finally sharing my piece from the evening star zine! find out more about it's meaning and see other beautiful art in the @ntvzine!
i'm doing so to ask all of you to consider taking a moment to submit a comment to the army corps of engineers asking them to prevent the dakota access pipeline from crossing underneath lake oahe!!! comments end december 13th, and using the pre-fabbed letter that the standing rock tribe provides takes mere seconds of your time!! if you're feeling more charitable with your time, writing a unique comment helps immensely! (date passed!)
if you're seeing this after dec 13th - consider checking out the zine this comes from - all proceeds go to AISES, which is an organization that helps native americans in STEM (which includes conservation work!)
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Hello, I am doing a project for school and would love to know if there are any current petitions or donation sites for the Sioux people and the Standing Rock protest? I can only find ones that were made 4 years ago
Thank you for your question. Dedicated to reversing the slow genocide of the Lakota People and destruction of their culture, the Lakota People's Law Project partners with Native communities to protect sacred lands, safeguard human rights, promote sustainability, reunite indigenous families, and much more. For over a decade, they've been standing strong with the Lakota to counteract treaty violations, protect sovereignty, and confront systemic racism. They're helping to safeguard sacred lands and water, end the epidemic of children being removed from their families and traditions, and amplify Native voices. To learn more visit https://action.lakotalaw.org/
A court upheld Jessica Reznicek’s excessive sentence for vandalism aimed at stopping the Dakota Access pipeline.
A panel of three Trump-appointed judges this week upheld an excessive eight-year prison sentence handed down to climate activist Jessica Reznicek, ruling that a terrorism enhancement attached to her sentence was “harmless.”
The terror enhancement, which dramatically increased Reznicek’s sentence from its original recommended range, set a troubling precedent. Decided by a lower court in 2021, it contends that Reznicek’s acts against private property were “calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government.” The appellate justices’ decision to uphold her sentence, callously dismissing the challenge to her terrorism enhancement, doubles down on a chilling message: Those who take direct action against rapacious energy corporations can be treated as enemies of the state.
Reznicek, an Iowa-based member of the Catholic Worker Movement and a participant in the Indigenous-led climate struggle, engaged in acts of property damage in an attempt to stop the completion of the Dakota Access pipeline in 2016 and 2017. Along with fellow activist Ruby Montoya, Reznicek took credit for various acts of sabotage, which harmed no humans or animals but burnt a bulldozer and damaged valves of the pipeline. The damaged equipment was property not of the U.S. government, but of private pipeline and energy companies.
Following Reznicek’s guilty plea to a single charge of conspiracy to damage an energy facility — which brought a recommended sentencing range of 37 to 46 months — Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger, in allegiance with prosecutors, added the terrorism enhancement. This increased her sentencing range to 210 to 240 months, making the eight-year sentence Reznicek ultimately received fit comfortably below the accepted range, though it’s more than double the previous recommendation. (Montoya, who also pleaded guilty, has filed a motion to withdraw her plea, claiming that it was coerced.)
Both courts’ decisions on Reznicek’s sentence reflect unsurprising but deeply troubling priorities in our criminal legal system. It would be unempirical to the point of foolishness to expect the courts, stacked as they are with right-wing justices, to side with individuals taking risks to stop environmental devastation rather than those corporations making millions on the back of it. Yet Reznicek’s appeal was on a point of law: Terrorism enhancements are only supposed to be applicable to crimes that target governmental conduct; Reznicek’s targets were private corporations.
The collapsing of government and corporate interests signified by Reznicek’s terrorism enhancement is worthy of profound challenge, but the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges did not even address the substance of the activist’s appeal. In a short, unsigned opinion, the court wrote that even if there had been an “error” in applying a terrorism enhancement, it was “harmless,” because Ebinger had stated on the record that she would have imposed an eight-year sentence with or without the terrorism enhancement.
It is a cynical move indeed to sidestep the chilling effect of labeling such acts as “terrorism,” as if it carries no material consequences for the future of water and Indigenous land protection and other social movements. As Reznicek’s support team wrote in a statement Monday, “Federal prosecutors only pursued terrorism enhancements against Reznicek after 84 Congressional representatives wrote a letter in 2017 to Attorney General Jeff Sessions requesting that Reznicek and other protesters who tamper with pipelines be prosecuted as domestic terrorists.” These members of Congress, note Reznicek’s supporters, have together received a combined $36 million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry.
Determinations over which actions are labeled “terrorism” are always political, and in this case nakedly so given the clear pressure applied on prosecutors by politicians and their industry backers. Ebinger’s claim — that she would have imposed the excessive eight-year sentence with or without the terror enhancement triggered — cannot be considered the final word here. Reporting on Reznicek’s case, ABC News — an outlet hardly aligned with the environmental left — noted that neither white supremacist murderer Dylann Roof or avowed neo-Nazi James Fields, who plowed his car into anti-fascist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, received a terrorism enhancement when sentenced.
Reznicek’s legal team will continue to challenge her sentence in court, especially since the question of the misapplication of a terrorism enhancement remains open, despite the judges’ decision this week. A full court hearing by the 8th Circuit, an appeal to the far-right Supreme Court, or a request for clemency from President Joe Biden are all technical options, but hardly are any of these sites of optimism.
As her legal battles continue, Reznicek, whose acts of sabotage place her firmly on the right side of history, if not the law, deserves full-throated public support. As she noted in her 2017 statement claiming responsibility for the actions against the Dakota Access pipeline: “We acted from our hearts and never threatened human life nor personal property. What we did do was fight a private corporation that has run rampant across our country seizing land and polluting our nation’s water supply.”
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March 11, 2024 — Appalachians Against Pipelines activists prevented drilling of Poor Mountain in Virginia for 8 hours as part of an effort to stop the Mountain Valley pipeline (MVP) project.
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Mountain Valley Pipeline is a fracked gas pipeline that "stretches from the shale fields of so-called 'West Virginia' into central 'Virginia' with a possible extension into 'North Carolina.' The hazardous project will disrupt delicate ecosystems, harm communities, and increase international dependence on fossil fuels, pushing the planet further into climate chaos."
Activists face arrests and jail time trying prevent completion of MVP and the inevitable environmental disasters caused by pipelines like Keystone, which has had 23 spills since it began operating in 2010.
A U.S. District Court on Monday ordered Energy Transfer LP to shut and empty the largest pipeline from the North Dakota shale oil fields within 30 days, in a big win for the Native American tribes who have fought the line's route across a crucial water supply.
JULY 6, 2020
“Today is a historic day for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the many people who have supported us in the fight against the pipeline,” said Chairman Mike Faith of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. “This pipeline should have never been built here. We told them that from the beginning.”
