#NoDAPL

[catherine]

What are the thoughts and opinions of you guys on this issue?

I need to know more, but my emotions are clearly with the Native Americans.

[Zoe Girl]

I am definitely with the Native Americans, on a basic legal level we have treaties that we just can't seem to keep. We need to start keeping our word on those. We also need to respect a fundamentally different culture. There is a mining issue in Arizona where they decided it was okay to mine a sacred ground because there was not a structure, therefore it could not be a sacred site. There are sacred sites, burial grounds for example, that do not have markers or buildings that are still sacred. There is also the issue of medicinal plants being affected. You can't just move a tribe to another place, the same plants do not grow and then the traditional medicines are not available. In the end we have taken over with our culture of pharmaceutical medicine rather than traditional and natural medicine. This has been in my awareness for a long time, I have friends who are my age that were forced into the boarding schools and hit for speaking Navajo, and recently I was working with a family who struggled to get their grandchildren who were being abused from a state system when the tribal system should have had the power to place the children. These are not issues from 100 years ago, they are today

On an environmental level there are multiple pipeline leaks all over the country (I am not great at memorizing the facts of this, but the numbers were really high when I was doing some research). The Flint situation shows how precious our water supply is. There are some things going into our water that you can't just put a water filter on your tap and solve. We have the technology to start making a massive change and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, it is time to start using this.

Okay, maybe I will get a bad response but this is very present for me. If I could afford it I would take my week off at Thanksgiving and go to Standing Rock honestly.

[CathyA]

I support it wholeheartedly. How much more can we take away from the Native Americans? Plus......it's just bad for the environment, to risk a leak in the river. How blind can we be??
I signed an online petition to stop it, and encourage others to do the same.
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/no-dapl.fb50?source=s.fb.ty&r_by=16599814

[Tybee]

I agree Catherine, and thank you Cathy for the petition, which I have signed

[bae]

Just this week, I visited this timely exhibit, which my MIL encouraged:

http://www.nmai.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/item/?id=934

My MIL's celebration of life was this last week as well. Several Indian Nations sent delegations to speak at her ceremony, to thank her for all the work she had done on their behalf over the decades in advocating for their legal rights.

My community sent out a large quantity of supplies and some labor to offload/distribute it to the encampment a bit ago, we're probably sending out some people this week to the site to observe. I may go.

"The mere passage of time has not eroded, and cannot erode, the rights guaranteed by solemn treaties that both sides pledged on their honor to uphold." - Justice Fox http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/471/192/1805015/

[Zoe Girl]

That it beautiful Bae, my parents were just out east (maybe DC) on a learning tour thing for seniors. They were learning about the Cherokee my dad said.

A couple teachers at my school drove out supplies one weekend. I will see if they are going over the holiday break so I can send a few things. There is a list of what they need on the internet,

[JaneV2.0]

Greed almost always wins, but the "almost" makes the cause worth fighting for.

I'm far from the first to point out the contrast between how the pipeline protesters and the Bundy bunch have been treated.

[catherine]

Greed almost always wins, but the "almost" makes the cause worth fighting for.


Good way to put it. I would love to go--apparently I would fly to Bismarck and it's just an hour drive south from there. Seems almost doable--especially since I have a rare two weeks off, and a lot of frequent flier miles. So tempting... I've signed the petition and I gave a small donation but it seems at this point, they also need bodies.

[Zoe Girl]

What is so frustrating is that they have been in the courts for years trying to address these issues. I hope that this is a huge tipping point.

[JaneV2.0]

In cases like these. protesters are rarely taken seriously until a few people die.

[bae]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USs5hEB-hAM

[creaker]

One thing I find troubling (beyond the actual situation, which is very troubling), has been the threats of incarceration of people for merely reporting on the event. Amy Goodman for one, but charges have largely been dropped - there's another journalist they are threatening with a 40 year sentence. It seems the state is using outright intimidation to keep reporters away. And I think it's largely working - no where near the amount of reporting that happened when that wildlife refuge was forcibly occupied, and I'd say this is a much bigger story.

[Lainey]

Did anyone else see the report that explained that initially the pipeline was supposed to be in Bismarck, but that is a white majority area and they complained loudly and that's when the proposed pipeline was moved south to the Native American area. I think that piece of it has not been emphasized enough in the news. NIMBY is the root cause.

[Zoe Girl]

Lainey I was aware of that, so it isn't that this this the only option or that they can't change. The powers that be would rather break more treaties than upset a white community. That means many people understand it is not safe!