300 attend Thanksgiving Day pipeline protest

A group of 12 leaders of color, led by Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon Executive Director Rev. Joseph Santos-Lyons, drove three auto loads of supplies to activists who oppose the North Dakota Access Pipeline. Several Oklahoma tribes, including the Cherokee and Osage nations, have passed resolutions of support for the Standing Rock Sioux and sent donations of food, water and firewood. One of them, Sophia Wilansky, 21, of NY, suffered an arm injury in an explosion during the skirmish and is hospitalized in Minneapolis. She arrived in serious condition.

On Sunday night the Morton County Sheriff’s Department escalated its conflict with Standing Rock Reservation protesters opposed to the North Dakota Access Pipeline by spraying crowds with water cannons in 26-degree weather.

Keller said one protester told officers they were “ready to die today” and another had said, “Remember ’73?” referring to Wounded Knee.

“I’m going to Standing Rock to give back to Native Americans for first cultivating many foods that nourish me and for helping the early settlers survive, including my own ancestors who were aided by the Wampanoag in MA and the Lenape in Pennsylvania”, she explained in a statement published on EcoWatch.

Both sides agree that the overnight protest got tense, but that’s where any agreement ends.

Still, it’s Thanksgiving and Obama has yet to officially place a timeline for approval of the project. John Hoeven and U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer implored the Democrat in a letter Wednesday to authorize the Army Corps of Engineers to approve the pipeline’s crossing under a Missouri River reservoir in southern North Dakota.

On November 14, final approval was delayed again for additional consultation.

Eye witnesses say Wilansky was injured when law enforcement officials lobbed a concussion grenade into a pile of protesters during a volatile demonstration. In fact, even the North American Energy News industry newsletter has gone on record stating that that ETP has never really bothered to listen to anybody.

“Trump’s investments in the pipeline business threaten to undercut faith in this process – which was already frayed – by interjecting his own financial well-being into a much bigger decision”, said Sharon Buccino, director of the land and wildlife program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. Construction is being delayed, but the company behind the project still expects it to be approved by the federal government. A makeshift bridge placed by the protesters allowed them access to the private property.

A NY woman seriously hurt protesting the Dakota Access oil pipeline faces multiple surgeries and could lose an arm, her father said Wednesday, and protesters and law enforcement gave conflicting accounts about what might have caused the explosion that injured her.

John DeCarlo, associate professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven in CT, said the state needs to take a more active stance or the situation could deteriorate.

“We’ll have those people who will recognize that they’re not willing to take a bullet, and those who recognize that they are”, Wood Jr. told Task & Purpose.

Zebro isn’t alone in his connection to Standing Rock – locals from the Chippewa Valley and the surrounding area have been forming activist organizations and group trips to donate supplies to the reservation for months.

On Monday, he did not denounce their actions entirely, saying he believes law enforcement is trying to escalate violence.