Standing with Standing Rock
Oct 10, 2016
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
Over 100 years the government took the Natives land and resources and kill hundreds of thousands + in the process. A treaty was signed to put the Natives in small reservations for the government’s greed for money and power. Now here the government wants to take more and possibly destroy the area where these people live and their livelihood, homes, water, land. This government is so powerful now that they will get their pipeline….or get another Ruby Ridge. This type of behavior has to be stopped. This government is pushing us and the Natives around as they wish…..Great Spirit help us through this illegal voting in November.
Am in total accord with the tribes.. We have had multiple oil spills here in Santa Barbara, California. Big investors with Big money sources DO NOT CARE about our environment-they are the faces of UGLY CAPITALISM-and care not if they RAPE our environment!!!
Thank you Dan, this article helps define the issues of Standing Rock. We need to know.
Thank you for your very insightful and heartfelt message of truth. We have only one home here on earth and we need to protect Mother Earth in every way possible. The use of fossil fuels has tapped out most of the resources left in the earth and it’s time now to come together and speak with one voice. This not just an “Indian” problem anymore, it is a “humankind” problem and we must all face the facts. We must stop and listen to the earth once again, not with the head where profit margins reign but deep within where we care about the next generation. Fracking must stop, the insanity of building an 1100 mile pipeline must end. I don’t believe for a second when they say it’s safe and that we need the oil more the risks that needs to be taken. We all know that it would only be a matter of time if this pipeline is built that rivers and lands will be destroyed. Not worth the jobs, the income, the economy or those who believe the greater “manifest destiny”, where it’s ok to destroy lands and cultures, and eminent domain are the orders of the day. Time to look toward the vision of Sitting Bull who said, “let us put our minds together to build a better world for our children”.
I seriously do not understand why regular people all over the country/world are not rioting in the streets demanding an end to this greedy madness. The concept is so simple. We cannot eat, drink or breathe money. Why can’t we (the greater WE of uninformed sheep) GET that? It really is a pretty simple concept!
I am both of native heritage,Winnebago and European, and agree with most of the comments except those who believe that big oil give us the truth. We have seen and heard of accidents from things like the Exxon Valdez and the Gulf of Mexico so something can always happen. These Native people aren’t just standing up for their ancestors but also to finally tell the American government enough is enough. All Americans should stand with these people and finally become part of the solution instead of the problem. This country could become a cutting edge nation in renewable energy technologies and lead the rest of the world instead of following. Let us all become united Americans and start standing for what is right not for how much money we can make at the sake of our country.
Dan, thank you so much for stating so clearly what is at stake. Yesterday at my Cambridge UU church we had two Native American speakers who’ve been at Standing Rock speak during and after our service. While many of us are aware of Standing Rock—and we have our own pipeline issues right here in MA, it was so good to hear directly from people most closely affected by this pipeline. Thank you, too, for putting your money where you mouth is, seeing profit at the expense of our planet as an unethical and unsustainable practice. I can’t afford to buy as much of your bison as I’d like but when I buy beef, I choose local/regionallly raised grass-fed beef as a humane, ethical, and healthy alternative. No more beef from cattle who spend their last days in misery unhealthy feedlots!
Thank you for writing this beautiful piece. Yes, it is time that we begin to see the Earth and the People of the Earth – not the corporations of the earth as important. I am grateful for the jobs created for so many people by the oil industries. I am grateful for having oil and oil by-products in our lives for the ease it has created. That does not mean that we should blaze ahead mindlessly forgetting that we ALL share this earth together. We can survive without oil but the waters must flow clean for us to survive and the earth must continue to produce for us to survive. I am so proud of those who have gone forth with a voice to stand as water protectors. It is time we wake up as a society. I and my business Stand with Standing Rock.