#nodapl — Public Fediverse posts

#MniWiconi 10 Year #NoDAPL Reunion

New Date: Sept. 17 - 20, 2026

Mni Wiconi Reunion organizers said they have a beautiful lineup in store for the upcoming 10-year Reunion.

"Coming to the stage, all the way from Watsonville, California, we’ve got SH1NE! SH1NE will be bringing his healing energy and soothing vibe to give us a remarkable performance. He is also co-leading this event, so if you know an artist, we will connect you with him!"

"That’s not all! #Indigenous frontliners will be headlining this event, your favorites are coming to the stage! That’s right, artists who’ve risked their freedoms to protect sacred water are coming back for this unforgettable experience!"

"Who, you might ask?"

"To find out, follow us on Facebook Mni Wichoni 10 Year #nodapl Reunion and Instagram @nodaplreunion for continued updates! This reunion is one you do not wanna miss!"

Join us as we come together for healing and celebration in commemoration of the 2016 #NoDAPL Movement in Standing Rock.

Come stay for 3 nights of FREE CAMPING held at Porcupine Creek on the Standing Rock Sioux Nation Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be provided for duration of encampment.

Camp programming will focus on healing, networking, bridging gaps and celebrating each other and our strengths. There will be games, music, open mic story-telling, and so much more!

No camping gear will be provided as this is a grassroots-led effort. Everything you bring, please take back with you. As always, we want to the leave the land better than how we found it. “Pack it in, pack it out”

Also, this is a drug/alcohol FREE space — if you are found to be inebriated or have alcohol/drugs on you, you will be asked to leave by camp security. Respectfully.

So mark your calendars and get ready for an unforgettable camping experience to honor those who served on the frontline, in camp, online and stood in solidarity across the globe for one shared message: Mni Wiconi, Water is life!"

Source:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/06/mni-wiconi-10-year-no-dapl-reunion-aug.html

#CensoredNews #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #StandingRock #StandWithStandingRock #TenYearReunion #IndigenousResistance #ProtectTheSacred

@justbob , I came across this and thought of you...

From 2016:

#StandingRock Camp Battles Cyber Blockers, Improves Service

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
Sat., Dec. 10, 2016

UPDATES -- "Composting toilets save the day. Crews finished installing composting toilets, even some in heated tents, after the port-a-potties were yanked from Oceti Sakowin Camp. And work has been underway to fight back at the cyber blockers. Turns out they don't like being pinged to expose who they are, including cops who use stingrays to imitate cell towers to gain access to your cellphone. On Friday, five semi truckloads of supplies arrived, purchased from Amazon -- by good hearts around the world -- in response to the Last Real Indians wish list. Donors are also helping Last Real Indians purchase pickup trucks and vehicles for camp. The Dine' Camp at Oceti Sakowin is standing strong, with a new hogan. Across the river, Rosebud Camp and Sacred Stone Camp are resilient.

Standing Strong for Standing Rock."

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/12/standing-rock-camp-battles-cyber.html

#StandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #NeverForgetStandingRock #USGovt #USPol #ErikPrince #Blackwater #PrivateSecurity #BigOilAndGas #CorporateCriminals #Oiligarchy

#NativeNewsOnline

"Native News Online delivers important daily news that affects the lives of Native Americans nationwide. Founded in 2011, Native News Online reaches millions of Native and non-Native readers annually including #AmericanIndians, #AlaskaNatives, #NativeHawaiians and others interested in #NativeAmerican concerns.

"Publisher and Editor #LeviRickert is an award-winning American Indian journalist and tribal citizen of the #PrairieBandPotawatomiNation. As editor of one of the most-read daily American Indian news publications, Rickert has covered important events that affect #IndianCountry, including White House tribal nations conferences, Congressional hearings, missing and murdered Indigenous women and the #StandingRockResistance to the #DakotaAccessPipeline. Native News Online remains focused on generating work that furthers his mission of improving the lives of Indigenous people.

"Indian Country Media LLC (ICM) is the parent company of Native News Online and Tribal Business News, which covers the Native business sector and the $130 billion Tribal economy. ICM is a privately owned business with several Native and non-Native investors, including managers of the company and Rickert, who is the controlling shareholder."

https://nativenewsonline.net/

#NativeAmericanNews #IndigenousNews
#IndigenousNewsOutlets #MMIW #MMIWG #StandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #USPol #NativeAmericanActivism #NativeAmericanJournalists

[Thread] #IndigenousNewsOutlets and #IndigenousPerspectives - A List of Websites and Resources

First up, my friend and colleague #BrendaNorrell's website, #CensoredNews (though she is not updating it at the moment, there is a wealth of Indigenous news stories dating back to 2007!

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

#IndigenousNews #IndigenousResistance #ReaderSupportedNews #NativeAmericanNews #NoDAPL #NativeActivists #NativeAmericanActivism

‘The cavalry’s coming!’: Indigenous activism from 1492 to Standing Rock

Famed Indigenous activists like Leonard Peltier and Madonna Thunder Hawk and younger activists shared their thoughts with ICT about the evolution of Indigenous activism from the rise of the American Indian Movement in the 1960s to Standing Rock and beyond.

by Kevin Abourezk, May 11, 2026

#CannonballND – "The field is serene. The blades of brown grass, not yet awakened by spring rains, sway gently. In the distance, the #MissouriRiver cuts a blue streak across the unbroken plains. The silence is punctuated only by the sound of passing cars and the low hum of rushing water in nearby #CannonballRiver.

"But if you listen carefully, you can hear defiant voices shouting and then screaming.

"Ten years ago, this land exploded.

"For nearly a year, from April 2016 to February 2017, thousands of people stood strong against #MilitarizedPolice, #FederalTroops and #PrivateSecurityForces [#Blackwater] hired to protect the 1,176-mile #DakotaAccessPipeline. They gathered to resist a private corporation’s efforts to build a pipeline less than a mile from the #StandingRockSioux Reservation near the #NorthDakota-#SouthDakota border.

"In the end, they were forced to evacuate their camps as authorities quieted, but never fully extinguished, the uprising. Some would say the fire that ignited at #StandingRock was lit decades earlier by #NativeActivists who fought oppression and violence in the 1960s and 1970s.

"While Native people have resisted #colonization and its impacts since 1492, the rise of the American Indian Movement in the 1960s marked a turning point in the efforts of Native people to join together and speak in one voice. That torch of resistance was carried all the way from places like #AlcatrazIsland and #WoundedKnee to a field near the Missouri River in 2016.

"The #NoDAPL movement reached its height on Nov. 20, 2016, when hundreds of water protectors gathered on a bridge to clear two burned-out trucks that impeded a public roadway that provided access to the pipeline drill site and to the camp. The confrontation was the most violent clash between water protectors and authorities during the protest and led to nearly 200 people being injured, some seriously."

Read more:
https://ictnews.org/news/the-cavalrys-coming-indigenous-activism-from-1492-to-standing-rock/

#USPol #NativeAmericanActivism #StandWithStandingRock #NativeAmericanHistory #Resistance #IndigenousResistance #Colonialism #CorporateColonialism

A North Dakota judge has said he will order @greenpeace to pay damages to pipeline company Energy Transfer expected to total $345m in connection with protests against the #Dakota Access #oil pipeline from nearly a decade ago, a figure the environmental group contends it cannot pay.

The long-awaited order is expected to launch an appeal process in the North Dakota supreme court from both sides.

#DAPL #ETP #NoDAPL

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/25/greenpeace-dakota-access-pipeline-protest

Watch #NeilYoung Perform at #StandingRock on His 71st Birthday

Showing his solidarity with #DakotaAccessPipeline #protestors

By Noah Yoo
November 14, 2016

"Neil Young traveled to the Standing Rock Reservation this past weekend to perform for Native American tribes and allies protesting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, as CoS points out. Find footage below. Young was celebrating his 71st birthday during his trip to the protests. The singer-songwriter has expressed his solidarity with the movement in the past; in September, he shared the video for his song 'Indian Givers,' featuring footage from the protests as well as the lyrics, 'There’s a battle raging on the sacred land/Our brothers and sisters have to take a stand/Against us now for what we all been doing/On the sacred land there’s a battle brewing.' "

https://pitchfork.com/news/69807-watch-neil-young-perform-at-standing-rock-on-his-71st-birthday/

#StandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL

From 2021... This started before #Trump, but things are way worse now!

#AntiProtestLaws Threaten #Indigenous and #Climate Movements

“#CriticalInfrastructure” laws in over a dozen states wrongly invoke national security to justify targeting #PipelineProtesters.

Kaylana Mueller-Hsia, March 17, 2021

"In 2016 as a member of Congress, #DebHaaland stood for four days in solidarity with protesters at the #StandingRockSioux Reservation against construction of the #DakotaAccessPipeline. Today, as the first #NativeAmerican to be the secretary of the interior — the first to lead any cabinet department — she has the opportunity to support the #FirstAmendment rights of the protesters she joined in the past.

"With her authority over energy development on federal lands, Haaland can be a voice for Indigenous and climate movements facing an urgent threat: the rapid spread of laws to protect 'critical infrastructure' that single out activists.

"Since 2016, 13 states have quietly enacted laws that increase criminal penalties for trespassing, damage, and interference with infrastructure sites such as oil refineries and pipelines. At least five more states have already introduced similar legislation this year. These laws draw from national security legislation enacted after 9/11 to protect physical infrastructure considered so 'vital' that the 'incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on security, national economic security, national public health or safety.'

"Many industry sectors are designated critical infrastructure, including food and agriculture, energy, water and wastewater, and communications, but most state critical infrastructure laws focus more narrowly on oil and gas #pipelines. While protecting critical infrastructure is a legitimate government function, these laws clearly target environmental and Indigenous activists by significantly raising the penalties for participating in or even tangentially supporting pipeline trespassing and property damage, crimes that are already illegal. Many laws are modelled on draft legislation prepared by the American Legislative Exchange Council, also known as #ALEC, a powerful lobbying group funded by #FossilFuel companies like #ExxonMobil and #Shell.

"Central to the new critical infrastructure laws are increased criminal penalties and vague, broad definitions that could discourage protest and particularly, nonviolent civil disobedience. Many laws make any 'damage' to or 'interference' with a facility deemed critical infrastructure a felony. Under #Ohio’s law, trespass with the purpose of 'tampering' with a facility is a third degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. In Indiana, a felony conviction is applied for any facility trespass, a crime that is typically a misdemeanor or fine.

"Vague language like 'damage,' 'tamper,' and 'impede' in critical infrastructure laws makes it unclear if, for example, knocking down #SafetyCones and starting a fire next to a natural gas facility are the same under the law. Many critical infrastructure laws do not clarify if they apply only to land a company fully owns or also to pipeline easements, which run through both public and private lands. At least some laws apply to both. Only a week after Louisiana’s critical infrastructure law was enacted, opponents of the Bayou Bridge pipeline were charged with trespassing for boating on public waters on the border of a pipeline easement.

"The combination of overly broad language and steep penalties in critical infrastructure laws make it likely that future activists and supporting organizations will be discouraged from exercising their First Amendment-protected protest rights. A lawsuit brought in response to the #BayouBridge charges will test the laws for the first time on First Amendment grounds.

"Many of these laws even extend beyond the protesters. In a proposed law in #Minnesota, anyone who 'recruits, trains, aids, advises, hires, counsels, or conspires' someone to trespass without a 'reasonable effort' to prevent the trespassing is guilty of a gross misdemeanor. In #Oklahoma organizations that conspire with perpetrators are liable to be fined up to $1 million. These laws may infringe on the freedom of association protected under the First Amendment. Indeed, the Supreme Court ruled that the illegal actions of a few individuals do not implicate an entire group.

"The criminalization of environmental protest is fueled by federal security agencies and oil and gas companies, who are often major political donors. For years, the Department of #HomelandSecurity and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have labelled activists at infrastructure sites as #DomesticTerrorists and violent extremists in order to justify further #surveillance and #policing. Government documents have been released that detail the FBI’s focus on '#AnimalRights / #EnvironmentalExtremism,' describing even #NonviolentProtesters as #extremists.

"At Standing Rock, a private security firm [#Blackwater] hired by the pipeline companies consistently referred to protesters as 'terrorists' while working with law enforcement. Ahead of the #KeystoneXLPipeline protests in 2018, #DHS agents held an '#AntiTerrorism training' for state and local authorities. In contrast, members of the #FarRight militant group the #ThreePercenters have established a significant presence at oil and gas plants with little law enforcement reaction.

"To be sure, as the recent power outages in Texas showed so vividly, the United States needs reliable energy. But it’s questionable whether pipeline construction sites that could feasibly be moved or replaced with renewable energy sources should legitimately be considered 'vital' to the energy grid. Furthermore, a singular focus on this aspect of security comes at the cost of others. Whose essential resources do pipeline projects protect and whose do they threaten? Black Americans are disproportionately likely to live near natural #GasPipelines and experience higher #CancerRisk due to unclean air. An oil spill from the Dakota Access Pipeline could devastate the #SiouxTribe’s water source. Meanwhile, on some reservations, 10 percent of households lack electricity and as many as 40 percent of households must haul water and use outhouses. The well-being of these communities must count too.

"The rise in critical infrastructure laws may foreshadow more anti-protest legislation to come. A similar wave of anti-protest laws has already begun in response to the 2020 #BlackLivesMatter protests. State legislators contemplating critical infrastructure laws should bear in mind that laws that criminalize trespassing and protect the safety of construction workers and law enforcement already exist. Critical infrastructure laws don’t fill an unmet need — they only raise the penalties for specific groups of people. Courts adjudicating #FirstAmendment challenges in the coming years should recognize that these laws are overbroad and impose disproportionately severe penalties that chill freedom of assembly and association.

"As secretary of the interior, Haaland promises to uplift the voices of Indigenous and climate protesters in the Biden administration. State legislators, law enforcement, and the fossil fuel industry should follow suit and listen to these activists rather than suppressing constitutionally protected activity under the guise of national security."

Source:
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/anti-protest-laws-threaten-indigenous-and-climate-movements

#BrennanCenter #Authoritarianism #Fascism #NoDAPL #NoKXL #PipelineProtests #WaterIsLife #ACAB #ErikPrince #BigOilAndGas #Oiligarchy #CorporateColonialism #EnvironmentalRacism #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #ExxonLied #Blackwater #StandWithStandingRock #StandingRockSioux

YIKES! Please read and share this!

via @UnicornRiot

"We’ve been forced to spend around $55,000 to date because of Energy Transfer’s legal campaign against our freedom of the press.

"We’ve only raised back $38,916 of this so far.

"Your donation helps us keep operating despite corporate attempts to silence us"

https://donorbox.org/unicorn-riot-nodapl-legal-defense

#EnergyTransfer #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #MutualAid #LegalDefenseFund #SilencingDissent #Resistance #CorporateColonialism #Oiligarchy #CriminalizingDissent #CriminalizingProtest #Authoritarianism #EnergyTransfer #StandWithStandingRock #StandingRockSioux #IndigenousResistance #IndigenousAllies #DAPL #NorthDakota #StandWithStandingRock #SLAPPsLawsuits #FossilFuel #BigOilAndGas #Academi #ErikPrince #Blackwater #ACAB #PrivateSecurity #BigOil #KelcyWarren #Oiligarchy #WaterProtectors #CorporateFascism #StandingRockReservation

State by State Pending and recently passed #AntiProtestLaws: #NorthDakota

SB 2044: Heightened penalties for #protests near #CriticalInfrastructure

Enhances potential penalties for individuals who protest near existing and planned gas and oil #pipelines by criminalizing acts that interrupt or interfere with critical infrastructure facilities. In addition to prohibiting actual tampering with critical infrastructure property and equipment, the law prohibits "interfering, inhibiting, impeding, or preventing the construction or repair" of a critical infrastructure facility. Further, the law expands the definition of "critical infrastructure facility" to include a "site or location designated or approved for the construction of a facility" such as an oil or gas pipeline. Intentional interruption of a critical infrastructure facility, including by interfering with pipeline construction, is a Class C felony under the law, subject to a penalty of five years' imprisonment, a fine of $10,000, or both. The law also creates organizational liability for such acts: An organization found to have "conspired" with an individual who committed the interference could be criminally liable for ten times the fee imposed on the individual, or up to $100,000.

Status: enacted

Introduced 3 Jan 2019; Approved by Senate 15 Feb 2019; Approved by House 25 March 2019; Signed by Governor Burgum 10 April 2019

Issue(s): Protest Supporters or Funders, Infrastructure

HB 1426: Heightened penalties for #riot offences

Increases the penalties imposed for riot offenses. Under the law, participation in a riot is a Class A rather than Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in prison and a $3,000 fine. Engaging in a riot involving more than 100 people is made a Class B felony, subject to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.

Full text of bill [pdf]:
https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/65-2017/documents/17-8158-02000.pdf

Status: enacted

Introduced 16 Jan 2017; Governor Burgum signed the law on 23 Feb 2017

Issue(s): Riot

HB 1293: Expanded scope of criminal trespass

Expands the scope of criminal trespass activity under state law such that it could encompass protests, demonstrations, or other gatherings on private property, if notice against trespass is "clear from the circumstances." The offense could be punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $1,500 fine. The law also creates an additional, noncriminal trespass offense and allows officers to issue a citation with a $250 fine for trespassing. The law was part of a package of legislation introduced in response to the #DakotaAccessPipeline protests.

Full text of bill [pdf]:
https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/65-2017/documents/17-0650-04000.pdf

Status: enacted

Introduced 12 Jan 2017; Signed by Governor Burgum 23 Feb 2017

Issue(s): Trespass

HB 1304: New penalties for protesters who conceal their identity

Prohibits the wearing of #masks, #hoods, or other device that "conceals any portion" of an individual's face while committing a criminal offense, in order to avoid recognition or identification. As drafted, the offense could encompass, e.g., individuals wearing hooded clothing while participating in a protest and also committing a minor offense such as jaywalking. Under the law, commission of the offense comprises a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a $3,000 fine.

Full text of bill [pdf]:
https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/65-2017/documents/17-0311-04000.pdf

Status: enacted

Introduced 12 Jan 2017; Governor Burgum signed it 23 Feb 2017

Issue(s): Face Covering

HB 1226: New criminal penalties for masked protesters

Would create a new criminal offense that could cover peaceful protesters who choose to wear a mask. The bill would make it a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and $3,000, to wear a mask “with intent to conceal the identity” of the wearer while “congregating in a public place with any other individual wearing a mask, hood, or other device that covers, hides, or conceals any portion of the individual’s face.” The bill exempts public gatherings to celebrate “Halloween, a masquerade, or other similar celebration,” but does not include exemptions for masks worn during protests, or for health, religious, or other reasons. As written, the bill could cover a protester wearing a mask to avoid retaliation for their political speech, if there were any other individual in the crowd also wearing a mask—for instance, a medical mask to avoid spreading or contracting a contagious disease.

Full text of bill:
https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/69-2025/regular/bill-overview/bo1226.html?bill_year=2025&bill_number=1226

Status: ENACTED!

Introduced 13 Jan 2025; Approved by House 10 February 2025

Issue(s): Face Covering

#FirstAmendment #CriminalizingDissent
#Authoritarianism #Fascism #Clampdown #CriminalizingProtest
#CharacteristicsOfFascism #USPol #AntiProtestLaws #PipelineProtests #MaskedProtesters #AntiMaskLaws #SurveillanceState #PipelineProtests #NoDAPL

I was an independent observer in the Greenpeace trial. What I saw was shocking | Steven Donziger https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/28/greenpeace-verdict-pipeline-north-dakota #GreenpeaceTrial #NoDAPL #StandingRock #EnergyTransfer #Indigenous

Statement of #IndependentTrialMonitors
On Verdict in #GreenpeaceUSA Trial:

"It is our collective assessment that the jury verdict against Greenpeace in #NorthDakota reflects a deeply flawed trial with multiple due process violations that denied Greenpeace the ability to present anything close to a full defense. Attorneys on our team monitored every minute of the proceedings and found multiple violations of #DueProcess that denied Greenpeace its right to a fair trial. The problems included a jury that was patently biased in favor of #EnergyTransfer, with many members working in the #FossilFuel industry; a judge who lacked the requisite experience and legal knowledge to rule properly on the complex #FirstAmendment and other evidentiary issues at the center of the case; and incendiary and prejudicial statements by lawyers for Energy Transfer that tried to criminalize Greenpeace and by extension the entire #ClimateMovement by attacking constitutionally-protected advocacy.

"Our fear that this was an illegitimate #corporate-funded #SLAPP harassment case was confirmed by our observations.

"We will be issuing a full report documenting these violations and larger flaws in the case in the coming weeks.

"While the trial court verdict is in, the case is far from over. Greenpeace has a right to appeal to the North Dakota Supreme Court and ultimately to the #USSupremeCourt. Our committee will continue its work monitoring this critically important case that raises troubling concerns for all advocates in the country."

— #MartyGarbus | #NataliSegovia | #JeanneMirer | #TerryCollingsworth | #StevenDonziger | #NadiaAhmad | #ScottWilsonBadenochJr. | #PaulPazYMiño | #AyishaSiddiqa | #WadeMcMullen | #KipHale | #SimonTaylor

Read individual statements:
https://www.trialmonitors.org/statement-of-independent-trial-monitors-on-verdict-in-greenpeace-trial
#NorthDakota #EnergyTransferPartners #StandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #SLAPPs #ViewerSupportedNews #GreenpeaceUSA #SLAPPsLawsuits #CriminalizingDissent #NorthDakota #StandingRockSiouxTribe #StandingRockReservation #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #WaterIsLife #KelcyWarren #ArrestKelcyWarren #ErikPrince #Blackwater #ACAB #FreeSpeech

#CriminalizingDissent: #Greenpeace Ordered to Pay $667M to #DakotaAccessPipeline Firm over #Protests

#DemocracyNow, March 20, 2025

"A jury in #NorthDakota has ordered Greenpeace to pay more than $660 million in damages for defaming #EnergyTransferPartners, the corporation behind the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Texas-based pipeline company accused Greenpeace of orchestrating criminal behavior by training and providing funds to the #Indigenous-led protests at #StandingRock. Greenpeace and its supporters, including other #nonprofits and #advocacy groups, argued that the lawsuit is part of a conspicuous attempt by #corporations to destroy the right to #FreeSpeech. Longtime #HumanRights and #environmental lawyer #StevenDonziger, who was part of the independent trial monitoring team observing the trial, says it was purposely held in a region of the country with deep ties to the #FossilFuel industry. Donziger said most of the jurors in the case were connected to the industry and were 'predisposed' to rule in favor of Energy Transfer despite the 'false narratives' presented at the trial. Greenpeace plans to appeal the ruling."

Watch / listen / read transcript:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/20/greenpeace_lawsuit_north_dakota_pipeline
#StandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #SLAPPs #ViewerSupportedNews #GreenpeaceUSA #SLAPPsLawsuits #CriminalizingDissent #NorthDakota #StandingRockSiouxTribe #StandingRockReservation #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #WaterIsLife #KelcyWarren #ArrestKelcyWarren #ErikPrince #Blackwater #ACAB

Boo hiss...! Jury Finds #Greenpeace at Fault, Awards #Pipeline Developer Hundreds of Millions

By Mary Steurer, North Dakota Monitor, via #CensoredNews

"Breaking news from the courtroom
A Morton County jury on Wednesday ordered Greenpeace to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the developer of the #DakotaAccessPipeline, finding that the #environmental group incited illegal
behavior by anti-pipeline #protesters and defamed the company in the late 2010s.

"During closing arguments on Monday, the lead attorney representing #EnergyTransfer told jurors that Greenpeace’s actions caused between $265 million and $340 million in damages to the company. He asked the jury to award Energy Transfer that amount plus additional punitive damages.

"The nine-person jury delivered a verdict in favor of Energy Transfer on most counts. The verdict brought to a close a more than three-week trial in Mandan.

"The jury began deliberating Monday afternoon after hearing testimony from dozens of witnesses, including current and former Greenpeace employees, #IndigenousActivists, Energy Transfer representatives and law enforcement.

"This story will be updated.

"Thank you to the non-profit media #NorthDakotaMonitor for sharing their coverage with other media."

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/03/jury-finds-greenpeace-at-fault-awards.html
#StandWithStandingRock #GreenpeaceUSA #SLAPPs #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #NorthDakota #StandingRockSiouxTribe #StandingRockReservation #BigOil #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #StandingRock #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #UnicornRiot #ACAB #Blackwater #ErikPrince

Witness: Most tribal nations at #DakotaAccessPipeline #protest ‘didn’t know who #Greenpeace was’

By: Mary Steurer - March 3, 2025

"A #Lakota organizer said in a video deposition played to jurors Monday that the #StandingRockSiouxTribe led the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, not Greenpeace.

"#NickTilsen, an Oglala Sioux Tribe citizen and #activist, called the notion that Greenpeace orchestrated the protests 'paternalistic.'

"'I think that people underestimate the complexity and the sophistication of tribal nations,' Tilsen said.

"Tilsen’s deposition was the latest testimony heard by the nine-person jury in the marathon trial between pipeline developer Energy Transfer and Greenpeace.

"#EnergyTransfer claims Greenpeace secretly aided and abetted destructive and violent behavior by protesters during the #demonstrations, which took place in south central #NorthDakota near the #StandingRockReservation in 2016 and 2017. It also claims that Greenpeace orchestrated a misinformation campaign to defame the company, leading a group of banks to back out of financing the project. Energy Transfer seeks roughly $300 million from the environmental organization.

"Greenpeace denies Energy Transfer’s allegations. The group says it has never condoned violence, and only played a supporting role during the protests.

"Tilsen said he got involved in the protests before Greenpeace. He was invited to join the cause by former Standing Rock Chairman Dave Archambault and his sister, Jodi Archambault, he said.

"'They called me and said, ‘Hey, we need your help at Standing Rock,’ Tilsen said.

"Standing Rock has long opposed the Dakota Access Pipeline, stating the project poses a pollution threat, infringes on tribal sovereignty and has disrupted sacred cultural sites.

"It was Standing Rock leadership that laid the groundwork for the protests against the pipeline’s construction in 2016, Tilsen said.

"He said organizers later invited Greenpeace to support the camps, including by providing supplies and nonviolent direct action training. Tilsen said he only felt comfortable reaching out to Greenpeace because a friend of his, Cy Wagoner, worked there.

"He said since Wagoner is from the #NavajoNation, he trusted that Greenpeace would respect Standing Rock’s leadership of the camps.

"Indigenous communities are often reluctant to invite outside nonprofits to help with Native rights issues, Tilsen added. He said they often don’t understand Native nations’ unique relationship with the U.S. government.

"Greenpeace wasn’t a big part of the protests, Tilsen said.

"'To be honest, most of the tribal nations didn’t know who Greenpeace was,' he said.

"Countless other groups — including representatives from more than 300 Native nations — came to the protest camps in solidarity with Standing Rock, said Tilsen.

"'Quite frankly, our list of allies was hundreds,' he said.

"Tilsen said he was involved in several protest actions against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016 and 2017, including those that involved marching on the pipeline easement, jumping in front of equipment and using lockboxes — also known as 'sleeping dragons' — to disable construction machinery.

"None of the protest actions were coordinated by Greenpeace, he said.

"Tilsen said he never saw or endorsed any destruction of property or acts of violence toward construction workers or law enforcement. He also pushed back on the assertion that any of the protest activities he participated in qualified as trespassing.

"The pipeline passes through land recognized as belonging to the #SiouxNation under #treaties signed by the U.S. government in 1851 and 1868. The U.S. government later annexed that land in violation of those treaties.

"Tilsen asked how Lakota citizens could be trespassing on land that was unlawfully taken from them.

"'This is the conundrum we find ourselves in,' he said.

"Employees of Greenpeace said during video depositions played last week that the environmental organization brought 20 to 30 lockboxes to the camps.

"Tilsen said while he saw many lockboxes during protests, he wasn’t sure where any of them came from. He also said he never heard anyone from Greenpeace tell demonstrators to use the devices.

"Tilsen said that David Khoury, an employee for Greenpeace, helped identify potential sites for protest actions. Tilsen added that while Wagoner — another Greenpeace employee — didn’t plan protest activities, he trained people on how to conduct them.

"The trial, which is before Southwest Central Judicial District Judge James Gion, is expected to last roughly four more weeks."

Source:
https://northdakotamonitor.com/2025/03/03/witness-most-tribal-nations-at-dakota-access-pipeline-protest-didnt-know-who-greenpeace-was/
#StandWithStandingRock #WaterIsLife #NoDAPL #KelcyWarren #Trump #BigOil #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #StandingRock #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #ACAB #EnergyTransfer #UnicornRiot #CriminalizingDissent #ACAB #Blackwater #ErikPrince

#WinonaLaDuke: #DAPLPipeline Lawsuit Against #Greenpeace Aims to Silence #Indigenous #Protests, Too

#DemocracyNow, March 04, 2025

"As the oil company Energy Transfer sues Greenpeace over the 2016 #StandingRock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, we speak with #IndigenousActivist Winona LaDuke, who took part in that historic uprising. LaDuke is an enrolled member of the Mississippi Band of #Anishinaabe who lives and works on the White Earth Nation Reservation and was among the thousands of people who joined the protests in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to protect water and Indigenous lands in North Dakota. She highlights the close links between North Dakota’s government and Energy Transfer and says that while the lawsuit targets Greenpeace, Indigenous water and land defenders are also on trial. 'North Dakota has really been trying to squash any kind of #resistance,' says LaDuke. 'If they can try to shut down Greenpeace, they’re going to shut down everybody.'"

Watch / listen / read transcript:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/4/winona_laduke
#ViewerSupportedNews #StandWithStandingRock #WaterIsLife #NoDAPL #KelcyWarren #Trump #BigOil #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #StandingRock #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #ACAB #EnergyTransfer #UnicornRiot #CriminalizingDissent #ACAB #Blackwater #ErikPrince

#Greenpeace on Trial: $300M Lawsuit over #StandingRock #Protests Could Shutter Group & Chill #FreeSpeech

#DemocracyNow, March 04, 2025

"A closely watched civil trial that began in #NorthDakota last week could bankrupt Greenpeace and chill #EnvironmentalActivism as the climate crisis continues to deepen. The multimillion-dollar lawsuit by #EnergyTransfer, the oil corporation behind the #DakotaAccessPipeline, claims Greenpeace organized the mass protests and encampment at Standing Rock between 2016 and 2017 aimed at stopping construction of the project.

"Although the uprising at Standing Rock was led by #Indigenous #WaterDefenders, Energy Transfer is instead going after Greenpeace for $300 million in damages — an amount that could effectively shutter the group’s U.S. operations. 'This case is not just an obvious and blatant erasure of #IndigenousLeadership, of #IndigenousResistance,' says Deepa Padmanabha, a senior legal adviser for #GreenpeaceUSA. 'It is an attack on the broader movement and all of our First Amendment rights to free speech and #PeacefulProtest.'"

Watch / listen / read transcript:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/4/greenpeace
#ViewerSupportedNews #StandWithStandingRock #WaterIsLife #NoDAPL #KelcyWarren #Trump #BigOil #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #StandingRock #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #ACAB #EnergyTransfer #UnicornRiot #CriminalizingDissent #ACAB #Blackwater #ErikPrince

#StandingRock Chair: #EnergyTransfer's Lawsuit Against #Greenpeace: 'Frivolous,'
Seeks to Silence #Tribe and #Allies

"The #DakotaAccessPipeline, referred to in our prophecy as the #BlackSnake, has come to harm our land, our water and our people." -- Standing Rock Chairwoman #JanetAlkire

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, March 4, 2025

STANDING ROCK NATION, #NorthDakota -- "In the case now before the district court in North Dakota, Energy Transfer versus Greenpeace, Standing Rock Chairwoman Janet Alkire blasted Energy
Transfer with the facts and made it clear that the #StandingRockNation led the resistance to Dakota Access Pipeline.

"Chairwoman Alkire said Dakota Access Pipeline destroyed #BurialGrounds, brought in #SecurityForces and #LawEnforcement that brutalized peaceful #protesters, and has already had a spill at Standing Rock -- while the pipeline is concealing its devastating safety records.

"'From the beginning, Energy Transfer has engaged in a security battle, secrecy battle and #propaganda battle against our Tribe,' Alkire said.

"'It promotes lies and propaganda to discredit our Tribe and our good faith concerns with DAPL’s impacts on our Reservation environment, and the global climate. Part of the attack on our Tribe is to attack our allies.'

"'Today, Energy Transfer is taking Greenpeace to court, frivolously alleging defamation and seeking money damages, designed to shut down all voice supporting Standing Rock.'"

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/03/standing-rock-chair-energy-transfers.html
#ReaderSupportedNews #StandWithStandingRock #WaterIsLife #NoDAPL #KelcyWarren #Trump #BigOil #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #StandingRock #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #ACAB #EnergyTransfer #UnicornRiot #CriminalizingDissent #ACAB #Blackwater #ErikPrince

Trump allies circulate #MassDeportation plan calling for ‘processing camps’ and a private citizen ‘#army’

The group, led by #Blackwater veteran #ErikPrince, has close #Trump ties.

By Dasha Burns and Myah Ward
02/25/2025 05:55 AM EST

"Prince declined to comment, and the other contractors and former immigration officials listed as key personnel in the document also declined to comment or could not be reached.

"The founders of the new special entity called #2USV have a long history with the U.S. government. Blackwater was formed by Prince in 1996 to provide training services to law enforcement, military personnel and other government agencies. It gained widespread attention for its work in Iraq and Afghanistan, providing security services for U.S. officials and military personnel, with critics viewing its rise as a result of the U.S. military’s overextension in the Middle East.

The military contractor came under scrutiny in 2007 following the #NisourSquareMassacre, when #Blackwater contractors opened fire and killed 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded 20 others — raising questions about oversight and accountability of private contractors. Several contractors were charged with manslaughter, and four were convicted in 2014. Trump pardoned them at the end of his first term in December 2020.

"Trump’s pardon was just one example of the influence of Prince’s family during the first Trump administration. #BetsyDeVos, Prince’s sister, served as the president’s #Education secretary, while Prince used his Trump connections as he chased business ventures in the U.S. and abroad.

"In 2018, he reportedly helped raise money for an effort to spy on progressives and Democratic organizations opposed to Trump." [As well as #DAPL #WaterProtectors!]
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/25/documents-military-contractors-mass-deportations-022648
#Blackwater
#ErikPrinceColonialism
#SilencingDissent
#USPol #Project2025 #CriminalizingActivism
#ClimateActivists #NoDAPL #Crapitalism
#Fascism #Trump #ChristoFascist
#CorporateFascism #SilencingDissent #ClimateActivists #Activists #NoDAPL #CriminalizingDissent
#CrackdownOnProtests #AntiProtestLaws #CorporateFascism #CorporateColonialism
#CharacteristicsOfFascism #ErikPrinceColonialism #Academi #TripleCanopy #SilencingDissent #ErikPrinceIsAWarCriminal

Dispatches from Joye: The Beginning of #Resistance to #DakotaAccessPipeline, Spring of 2016

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, Feb. 25, 2025

MANDAN, North Dakota -- "We travel back in time to the beginning of the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Jury selection is underway in the case of #EnergyTransfer v #Greenpeace and #RedWarriorSociety, and oral arguments are to begin tomorrow, in #NorthDakota District Court.

"Energy Transfer, the owner of Dakota Access Pipeline, seeks to erase the fact that this is, and has always been, an #Indigenous-led movement, Greenpeace said.

"On March 29, 2016 -- five months before hundreds, and then thousands arrived at the Standing Rock camps -- #JoyeBraun, #CheyenneRiverLakota, sent Censored News the announcement of the resistance.

"'It must be stopped,' Joye said in the media statement.

"#LaDonnaBravebullAllard, working then in the #StandingRock #HistoricPreservationOffice, released the statement with Joye.

"The headline read, 'Tribal Citizens Rise Up Against #BakkenOilPipeline: #HorseRide and #SpiritualCamp to be Held Along Proposed Route of Dakota Access Pipeline.'

"With the dateline of Cannonball, the statement says, 'On April 1st, 2016, tribal citizens of the #StandingRockLakota Nation and ally #Lakota, #Nakota, and #Dakota citizens, under the group name
Chante tin'sa kinanzi Po will have a #HorseRide to celebrate the founding of a #SpiritCamp that will be erected along the proposed route of the Bakken oil pipeline, Dakota Access."

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/02/dispatches-from-joye-beginning-of.html
#StandWithStandingRock #WaterIsLife #NoDAPL #KelcyWarren #Trump #StandWithStandingRock #BigOil #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #StandingRock #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #ACAB #EnergyTransfer #UnicornRiot

Commentary: #WaterProtectors on trial again as #Greenpeace case begins in #NorthDakota

by #WinonaLaDuke
February 24, 2025

Excerpt: "North Dakota v. USA

"In March of last year, I was a federal witness in the North Dakota v. United States of America trial in Bismarck, where North Dakota charged that the United States Army Corps of Engineers had caused the #StandingRock #resistance by issuing a conditional use permit for the flood plain. Attorneys asked if I came to Standing Rock resistance camp because the Army Corps issued a permit. My response: No. I came for the #water,and I came because #LaDonnaBraveBull Allard asked me to come. I came because #Enbridge, the Canadian #pipeline company, had proposed a Sandpiper #pipeline across our territory in northern Minnesota and we defeated them, only to find that they later financed 28% of the #DakotaAccessPipeline. I came for the water.

"#EnergyTransfer v. #Greenpeace

"There’s another big trial starting Monday in #MandanNorthDakota, too, in Morton County District Court. There, Judge James Gion will preside over a jury trial in the case of Energy Transfer v. Greenpeace. Energy Transfer charges that Greenpeace effectively orchestrated and was a force driving the Standing Rock resistance. That allegation is pretty surprising to the thousands of people who came to Standing Rock without even hearing about Greenpeace being there. That case will be heard behind #ClosedDoors, no livestreaming, and yet somehow a judge in a small county without a law clerk will make sure the justice of a jury trial is carried out. The case with a multitude of pretrial motions is described as the largest in North Dakota history, so carrying out justice, well that’s a challenge.

"'This is a pretty ludicrous accusation,' noted #DeepaPadmanabha, Greenpeace’s senior legal counsel, responding to charges that Greenpeace effectively orchestrated and was a force driving the Standing Rock resistance. 'Standing Rock was one of the largest #Indigenous-led protests in history. It was a grassroots-led resistance, and the idea that Greenpeace orchestrated it is a #racist attempt to erase #IndigenousHistory.'

"But it might be what you’d expect from a company whose CEO once said that protesters who damaged construction equipment should be 'removed from the gene pool.'

"I’d encourage you to watch the trial online, but unfortunately, Judge Gion has denied a motion to arrange for the trial to be streamed online.

"As The Wall Street Journal reported in September, 'both sides expect a #FossilFuel - friendly jury.' Check out the
'community' page on the company’s daplpipelinefacts.com website and you’ll understand why. There’s a picture of Mandan town employees appreciatively holding up a giant check representing Energy Transfer’s $3 million donation to upgrade the town’s library and other infrastructure.

"Energy Transfer is suing Greenpeace for damages, initially proposed at $300 million, in what Greenpeace has called an effort to bankrupt the organization. Greenpeace is the 50-year-old environmental organization which has been part of opposing #NuclearTesting in the Pacific, saving #whales from factory #trawlers, and challenging #BigOil. That’s something you are not supposed to do in North Dakota, it seems, where oil money slicks through all the systems. In North Dakota, the message seems to be, No one should oppose a pipeline project. No one."

Read more:
https://northdakotamonitor.com/2025/02/24/greenpeace-dakota-access-trial-commentary/
#WaterIsLife #StandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #KelcyWarren #Trump #StandWithStandingRock
#CorporateColonialism
#BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #StandingRock #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #ACAB #EnergyTransfer

#Greenpeace organisations begin trial defense against Energy Transfer’s #SLAPP

Greenpeace International
24 February 2025

Mandan, North Dakota — "Ten years after the world watched the Indigenous-led protests at the Dakota Access Pipeline unfold, representatives from Greenpeace International (#GPI) and two Greenpeace entities in the United States arrive at a Morton County courthouse to fight a meritless lawsuit brought by #EnergyTransfer (ET), today.

"The trial is currently open to the public in the North Dakota courthouse. Multiple attempts by media and watchdog groups to petition the court for greater transparency and accessibility to the trial proceedings have been denied. The Greenpeace parties’ request for public livestreaming was denied, and a request for expanded media cover by a number of outlets and journalists was also recently denied."

Read more:
https://www.greenpeace.org/international/press-release/73034/greenpeace-trial-defense-energy-transfers-slapp/
#SLAPPs #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #ACAB #StandWithStandingRock #EnergyTransfer

HT @USAJusticeWatch

"#Greenpeace organisations begin trial defense against #Energy #Transfer’s #SLAPP | Greenpeace release"

https://www.greenpeace.org/international/press-release/73034/greenpeace-trial-defense-energy-transfers-slapp/
#SLAPPs #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #ACAB #StandWithStandingRock #EnergyTransfer

The Circus is Coming to Town -- The Bizarre Lawsuit of #EnergyTransfer v #Greenpeace and #RedWarriorSociety

by #CensoredNews, January 1, 2025

"It's the most bizarre lawsuit -- Energy Transfer v Greenpeace and Red Warrior Society, eight years later.

"There are loads of documents hidden away with 'confidential' stamps in the court records, and a whole lot of players -- governors, Congressmen, and law enforcement, in the shadows.

"The fragments, , between the blackouts of 'redacted,' show that the head of Energy Transfer hasn't been answering all the questions in depositions. Other snippets show that the #OilPipeline doesn't want to reveal its spills, and whether there's been contamination already into the water at #StandingRock.

"Meanwhile, there's a 'newspaper' tainting the potential jurors, attorneys say, which promotes the sheriff.

"And where are all the files on #TigerSwan, the paid #FBI informants, and the military #SpecialOps? Tens of thousands of documents of TigerSwan were gained by #TheIntercept in another court battle.

"Where are the files on the #drone being shot down by law enforcement, the U.S. #BorderPatrol's surveillance plane, and the #BIA's #surveillance van parked at the casino, with undercover officers wandering around inside?

"The judge, appointed by the governor, won't recuse himself.

"#UnicornRiot media is in Minneapolis Supreme Court fighting the pipeline's subpoena to seize its confidential media records.

"#WaterProtectors and media have been served with third party subpoenas by the pipeline for this fishing expedition for their info.

"And it's all coming to #MandanNorthDakota, at the end of February, to North Dakota's District Court,
home to #MortonCountySheriff.

"It's a $300 million #SLAPP lawsuit to shut them down, says Greenpeace. Greenpeace said there was a large dump of records into the case.

"Stay tuned, and dig through the files -- good luck."

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-circus-is-coming-to-town-bizarre.html
#ReaderSupportedNews #NoDAPL #StandWithStandingRock #WaterIsLife #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #ACAB

'Chaos': #Peru Declares #EnvironmentalEmergency Over #OilSpill

"So far, we have not had any response from the oil company," said one fisherman whose livelihood has been threatened by the accident.

Julia Conley
Dec 27, 2024

"At least seven beaches and the safety of local wildlife have been impacted by an oil spill in northern Peru, said the South American country's Environmental Assessment and Oversight Agency on Thursday as the government declared an environmental emergency.

"The environmental watchdog, known as #OEFA locally, said in a preliminary report that about 10,000 square meters of surface seawater have been contaminated by the crude oil, which spilled from a vessel at a terminal of the #TalaraRefinery.

"Petroperu, the state-owned oil company, was preparing to load the oil onto a tanker when the spill was detected at #LasCapullanas beach.

"The company has not disclosed exactly how much oil spilled, but OEFA said it has extended over an area of 116-566 acres. Petroperu has also not stated the cause of the accident."

Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/petroperu
#BigOilAndGas #Petroperu #WaterIsLife #OceansAreLife #NoDAPL #RenewablesNow #EnvironmentalPollution #EnvironmentalDisaster

I can't believe it's been a year. #RestInPowerKleeBenally!

#KleeBenally, Navajo Activist and Artist, Dies at 48

He helped found a punk-rock band when he was 14. That led to a long career as an advocate for Native American and environmental causes.

By Penelope Green
Published Jan. 7, 2024, Updated Jan. 11, 2024

Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/07/us/klee-benally-dead.html

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/qhvWR

#KleeBenally #NoSpiritualSurrender #NoUraniumMining #NoDAPL #IndigenousActivists #IndigenousResistance

From 2019: Criminalization of #HumanRights Defenders of #IndigenousPeoples Resisting #ExtractiveIndustries in the United States

Report to the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights

Prepared by the University of Arizona Rogers College of Law, Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program on behalf of the Water Protector Legal Collective

6/24/2019

Introduction

1. Peaceful demonstrations are a catalyst for the advancement of human rights. Yet around the world governments are criminalizing dissent and suppressing public #protest, often as a means to protect #CorporateInterests. In this context, indigenous peoples increasingly find themselves as the subjects of arrests, criminal prosecution and police violence when defending the lands they rely upon for their existence and survival from #ResourceExtraction by industries who are operating without the free prior and informed consent of the affected communities.

2. This report is submitted to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (#IACHR) in conjunction with a thematic hearing held during the 172nd period of sessions. At the hearing,
Commissioners heard directly from those involved in the indigenous-led resistance to the #DakotaAccessPipeline (DAPL) at Standing Rock, North Dakota. This report addresses the criminalization and suppression of protest by indigenous human rights defenders and their allies by United States (U.S.) federal, state and local governments, working hand-in-hand with private security forces [#Blackwater], specifically in relation to the construction and operation of #DAPL by #EnergyTransfer
Partners and Dakota Access, LLC (Dakota Access) and the connected #BayouBridgePipeline (collectively the “#BakkenPipeline”).

3. Standing Rock is an emblematic case of #IndigenousResistance to extractive industry that drew attention from around the world as water protectors met on the banks of the #MissouriRiver in peaceful assembly in what was the largest gathering of indigenous peoples in the U.S. in 100 years. Standing Rock is merely one example of how the U.S. government works with industry to approve energy projects carried out without the meaningful participation or consent of
indigenous nations. Indigenous peoples are left with no choice but to peacefully protest and then are criminalized for their efforts to defend their lands and resources.

4. Since Standing Rock, there has been an alarming trend by the United States government and state legislatures to criminalize opposition to pipelines and other energy projects. These #AntiProtest and so-called “#CriticalInfrastructure laws” progress towards criminalizing dissent and implicitly condone the use of excessive force towards human rights defenders, often including indigenous peoples and their allies who are at the forefront of resistance to extractive industries. As the international community has acknowledged, these laws are incompatible with domestic and international law. The governments’ use of excessive force and mass arrests to threaten, intimidate, and silence “#WaterProtectors” seeking to defend their lands, resources, and #culture, and the collusion with private security forces, violate fundamental human rights to #FreeSpeech and Aassembly enshrined in international human rights law and the #USConstitution.

5. The information provided here builds on a 2016 request for Precautionary Measures filed by the #StandingRock, #CheyenneRiver and #YanktonSioux tribes, past Commission hearings on similar matters that remain unsettled, and reports on Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Activities, and the Criminalization of #HumanRightsDefenders. In addition, the United Nations has reported on the situation at #StandingRock through the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of of indigenous peoples. Despite condemnation from these international bodies and mechanisms, water protectors continue to suffer impacts from the criminalization of their dissent, while the United States moves forward permitting new #pipeline projects on indigenous territories.

Read more:
https://law.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/FINAL%20IPLP-WPLC%20Report%20to%20IACHR%20-%206-24-19.pdf

#HR9495 #StopHR9495 #CriminalizingDissent #Fascism #Authoritanism #CharacteristicsOfFascism #CorporateFascism #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #ErikPrince #ErikPrinceColonialism #Blackwater #StandWithStandingRock #NoMiningWithoutConsent #WaterIsLife #NoDAPL #StandingRockSioux #LandDefenders #WaterDefenders #WaterProtectors #DefendTheSacred

#StandingRock Files New Lawsuit Against #DAPL

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
Oct. 29, 2024

"The #StandingRockLakotaNation has filed a new fedral lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers in Washington describing its threat to the water, and how Energy Transfer bulldozed the burial places of their elite warrior society. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe demands the immediate shut down of the pipeline.

"In a separate lawsuit in #NorthDakota state court, #EnergyTransfer is carrying out a fishing expedition, serving media and #WaterProtectors with third party subpoenas for the case slated in court for February 2025.

"In this case, the pipeline company is suing #Greenpeace and #RedWarriorSociety, and two Red Warrior #WaterProtectors. Greenpeace refers to the lawsuit as a frivolous $300 million #SLAPP lawsuit.

"Greenpeace now has a new report on the pipeline's #Environmental Rsks, and the threat to the water of millions of people who live along the #MissouriRiver. The new report strengthens Standing Rock's new lawsuit."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-day-they-brought-dogs-in-standing.html

#ReaderSupportedNews #WaterIsLife #StandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #CorporateColonialism
#BigOilAndGas #WaterIsLife #EnvironmentalRacism #Lakota #StandingRockReservation #StandingRockSioux #LakeOahe #DakotaAccessPipeline

#StandingRockSioux Tribe files new lawsuit over #DAPL

By: Mary Steurer - October 15, 2024

"The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe on Monday filed a new lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers arguing that the #DakotaAccessPipeline is operating illegally and must be shut down.

"The tribe has long opposed the pipeline, also referred to as DAPL, due to concerns that it violates the tribe’s #sovereignty, endangers #sacred cultural sites and threatens to pollute the tribe’s #WaterSupply.

"The Army Corps of Engineers has jurisdiction over the section of the pipeline that passes under #LakeOahe — a reservoir on the #MissouriRiver — roughly a half-mile upstream from the #StandingRockReservation.

"The tribe in a 34-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia argues the Army Corps flouted federal regulations by allowing the pipeline to operate without an easement, sufficient study of possible #environmental impacts or the necessary emergency spill response plans, among other alleged violations.

"'We are fighting for our rights and the water that is life for Oceti Sakowin tribes,' Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairwoman #JanetAlkire said during a news conference the afternoon of #IndigenousPeoplesDay.

"The Army Corps of Engineers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"The more than 1,000-mile-long pipeline carries crude oil from the #BakkenOilFields of northwest North Dakota to Illinois, and has been operating since 2017. Its pathway includes #unceded land recognized as belonging to the #SiouxNation under an #1851Treaty with the U.S. government.

"The lawsuit was triggered in part by a 2024 engineering report that raised questions about the construction of the pipeline crossing below Lake Oahe, representatives of the tribe said Monday.

"The report calculated that up to 1.4 million gallons of bentonite clay-based drilling mud used in the horizontal directional drilling process was not fully accounted for in construction records. The report notes that there is no clear indication where the fluid migrated, but that it could have seeped into the surrounding soil.

“'The Corps has failed to act and failed to protect the tribe,' Alkire said of the report’s findings.

"The report was prepared by engineering consulting firm Exponent for environmental advocacy group #Greenpeace as part of an ongoing lawsuit brought by pipeline developer #EnergyTransfer. Greenpeace commissioned the report to defend itself against Energy Transfer’s allegations that Greenpeace defamed the pipeline during its involvement in protests against DAPL in 2016 and 2017.

[...]

"Standing Rock’s complaint also emphasizes that the Dakota Access Pipeline has still been allowed to operate despite that it no longer has an easement authorizing it to cross under Lake Oahe.

"The Army Corps approved the easement in 2017, but a federal judge later revoked it in 2020, finding that the Corps violated environmental law by granting it without properly researching the possible environmental impacts of the pipeline.

[...]

"The ban was related to a criminal pollution case against Energy Transfer for two pipelines in #Pennsylvania. Violations alleged in the criminal case included that Energy Transfer had used unapproved additives in the #DrillingFluid used to construct one of the pipelines. The company was convicted of #EnvironmentalCrimes under Pennsylvania law.

"For this reason, Standing Rock wonders whether the drilling fluid used to bore under Lake Oahe truly contained no toxins.

"'That’s a question the tribe has — what was in the drilling fluid?' Don Holstrom, an environmental consultant for Standing Rock, said Monday."

Full article:
https://dailymontanan.com/2024/10/15/standing-rock-sioux-tribe-files-new-lawsuit-over-dapl/

#WaterIsLife #StandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #KelcyWarren #Trump #StandWithStandingRock
#NoDAPL #CorporateColonialism
#BigOilAndGas #WaterIsLife #EnvironmentalRacism #StandingRock

1.4M gallons of fluid leaked from #DakotaAccess [#DAPL] drilling, report says

The #StandingRockSioux Tribe, which wants the #OilPipeline shut down, says spills near #LakeOahe were #environmental violations.

By Mike Soraghan
10/01/2024 06:45 AM EDT

"The tribe at the forefront of fighting the Dakota Access oil pipeline has found evidence that more than a million gallons of #DrillingFluid leaked as construction crews tunneled under the lake that is the tribe’s main source of #DrinkingWater.

"Authors of an engineering report filed last year in a North Dakota lawsuit estimates that 1.4 million gallons of drilling mud escaped the confines of the tunnel in 2017 — at the same time authorities above ground were breaking up the #protests about the pipeline.

"The report found no indication in the records of pipeline developer #EnergyTransfer that anyone checked to see if it had reached the lake, called Lake Oahe.

"The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe says that amounts to violations of the environmental rules laid out for the construction project. Among other things, those rules called on construction crews to stop drilling and investigate when there were signs of leaks.

"Tribal officials say the Army Corps of Engineers, which controls the lake, never disclosed them."

Original article:
https://www.eenews.net/articles/1-4m-gallons-of-fluid-leaked-from-dakota-access-drilling-report-says/

Archived article:
https://archive.ph/VOism

#KelcyWarren #Trump #StandWithStandingRock
#NoDAPL #CorporateColonialism
#BigOilAndGas #WaterIsLife #EnvironmentalRacism #StandingRock

[Thread] The next installment from #KleeBenally 's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender

“The devastation of #NuclearColonialism, which permanently destroys #Indigenous communities throughout the world, is outright ignored by some of the most devout #ClimateJustice advocates. They claim #NuclearEnergy production is also a #GreenSolution to the #ClimateCrisis. More than 15,000 abandoned #UraniumMines are located within the so-called US, mostly in and around Indigenous communities, permanently poisoning #SacredLands and waters with little to no action being taken to clean up their deadly toxic legacy. There are currently 93 operating #NuclearReactors in the so-called US that supply 20% of the country’s electricity. There are 60,000 tons of #HighlyRadioactive spent waste store in concrete dams at #NuclearPowerPlants throughout the country with the waste increasing at a rate of 2,000 tons per year.

“In 1987 the ‘US’ Congress initiated a controversial project to transport and store almost all of the US’s #ToxicWaste at #YuccaMountain located about 100 miles northwest of so-called #LasVegas, #Nevada. Yucca Mountan has been held holy to the #Paiute and #WesternShoshone Nations since time immemorial. In January 2010 the #ObamaAdminstration approved a $54 billion taxpayer loan in a guarantee program for new nuclear reactor construction, three times what Bush previously promised in 2005. In April 2022, the #BidenAdministration government bailout to ‘rescue’ nuclear power plants at risk for closing. A #Colonial government representative stated, ‘US nuclear power contributes more than half of our #CarbonFree electricity, and President Biden is committed to keeping these plants active to reach our #CleanEnergy goals.’

“They, along with Climate Justice activiists, cite nuclear energy as necessary to combat #GlobalWarming, all while ignoring the devastating percent impacts #IndigenousPeoples have faced. There is nothing clean about energy produced from nuclear colonialism. From its weapons (including #DepletedUranium) to its #Mining and its waste; Indigenous bodies, lands, and waters continue to be sacrificed to heat water with radioactive materials which creates steam that moves generators to change batteries made from #Lithium extracted from other Indigenous sacred lands so #Teslas can mo you forward into a ‘just’ climate future.

“A green economy sustains and advances colonial progress, which means mitigated selective and ongoing destruction of #MotherEarth.”

Pages 139-140

#IndigenousAnarchy
#Ecosystem #HaulNo #DefendTheSacred
#CorporateColonialism #NoDAPL #CriminalizingDissent #WaterIsLife #ClimateDefenders #NoCopperMiningWithoutConsent #NoLithiumMining #CorporateColonialism #NoMiningWithoutConsent #LithiumMining #CopperMining #Greenwashng #NuclearWeapons #RestInPowerKleeBenally #RIPKleeBenally #StopCanyonMine

[Thread] The next installment from #KleeBenally 's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender.

“The proposition of unplugging from a ‘dirty’ power source and plugging into a ‘green’ one does nothing to address the underlying power relations. It reinforces them.

“‘#GreenEnergy’ sustaining a Green Economy still demands resource #colonialism. From sacred #OakFlat in so-called Arizona where #SanCarlosApache are resisting a massive mine that is estimated to contain enough #copper ore to produce 275 million electric vehicles [#EVs], to sacred #ThackerPass in so-called Nevada where #Shoshone are resisting #LithiumMining, which is necessary for electric vehicle and ‘green’ energy battery production. A single car #LithiumIon battery pack contains 18 pounds of lithium. To electrify every vehicle throughout the world, an estimated 10.4 billion tons of lithium is needed, that is approximately 13 times the existing lithium reserves. The Thacker Pass lithium one is mismated to produce 60,000 tons annually. The proposed project spans approximately 28 square miles that would hold an #OpenPit and a #sulfuricacid processing plant to extract lithium from mined ore.

"The operation is estimated to release 152,713 tons of #CarbonDioxide [#CO2] annually and 400,000 gallons of #water is required for each ton of lithium meaning it will use 1.7 billion gallons annual. The Thacker Pass sulfuric acid processing plant will convert sulfur to leech lithium from raw ore, turned in from sources such as the #AlbertaTarSands, which are 1,500 miles away. The tar sands, located in so-called Canada, are known as the world’s most destructive oil operation.”

Page 138-139

#IndigenousAnarchy
#Ecosystem #DefendTheSacred
#CorporateColonialism #NoDAPL #CriminalizingDissent #WaterIsLife #ClimateDefenders #NoCopperMiningWithoutConsent #NoLithiumMining #CorporateColonialism #NoMiningWithoutConsent #LithiumMining #CopperMining #Greenwashing

[Thread] The next installment from #KleeBenally 's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender.

“In a report released in 2021 by the Indigenous Environmental Network, they calculated that Indigenous resistance to twenty fossil fuel projects has ‘stopped or delayed’ carbon emissions equivalent to approximately 25% of ‘US’ and ‘Canada’s’ overall emissions. While non-profit climate activists who wrote the report reveal the power of #DirectAction, they also assign their campaigns more credit than is due. Particularly by citing significant losses such as #DAPL and #Line3 project in their reports, this statistic tends towards a deluded climate optimism that we view as a path fraught with peril and death. Again, if we’re not being honest with and about the failings of our movements, what does shifting tactics, and more importantly adjusting our overall strategies, toward the end of yet more changing statistics matter? we’re not convinced about making this a numbers game to celebrate the disrupting of 25% of an industry, when we’ve lost over 98% of the battle in a war with such high stakes. Particularly when those activist campaigns have spent hundreds of millions of dollars with thousands of our relatives jailed and dragged through racist court systems.”

Page 138

#IndigenousAnarchy
#Ecosystem #DefendTheSacred
#CorporateColonialism #NoDAPL #CriminalizingDissent #WaterIsLife #ClimateDefenders

#BigOil’s Plan To #Criminalize #Pipeline #Protests

By ExposedByCMD Editors
| June 18th, 2024
at 12:21 PM (CDT)

"#AnneWhiteHat found herself facing up to 10 years in prison after she was arrested for two counts of felony trespassing in September 2018 under one such law, which had just taken effect in Louisiana following pressure from oil and gas lobbyists.

She was one of four Native women who founded a resistance camp called L’eau Est La Vie, which was organizing nonviolent direct actions in protest of the #BayouBridgePipeline — a now-operating 163-mile pipeline owned by #EnergyTransfer that transports crude oil throughout the state. The protests ranged from a rendition of 'Crawfish the Musical' on the construction site to protesters locking themselves to pipeline equipment to tree sits in the centuries-old cypresses the company planned to tear down.

"The Bayou Bridge pipeline is the tail end of the #DakotaAccess route — White Hat had already joined her relatives to participate in the resistance camp at Standing Rock in North Dakota. 'I felt like it was a righteous cause, not to let them comfortably continue to threaten the waters of Indigenous #FirstNations,' she said. 'I was inspired from the work up North and just couldn’t let them continue down here unanswered and unchecked.'

White Hat had just finished leading a prayer ceremony when she was arrested at a boat ramp miles from the pipeline construction site. She was hauled into a sheriff deputy’s car with two other women and driven through tall sugar cane fields on the way to jail.

'It was terrifying,' said White Hat. 'We’re way out in the middle of nowhere. I was like, ‘Is this the point where I actually disappear?’

Investigative journalist Karen Savage was arrested that day, too — her second arrest under felony trespass charges as she reported on the Bayou Bridge protests. She was one of the only reporters to travel to the Atchafalaya Basin swamp, where the pipeline was being constructed.

By the time the water protectors got to the swamp, Savage said, they 'had done everything — they went to public meetings, they had petitions, they wrote letters, they tried to meet with the governor — they did everything they tell you in school, to participate and use your civil obligation in your community.' Despite their best efforts in one of the most oil- and gas-friendly states in the country, said Savage, 'nobody was listening.'"

https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2024/06/18/big-oils-plan-to-criminalize-pipeline-protests/

#BigOilAndGas #CriminalizingDissent #ACAB #HumanRightsViolations #IndigenousActivism #CorporateColonialism #IndigenousLandDefenders
#DirectAction #CorporateFascism #CriminalizingDissent
#WaterIsLife #WaterProtectors #ForestDefenders #ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #EcoActivists #NoDAPL

#StandingRock: FBI had up to 10 informants during the #resistance to DAPL

The FBI's special agent in charge, reveals in his lengthy deposition, his search for the motivation of Standing Rock #WaterProtectors to make their stand -- and he fails to find the most obvious -- The Protection of the Sacred

by Brenda Norrell, Censored News, March 15, 2024

"In a new court case, the State of #NorthDakota claims it didn't have enough resources during the Standing Rock resistance to Dakota Access Pipeline, and wants the U.S. to pay up. The testimony reveals that the FBI had up to 10 informants, not just FBI informant Heath Harmon, in the camps.

"'Up to 10 informants managed by the FBI were embedded in anti-pipeline resistance camps near the #StandingRockSioux Indian Reservation at the height of mass protests against the #DakotaAccessPipeline in 2016,' Alleen Brown reports today at Grist.

"'The new details about federal law enforcement surveillance of an #Indigenous #EnvironmentalMovement were released as part of a legal fight between North Dakota and the federal government over who should pay for policing the pipeline fight. Until now, the existence of only one other federal informant in the camps had been confirmed.'

"'The FBI also regularly sent agents wearing civilian clothing into the camps, one former agent told Grist in an interview. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, or BIA, operated undercover narcotics officers out of the reservation’s Prairie Knights Casino, where many pipeline opponents rented rooms, according to one of the depositions."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/03/standing-rock-fbi-had-up-to-10.html

#ACAB #NoDAPL #StandWithStandingRock #LandDefenders #WaterProtectors #NativeAmericanActivists

The Halluci Nation - Burn Your Village To The Ground (Neon Nativez Remix)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNi__fnadTM&t=109s

#Halluci_Nation #ATribeCalledRed #IndigenousPeople #IndigenousMusic #WaterIsLife #LandBack #NoDAPL #MMIW #SaveOakFlat #FridayNightMusicVideos #BurnYourVillageToTheGround #FridayNightMusic #Genocide

#Lawsuits Have Become the Weapon of Choice Against #Activists

Legal intimidation suits known as “#SLAPPs” are becoming the norm for private #corporations and #governments trying to silence those who speak out on matters of public interest.

by Katie Redford
July 17, 2023

“On May 31, #Atlanta #SWAT teams with riot gear and battering rams broke down #MarlonKautz’s door. Police dragged Kautz and two colleagues to jail in their pajamas, charging them with #MoneyLaundering and charity fraud.

“Kautz, Adele MacLean, and Savannah Patterson, are volunteer board members of the #NetworkForStrongCommunities Inc., which was incorporated in 2020. Through it, they are able to raise funds for the #AtlantaSolidarityFund (#ASF). Since 2016, the fund has bailed out people arrested in #Georgia while exercising their First Amendment right to protest and helped them find legal help.

“Recently, the ASF has supported Atlanta activists who have been protesting a new $90 million police training center known as '#CopCity,' arguing that it will rob Atlanta of a #VitalGreenLung and increase inequality in surrounding neighborhoods. The state of Georgia, on the other hand, has charged dozens with 'domestic terrorism' for participating in largely peaceful protests.

“Georgia authorities claim that the money laundering charge is based on evidence of a fund transfer to another organization, but they haven’t shared any other details about their allegations. Magistrate Judge Altman, who presided over the bail hearing, described the state’s evidence as 'unimpressive,' reinforcing the defendants’ claims that the arrests are politically, not legally, motivated.

“Shortly after the arrest, Governor Brian Kemp announced that the state would go after everyone involved, and Attorney General Chris Carr tweeted that the funders of the bail and legal defense fund were next. As an executive director at a climate philanthropy who made charitable donations to the ASF for legal defense, I had to wonder: Was my door going to be battered down next?

“Some of the accused may have trespassed or destroyed property, but to charge protesters with 'domestic terrorism' and a legal defense fund with money laundering is a cynical political act that bears no relation to the misdemeanors alleged. Any American committed to democracy should be interested in making sure these charges lose in both the court of law and the court of public opinion.

“These charges seek to silence and stop opposition to an unpopular development project. They also telegraph a message to others in the state and nationwide: We will not tolerate lawful protest in Georgia. This strategy is known as strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPP), which is an intimidation lawsuit, typically used by private corporations against those who speak out on matters of public interest. Various state governments are increasingly deploying this tactic, too.

“SLAPPs don’t usually win in court, but that’s not what they’re intended to do. Instead, they set out to threaten activists and drain the financial resources of social movements. They often unfold as years-long wars of attrition, where corporations and governments with disproportionately large resources grind down the financial, emotional, and legal capacities of activists. The threat of such a suit—typically brought against individuals or groups that confront powerful people or institutions—discourages free speech and association, chilling democracy itself.

“As a lawyer on the front lines of climate justice activism, I witnessed firsthand how a SLAPP was used to weaponize the law against free speech and association. During the mass protests by Indigenous water protectors and environmentalists campaigning against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, SLAPPs were used widely.

“As #StandingRock became a global cause célèbre, the pipeline’s owners brought a $900 million #racketeering case against individuals and #NGOs like #BankTrack and #Greenpeace, alleging a vast global conspiracy to damage the company’s reputation and bottom line through fraud and #defamation.

“A federal court ultimately dismissed the lawsuit. But despite its eventual failure in court, the SLAPP tactic served its intended purpose: intimidation. #KrystalTwoBulls, one of the Standing Rock organizers that my organization represented, said that being sued tangled her up, practically and emotionally, in a legal battle that diverted her attention, taking her away from her work on the climate crisis and #Indigenous #LandRights.

“She began to #censor herself; she withdrew from her community and the movement, fearing that conspiracy allegations might extend to anyone she touched. And that, of course, is the point of these suits: to send out the message to either shut up or suffer the consequences.

“The case against #Kautz in #Atlanta similarly seeks to spark fear in activists and donors against supporting #FirstAmendment rights and legal defense. There is reason to believe that prosecutors may also be preparing #RICO charges against anti–Cop City activists, another dangerous use of the legal system to quell #grassroots movements.

“Since Standing Rock, over 20 states have passed '#CriticalInfrastructure' laws, which dramatically increase civil and criminal penalties related to protests at or near #FossilFuel projects. #DomesticTerrorism laws like that in Georgia have a similar intention: to weaponize the legal system against critics and stifle #DissentingVoices.

“I have no doubt that the majority of the domestic terrorism charges around Cop City will fail. But in the process, a political point will have been made, at the expense of the constitutional right to free speech. People protesting to protect the #environment and #climate will have been publicly accused of being harmful to America’s security, and they will have been forced to defend themselves—likely at exorbitant cost—against a 30-year jail sentence. Other potential activists will surely remember these charges when they consider whether it’s worth it to attend a concert, sit-in, or protest.

"The best strategy for stopping SLAPP suits in their tracks, whether they emanate from the private sector or are used by the state, is to keep speaking out, to support defamed activists, and to make the litigants pay a price. About 30 states have introduced legislation that protects against SLAPPs. And last year, #Jami Raskin introduced the #SLAPPProtectionAct of 2022 to #Congress. It must be reintroduced.

“My organization, #EquationCampaign, created a fund to provide lawyers and legal support for people who face this kind of legal retaliation for their environmental and climate work. I’m astonished at the wide range of people who need our help: from #farmers and ranchers to #journalists and #IndigenousActivists. All of them are on the receiving end of David vs. Goliath legal tactics that have long served powerful interests with near-endless resources.

“Absent federal protections, we all must be vigilant in the face of the egregious proliferation of #antiprotest laws and lawsuits.

“#Democracy and the future of this #planet require people to speak up. The law should serve—not silence—those of us who do."

https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/slapp-legal-intimidation-activists/

#ForestDefenders #DefendTheForest #StopCopCity #DirectAction #Fascism #RICO #CriminalizingDissent #WaterProtectors #EnvironmentalActivists #ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #SilencingDissent #CorporateColonialism #EcoActivists #Censorship #HumanRightsViolations #Article20 #RightToProtest #SlowMarch #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #NoDAPL #DakotaAccess #StandingWithStandingRock

Footing the $15 Million Bill for the #DakotaAccessPipeline's #PrivateArmy

Sen. John Hoeven added monies to the Department of Justice’s budget for FY 2017 to reimburse #NorthDakota for incurred costs.

By Ruth Hopkins ,
IndianCountryTodayMediaNetwork

Published: May 23, 2017

“Last fall, the eyes of the world were fixated on #StandingRock.

“Among the images burned into the brains of so many abroad were those of Morton County sheriff’s department, joined by law enforcement officers from across the country, bedecked in military gear and armed to the teeth, brutalizing defenseless water protectors for expressing their first amendment rights and freedom of religion. Eyes were opened when mercs sicced vicious attack dogs on women and children guarding sacred burial grounds with their lives. Folks thousands of miles away watched in horror as they witnessed concussion grenades being thrown into crowds and elders being maced in the midst of sweat lodge raids. People will never forget live stream video picked up by mainstream media, showing hundreds of civilians being shot with water cannons in subzero temperatures by a corporate police state army. Some photos of injuries were judged too graphic to post by social media, as they revealed a young woman with a near severed limb and another who’d been blinded in one eye.

“This was not Iraq or Afghanistan. There was no foreign enemy invading our shores. These events occurred in the middle of the United States, on Lakota treaty lands; and the only thing these innocent people had done was dare to stand in the way of the Dakota Access Pipeline, the same one Bismarck, North Dakota residents rejected due to fears it would contaminate their water supply. This war zone created by Dakota Access and Morton County was meant to subdue Standing Rock residents and water protectors and force them to accept an unwarranted risk to their fresh water and the desecration of ancestral graves, under the barrel of a gun.

“Here in the states, hundreds of Native Nations and the American public sided with Standing Rock. Scores came to camp along the shores of the Mni Sosa (Missouri River). Others rallied in the local cities, signed petitions, and called the White House. Millions were outraged by the injustice.

“Yet who is paying for the corporate police state brutality I just mentioned? You are.

“Senator John Hoeven (R-ND), who accepted money from Energy Transfer Partners (the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline) and has been vocal in his support of both the Dakota Access Pipeline as well as the Keystone XL pipeline, has announced that North Dakota will receive $15 million in federal funds to reimburse the state for costs incurred as a result of militarizing Barney Fife and company while they pushed the pipeline through for ETP and engaged in the violent, forced removal of water protectors. Hoeven slid said monies into the Department of Justice’s budget as part of Fiscal 2017 funding legislation.

“By the way, Hoeven sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee and is now the chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Welcome to Custer’s wet dream.

“The distinguished Senator from North Dakota would have us believe his state was alone in its mission to extinguish #NoDAPL. Nothing could be further from the truth.

“When Morton County requested backup, law enforcement officials from across the nation came to North Dakota via the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC). The Sheriff’s Association also showed up in full force.

“New York Daily News writer Shaun King obtained audio where #EnergyTransferPartners freely admitted that they worked closely with the Sheriff’s Association, and wow, did they ever. They became one and the same.

“#WaterProtectors who lived at camp can attest to #ETP and law enforcement’s collusion and fraternization, but the record speaks for itself.

“The Sheriffs’ Association has a $3.46 million budget, according to tax forms. Some of this funding comes from corporate sources, like TigerSwan. TigerSwan maintains offices in Iraq and Afghanistan. TigerSwan’s CEO is a former adviser to the multinational private security firm, Blackwater. Blackwater was founded by Erik Prince, a Trump campaign donor and the brother of Betsy DeVos, the US Secretary of Education. Besides funding the Sheriff’s Association, TigerSwan is in charge of Dakota Access intelligence and supervising overall security for the company. Tigerswan works for Dakota Access, while funding and partnering with the Sheriffs’ Association.

“The Sheriff’s Association purchased military gear from the US Department’s Defense Logistics Agency thanks to the Defense Department’s 1033 program. Think corporate welfare for the defense industry.

“Wait, there’s more. #EnergyTransferPartners CEO #KelcyWarren offered to reimburse North Dakota and Morton County for costs due to defending the Dakota Access Pipeline.

“So why are US taxpayers forking over $15 million to North Dakota?

“Despite the fossil fuel industry’s wishes, America is not an oil company with an army. We should not be bankrolling our own oppression.”

https://truthout.org/articles/footing-the-15-million-bill-for-the-dakota-access-pipeline-s-private-army/

#BigOilAndGas #CorporateColonialism
#colonialism #Genocide #StandWithStandingRock #StandingRockSioux #TigerSwan #ErikPrince #Blackwater #DAPL #ACAB #ErikPrinceColonialism

#DakotaAccessPipeline Owner Slaps #WaterProtectors with New Subpoenas -- Third-party subpoenas allow #EnergyTransfer to obtain evidence, from individuals or organizations, who are not part of the lawsuit

Energy Transfer attempts to drag #Indigenous and #EnvironmentalJustice advocates into meritless lawsuit with third-party subpoenas

The operator of the Dakota Access Pipeline, Energy Transfer, is attempting to drag Indigenous and environmental justice advocates into this meritless lawsuit to stifle #dissenting voices.

By Greenpeace USA, via Censored News, November 27, 2023

WASHINGTON – "In response to recent third-party subpoenas issued by Energy Transfer, which target Indigenous and environmental justice advocates, Ebony Twilley Martin, Executive Director of #greenpeaceusa said: “The operator of the Dakota Access Pipeline, Energy Transfer, is attempting to drag Indigenous and environmental justice advocates into this meritless lawsuit to stifle dissenting voices.

"'For over six years, #Greenpeace USA has been fighting lawsuits brought by Energy Transfer over the Indigenous- led resistance movement at #StandingRock. This type of legal #bullying, known as #StrategicLawsuitsAgainstPublicParticipation, is part of the #corporate playbook to #silence and #intimidate #DissentingVoices who lack the financial means to fight these lawsuits.

"Energy Transfer is now attempting to expand this playbook by targeting Indigenous and environmental justice activists through the use of third-party subpoenas. Now is the moment for us all to come together to send a message to Energy Transfer, and other corporations considering this tactic, that we will not be silenced and we will not tolerate legal bullying.'

"'These legal actions are an insult to the many Indigenous water protectors who continue to lead the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline and the continual threats and degradation of their historic lands. These attacks are a threat to our First Amendment rights to speak out, a threat to #IndigenousRights, and a threat to the rights of #nature. We will not let this meritless lawsuit silence us and distract our movements from all our work to win a #green, #just, and joyful future for all.'

"Contact: Gujari Singh, Greenpeace USA Senior Communications Specialist, [email protected], (631) 404-9977

"Greenpeace USA is part of a global network of independent campaigning organizations that use #PeacefulProtest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future. Greenpeace USA is committed to transforming the country’s unjust social, environmental, and economic systems from the ground up to address the climate crisis, advance racial justice, and build an economy that puts people first. Learn more at www.greenpeace.org/usa "

Source:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/11/dakota-access-pipeline-owner-slaps.html

#ClimateJustice #Protests #Censorship #NoDAPL #StandWithStandingRock #StandingRock #StandingRockSioux #SLAPPs

After infiltrating #StandingRock, #TigerSwan pitched its ‘#counterinsurgency’ playbook to other oil companies

More than 50,000 pages of newly released documents detail how the security firm targeted #pipeline opponents and tried to profit off its #surveillance tactics.

by Alleen Brown & Naveena Sadasivam
Apr 13, 2023

"The Intercept and Grist contacted TigerSwan, #EnergyTransfer, the National Sheriffs’ Association, as well as Thompson, the group’s executive director. None of them responded to requests for comment.

"To TigerSwan, the emergence of #Indigenous-led social movements to keep oil and gas in the ground represented a business opportunity. Reese anticipated new demand from the #FossilFuel industry for strategies to undermine the network of #activists his company had so carefully gathered information on. In the records, TigerSwan expressed its ambitions to repurpose these detailed records to position themselves as experts in managing pipeline protests. The company created marketing materials pitching work to at least two other energy companies building controversial oil and gas infrastructure, the records show. TigerSwan, which was staffed heavily with former members of military special operations units, branded its tactics as a 'counterinsurgency approach,' drawing directly from its leaders’ experiences fighting the so-called War on Terror abroad.

"TigerSwan did not just work in #NorthDakota. Energy Transfer hired the company to provide security to its #RoverPipeline in #Ohio and #WestVirginia, the documents confirm. By spring 2017, TigerSwan was also assembling intelligence reports on opponents of Energy Transfer and #Sunoco’s #MarinerEast2 Pipeline in #Pennsylvania.

"The documents from the North Dakota security board paint a detailed picture of counterinsurgency-style strategies for defeating opponents of oil and gas development, a War-on-Terror security firm’s aspirations to replicate its deceptive tactics far beyond the Northern Great Plains, and the cozy relationship between businesses linked to the fossil fuel industry and one of the largest law enforcement trade associations in the U.S. The impetus for spying was not simply to keep people safe, but to drum up profits from energy clients and to allow fossil fuels to continue flowing, at the expense of the communities fighting for clean water and a healthy climate.

"'For them, it was an opportunity to help create a narrative against our tribe and our supporters,' said Wasté Win Young, a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the one of the plaintiffs in a class action civil rights lawsuit against TigerSwan and local law enforcement. Young’s social media posts repeatedly showed up in the documents. 'We weren’t motivated by money or payoffs or anything like that. We just wanted to protect our homelands.'"

Full article:
https://grist.org/accountability/tigerswan-documents-dakota-access-pipeline-standing-rock-surveillance/

#ClimateJustice #BigOilAndGas #WaterIsLife #ACAB #StandingRockSioux #StandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #Activism #ClimateChange
#EnvironmentalJustice

After Spying on #StandingRock Protest, #TigerSwan Shopped Info to Oil Firms

by Alleen Brown and Naveena Sadasivam
04/17/2023

""More than 50,000 pages of documents were recently made public after the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline lost a court case to keep them secret."

"Leaked documents and public records reveal a troubling fusion of private security, public law enforcement, and corporate money in the fight over the Dakota Access pipeline."

"A new business model for breaking down environmental movements was being hatched in real time. On Labor Day weekend in 2016, private security dogs in North Dakota attacked #pipeline opponents led by members of the #StandingRockSioux Tribe as they approached earth-moving equipment. The tribal members considered the land sacred, and the heavy equipment was breaking ground to build the Dakota Access pipeline. With a major public relations crisis on its hands, the pipeline’s parent company, Energy Transfer, hired the firm TigerSwan to revamp its security strategy.

"By October, TigerSwan — founded by James Reese, a retired commander of the elite special operations Army unit Delta Force — had established a military-style pipeline security strategy.

"There was one nagging problem that threatened to unravel it all: Reese hadn’t acquired a security license from the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board. Although Reese claimed TigerSwan wasn’t conducting security services at all, the state regulator insisted that its operations were #unlawful without a license."

https://theintercept.com/2023/04/13/standing-rock-tigerswan-protests/

#Activism #ClimateChange
#EnvironmentalJustice #StandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #Mercenaries #BigOil #ClimateJustice #ACAB

Security Firm Running #DakotaAccessPipeline Intelligence Has Ties to U.S. Military Work in #Iraq and #Afghanistan

By Steve Horn
Oct 28, 2016

"#TigerSwan is one of several security firms under investigation for its work guarding the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota while potentially without a permit. Besides this recent work on the #StandingRockSioux protests in #NorthDakota, this company has offices in Iraq and Afghanistan and is run by a special forces Army veteran.

"According to a summary of the investigation, TigerSwan 'is in charge of Dakota Access intelligence and supervises the overall security.'

"The Morton County, North Dakota, Sheriff’s Department also recently concluded that another security company, Frost Kennels, operated in the state while unlicensed to do so and could face criminal charges. The firm’s attack dogs bit #protesters at a heated Labor Day weekend protest.

"Law enforcement and private security at the North Dakota pipeline protests have faced criticism for maintaining a militarized presence in the area. The American Civil Liberties Union (#ACLU) and National Lawyer’s Guild have filed multiple open records requests to learn more about the extent of this #militarization, and over 133,000 citizens have signed a petition calling for the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene and quell the backlash.

"The Federal Aviation Administration has also implemented a no-fly zone, which bars anyone but law enforcement from flying within a 4-mile radius and 3500 feet above the ground in the protest area. #DallasGoldtooth, an organizer on the scenes in North Dakota with the #IndigenousEnvironmentalNetwork, said on Facebook that '#DAPL private security planes and choppers were flying all day' within the designated no-fly zone.

"Donnell Hushka, the designated public information officer for the North Dakota Tactical Operation Center, which is tasked with overseeing the no-fly zone, did not respond to repeated queries about designated private entities allowed to fly in no-fly zone airspace.

"What is TigerSwan?

"TigerSwan has offices in Iraq, Afghanistan, #Jordan, #SaudiArabia, #India, and #LatinAmerica and has headquarters in North Carolina. In the past year, TigerSwan won two U.S. Department of State contracts worth over $7 million to operate in Afghanistan, according to USASpending.gov.

"TigerSwan, however, claims on its website that the contract is worth $25 million, and said in a press release that the State Department contract called for the company to 'monitor, assess, and advise current and future nation building and stability initiatives in Afghanistan.' Since 2008, TigerSwan has won about $57.7 million worth of U.S. government contracts and subcontracts for security services.

"Company founder and CEO James Reese, a veteran of the elite Army Delta Force, served as the 'lead advisor for Special Operations to the Director of the CIA for planning, operations and integration for the invasion of Afghanistan and Operation Enduring Freedom' in Iraq, according to his company biography. Army Delta partakes in mostly covert and high-stakes missions and is part of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the latter well known for killing Osama Bin Laden.

"One of TigerSwan’s advisory board members, Charles Pittman, has direct ties to the #OilAndGasIndustry. Pittman “served as President of #Amoco Egypt Oil Company, Amoco Eurasia Petroleum Company, and Regional President BP Amoco plc. (covering the #MiddleEast, the Caspian Sea region, Egypt, and India),' according to his company biography.

'Sad, But Not Surprising'

"Investigative journalist #JeremyScahill told #DemocracyNow! in a 2009 interview that TigerSwan did some covert operations work with #Blackwater USA, dubbed the 'world’s most powerful #mercenary army' in his book by the same name. Blackwater has also guarded #OilPipelines in central #Asia, according to Scahill’s book.

"Reese advised Blackwater and took a leave of absence from TigerSwan in 2008 in the aftermath of the #NisourSquareMassacre, a shooting in Iraq conducted by Blackwater officers which saw 17 Iraqi civilians killed. TigerSwan has a business relationship with Babylon Eagles Security Company, a private security firm headquartered in Iraq which also has had business ties with Blackwater.

"'It is sad, but not surprising, that this firm has ties to the US interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq,' Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the women-led peace group #CODEPINK and the co-founder of the human rights group #GlobalExchange, told DeSmog. 'It is another terrifying example of how our violent interventions abroad come home to haunt us in the form of repression and violation of our civil rights.'

"The North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Private Investigation and Security Board are also conducting parallel investigations to the one recently completed by Morton County. TigerSwan did not comment on questions posed about their contract."

https://www.desmog.com/2016/10/28/private-security-firm-dakota-access-iraq-afghanistan-blackwater/

#TigerSwan #BigOil #NoDAPL #Blackwater #HumanRights #Covert #Corporatism #CIA #Corporatocracy
#Corruption #Capitalism #Colonialism #ACAB #ErikPrince #ErikPrinceColonialism

Feds leave future of Dakota Access pipeline's controversial river crossing unclear in draft review

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Friday released its draft environmental impact statement of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, but said it's waiting for more input before deciding the future of the line’s controversial river crossing in North Dakota

Jack Dura
Friday 08 September 2023

"Federal officials on Friday released a draft environmental review of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, but said they're waiting for more input before deciding the future of the line’s controversial river crossing in North Dakota.

"The draft was released over three years after a federal judge ordered the environmental review and revoked the permit for the Missouri River crossing, upstream of the #StandingRockSioux Tribe's reservation. The tribe is concerned a pipeline oil spill could contaminate its water supply.

"The environmental review is key for whether the federal government reissues the permit. The pipeline has been operating since 2017, including during the environmental review."

Read more:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/corps-ap-standing-rock-sioux-tribe-missouri-river-doug-burgum-b2408137.html

#WaterIsLife #NoDAPL #StandingRock #StandWithStandingRock

Background on the #StandingRock litigation:

Standing Rock Litigation

About the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit challenging the Dakota Access Pipeline.

"The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, represented by Earthjustice from 2016 to 2022, sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for violating the National Historic Preservation Act and other laws, after the agency issued final permits for the Dakota Access Pipeline, a massive crude oil pipeline stretching from North Dakota to Illinois.

"The FAQ and timeline is currently under construction — we apologize for the inconvenience!

"Archival resources related to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit challenging the Dakota Access Pipeline:

- Legal documents about the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit
- Press releases and statements about the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit
- Feature stories and videos about the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit

Links here:
https://earthjustice.org/feature/faq-standing-rock-litigation

#StandWithStandingRock #WaterProtectors #WaterIsLife #BackwaterBridge #ACAB #NoDAPL #StandingRockSioux

Injured #StandingRock protesters press 8th Circuit to revive suit

Attorneys for protesters said the use of "less-lethal" munitions and firehoses in subfreezing temperatures was unnecessarily brutal despite a federal judge's ruling otherwise.

by Andy Monserud / September 19, 2023

"'Water protectors' Vanessa Dundon, David Demo, Guy Dullknife, Frank Finan, Mariah Bruce and Crystal Wilson were at a prayer camp established by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe just south of the Backwater Bridge, near a construction site for the Dakota Access Pipeline, in late November 2016. All six suffered injuries during a confrontation between police and protesters on the night of Nov. 20, when police made headlines by spraying water at the protesters in sub-freezing temperatures alongside stinger grenades, beanbag rounds, rubber bullets and tear gas.

"The protesters brought suit against two North Dakota counties and their sheriffs, plus the city of Mandan and its police chief and up to a hundred John Does, shortly afterward but were shot down first by U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland and then by U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor, who took over the case after Hovland took senior status in 2019. Traynor, in his order granting summary judgment to the law enforcement officers, found that they had not committed a “seizure” of the protesters, that if they had they would be entitled to qualified immunity, and that the protesters’ First Amendment rights had not been infringed upon because they were trespassing on private property at the time.

"In her arguments before the Eighth Circuit Tuesday, attorney Rachel Lederman said Traynor had taken far too much of law enforcement’s side of the story at face value. 'This case is fundamentally about disputes of fact,' she said. 'The story defendants have put forth to justify their use of force is hotly disputed.'

"By cutting off the case before discovery could be conducted, Lederman said, Traynor had deprived the protesters of the chance for a jury to look at the evidence and resolve those disputes, particularly whether protesters posed enough of a threat to law enforcement to justify the use of force.

"'Defendants’ use of force caused serious injuries, such as broken bones and detached retina,' Lederman said. 'Only a single officer was even slightly injured, without requiring medical attention. There’s no evidence whatsoever that any of the named plaintiffs were threatening in any way.'

"The use of water hoses or cannons in particular raised concerns for Lederman and for attorney Michael Avery, of the National Police Accountability Project, who pointed out that the last time water cannons were used on protesters in the United States was in the apartheid south during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Officers, moreover, were “ensconced in a multi-layered barricade” of armored vehicles and concertina wire, and drastically outnumbered protesters at the time, Lederman argued. Furthermore, she said, construction had already been halted on the pipeline, neutralizing any threat protesters posed to that project."

Read more:
https://www.courthousenews.com/injured-standing-rock-protesters-press-8th-circuit-to-revive-suit/

#StandWithStandingRock #WaterProtectors #WaterIsLife #BackwaterBridge #ACAB #NoDAPL #StandingRockSioux

Federal Appeals Court Heard Arguments Today in Law Enforcement Brutality at Backwater Bridge at #StandingRock

by Brenda Norrell, Censored News, September 19, 2023

"ST. LOUIS -- A federal appeals court heard arguments in the class action lawsuit filed for excessive force at Backwater Bridge at Standing Rock. The issues argued included whether water protectors were free to leave, whether law enforcement feared for their lives, and whether the use of munitions, including bean bags filled with shot, and water sprayed on water protectors in temperatures below freezing, was justified or legal."

Read more: https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/09/federal-appeals-court-heard-arguments.html

#StandWithStandingRock #WaterProtectors #WaterIsLife #BackwaterBridge #ACAB #NoDAPL #StandingRockSioux