Dakota Access Pipeline Protests Turn Into Mid-western “Burning Man”

Dakota Access Pipeline Protests Turn Into Mid-western “Burning Man”

The Dakota Access Pipeline may be tuning out to be the Last Stand for aging, white hippies.

Today, reports began to surface that the Native American protesters are now voicing concerns about their Caucasian co-demonstrators!

“People demonstrating at North Dakota’s Access Pipeline protest have expressed frustration at white demonstrators who are reportedly turning up to “colonise” the camp.

Concerns have been raised by protestors on social media, who claim that people are arriving at the Standing Rock demonstration for the “cultural experience” and treating it like Burning Man festival.

The following notice went up on Twitter:

The Chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux also voiced complaints about camp sanitation:

Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault II, who is leading the protest, raised concerns about sanitation in a Nov. 23 interview with Vice, saying activists are “digging pits out there for their human waste.”

“That’s a flood zone,” said Mr. Archambault, referring to camps on federal land along the Cannonball River. “So when the floodwaters come up, that waste is going to be contaminating the water. We’re no different than the oil company, if we’re fighting for water. What’s going to happen when people leave? Who has to clean it up? Who has to refurbish it? It’s going to be us, the people who live here.”

I will simply point out that if the Native Americans are going to culturally appropriate hippie protest tactics, then it only fair for old, white people to culturally appropriate fire circle drum ceremonies and outdoor urination.

Speaking of protest tactics, this video clip (taken in late October), offers a sense of challenges law enforcement has consistently faced when dealing with the demonstrators.

Shockingly, the protests have been racially charged…by the participants clashing with police.

A local deputy who asked to remain anonymous told WDAY AM’s Rob Port that most of the protesters are white, and that some have used racial slurs against black, Hispanic and American Indian officers.

In The Hill, Craig Stevens of the Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now Coalition offered some intriguing background on the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Standing Rock Sioux that have been the public face of these demonstrations.

The protests might also give the false impression that Native American tribes had no input to the project. The public record shows that they did. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers held 389 meetings with 55 tribes to discuss the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe met with the corps nearly a dozen times to discuss archaeological issues and to help finalize the pipeline’s route.

…That the pipeline was to be routed along its current corridor was neither a secret nor a surprise to any tribe. That is why it was so disappointing to see the Obama administration cite tribal input when ordering a halt to construction of a small portion of the pipeline on Corps of Engineers land through and around Lake Oahe.

Not only did tribes have significant input into the siting of the route, but a federal court found no reason to halt construction of the small, disputed portion of the route based on tribal claims.

These facts is verifiable in court records, per an exhibit filed as a part of the USACE Opposition to Plaintiff’s Motion for Preliminary Injunction in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

….The Corps engaged in a robust consultation process following Dakota Access’s transmission of its survey results. See Tribal Consultation Spreadsheet (noting 389 instances of tribal meetings and communications) (Ex. 9). As discussed above, the Corps’ consultation process with Plaintiff involved at least nine meetings, some of which were site visits, and many of which were attended by the Commanding Officer of the Omaha District and one of which was attended by Id. The quantity and quality of these consultations renders Plaintiff’s claim that the Corps failed to consult in a “reasonable and good faith manner,” Pl.’s Br. 31, without merit.

Where tribes provided the Corps with information, the Section 106 process led to rerouting the pipeline “at PCNs 3&4 . . . to avoid potential historic properties.” Mem. for Record for S.D. Verifications at 7 (Ex. 7)….

Responsible news outlets should be reporting that the pipeline’s route was thoroughly vetted and local tribes offered significant input that helped shape the route to avoid harming the lands or water supplies.

Unfortunately, the mainstream media is run by old, white hippies who want to relive the days of their former glory vicariously through Sioux Indians and take news stories.

USACE-Brief-8-18-16 by Legal Insurrection on Scribd

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