In a last ditch attempt to protect burial and prayer sites, North Dakota’s Standing Rock Sioux late Sunday filed for a temporary restraining order to halt construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which they say has already caused “irreparable harm” to the sacred plots.
“On Saturday, Dakota Access Pipeline and Energy Transfer Partners brazenly used bulldozers to destroy our burial sites, prayer sites and culturally significant artifacts,” saidtribal chairman David Archambault II in a press statement.
“They did this on a holiday weekend, one day after we filed court papers identifying these sacred sites,” Archambault added. “The desecration of these ancient places has already caused the Standing Rock Sioux irreparable harm. We’re asking the court to halt this path of destruction.”
The emergency motion came after security forces hired by the pipeline company attackedIndigenous demonstrators with dogs and pepper spray on Saturday.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, activist Linda Black Elk, who is married to a Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal member, said that it’s clear that the pipeline company is trying to “provoke” the peaceful resisters “to violence.”
Black Elk wrote:
Just to recap: On Friday, the Standing Rock Nation filed papers challenging Dakota Access permits from the Army Corps of Engineers’… because in a recent survey of the area, the tribe found many incredibly sacred sites, including burial sites, directly in the path of the proposed pipeline. The tribe had never been allowed to survey these areas before, so they hadn’t been able to document these sites.
Today, barely 24 hours after those papers were filed, Dakota Access used bulldozers to destroy those sites. It was absolute destruction. They literally bulldozed the ancestors right out of the ground, along with destroying tipi rings and cairns. They did all of this while assaulting peaceful resistors using vicious dogs, tear gas, and pepper spray.
“There’s only one conclusion,” Black Elk added, “they are attempting to provoke us to violence.”
The ongoing tribal protest against the Dakota Access pipeline has drawn thousands of supporters, including representatives from more than 200 tribes, and garnered increasing media attention. And a federal judge is currently weighing whether construction should be stopped altogether, in response to a complaint filed by the tribe, which argues that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the project without their consent. That decision is expected by Sept. 9.
“The Tribe has been seeking to vindicate its rights peacefully through the courts. But Dakota Access Pipeline used evidence submitted to the Court as their roadmap for what to bulldoze. That’s just wrong,” said Jan Hasselman, attorney for the Standing Rock Sioux.
“Destroying the Tribe’s sacred places over a holiday weekend, while the judge is considering whether to block the pipeline, shows a flagrant disregard for the legal process,” Hasselman added.
LaDonna Bravebull Allard, historic preservation office for Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s Section 106, noted in a piece published at YES! Magazine that “Of the 380 archeological sites that face desecration along the entire pipeline route, from North Dakota to Illinois, 26 of them are right here at the confluence of these two rivers,” the Cannonball and the Missouri. “It is a historic trading ground,” Bravebull Allard wrote, “a place held sacred not only by the Sioux Nations, but also the Arikara, the Mandan, and the Northern Cheyenne.”
What’s more, she highlighted how this latest affront is part of a legacy of the U.S. government erasing Indigenous culture through the destruction of their sacred sites.
“The U.S. government is wiping out our most important cultural and spiritual areas. And as it erases our footprint from the world, it erases us as a people,” she continued. “These sites must be protected, or our world will end, it is that simple. Our young people have a right to know who they are. They have a right to language, to culture, to tradition. The way they learn these things is through connection to our lands and our history.”
Finally, she posed the question: “If we allow an oil company to dig through and destroy our histories, our ancestors, our hearts and souls as a people, is that not genocide?”
It’s not genocide to tear up massive grave yards. It may be a dick move, but this is just sensationalist language.
Where are your grandparents buried? And their parents before them. What if they were dug up and casted aside in a pile of garbage and thought of as such. And the people doing the digging said that their profits are more important then your family’s history.
We should boycott ALL Fossil Fuels! The oil companies are ruining the world. Synthetic fuels are available and cheaper.
Where do you live if you can acquire synthetic fuels for cheaper than fossil fuels?
Hang on ‘Anonymous’ commenter, if you think this is sensationalist language you genuinely do not understand the depth of Native American Indian culture in comparison to your own. If you listen to the way a Native American Indian speaks, there is an integrity and honesty deeply ingrained and they genuinely feel this way. They say what they feel and it’s a very descriptive language. They believe their lives are completely entwined with those of their deceased ancestors and the destruction of these sites is monumental to them. Your comment is a great example of the differences in culture and why Indians’ beliefs are belittled in today’s culture. You may be able to sympathise by saying ‘it may be a dick move’ but you’ll never truly be able to empathise. They are right…If the pipeline goes ahead, it will be one step closer to ripping the heart and soul out of the world for corporate gain, profit and raping the earth of its resources when we should be moving towards green, environmentally friendly methods. The earth is being destroyed by big money, materialism and greed all over the world. Soon we’ll have nothing left. These ‘carbon targets’ that are being set by governments around the world are not enough. We need to end manufacturing and industry in its current guise, find a viable solution for energy and balance what can be done on an even level with the earth, to live and maintain it whilst existing harmoniously within it. If Keystone wins, that’s just Marshall Law and the TTIP in action. It can’t happen. It will set a legal presidence for all battles of this nature forthwith. It has much deeper far-reaching ramifications than just being a ‘dick move’. The indigenous people must win this. I’m not sure how the world has become so out of alignment that the people of the world who are trying to save the planet have less power than those trying to destroy it. The balance must be realigned. The answer shouldn’t have to be inhabiting other planets or taking resources from them.
Well said.
give me a welder and help to travel down there, and there wont be a single working bulldozer available, a couple of key spots welded solid would do just the trick to stop them in their tracks, literally.
People are controlled by money. That’s what our problem is and that’s all people care about, money, money, money. Don’t care about the environment or what makes other people happy, just how much they have in their pockets
We just heard that the North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple has called on the state’s National Guard to reinforce law enforcement at the construction site where Native American protesters are currently blocking further development. Link here :http://www.activistpost.com/2016/09/north-dakota-governor-activates-national-guard-pipeline-protest.html
Secondly may i suggest that we contact the Governor ( I already have done so ) on this issue thanks his contact details are here … http://www.governor.nd.gov/contact-us
Recieved some info today that GreenPeace is organising Supply Drives to the Red warrior and Sacred stones camp starting tomorrow until the 19th .. heres the website link … http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaign-updates/supply-drive-for-dakota-red-warrior-camp/
Secondly there is also a GoFundMe link … https://www.gofundme.com/2k4kgchk Thanking you all for your help and consideration …