Kahnawake Mohawks Camp Out In Support Of Standing Rock Protesters

A small group of people from Kahnawake set up a camp near the base of the Mercier Bridge to Montreal to protest the Dakota Access pipeline. (Charles Contant/CBC)

‘We’re here to protect the planet and raise awareness of what’s going on,’ supporter says

CBC News Posted: Oct 31, 2016

A small group of Kahnawake Mohawks has set up a camp at the base of the Mercier Bridge in support of pipeline protesters in Standing Rock, N.D.

After briefly blocking the bridge over the weekend, a few people sat around a bonfire by the road this morning, with a promise of further action to come.

South Shore access to Mercier Bridge reopens after Kahnawake community members protest on Friday. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press)

Blair Dearhouse, who has been at the location for the past three days, said the goal is to bring attention to the pipeline protest in North Dakota in a peaceful way.

“We’re here to protect the planet and raise awareness of what’s going on,” he said.

A teepee has been put up at the site alongside a sign that reads “water is our first medicine.”

Protesters against the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline block a highway in near Cannon Ball, N.D., earlier this month. (James MacPherson/The Associated Press)

For months, Indigenous groups have been protesting the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota.

Thousands of people have come to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe reservation since a group of young people from the community first stood up against the pipeline this past summer.

There have been over 200 arrests in confrontations with police, which have escalated in recent weeks.

On Sunday, Grand Chief Joseph Tokwiro Norton said the band council fully supports the demonstrations near the Mercier Bridge.

A person with a hand drum paces between law enforcement officers and a line of protesters along a highway in North Dakota. (Tom Stromme/The Bismarck Tribune)

He said two chiefs from Kahnawake were part of a delegation that took supplies to Standing Rock this fall.

“I always look back to 1990, the so-called Oka Crisis, when people from all over North America came here and did what they could to help support us,” Norton said.

“So it’s our turn now to show our reciprocation for things like that.”

Kahnawake Peacekeepers have been instructed to support the protesters, Norton said.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/kahnawake-standing-rock-mercier-bridge-1.3828884

 

North Dakota Pipeline Protest Turns Violent After Tribe’s Sacred Sites Destroyed

A Native American protester holds up his arms as he and other protesters are threatened by private security guards and guard dogs, at a work site for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) oil pipeline, near Cannonball, North Dakota, September 3, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / Robyn BECKROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images ROBYN BECK / AFP – Getty Images

The Associated Press, Sept. 4, 2016

Standing Rock protesters confronted construction crews working on the Dakota Access pipeline on Saturday, after the demolition of American Indian burial and cultural sites.

BISMARCK, N.D. — A protest of a four-state, $3.8 billion oil pipeline turned violent after tribal officials say construction crews destroyed American Indian burial and cultural sites on private land in southern North Dakota.

Morton County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Donnell Preskey said four private security guards and two guard dogs were injured after several hundred protesters confronted construction crews Saturday afternoon at the site just outside the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. One of the security officers was taken to a Bismarck hospital for undisclosed injuries. The two guard dogs were taken to a Bismarck veterinary clinic, Preskey said.

Tribe spokesman Steve Sitting Bear said protesters reported that six people had been bitten by security dogs, including a young child. At least 30 people were pepper-sprayed, he said. Preskey said law enforcement authorities had no reports of protesters being injured.

There were no law enforcement personnel at the site when the incident occurred, Preskey said. The crowd dispersed when officers arrived and no one was arrested, she said.

The incident occurred within half a mile of an encampment where hundreds of people have gathered to join the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s protest of the oil pipeline that is slated to cross the Missouri River nearby.

The tribe is challenging the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners’ Dakota Access pipeline, which crosses the Dakotas and Iowa to Illinois, including near the reservation in southern North Dakota. A federal judge will rule before Sept. 9 whether construction can be halted on the Dakota Access pipeline.

Energy Transfer Partners did not return phone calls and emails from The Associated Press on Saturday seeking comment.

The tribe fears the project will disturb sacred sites and impact drinking water for thousands of tribal members on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and millions farther downstream.

The protest Saturday came one day after the tribe filed court papers saying it found several sites of “significant cultural and historic value” along the path of the proposed pipeline.

Tribal preservation officer Tim Mentz said in court documents that the tribe was only recently allowed to survey private land north of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. Mentz said researchers found burials rock piles called cairns and other sites of historic significance to Native Americans.

Standing Rock Sioux chairman David Archambault II said in a statement that construction crews removed topsoil across an area about 150 feet wide stretching for 2 miles.

Protesters march toward private security guards and works as they retreat, on a work site for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) oil pipeline, near Cannonball, North Dakota, September 3, 2016. ROBYN BECK / AFP – Getty Images

“This demolition is devastating,” Archambault said. “These grounds are the resting places of our ancestors. The ancient cairns and stone prayer rings there cannot be replaced. In one day, our sacred land has been turned into hollow ground.”

Preskey said the company filmed the confrontation by helicopter and turned the video over to authorities. Protesters also have posted some of the confrontation on social media.

Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said in a statement that “individuals crossed onto private property and accosted private security officers with wooden posts and flag poles.”

“Any suggestion that today’s event was a peaceful protest, is false,” his statement said.

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