Bogus Claims vs the Reality of Facts
By TLB Contributing Author: Luca Majno
HERE WE GO AGAIN! I find myself going over the lies and deceit that seems to suit the ‘occupiers’ and ‘money-changers’ of this land, in the same place as the LAST MASSACRE (not ‘war’) of the Original People of this country, some 126 years ago, just last month … .
First, it was the USACE’s (US Army Corps Of Engineers) letter to Sioux Chairman Archambault that was insanely ridiculous in their antics, now it seems these moronic attitudes have reached ‘congress’ with their apathy towards this struggle, under the banner of ‘Energy and Commerce’… You have to wonder who they are REALLY working for… .
Well, here are little bits of truth for you, dancing around the lies and absolutely cruel, but totally understandable deceit ~ veiled perfectly in the continuing slow genocide and allowance of these continuing pipeline spills and pollution of all Natural Life on Earth, seemingly this country’s deliberate agenda… .
So below, I offer their ‘CLAIMS’ first, parts of the original letter, then my response immediately afterwards, called ‘FACTS’, as we dissect this letter paragraph by paragraph, and witness this slow and head-shaking dilemma as it progresses… .
This work could not have been complete without the invaluable assistance of Victoria Hogan, a good friend and ally in this struggle for justice.
~ CLAIM ~
For more than three months, thousands of protesters, most of them from out of state, have illegally camped on federal land in Morton County, North Dakota, to oppose the construction of a legally permitted oil pipeline project that is 85 percent complete.
~ FACT ~
Since August, thousands of Water protectors, most of them Original People (Indians) of various Tribes, have legally camped on their own land, on Turtle Island, to oppose the construction of a totally illegal pipeline project (by the Fort Laramie Treaties) that is 85% complete.
~ CLAIM ~
The celebrities, political activists, and anti-oil extremists who are blocking the pipeline’s progress are doing so based on highly charged emotions rather than actual facts on the ground.
~ FACT ~
The celebrities, environmentalists and Water Protectors who are attempting to block the pipeline’s progress are doing so based on emotions, perhaps, because of actual facts on the ground, but within the guidelines established by the Elders, through Prayer, Love and education.
~ CLAIM ~
This 1,172-mile Dakota Access pipeline will deliver as many as 570,000 barrels of oil a day from northwestern North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to connect to existing pipelines in Illinois. It will do this job far more safely than the current method of transporting it by 750 rail cars a day.
~ FACT ~
This 1,172-mile Dakota Access pipeline will deliver as many as 570,000 barrels of oil a day from northwestern North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to connect to existing pipelines in Illinois. It will do the job far more recklessly (due to substandard-built pipes and far more careless work and their work and lack of safety are evident in the multitude of spills recorded) than the current method of transporting it by 750 rail cars a day.
~ CLAIM ~
The protesters say they object to the pipeline’s being close to the water intake of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. However, this should be of no concern as it will sit approximately 92 feet below the riverbed, with increased pipe thickness and control valves at both ends of the crossing to reduce the risk of an incident, which is already low.
~ FACT ~
The Water Protectors say they object to the pipeline’s being close to the water intake of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. This is of major concern because it will sit approximately 92 feet below the riverbed, and with the current and hidden truth about the pipeline’s safety record and spills in ND alone in the past two years, the residents of Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and others camped there (as well as most people following this situation) are more and more aware of the increased risk of spills ~ not if, but when ~ which is widely known, taking, for example a farmer recently discovering a huge leak in a field 150 miles north of Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, which leaked more or less 170,000 gallons of oil…
~ CLAIM ~
Just like the companies that run the 10 other fossil-fuel pipelines crossing the Missouri River upstream of Standing Rock, Energy Transfer Partners—the primary funder of this pipeline—is taking all necessary precautions to ensure that the pipeline does not leak. But even if there were a risk, Standing Rock will soon have a new water intake that is nearing completion much further downstream near Mobridge, South Dakota.
~ FACT ~
Just like the companies that run the 10 other fossil-fuel pipelines crossing the Missouri River upstream of Standing Rock, Energy Transfer Partners — the primary funder of this pipeline — are quickly doing this work, cutting corners and important and necessary inspections, not even concerned about the fact that these pipelines WILL leak, as so many others have.
To add to this existing risk, Standing Rock will soon have a new water intake that is nearing completion much further downstream near Mobridge, SD, which is of primary concern when there would be a leak, thus making this water intake useless… (10 drops of this dirty oil destroys a 50,000 gallon water tank)
~ CLAIM ~
From the outset of this process, Standing Rock Sioux leaders have refused to sit down and meet with either the Army Corps of Engineers or the pipeline company.
~ FACT ~
From the outset of this process, several years ago, Standing Rock Sioux Leaders and others strongly objected to this pipeline deal, stating their concerns (in an audio recording that is available to anyone) at a meeting about this project on their lands.
~ CLAIM ~
The Army Corps consulted with 55 Native American tribes at least 389 times, after which they proposed 140 variations of the route to avoid culturally sensitive areas in North Dakota. The logical time for Standing Rock tribal leaders to share their concerns would have been at these meetings, not now when construction is already near completion.
~ FACT ~
On 2/17/15, the US Army Corps of Engineers initiates the ‘permitting process’, and the Tribal Historic Preservation Office responds requesting a full archaeological investigation. The Corps is also supposed to consult with the affected Tribes. As of April 8th of that year, no letter(s) were answered ~ and by 9/15/15, the THPO concluded that “it has become obvious that the Corps is attempting to circumvent the Section 106 process”…
And as of December of the same year, the THPO wrote to the American Council on Historic Preservation that “We have not been consulted in an appropriate manner about the presence of traditional cultural properties, sites, or landscapes vital to our identity and spiritual well-being.” So the further you dig, the more you see contempt and refusal to cooperate on the part of USACE who is supposedly responsible for the nation’s waterways…
The research one does simply does not add up to what the Army Corps is saying.
~ CLAIM ~
The original pipeline was always planned for south of Bismarck, despite false claims that it was originally planned for north of Bismarck and later moved, thus creating a greater environmental danger to the Standing Rock Sioux.
~ FACT ~
The original route came close to Bismark, ND and was widely rejected by a mostly ‘Anglo-Saxon’ community, well-known for their racist attitudes towards Native Americans. So the new route was moved to Sacred and Promised Tribal lands, that belong to the Native Americans by decree of the Fort Laramie Treaties, thus causing an environmental danger to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, as well as 17 million others who live downstream from Standing Rock and draw their drinking water from the Missouri River.
~ CLAIM ~
The real reasons for not pursuing the northern route were that the pipeline would have affected an additional 165 acres of land, 48 extra miles of previously undisturbed field areas, and an additional 33 water bodies.
~ FACT ~
They sound like they care so deeply for the land, for the water, and for the people, when nothing could be further from the truth, proof of which will be stated further below.
~ CLAIM ~
It would also have crossed zones marked by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration as “high consequence” areas, and would have been 11 miles longer than the preferred and current route.
~ FACT ~
They use fancy words to disguise their total apathy for the Indian Nations and their Sacred Lands, when they simply need to get the job done as quickly as possible…
Proof of this lies with whistleblowers who have come forward on this issue.
~ CLAIM ~
North Dakotan’s have respected the rights of these individuals to protest the pipeline, but they have gone beyond civil protesting.
~ FACT ~
North Dakotan’s, especially the authorities, with the help of other counties and states, have now proven their total and complete lack of respect and the brutalizing of the Water protectors on site, going far beyond their so-called policing duties and have crossed many legal, local and international laws in handling the situation.
~ CLAIM ~
Though these protesters claim to be gathered for peaceful prayer and meditation, law enforcement has been forced to arrest more than 400 in response to several unlawful incidents, including trespassing on and damaging private land, chaining themselves to equipment, burning tires and fields, damaging cars and a bridge, harassing residents of nearby farms and ranches, and killing and butchering livestock. There was even at least one reported incident where gun shots were fired at police.
~ FACT ~
These Water protectors were gathered in peaceful prayer and meditation, but due to harassment and intimidation tactics by the swelled-up heads of ‘law enforcement’ individuals, they found themselves trapped, especially the younger people at the ‘front lines’, trapped in a vicious circle of dangerous and escalating violence, enticed by law enforcement officials, so the next step, since nothing was being addressed or resolved, was direct action, and civil disobedience, which included some of the Water Protectors chaining themselves to equipment, reacting to the set-ups by bullying police, manufacturing potentially fatal incidences, essentially trying to trap what were unarmed Water protectors and trying to anger and push them enough to start escalating the situation, time and time again…
Since when do you attack unarmed Water protectors with mace, tear gas, rubber bullets, fire hoses spraying powerful streams of water in what was below freezing temperatures, creating (untreated) hypothermia for 100 or more Water protectors, trapping them on Back Water Bridge with no entry or escape and refusing the wounded treatment (which is an international war crime), practically amputating one woman with a concussion grenade, thrown at close range, which was later lied about in police’s own defense, blinding a 13 year old with a rubber bullet, again, at close range ~ and so many more incidents, most of them recorded on video and photographs, with countless witnesses present… and the authorities continue to lie about it all… they were just itching to entice a situation like 126 years ago, the one at Wounded Knee, where everything would spiral out of control… Police were also laughing as they attempted to target individuals when shooting…
The Water protectors were completely trapped and could not do anything, could not even escape, as the authorities encircled them like sheep… All this is completely verifiable and proven.
~ CLAIM ~
The recent vandalizing of graves in a Bismarck cemetery and the unconscionable graffiti marking on the North Dakota column at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., are examples of how the protesters’ actions do not match their claims of peaceful demonstration.
~ FACT ~
The recent bulldozing of Sacred Burial Sites, dug up by the pipeline workers is only the tip of the unconscionable and racist iceberg, an ongoing attitude that non-Natives and others show while pushing this Black Snake along its agenda. In one example, one woman speaks of her son being buried in one of those Sacred Burial Grounds… Law enforcement officers also went through the camp, confiscating tents, Sacred items, and what they could get their hands on at that time, then later returned all items, after urinating and defecating on them, and using a dump truck, dumping them back in the camp site, to the horror of the people there. How would Christians feel if this was done to their most precious and Sacred items from their church?
Also, Native American Veterans were also buried on these Sacred grounds… There would be tremendous uproar if bulldozers came and uprooted Arlington Cemetery, for example, to make way for a pipeline.
~ CLAIM ~
The rule of law matters. We cannot allow lawless mobs to obstruct projects that have met all legal requirements to proceed.
~ FACT ~
This completely illegal ‘established order of things’ that these European colonizers entitle themselves with cannot be allowed to continue, desecrating and committing genocide against the remaining Native Cultures of this land, land that was not only theirs originally, but stolen, then promised to them again, then stolen once again, by all of the broken treaties, showing once again that nor attitudes, nor agenda have changed since wars were declared with the Original People, only to steal their lands and resources, regardless of ‘laws’ that the European colonizers make to suit themselves… ‘Lawless mob’ is indeed a great phrase to describe the ongoing bullying tactics of this genocidal regime. Also, when speaking of ‘law’, how is it that arresting a girl, not telling her what she was being arrested for, forcing her to strip naked in front of one female and three male officers, then locking her in an animal cage overnight, still naked, would constitute ‘law’? This also happened to several other people, mostly women, and this again, is verifiable and proven.
******
Rep. Kevin Cramer (author of the original letter) is the U.S. representative for North Dakota’s at-large district. He serves on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
See original (standalone) text of Rep. Kevin Cramer’s letter HERE.
Related Article: A Child’s Vision for Standing Rock
About the author: Luca Majno is a TLB Contributing Author and Audio Visual Technical Consultant. Luca is also an ardent Protester and Activist as well as a Radio Show Host and Producer, see more at “LEARN 2 UNLEARN“
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