Dakota Access Pipeline Company Deliberately Destroying Sacred Sioux Burial Sites
the standoff at Standing Rock, which we have just returned from. On September 3rd, the Dakota Access pipeline company attacked Native Americans with dogs and pepper spray as they resisted the construction of the $3.8 billion pipeline on a sacred tribal burial site. On Saturday, Native Americans were shocked when they went to plant their tribal flags at the construction site and found the bulldozers working over the weekend. On Friday, lawyers for the tribe had filed documents showing how this land was a tribal burial site. Now many fear that many of the graves and artifacts are destroyed. Well, today, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., will decide whether to grant a temporary restraining order prohibiting further construction of the Dakota Access pipeline in the area near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, until this same judge rules on an injunction in the tribe’s lawsuit against the U.S. government, which is expected by Friday.
Dave Archambault talking:
Thank you, Amy, for being out there and capturing all the footage. There’s always two sides to the story. And law officials try to portray that they were attacked by an angry mob and it was a riot scene. But it—that was not what was taking place. We had protectors who were concerned about the land. And it just goes to show what kind of a company Energy [Transfer] Partners is. They have—they have zero policies on community relations, zero policy on human rights, zero policies on Indian rights, indigenous rights. So, when a company is like that, they have no social responsibility, and they don’t care about anything. And they hire security companies with untrained handlers. And these handlers—the dogs were attacking the handlers. That’s why they released dogs into the crowd. And then they go and try to recover them. It just doesn’t make sense, and it’s not right, what this company, Energy [Transfer] Partners, is doing. They say they have every right to be there, but so do we.
the company provoked this whole thing. And law enforcement, from what I understand, they observed everything. And it wasn’t until the company came forward and assaulted one of the protectors, when the protectors crossed over the boundary. But there’s a question there. Like, we always said we have a right to our treaty lands, and we have a say. The company, the U.S. government, the state government never got permission from us to be on that land, to do this to our lands.
protester is somebody that is standing there waiting for confrontation. A protector is going to do what it takes on the ground to make sure that nothing negative happens to our indigenous rights and our indigenous lands.
One other thing, Amy, is, you know, when the law enforcement came, it was dispersed peacefully, and the law enforcement only took statements from the security company. We had individuals, we had witnesses. And you exposed a lot of this with your coverage. But we had witnesses, and we had people who had injuries as a result of the confrontation. And we had a lot of people pepper-sprayed. But the law enforcement said they wanted to do a thorough investigation. And before they did that, they started releasing statements. And it’s just one-sided reports by the law enforcement. They should have got both sides.
First thing I did was I asked the law enforcement, where did this company get these dogs? Was this something that law enforcement supplied? When I asked the question, they said, no, they had nothing to do with it. The company hired somewhere—someone to get these dogs, and there was a lack of training on how to handle the dogs. They were using the dogs as a deadly weapon. And that’s something that needs to be looked into, is who was handling these dogs, and whose dogs were they, and why were they—why were they being used? This was all premeditated. They knew something was going to happen when they leapfrogged over 15 miles of undisturbed land to destroy our sacred sites. They knew that something was going to happen, so they were prepared. They hired a company that had guard dogs, and then they came in, and then they waited. And it was—by the time we saw what was going on, it was too late. Everything was destroyed. The fact is that they desecrated our ancestral gravesites. They just destroyed prayer sites. And it’s disturbing. And that’s why we’re filing for the temporary restraining order. They need to stop working. This company needs to go away. Energy [Transfer] Partners is a bad company.
Jan Hasselman talking:
I think it’s important to emphasize that the tribe has been using the lawful process to vindicate its important legal rights in this matter. It participated in the administrative process around the permits, and when its concerns weren’t listened to, it brought a lawsuit.
So, on Friday afternoon, we filed some very important evidence in the lawsuit about the discovery of some sacred and major culturally significant sites that were directly in the pipeline’s route. And it was miles away from where any construction was happening. And we filed this evidence with the court Friday afternoon in order to support our claim that there should be a timeout on construction until some of these legal issues can get resolved. We were stunned and shocked to hear that they took that information and, Saturday morning, over a holiday weekend, went out and bulldozed the entire site. We have a sworn declaration from one of the tribe’s cultural experts that describes some of these sites, multiple gravesites and burials, very important archaeological features of the kind that are not found commonly. And we put all that in front of the court. And the next morning, it was gone. The shock and anguish felt by tribal members at this, and this abuse of the legal process, is really hard to describe.
– Dakota Access pipeline company and Energy Transfer would use as a roadmap to destroy
That looks like what has happened here. In the lawsuit, Energy Transfer said to the court that we hadn’t proven that there were sacred sites or important sites in the pipeline route, and they claimed to have looked with their private consultants. So, we went and provided exactly the evidence that they said that we needed to provide. And 12 hours later, the bulldozers were out.
I think it’s important to remember that this all used to be theirs. It all used to be the tribe’s land. And I think everybody understands it was taken from them, and it was taken from them in a way that’s not acceptable. But it’s owned by somebody else now, and that landowner invited one of the tribe’s cultural experts out to come take a look. And he was sympathetic to the tribe’s concerns, and he wanted to understand why people were so worried about this pipeline. So, a few days prior to Friday, Tim Mentz, the tribe’s expert in these matters, went out and conducted a formal archaeological survey, in keeping with, you know, state and federal protocols. He went out, and he built maps of these very unique and important archaeological sites and the locations of these burials, that were right in the pipeline’s way. And that’s the information we put together and put in front of the court on Friday.
what’s particularly shocking about this event is that we’re days away from getting some kind of resolution on these legal issues. We were in front of this same judge two weeks ago, or less than two weeks ago. We expect a decision on our request to stop the pipeline, while the issues are worked out. He said he would have that decision this week. They went out over a holiday weekend, just days before that event—before that decision, and tore up this ground. So, we’re going back to court. We’re asking the court to impose a timeout on additional construction here in the area of the Lake Oahe crossing at the Missouri River, at least until the court has a chance to issue a decision on the injunction motion sometime this week.
Dave Archambault talking:
So, this all started with the prayer. Our kids were the first ones to say, “We don’t want oil going underneath our water.” So, they had a prayer walk. And soon after that—it was called “spirit camp” in the beginning. And there was a staff that was put up, and people would go out and pray to stop this. So, what’s happening is it was—it’s always been a peaceful, prayerful standoff.
And I think what happens is the company or the government, or whoever it is that’s surveilling, doesn’t understand how peaceful, prayerful standoffs work. They look for confrontation. So, that’s what they know how to deal with. But when it’s prayerful and peaceful and when it’s something that the youth want, they have to try to figure out how to deal with us. And they send out aircrafts to check on the status. They’re probably trying to find out how big the camp is growing. And from April 1st, it was relatively small. It was a small camp. And it didn’t start growing until the company gave a 48-hour work notice to our Tribal Historic Preservation Office. Once that notice came, then the camp started growing.
Kenny Frost talking:
When the protectors came here defending the water, the governor of North Dakota pulled all emergency services out of here, because they were helping the people. And when they pulled those services and then realizing what was happening, they cut all cell reception here, as well. So all the cell signals that was once here is no longer here, but is only limited on high ground.
[this] To cut off communication, because communication was coming out of here rapidly and as quickly with information to the general public, the whole wide world, basically, because of the internet, which is World Wide Web. And people were receiving information of exactly what was going on, on real time, and because the call went out for Native people and all people to come here to help preserve, protect and defend the water.
Dave Archambault talking:
let me let you know that I live here in Cannon Ball. This is where my home is. I used to run horses on the land that LaDonna Allard set up the camp. And I’ll tell you that this cell coverage has always been a problem. This isn’t something that just happened overnight. I ride horse through the valleys and everything, and there’s just poor cell coverage. And that’s how it’s always been.
It’s the same as it was a year ago. I have a cellphone, and I would ride horse—and that’s why the tribe, our tribe, tried to start its own cell company, cellphone company. We have Standing Rock Telecom. And it’s just to increase cell coverage for our members so they have better service. But it’s always been th same. The cell coverage has always been poor, especially in that valley.
– this gathering of more than a hundred nations—I saw you Friday night in the main camp as you were welcoming yet another tribal group coming from Montana
It’s powerful. It’s one of the most beautiful things that I’m fortunate to witness. I think when tribes come together in unity and with prayer, there’s a lot of healing that is taking place. And the tribes that are all coming, every one of them will share a story on how the government or how the corporate world has infringed on their indigenous rights, has infringed on their indigenous land, has contaminated their environment or their water in one way or another. And this unity coming together just says it’s time to stop.
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Jan Hasselman
staff attorney with Earthjustice. He is representing the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in its lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers over the Dakota Access pipeline.
Dave Archambault
chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
— source democracynow.org