Tag Archive for: Solidarity
Putting Solar Panels in Pipeline’s Path, Campaign to Combine Power of Sun ‘With Power of the People’
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An Indigenous-led coalition is fundraising to install solar panels along the route of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline to protest the project and provide renewable energy to family farms and Native communities in Nebraska and South Dakota.
“In the fight against dirty tar sands oil from crossing Indigenous treaty lands, we must also take moments to highlight the things we are fighting for,” explained Indigenous Environmental Network campaigner Dallas Goldtooth. “We will not only build renewable energy in America’s breadbasket, on Indigenous lands for Indigenous people, demonstrating the goals of a just transition towards sustainable energy, but we will build it in the face of the Keystone XL pipeline.”
“The fight against Keystone XL has always been about more than one pipeline—we’re demanding a world free of dirty fossil fuels,” added 350.org executive director May Boeve. “Putting solar in the path of this pipeline models the massive overhaul our energy system needs to stop the worst of climate change.”
This effort is just the latest phase of the Solar XL campaign launched last year by the Indigenous Environmental Network, Native Organizers Alliance, Brave Heart Society, Dakota Rural Action, Bold Nebraska, and 350.org. The groups installed an earlier round of solar arrays last summer.
The activists and landowners—who are also fighting the pipeline’s development in court—are optimistic about the message the new solar installations will send to politicians and the public alike, and compared the effort to mass demonstrations against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
“The powerful thing about alliances for mother earth is when they create a space to unlearn fear and to relearn leadership. This was true at Standing Rock, and Solar XL is another chance to learn and build a shining example of the future we want,” said Faith Spotted Eagle, a member of the Yankton Sioux Nation and the Brave Heart Society. “Our efforts to fight Keystone XL combines the power of solar with the power of the people.”
With a fossil fuel-friendly Republican Party in control of the White House and Congress, anti-Keystone XL activists continue to emphasize the importance of building broad opposition to the dirty energy industry and the politicians that back it.
“While Trump and fossil fuel executives continue to deny the writing on the wall, our resistance must grow stronger,” declared Boeve, referencing moves such as the administration’s attempt to save struggling coal and nuclear plants with a taxpayer-funded bailout. “We already know the just way forward is with renewable energy solutions like solar and wind, now we need the will.”
“Projects like Solar XL, built with grassroots financial support and owned by Indigenous communities and family farmers, are our best hope for a future of sustainable energy that delivers us from dependence on fossil fuels and the harm caused by extractive industries,” concluded Native Organizers Alliance director Judith LeBlanc Caddo.
The coalition has produced a video sharing the stories of families and communities who would be impacted by the pipeline:
Reprinted from CommonDreams.org
NOA joins Standing Rock demonstrations at Clinton HQ
Join the Native Organizers Alliance, Indigenous Environmental Network, Indigenous Peoples Power Project and 10 Standing Rock high school students at Noon Oct 27 at the Brooklyn Promenade at the end of Pierre Street for a water ceremony.
Hillary Clinton-Stand with Standing Rock
We, the young people of Oceti Sakowin, the Seven Council Fires, and the Standing Rock Sioux Nation are calling for Hillary Clinton — the next President of the United States of America– to stand with us against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
On Thursday, October 27th, 2016, Our youth delegation will travel from unceded territory on the Sovereign Standing Rock Nation in North Dakota to Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Headquarters in New York City to respectfully demand that she Speak Out against DAPL, Commit to standing with Standing Rock, and stand On the right side of history.
THIS IS A CALL OUT TO ALL WATER PROTECTORS FOR SOLIDARITY ACTIONS. THE TIME TO PROTECT THE FUTURE IS NOW.
This Thursday, as Our relatives stay Strong On the frontlines in Cannonball, We are asking everyone across Turtle Island to mobilize at a Hillary campaign Office near you. Organize. Rally. Flood her with phone calls. Plan a prayerful demonstration. Call your local media. Make the frontlines visible in your town. Make Sure Hillary Can’t look away.
Mni Wiconi. Water is life
Garrett Joseph
James Hairychin
Maya Monroe Runnels
William Clayton Brownotter Jr.
Kenyon Wallace Uses Arrow
Daniel Stephan Grassrope
Marilyn Uli Ann Fox
Annalee Rain Yellow Hammer
Gracey Rae Claymore
Adam Jacob Palaniuk
Tokata Chase Iron Eyes
Native People Waging Historic Struggle Against Dakota Access Pipeline
A historic struggle is brewing in North Dakota, where hundreds of Native Americans have mobilized to oppose the construction of a major oil pipeline across the Missouri River.
Local tribal members and their supporters have gathered near Cannonball, North Dakota in a large and growing prayer camp, unified behind the slogan Mni wiconi, meaning “water is life” in the Lakota language.
The Dakota Access Pipeline they are standing against is designed to move he pipeline would eventually haul 470,000 barrels of crude oil a day from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota 1,172 miles to Illinois and refineries further south.
Given the troubling record of pipeline safety in the U.S. the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is gravely concerned that the pipeline’s planned path across the Missouri River is just one mile upstream from the 8,000-person reservation. The Missouri is the tribe’s only source of water. The pipeline will also disturb sacred sites on land managed by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Last weekend The New York Times featured a front-page photo of young Native activists on horseback across from a line of law enforcement officers near the planned pipeline construction site. In fact, the peaceful stand by American Indian volunteers against this Big Oil project is getting more mainstream coverage than just about any Native issue in memory.
But little of the reporting captures the truly historic nature of the conflict.
The fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline is shaping up to be a rallying cry for indigenous people across the continent and for the broader climate movement as well. And it’s not going away anytime soon.
The Camp of the Sacred Stones prayer encampment was initiated by members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe back in April to little national notice. But news of the heroic opposition to the Dakota Pipeline soon spread across Indian Country by word of mouth and social media — which has become one of the main venues of solidarity and struggle for Native peoples in recent years.
“We have laws that require federal agencies to consider environmental risks and protection of Indian historic and sacred sites,” Dave Archambault II, the elected chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said in a statement. “But the Army Corps has ignored all those laws and fast-tracked this massive project just to meet the pipeline’s aggressive construction schedule.”
As of the beginning of August, local authorities had arrested nearly two dozen peaceful protesters, including elected tribal leaders. The tribe filed a formal injunction to halt construction on the pipeline, about which they say they were not consulted. North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple then declared a state of emergency and put the National Guard on call despite the peaceful nature of the camp. Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier attempted to stoke local tensions by declaring, “It is turning into an unlawful protest with some of the things that have been done and have been compromised at this point. We have had incidents and reports of weapons, of pipe bombs, of some shots fired.”
Organizers and leaders strongly deny these claims. All firearms, weapons, alcohol and drugs are strictly forbidden in the camp, which is home to many families and young children.
When the governor closed local roads and used blockades to corral the camp, the North Dakota ACLU responded by stating, “If the highway remains closed and we receive additional information regarding violations of the rights of individuals to protest peacefully, we will pursue all legal remedies available to us to prevent further abuses. We ardently hope that the government works with us to ensure that peaceful protest is permitted and not hindered by governmental action.”
Now, the camp hosts as many as 3,000 people, many from Standing Rock reservation, but many more from an estimated 100 other tribes from around the country. Hundreds of volunteers maintain kitchens, campsites, cleanup and logistics for the encampment. Hundreds of long-term and short-term visitors have made their way to Cannonball to show solidarity and stand with Standing Rock.
According to some observers, the gathering near Standing Rock is the broadest political gathering of indigenous tribes of North America in modern times. Almost daily shipments of drinking water, food, supplies, or tribal delegations arrive in the camp.
“The atmosphere at the Camp of the Sacred Stones is transformative,” said Judith Le Blanc, a member of the Caddo tribe and director of the Native Organizers Alliance who spent a week at the camp. “It is a community taking care of each other, the land and the water… Many people who are making the camp their home have never been activists before. They came here as protectors, not protesters.”
The encampment has grabbed attention in part because it’s a classic David and Goliath Story.
The $3.7 billion Dakota Access pipeline is backed by big money (a consortium that includes the owners of Sunoco gasoline) and is bolstered by promises of jobs and support from elected officials of both major parties.
Sections of the pipeline across all four states have already been built, but Dakota Access faces opposition elsewhere as well. On Wednesday, members of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI) and Bold Iowa beat back an attempt to silence protests of the pipeline in that state.
“We have been in this pipeline fight for over two years, and have vowed to use all of the tools available to us in our fight,” said Adam Mason, State Policy Director at Iowa CCI. “We will not be deterred or bullied by Big Oil.”
In late August a federal judge postponed ruling on the injunction until September 9, with a backup date for any appeals set for September 14. Whatever the ruling, there is a big struggle ahead in the courts and on the soil of North Dakota – and people around the world will continue to stand with Standing Rock.
Originally appeared at Ourfuture.org
