mostly supportive people, then went in to read a letter to the bank manager. Unlike at TD Bank last month, where the bank manager freaked out and called the police, this manager welcomed us in and listened while I read the letter and then escorted us out after we marched around the office and chanted. The difference might have something to do with Wells Fargo’s reputation being in shreds from a different scandal, in which their employees were pressured to create two million fake accounts their customers didn’t want and then charging them fees to pad the bank’s bottom line. Now they’re playing nice.

The second action was smaller than the first, which came just a few days after private security guards hired by pipeline builder Energy Transfer Partners attacked peaceful but militant protectors with dogs and mace. But right after our second action things got very hot at Standing Rock. On two different days in the past week, more than a hundred people were arrested, pepper sprayed, dragged out of prayer circles and some beaten (no dogs used, though, from what I’ve read). The escalation came as a result of a new camp established right on the pipeline route near the Missouri River. Opponents say the company is building every inch of the pipeline it can (right up to the river on both sides), while it awaits a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers to lay the pipe under the river (which is Lake Oahe at that point, formed by a previous dam project).

Standing Rock tribal chairman Dave Archambault said on Democracy Now!, “The federal government, the United states, all we have to do is deny this easement, and this will all go away. Reroute this pipeline, and this will all go away. Save—protect our water, this will all go away. Deny the easement. President Obama needs to step up now, deny the easement. Hillary Clinton needs to make a firm statement about this and stop trying to ride the fence.”

Click here for the most moving description I’ve read of a visit to Standing Rock by an outside supporter.

And click here for a native perspective on why it’s important to not make this fight all about climate change – though it is about that, too.

The photo above is this year's jack-o-lantern.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Melinda Tuhus

    Welcome to my blog, Leaves and Fishes. It connotes that I'll  often be blogging about environmental issues, though certainly not exclusively. It also references the idea that when people pool their resources -- even if meager --  generous and equitable outcomes can result. Finally, since  "leaves" and "fishes" are both nouns and verbs, I hope to have fun with the words I write. 

    Archives

    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.