#standingrocksioux — Public Fediverse posts

#Native leaders draft bill to regain some of sacred #BlackHills

Tribal and treaty council representatives hope proposed legislative language to return federal lands in #SouthDakota's Black Hills to #Lakota people can be turned into a Congressional bill

by Amelia Schafer, Dec 2, 2024

FORT YATES, N.D. – "The Black Hills are not for sale and never will be was the central uniting message discussed during a meeting at the Prairie Knights Casino in Fort Yates, N.D. on the Standing Rock Reservation.

Representatives from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Oglala Sioux Tribe, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, a group of Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation elders and various treaty councils gathered on Nov. 13 to formulate a plan for regaining land in the Black Hills.

"The group met to discuss the He Sapa Restoration Act, which includes a formal declaration from the #Oyate (nation) and the tribal governments to demand that the United States return federal land in the Black Hills to the #OcetiSakowin people. The group hopes to introduce the bill in 2025.

"The bill would not affect the titles of private lands. Though those lands would be cataloged as part of the land identification process, they would remain in possession of the title holders.

"'Today we’ve gathered to discuss the Black Hills,' Standing Rock Vice-Chairman Frank Jameson said. 'This fight has been ongoing for many decades before us and it will continue after us."

Read more:
https://ictnews.org/news/leaders-draft-bill-to-regain-some-of-sacred-black-hills

#CheyenneRiverSioux #CrowCreekSioux #LowerBruleSioux #OglalaSioux #RosebudSiouxTribe #SissetonWahpetonOyate #StandingRockSioux #SpiritLakeSioux #LandBack #SacredBlackHills #ProtectTheSacred

#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

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