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Dakota Access Pipeline Will Not Pass Through Standing Rock Reservation, Army Decides

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Dakota Access Pipeline Will Not Pass Through Standing Rock Reservation, Army Decides

buzzfeed:

The US Army Corps of Engineers on Sunday announced they will no longer allow the Dakota Access Pipeline to cross under a lake on the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota, marking a huge win for Native Americans and protesters who had long opposed the construction.

“Today, the US Army Corps of Engineers announced that it will not be granting the easement to cross Lake Oahe for the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline,” Standing Rock Sioux Tribal chairman Dave Archambault II said in a statement sent to BuzzFeed News. “Instead, the Corps will be undertaking an environmental impact statement to look at possible alternative routes.

“We wholeheartedly support the decision of the administration and commend with the utmost gratitude the courage it took on the part of President Obama, the Army Corps, the Department of Justice, and the Department of the Interior to take steps to correct the course of history and to do the right thing.”

“It took tremendous courage to take a new approach to our nation-to-nation relationship, and we will be forever grateful,” he said.

 

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micdotcom:

In a historic victory, Standing Rock protestors successfully halted the Dakota Access pipeline 

On Sunday afternoon, MNSBC reported the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had chosen to deny a permit for the current route of the Dakota Access pipeline, the much-maligned oil pipeline which has drawn thousands of protesters to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota. The Army’s Assistant Secretary for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy has spoken out.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

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jordanparrished:

So I’m concerned that people don’t realize just how messed up the situation at Standing Rock really is. The United States signed treaties acknowledging and agreeing that there are certain areas of land that were never ceded to them. These areas do not belong to the United States. They belong to a sovereign nation governed by indigenous people. The land that the Dakota Access Pipeline runs through is not part of the US. It is part of the Lakota nation. That means it is essentially a separate country.

Please imagine if the US wanted to build a pipeline from Washington to Alaska and they went through part of Canada to get there. Canadians protested, saying they have no right to be there and they’re destroying their water, and in response the USA sent militarized police to attack, harass, and harass these protesters, then arrested them for trespassing… on their own land.

That is what’s happening. This is an invasion, and the police are interfering on behalf of a foreign oil company.

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makomore:

sashayed:

fallcaesar:

It is necessary to understand that the police army at Standing Rock wants to start killing the water protectors. You don’t deliberately inflict hypothermia on people, especially older people, unless you are cognizant of the fact that this can be lethal. Their use of water cannons in this context is lethal force. I imagine they’re delighted at the opportunity; they’ve only held off on live ammunition this long because massacres are bad PR. 

(Oh, and a quick sidenote: “rubber” bullets are not made of rubber. They are metal pellets with a thin rubber coating. You can absolutely kill or severely injure someone with a rubber bullet.)

Water protector Sophia Willansky was critically injured last night – she’s in surgery facing amputation of an arm – after being hit by what is called a “stun grenade” while distributing water bottles to her fellow protectors. “Stun Grenade” is an interesting euphemism for a concussive weapon that is not significantly less destructive to living things than a regular grenade. If you would like to see what a “stun grenade” does to a person’s body, you can google Sophia Willansky, but the images are graphic and I’m not sure she has consented to their release. Rest assured that it’s fucking horrific. This isn’t, like, “set phasers to stun”; this is “use words that sound nicer for stuff that kills people” and it’s scary and garbage.

It’s confirmed now that she’s lost her arm. There’s a gofundme to pay for her medical bills and recovery here.