The Dakota Access Pipeline is just one of many pipelines coming out of the oil fields of western North Dakota. There are at least fifteen major pipelines across the Dakotas, so what is all the whoopla about? Why should we care about the standoff? The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has sued to stop the pipeline from crossing through their sacred sites and under the Missouri River. They claim that they were not given proper chance to comment on the route, that the project was fast tracked and corners were cut. A nonprofit, environmental, legal group, called Earthjustice, has accepted the job of pursuing the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s interests in federal court.
In the meantime, the shores of the Missouri River and venues across the country and throughout the world are crowding with demonstrators standing with the people of the Standing Rock Reservation. One hundred and eighty-eight Tribes across the United States and Canada have written letters of support. Thousands of individuals and hundreds of businesses - including Wild Idea Buffalo Company, support the protesters (water protectors).
The company that is building the 1,100 mile long pipeline is really a group of connected companies receiving 10.25 billion in loans and guarantees from 38 banks to continue building this pipeline and others across the country. Like the XL Pipeline that was recently brought to a halt by the Obama administration, the promoters of this pipeline promise thousands of temporary construction jobs and untold economic benefit from the oil that will be allowed to flow freely from the Bakken oil fields to industries and automobiles. What they don’t seem to understand, is that that oil will not only flow to those industries and automobiles, but will eventually flow right on up and into the atmosphere, causing even more havoc as greenhouse gasses. The people who stand to make billions of dollars by pumping oil from the Bakken to refineries in the east don’t seem to care about the atmosphere. They don’t seem to care much about the water in the ground either. They say that there is no chance of the pipeline ever breaking where it goes under the Missouri River. They say it could never contaminate the water supply of the Standing Rock People. But, forever is a very long time to go without a leak and the Standing Rock people have heard those kinds of guarantees before. In the long view, water is much more valuable than oil. It always has been and it always will be, to the Standing Rock People and to us all.
There is a BBC News video of a pretty young woman named Juliana Brown Eyes-Clifford, who lives in a very small town on the Pine Ridge Reservation just to our south side boundary fence. In the video she tells about a dream that she had: Her people were moving across a dry land and they are very thirsty. They see a simple faucet sticking up from the earth, the people struggle to the faucet, but when they turned it on, oil flowed. What a terrible dream to trouble the sleep of young Juliana Brown Eyes.
On the surface, the demonstrations up on Standing Rock and around the world are about protecting sacred burial sites and the Missouri River. But, beneath the surface are other festering wounds inflicted on us all by mindless industry, greed, and arrogance. There are tribes, individuals, and business on the long list of supporters of the demonstrators that know nearly nothing about Standing Rock, their sacred sites, or the chances of oil leaks into their water supply. The industrialists and bankers who are building the Dakota Access Pipeline would say that those tribes, people, and business should stay out of the controversy, that they don’t have a dog in the fight. But that is where they are wrong. We have all seen these little battles before. Perhaps we have closed our eyes to them in the past, but now our eyes are open. These small battles may be little more than local grievances, but they add up to a war that encompasses us all and one that we cannot afford to loose.
So, while the standoff on Standing Rock is very real - vital and dangerous as such demonstrations can be, it is also symbolic of larger passions that are rising up in our country and around the world. We are all the people of Standing Rock, finally awaken to the subhuman, faceless enemy that is trying to stare us down along the banks of the Missouri River. It could bring us all ruin as an unintended consequence of simple greed.
63 comments
“Water is much more valuable than oil”. That says it all!
Thank you for this wider view of survival than the dividend or paycheck that so many will not see past.
THANK YOU for pointing out the big picture… so many only see their small part in the overall puzzle, and fail (intentionally or not) to look at the whole picture, the big picture, and refuse to look broadly into the future. I wish EVERYONE would read your post, Dan. Everyone needs to consider the big picture and the long-term view in this issue.
We need to protect our land, its water and its biodiversity.
We need to respect the people of that land and their sacred sites.
We need to move from fossil energy to conservation and alternative energy.
Catherine from Minneapolis
With all due respect, I am happy to receive emails about your product offerings but have no interest in receiving what essentially is a political message. That is not why I am on your email list. If you only want people of a certain ideological point of view to be your customers that is your choice. I have enjoyed the products I have purchased from you but am aware of other sources who, I presume, won’t attempt to foist their political views on me.
Thank you. Many of your customers, like us, are probably aware of the broader implications of the Standing Rock fight, but others may not realize how all sustainable practices work together for the long-term protection of not only our immediate health and safety, but the health and safety of our and future generations. Natural processes take a long time and so people often don’t appreciate that something that seems valuable today can lead to starvation tomorrow, e.g., the birthplace of wheat is now a lifeless desert because the land was overused.
In the mists of history people could get away with trashing a part of the Earth. They could move on. But there are more people now and less untrammeled Earth. Our Central Intelligence Agency has identified climate change and food insecurity as a driver for future world conflicts. People get desperate when they’re hungry. It behooves all of us to support sustainable practices for all our benefit. It’s not that hard. It just takes being aware. Heck, Wild Idea Buffalo is delicious as well as healthier and sustainable! It’s the only red meat we buy. We also buy green cleaning products – and have found we’re healthier without all the chemicals in the house. We buy for ourselves and as gifts fair trade and/or local coffee, tea, cocoa and gifts of all kinds – and not only do we enjoy them, but the recipients of our gifts are always excited and asking where we got them. (That includes people much wealthier than we are who can afford to shop at much more expensive places.) And green energy jobs are growing faster than fossil fuel jobs as well as being more sustainable. We can do well by doing good! It just takes folks looking at the long term and acting accordingly!
Well said, Dan. Having worked with the tribes, in both South Dakota and Arizona, I think it bears re-stating that the basis of the relationship, between the United States government and that of federally recognized tribes, is that of government-to-government. Even though the tribes are Sovereign Nations, the aura of authoritative paternalism still persists, in both governmental and commercial dealings and decisions.
Thank you, for an enlightening article.
Yes! Thank you for articulating the whole question, and thank you for standing up for your ethics (which mirror my own). Rare and valuable.
While I could spend several hours dissecting refuting nearly everything in your post, I will leave it by stating that if you are going to take a political stand, then state it directly; don’t use some protest as a reason to state your opposition to oil and (apparently) modern society. The Standing Rock Sioux may have grounds to sue over their sacred grounds, but they don’t own the Missouri River or the billions of gallons of water that flow down it. And their suit has nothing to do with the atmosphere.
oh God, I am so sad to read this… no respect for nothing, they have these greedy persons… and besides, oil is going to lack in a few decades !! makes me depressed…
Astrid from France
I was born into an oilfield worker’s family. I, like my Dad, worked my life away in the oilfields of west Texas. I even have, now that
I’m retired, a saltwater disposal well on my small farm that pays me $100k/year above my SS retirement.
I am 1/4 Choctaw, so I sympathize with the tribes there, but the oil companies are a BLESSING from God, not a blight on the land.
The picture with the caption is WRONG. The Earth and EVERYTHING, in or on it, belong to the Lord, Jesus the Christ.
The Indians knew Him only as The Great Spirit, but they KNEW Him. In the Sioux spirit dances before Little Big Horn, one of their shamans witnessed an apparition on a small cloud….a man….and he had the presence of mind to LOOK FOR THE NAIL
PRINTS in His hands. That is recorded in the book, “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee”.
ol’ Lawrence in west Texas
Amen Dan. Thanks for everything you do!!!! And not being afraid to stand up for what you believe and put your mind and heart and money behind it.
I applaud your heartfelt words of support for Standing Rock and am proud to be one of your customers!!
Thank you for writing about this issue with great passion. This is yet another reason that I will continue to purchase from Wild Idea Buffalo Co.
i stand with them also & the people that are fighting GMO products thank you.