Help Water Protectors Being Attacked for protesting Line 3

Police officers detain a demonstrator as people protest the Line 3 pipeline by occupying an Enbridge pump station construction site in Hubbard County, June 7, 2021.  REUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi

Over the weekend, 20 water protectors were brutally arrested in Northern Minnesota for peacefully resisting the Line 3 tar sands pipeline.

Here’s a glimpse of the scene from Tara Houska, water protector and founder of the Giniw Collective:

“The level of brutality that was unleashed on us was very extreme. People were shot in their faces, in their bodies, in their upper torsos. It was a really, really brutal scene.

We were outnumbered by police at least two to one. We were under smoky skies and a red sun due to the wildfires that are raging in Ontario, just north of us and west of us, and next to a drought-stricken river.”

We must stand in solidarity with those on the frontlines and continue to put pressure on President Biden to stop this pipeline. Will you help?

Here are three actions you can take right now to call on President Biden to #StopLine3:

1. Contact the White House: Fill in your contact information and write a message in your own words here about why you want Biden to stop Line 3.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Sample: "Please stop the Line 3 tar sands pipeline. Like Keystone XL, the Line 3 tar sands pipeline is a threat to our climate and water and violates Native American treaty rights. Please take action to stop the construction and invest in clean energy instead."

2. Share on Social Media: We need to spread the word and show President Biden that Americans across the country are watching. Send a message to Biden on Twitter here, or share this post on Facebook here.

3. Join one of the resistance camps: We know it’s a big ask, but it is a huge privilege for Indigenous leaders to extend this invitation and offer an opportunity for supporters like you to learn directly from frontline leaders. All participants must adhere to the camp’s safety protocols, including COVID-19 guidelines. Learn more and sign up here.

Just last week, a spill was reported on the Mississippi River. Meanwhile, more than 75% of Minnesota is in severe or extreme drought and wildfires are causing the worst air quality in Minnesota history.

The climate crisis is here – in Minnesota and across the country – and we have a moral obligation to stop all fossil fuels now. 

President Biden declared climate change the “number one issue facing humanity” and vowed a national transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. And yet he has allowed Line 3 to continue even though he has the authority to pull the federal permits now.

Please, take one of the actions above and together we can put as much pressure on Biden as possible.

More Information:

Water Protectors Shot with “Less Lethal” Police Munitions at Line 3 Pipeline Protests - Aug. 3, 2021

We must stop HR 1374, a newly proposed federal law which could crush First Amendment rights nationwide.

Law Enforcement Can Now Kill Water Protectors. Date: 07/28/2021

Seven Water Protectors Protesting Line 3 Pipeline Arrested at the Shell River - July 19, 2021

Pics of June protest here. 

People power continues to build on Chase Bank and the KXL pipeline

JPMorgan Chase has got to be feeling the heat, because you answered the call to action! Over 2,000 of you called JPMorgan Chase to tell them to #defundtarsands and to cut ties with TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline.

And yet, late on Friday, JPMorgan Chase and 18 other banks renewed their support for TransCanada by extending two credit facilities totalling $1.5 billion. As the lead bank on both of these loans, JPMorgan Chase continues to provide TransCanada with the money it needs for its business, including its headline project, Keystone XL. This is unacceptable — but we knew this fight wouldn’t be easy.

JPMorgan Chase is a leading funder of TransCanada — and the #1 Wall Street bankroller of tar sands oil, one of the dirtiest fossil fuels on the planet. They are the biggest bank on Wall Street, and their investments in tar sands and extreme fossil fuels run deep. It’s going to take sustained people power and continued actions from this incredible network to move this corporate giant away from fossil fuels and towards honoring Indigenous rights and climate stability. Persistence is how we win.

Since the Nebraska decision that re-routed TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, almost 45,000 people have signed the petition to JPMorgan Chase, demanding the bank stop funding TransCanada.


On top of all that, on December 7 a small group of water protectors made their way to The Plaza Hotel in New York City to the Wells Fargo Thought Leadership Forum, an exclusive gathering of over 1,000 of the world’s largest investors. The water protectors attempted to deliver the petition with your signatures to Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s CEO. These peaceful activists were forcibly ejected — but our collective message was heard loud and clear: NO KXL. Defund tar sands.

When more than 2,000 of you called JPMorgan Chase’s head business office and customer service line, here are some of the things you said:

• “I had been a Chase customer since 1964, but closed my accounts because of their addiction to funding the non-sustainable fossil fuel industry.”
• “I no longer use my Chase credit card and have advised my financial advisor to take out my investments with JPMorgan. I was trying to say this when I was cut off!”
• “I encouraged funding for green energy as opposed to tar sands.”

We’re going to have to keep speaking up, because this fight to stop the KXL pipeline is far from over. TransCanada is expected to make their final investment decision this month, formally deciding whether or not to move forward on the project — read more about what that means here. RAN intends to intervene at every key financial decision point to demand that JPMorgan Chase cut ties with TransCanada and end funding for tar sands.

-Ruth Breech, Rainforest Action Network

Sign the petition to drop all charges against the Water Protectors who peacefully stood up against the Dakota Access Pipeline going under the Missouri River

Water protectors are not criminals. They put their lives on the line to keep DAPL from putting a pipeline under the Missouri River (that provides water for 18 million Americans). Take a stand for those who stood for all of us at Standing Rock by urging North Dakota to #DropDAPLCharges now: https://www.lakotalaw.org/our-actions/drop-the-charges

Recently leaked documents reveal that a private security firm hired by DAPL parent company Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) targeted, surveilled, and provoked the peaceful and prayerful water protectors at Standing Rock.

https://www.facebook.com/LakotaPeoplesLawProject/videos/10155061096097029/

Sign the Petition to ask North Dakota's State's Attorney to drop all charges against water protectors.

I am writing to ask you to drop all charges against water protectors arrested at Standing Rock whom you are presently criminally prosecuting.

Recently unearthed documents and revelations published by several media outlets show that TigerSwan, the private security firm contracted by Dakota Access pipeline parent company Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), violated the law in numerous ways. A growing body of evidence shows that TigerSwan:

• Paid security operatives and employees to infiltrate camps to provoke violence, disruption, and dissent among the nonviolent water protectors, to create divisions based on race and religion, and to plant contraband in the belongings of peaceful and prayerful demonstrators;

• Engaged in a campaign to spread false and defaming information about Water Protectors and Native American tribal members in local, state, and national media outlets and on social media; 

• Instigated and directed state and local law enforcement to take action based on physical and electronic surveillance that violated individuals’ constitutional rights to privacy and that targeted people based on race, religion and political beliefs;

• Falsely characterized the nonviolent Water Protectors as “religiously motivated jihadists” and “domestic terrorists” in order to instigate extreme and ongoing violence against them on the part of North Dakota law enforcement, causing one woman to lose her eye and another to lose the use of her arm.

All of this was done while TigerSwan knowingly operated in the State of North Dakota as a private security company without the required state license. Moreover,  TigerSwan was also operating in the employ of the Morton County Sheriff's Office.

I urge you to take decisive action to protect the fundamental rights of the water protectors by ordering the immediate dismissal, with prejudice, of all state criminal cases brought against them as a result of their participation in the protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline and its attendant threats to clean drinking water, sacred religious spaces, and our planet's environment.

Prayer for Water Protectors evacuating the Oceti Sakowin Camp

Protesters participate in a prayer circle on Turtle Island on Thanksgiving day

Trump gave permission for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) to break the law by proceeding to build the pipeline under the Missouri River with out the required environmental impact statement. The Water Protectors have been asked to evacuate the Oceti Sakowin Camp by 2 o'clock, February 22.

Today at 2 o'clock (N. Dakota time) many will leave the Oceti Sakowin Camp in prayer and ceremony, others (including some veterans) have chosen to make a stand and to be arrested rather than leave.

Water Protector Lisha Sterling writes:

Good morning, water protectors! This is not a vacation! It is time to pray!

In fact, it will be hard to do anything else besides pray today as my thoughts are constantly on Oceti Sakowin, Sicangu and Sacred Stone. May the water protectors stand today in one mind. May peace and strength emanate from the heart of every water protector throughout the camps, and may that peace and strength connect them all like a mycelial web, from heart to heart, mind to mind. May the ancestors and spirits of place rise up to defend the water protectors even as the water protectors stand to defend all our relatives. May those on the side of DAPL and those who would block, remove, or in any way harm the water protectors be confounded today, and let those who have good hearts have their eyes opened and their minds changed so that they too will stand with us.


Let there be peace. Let there be power. Let there be right thinking and right actions.

May our people have the time to fully clear the land that we have called home these many months, leaving no trace, and may we continue to stand together in new places for the protection of the water, the land, the air, and all our relatives as a community of prayer.


Previously live broadcast of the evacuation here:

https://www.facebook.com/Truthdig/videos/10154205741756367/

or here:

https://www.facebook.com/jenni.monet.journalist/videos/1636962879650702/

Army Corps announced that it will allow the company to continue construction on the pipeline

Last week, raids and arrests continued as Water Protectors stood their ground against Trump's push to complete the Dakota Access Pipeline. And just now, the Army Corps announced that it will allow the company to continue construction on the pipeline.1

We need you to weigh in to stop this pipeline, which would cross the Missouri River and endanger drinking water for the indigenous Standing Rock Sioux and all others downstream.

We will be hand-delivering comments to the Army Corps in D.C. on Thursday, in protest of this decision.

Tell the Army Corps — Fulfill the commitment to conduct a full Environmental Impact Statement on the Dakota Access Pipeline!

The 1,170 mile pipeline is projected to carry 500,000 barrels of oil underneath the Missouri River per day. Last December, President Obama announced that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would not grant Dakota Access the permit needed to drill under the Missouri River at Lake Oahe and complete construction of the pipeline.

The Army Corps has said they will conduct an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the river crossing and explore possibilities for alternative routes, but Trump has since ordered the Corps to expedite approval of the pipeline.2

Jana, your comment is needed to demand that the Army Corps completes the necessary environmental review on the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The Army Corps must carry out a full and robust environmental review — not only at the Lake Oahe location, but for the full length of the proposed pipeline route. The Corps must consult with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and evaluate how this pipeline would affect its drinking water, health, culture and way of life.

The Dakota Access Pipeline has already been routed away from Bismarck to protect the water supply of its majority white, affluent community. And the Army Corps has routinely ignored recommendations from the Environmental Protection Agency and moved forward with the project in spite of inadequate tribal consultation.

The Army Corps has an obligation as a federal agency to conduct a full environmental review — and we'll make sure they get the message loud and clear when we join the delivery this Thursday in D.C.

Please take a moment to submit a comment through our sister organization, Food & Water Action Fund, and tell the Army Corps to comply with President Obama's order for a full environmental review.


Thank you for weighing in,

Eleanor Bravo
National Pipeline Campaign Manager
Food & Water Watch
act(at)fwwatch(dot)org

---

1. U.S. Army to grant final permit for controversial Dakota pipeline: court filing, Reuters, February 7, 2017.
2. Army Says It Is Expediting Review of Dakota Access Pipeline Route, NPR, January 31, 2017.