PD op/ed on Standing Rock
The following by Adam Villagomez & Jenny Blaker appears in today's Press Democrat. If people make comments on it, it keeps this issue in the news and encourages editors to give it more attention.
Comment:
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The Press Democrat, 12/22/2016 - Page A07
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Standing with the Standing Rock Sioux
By ADAM VILLAGOMEZ AND JENNY BLAKER
More than 500 people marched in silence through Santa Rosa on Dec. 4 in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux water protectors who have been putting their lives on the line at the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The vigil was timed to coincide with 2,000 veterans arriving at Standing Rock to act as nonviolent "human shields" for the water protectors, who had suffered a violent onslaught at the hands of the fossil fuel industry, with dogs, pepper spray, rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons in sub-zero temperatures and militarized police from six states. There has been a massive groundswell of support for the water protectors in Sonoma County and around the world.
The tribe’s fundamental human rights and rights as a sovereign nation have been violated. As with so many other Native American tribes, they have been swindled, cheated and lied to for years with repeatedly broken treaties and forced displacement. In an egregious example of environmental racism, the pipeline was rerouted away from Bismarck, the capital of North Dakota, through Sioux lands, after Bismarck’s mainly white residents rejected it as a threat to their water supply.
A leak from the 1,200 mile pipeline, slated to pass under the Missouri River, would threaten the lives of millions of people downstream and thousands of acres of farming, ranch lands and wildlife habitat. For the Standing Rock Sioux, the Earth is their mother, and protecting her is a spiritual responsibility. The water is her blood and the streams and rivers are her veins. We and the generations to come cannot live without water, the water of life.
The unprecedented convergence of more than 100 tribes, with indigenous people and their allies from all over the world, unite s the struggle for indigenous rights and sovereignty with the movement for environmental justice, the protection of the right to clean water and growing concern about climate change and the role of the fossil fuel industry.
Greenhouse gas emissions are escalating, and average world temperatures have been hitting record highs every year. According to climate scientists, using all the oil already available, even without exploiting new reserves, will start a cascade of repercussions that will threaten our survival. The oil needs to stay in the ground.
As protestors gathered outside Citibank in Santa Rosa, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied to Energy Transfer Partners the easement that would allow it to complete the pipeline. An environmental impact assessment will be required, with full public input and analysis. Cheers erupted, while in North Dakota veterans put down their helmets and riot shields to dance in celebration with their hosts.
In an unprecedented historic moment, veterans asked forgiveness of the tribal elders for the damage done to them throughout history.
But this is far from the end of the story. Energy Transfer Partners’ CEO Kelcy Warren and President- elect Donald Trump, who, until recently, held considerable assets in the $3.8 billion pipeline, are adamant that it will go ahead. The day after the Army Corps of Engineers made its announcement, Energy Transfer Partners began legal action to overturn it.
However, delays have already cost the company $450 million. The largest bank in Norway has withdrawn its assets. The Dakota Access Pipeline is contractually obligated to complete by Jan. 1, and if it does not, contractors could pull out, incurring further losses.
According to Lakota prophecy, a black snake will come to destroy the world. In the seventh generation, the youth will rise up to fight it. The pipeline is the black snake, and the youth are rising with extraordinary courage and determination.
Now the black snake is wounded, but it is not yet dead and the fight to come may get even harder.
Adam Villagomez, a member of the Dakota Sioux/ Chippewa, lives in Sonoma County and works at the Sonoma County Indian Health Project. He is part of a local group that took food and medical supplies to Standing Rock during Indigenous People’s Day. Jenny Blaker, a Cotati resident, is a member of Solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux of Sonoma County.[
Re: PD op/ed on Standing Rock
What a fabulous article! I hope everyone takes inspiration from this thoughtful Op/ed, and does their part to divest themselves from the banks that are funding the Dakota Access pipeline (and in many cases, plenty of other pipelines too). If you are still banking with Wells Fargo, Citibank, Chase, Bank of America, and/or many others (see defundDAPL.org), you are in a wonderful position to help starve the black snake. Just switch your account over to a local credit union and let the bank know why.
This is a time sensitive issue and if you can do it before new years, that would be extra wonderful (if not, sometime in Jan. would be great too!). Consider it a holiday gift to the earth and water, to future generations, and to yourself. When you move your money into alignment with your values, your sense of inner peace grows. :heart: Wishing everyone happy, joyous, holy days!:waccosun: Sending love...
rachanna
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Shepherd:
The following by Adam Villagomez & Jenny Blaker appears in today's Press Democrat. If people make comments on it, it keeps this issue in the news and encourages editors to give it more attention.
Comment:
https://www.waccobb.net/forums/wacco...4_15-56-29.png
The Press Democrat, 12/22/2016 - Page A07
CLOSE TO HOME
Standing with the Standing Rock Sioux
By
ADAM VILLAGOMEZ AND JENNY BLAKER
More than 500 people marched in silence through Santa Rosa on Dec. 4 in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux water protectors who have been putting their lives on the line at the Dakota Access Pipeline....
Re: PD op/ed on Standing Rock
many of us took our $$$ from major banks back during Apartheid, and moved them to local banks; then we were all reminded during Occupy to not Bank with these thieves. So, NOW, will we stop banking with the very institutions that brought down our economy a few short years ago? i remember when activists during Occupy went before City Council in SR, begging them to divest from these bastards. they did not. How many times do we have to hear this and still they exist!? so many think Standing Rock is far away..and it is...but everywhere we look is Standing Rock and still we ignore the signs.
to quote Michelle Berditschevsky of Mt. Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center
"Medicine Lake River.... For 19 years the Pit River Tribe and the elders and traditionalists in the Native Coalition for Medicine Lake Highlands Defense to prevent large-scale industrial geothermal development and fracking in this magnificent landscape situated 30 miles northeast of Mount Shasta.
The acquifer underlying the Medicine Lake Highlands holds the source waters for the Fall River Springs, the largest spring system in California.
this is not green energy when it involves 24 hour drilling an lighting, pollution, miles of above-ground pipelines, and hydraulic fracturing with toxic chemicals through a pristine aquifer....this too is sacred ground, designated by the National Register of Historic Places as a 113-square mile Native American Traditional Cultural District.
After 19 years of administrative and successful legal challenges, the coalition still hasn't won, but continue to hold sacred ground for the values of life.
Like water, these values continually find channel through which to flow when we align with them in our hearts and minds."
We all join hands with Water Protectors everywhere!
maybe, we all will be traveling to North Dakota only to return and fight for sacred water in California!
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by rachanna:
What a fabulous article! I hope everyone takes inspiration from this thoughtful Op/ed, and does their part to divest themselves from the banks that are funding the Dakota Access pipeline (and in many cases, plenty of other pipelines too). If you are still banking with Wells Fargo, Citibank, Chase, Bank of America, and/or many others (see defundDAPL.org), you are in a wonderful position to help starve the black snake. Just switch your account over to a local credit union and let the bank know why.
This is a time sensitive issue and if you can do it before new years, that would be extra wonderful (if not, sometime in Jan. would be great too!). Consider it a holiday gift to the earth and water, to future generations, and to yourself. When you move your money into alignment with your values, your sense of inner peace grows. :heart: Wishing everyone happy, joyous, holy days!:waccosun: Sending love...
rachanna
