#cdt project

Today’s Highlight: Standing Rock Sioux - Then & Now

Then:

In 2016, Standing Rock Sioux Opposed the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)

On April 1, 2016, one of the greatest organizing efforts to protect land, human rights, and the future of this planet began in North Dakota.

The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is proposed to transport 450,000 barrels per day of Bakken crude oil (which is fracked and highy volatile) from the lands of North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois. The threats this pipeline poses to the environment, human health and human rights are strikingly similar to those posed by the Keystone XL. Because the DAPL will cross over the Ogallala Aquifer (one of the largest aquifers in the world) and under the Missouri River twice (the longest river in the United States), the possible contamination of these water sources makes the Dakota Access pipeline a national threat.

Th tribal citizens of the Standing Rock Lakota Nation and ally Lakota, Nakota, & Dakota citizens, under the group name “Chante tin’sa kinanzi Po” founded a Spirit Camp along the proposed route of the bakken oil pipeline, Dakota Access. The Spirit Camp is dedicated to stopping and raising awareness the Dakota Access pipeline, the dangers associated with pipeline spills and the necessity to protect the water resources of the Missouri river.

Unfortunately, the Dakota Access Pipeline began commercial service June 1, 2017, transporting crude oil from the Bakken/Three Forks production areas in North Dakota to a storage and terminalling hub outside Pakota, Illinois.

Now:

Judge Boasberg and his Oct. 11 ruling that the Dakota Access Pipeline would continue to pump oil pending an environmental review by the Army Corps of Engineers. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe sued the Corps in July, 2016 contending that the pipeline destroyed sacred Indigenous sites and threatens the water quality of the Standing Rock Reservation that sits only a half-mile or less from where the pipeline crosses the Missouri River in North Dakota. The Tribe has consistently filed motions to stop the flow of oil while litigation is ongoing.

In the latest round of courtroom battles DAPL claimed that a pipeline shutdown would cause a major economic downturn. However, the court  found no basis for that assertion in its most recent ruling. The court instead  anchored its decision on the possibility that the Corps would be able to base its previous decision on pipeline approval, that the court found inadequate and  on other factors and refused to shut down the pipeline while the Army Corps goes forward with its review.  Boasberg is already  setting the stage for another DAPL win. A mere “possibility” that the Corps will prevail is enough to keep the pipeline open.

The judge’s decision followed the announcement by the Corps on Friday, Oct. 6 that it will probably take until next spring to complete an additional court-ordered environmental study of the pipeline. It was originally anticipated that the study would be completed by December, 2017. The Justice Department indicated it would take longer than expected to obtain spill modeling information from Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), the Texas-based developer that owns DAPL. Obviously, ETP is in no hurry to provide that information. The longer the process, the more this works in favor of the oil company. The Corps now anticipates that the review and analysis will not be completed until April 2, 2018. What a windfall for ETP, as it will rake in millions of dollars in the meantime from the deadly pipeline.

Boasberg, at a status hearing on June 21, ordered the attorneys, under a byzantine, convoluted  schedule, to submit new arguments over a two-month timeline to address the issue of whether the pipeline should remain operational pending the completion of the new environmental review.

Earthjustice, the environmental law firm representing the Tribe, intends to focus on  the remand process and show that the risks of an oil spill and the impacts on the Tribe are enough to require a full environmental impact statement (EIS), which would reopen the issue of an appropriate location for crossing the Missouri River.

In the meantime, the Standing Rock Sioux and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes have presented proposals to protect their water  supply pending the glacial movement of the court in reaching its next decision in the case. The tribes are requesting increased public reporting of pipeline issues such as repairs and establishment of an emergency spill response plan at the Lake Oahe pipeline crossing of the Missouri River. 

Today’s Highlight: Votan Henriquez

Native American street artist Votan Henriquez believes art is needed to educate our kids on indigenous peoples, their heritage and legacy of which has otherwise been omitted from history books used in schools. The Los Angeles native, who is of Mayan and Nahua roots, blends his knowledge of his ancestry, his experience of graphic design and art, and awareness of the issues facing native people to create artworks which include blending contemporary art techniques with old Mayan symbology to make a statement.

Votan Henriquez’s work is evocative, inspiring people to see and seek always the truth in situations, and take action. 

“As indigenous people we’ve contributed so many things to the world, and our kids don’t even know [about it]. We really have lost a lot of that through our history books. We need to educate our kids through art.”

Today’s Highlight: Nicolle Gonzales

Nicolle L. Gonzales, BSN.,RN.,MSN.,CNM, Diné is a nurse midwife and founder of the Changing Woman Initiative native health center, working with tribes to support birth centers that meet the growing needs of indigenous communities.

She quotes that, “[the] path to midwifery was seeing my community struggle and feeling the necessity to step up and do something about it. Nine years later, I have a better understanding of the underlying inequality and human rights issues that have placed American Indian women and communities in a position of vulnerability.”

Since the 1950’s, Indian Health Services has been the primary healthcare delivery system for American Indian people in the United States. It is well documented that IHS facilities are chronically underfunded, which continues to create further disparities in the services available to serve over 500+ federally recognized tribes in the United States.

Gonzales efforts in midwifery continue normalize indigenous health and wellness practices that the non-Indigenous perceptions about healing place negative value on through the implementation of Western medical practices. 

Her work through the creation of Changing Woman Initiative has been a catalyst for transformation. Over the last 3 years she have been actively working to create a Native American Birth center and wellness clinic, which will be a place of healing and transformation for women and families. The use of plant medicines harvested from traditional territories is a dying practice, as well as the language used to support indigenous women during all life cycles. She believes by reintroducing these two important elements during pregnancy and all the stages of life, it is possible to reinforce a woman’s role in her community and her relationship to the environment. 

“Many Indigenous communities, creation stories, life way teachings, and ceremonies teach us how to care for each other, mother earth, and ourselves. Many conversations with women in my short career has lead me to believe that this model of wellness from an Indigenous perspective is not promoted or supported in our mainstream healthcare systems, which is why building a separate physical space and wellness framework is necessary.”

Today’s Highlight: Merritt Johnson

Merritt Johnson is a multidisciplinary artist who incorporates performance into her practice in addition to painting, sculpture, and video. She is of mixed Kanienkehaka (Mohawk), Blackfoot, Irish and Swedish heritage. In a recent interview, Johnson said performance art is more about being than creating. She notes that once a painting is created, it becomes separate from her and takes on its own life, but performance art is about “presence.” And not just being present. “Performing allows us to reflect on the past and the present and be on the edge of the future,” she explained.

This malleability of performance art expands the ways Johnson can explore and express her ideas and reflect her heritage, such as her dedication to the land. Johnson describes one of her pieces as “holding up a mirror to the need for paying attention to land and water, not as resources but acknowledging them and how broken our interactions with land and water are.”

Today’s Highlight: Storme Webber

Webber, the child of a mixed-race Aleut lesbian who came out when Storme was 16 and a bisexual black/Choctaw Texan father, grew up in the ’60s gay community and came out themselves at the age of 16. Webber is the founder and artistic director of Voices Rising, a series founded in 2007 to nurture and showcase LGBTQ people in arts and culture. She has published three collections of poetry including Blues Divine, appeared in numerous anthologies and has appeared in documentaries including Venus Boyz and Living Two Spirit. She is also an interdisciplinary artist, a performance poet who has appeared in international spoken word tours, and a teacher.

check out webber’s spoken word here.

Today’s Highlight: Sydney Freeland 

As a transgender Navajo woman, Freeland has used film in order to break down stereotypes associated with her identities.

Her first feature-length film, Drunktown, “is a coming-of-age story about the complex issues surrounding identity and the struggles faced by Native American people.” As a Fulbright scholar with an MFA in film, Freeland workshopped the film through a series of Sundance labs before it screened to an audience. It has continued to transform since. With a run of limited-distribution screenings in New York, and the rights inequalities of the trans community gaining further attention, Drunktown's Finest has taken on new life and meaning. And with that, Freeland has begun to share insight on her own trans identity. 

She’s currently working on a web series called Her Story, which documents the lives of queer and transgender women. 

More on her film Drunktown here.