Thanksgiving meal set for pipeline protesters

It is cold and growing colder in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, where protesters against the Dakota Access pipeline recently fought one of their most tense battles with the Morton County Sheriff’s Department.

It is the final large segment of the $3.8 billion, 1,200-mile pipeline to carry North Dakota oil to a shipping point in IL that’s been held up while the Corps consults with the Standing Rock Sioux, who believe the project could harm the tribe’s drinking water and Native American cultural sites.

Protesters started fires on the road by the bridge.

Officials say they gave repeated orders for the three people to come out from behind the barricade and they attempted to force them out with “less than lethal” bean bags and sponge rounds.

The site is on private property, but the pipeline will cross waterways that serve Standing Rock.

Opponents of the four-state, $3.8 billion oil pipeline demonstrated in Mandan Thursday morning.

For Stuck, Sunday night’s scenes fresh in his mind, lit by firelight and bright police lights, are an old story. The attention – especially during a holiday theoretically based on cooperation with our country’s native peoples – won’t hurt.

“Any time you’re backed into a corner, you react”, he said.

“With the militarized police, it became a bit scarier to go”, Hamilton said.

“We had folks at the falling-down stage, groups huddling and shivering, in whole-body convulsions”, Morris said. “We have a humanitarian problem going on down there right now”. Members of the tribe, whose reservation is near the project’s path, believe the pipeline would affect its supply of drinking water and place downstream communities at risk of contamination from potential oil spills. Indian water protectors – activists dislike the term “protesters” – say a leak in the 1,172-mile line could cause an environmental catastrophe.

People in the peaceful camp that Stuck described detected a change in the air Sunday.

Wesley Clark Jr., a veteran, screenwriter and activist, created the event along with Michael Wood Jr., a retired Baltimore police officer and Marine Corps veteran who advocates for police reform. And they are showing us a path for the future that should inspire us for the hard times ahead: a future based on respect for Mother Earth and all species, cooperation, generosity, non-violence, humility and love.

“I’m proud to be standing in support of the courageous and dedicated Water Protectors at Standing Rock”.

The movement started April 1 with a almost 30-mile prayer ride on horseback from Sitting Bull’s burial site in Fort Yates, N.D., to the Sacred Stone Camp site. The economics student is planning to peacefully protest on the front lines and packed extra protective gear. When protesters blocked the intersection, they set up several folding tables with pumpkins and a pig head. “Their unusual mannerisms led law enforcement to believe they were there for a goal with a calculated effort to either cause harm or breach the line”. “Number two is they have to demilitarize the police there”.

Chuck Davis, an Oglala Lakota member and speaker at the protest, said the recent protests are an example of the seventh generation principle. Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said officers reported an explosion in the area, but said they only used pepper spray and water hoses.

Iverson also said that the protesters rolled rigged propane tanks onto a bridge, and officers witnessed protesters fleeing from a subsequent explosion.

Ms. Anderson and Ms. Bogan said living in the structure served to promote an event on November 17 to bring awareness to their campus community about the pipeline, share what they witnessed at Standing Rock, discuss oil spills around the nation and to protest the expansion of the Algonquin Pipeline much closer to home near the Indian Point nuclear reactor – just 35 miles up the Hudson River from the northwest Bronx.

Those who are interested in reaching out to Standing Rock protesters can go to standingrock.org.