THIS IS A TEST AND IS ONLY A TEST

Transcript

Host: This week on Minnesota Native News we revisit the historic gathering near the Standing Rock’s Sioux reservation and hear what’s next in their work to stop/alter the Dakota Access Pipeline. Melissa Townsend has the story.

Reporter: Before thousands of people pledged to stand with Standing Rock, and before the historic encampments near Cannonball North Dakota, it was the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal leaders who spoke up against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Stephanie Tsotsie is an attorney with the non-profit firm Earth Justice.

TSOTSIE: A little over a year ago now, they tribe reached out and wanted us to look at this case and we took it on.

Reporter: But then in the spring of 2016, about a dozen Lakota men and women set up a small spirit camp between the Standing Rock reservation and the pipeline construction site.When I talked with Kat Eng at a gathering in Minneapolis last May, she had been at the camp a few times already.

ENG: It was established so people could come and pray and work together to build community around resisting this pipeline because prayer is a really important part of building resilience and resistance.

[Sound effect: water protectors at the camp]

Reporter: By mid-summer the federal government had granted the pipeline company more permits to build the pipeline, and in response the Standing Rock tribe filed a law suit against the Army Corps of Engineers. And by late summer, the Lakota encampment in Cannonball swelled.

Barry Frantum is a Dakota teacher based in St. Paul.

FRANTUM: There’s not anyone in the American Indian community that doesn’t know what’s going on here. so this is a big deal. This is a huge deal.

Reporter: Thousands of indigenous people and allies from around the world gathered to support Standing Rock and pray for the water and land. Violence erupted when law enforcement responded to the protest as if it were a riot.

[Sound effect: more camp sounds]

Reporter: The Army Corps stopped the Dakota Access Pipeline construction… Saying the company will not get a final easement to build under lake Oahe until the corps does a full environmental impact assessment.

[Sound effect: sounds of celebration from Prolific the Rapper]

Under the direction of Standing Rock Chairman Dave Archambault, the Oceti Sakowin camp has largely disbanded. Still… A few hundred people remain in the original camp of the sacred stones. Under cover of winterized tents they are a prayerful presence in the company of North Dakota blizzards.Much of the energy that was centered in Cannonball this summer (and fall?) has spread out around the country with actions calling on banks to divest their investments in the Datoka Access Pipeline.

[Sound effect: football game sounds/crowd sounds]

Reporter: During a Vikings football game on Jan 1st Karl Mayo and Sen Holiday climbed to the rafters of the new US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis and unfurled a huge banner reading US Bank, Divest, #nodapl.
According to an analysis from Food and Water Watch, US Bank has 275-million dollars invested in the pipeline. Mayo and Holiday were arrested for their action. In a press conference days later, Mayo said it was worth it:

MAYO: It’s worth it to us because of the threat that’s involved here. The threat to ground water and the threat to indigenous people. (:08)

Reporter: The next part of this struggle will play out largely in court rooms and legislative offices. The Standing Rock tribe’s case against the Army Corps of Engineers continues. The tribe claims there was not proper consultation and the environmental assessment did not adequately consider the risks of an oil spill. The case became more complicated in December when the Dakota Access Pipeline Company sued the Army Core of Engineers. The company is saying it already has the easement needed to build the pipeline under Lake Oahe. Attorney Tsotsie says if the judge rules that they do not have the easement they need — it will be harder for a Trump administration to reverse the Obama Administration’s (Is this correct way to frame it?) actions.

TSOTSIE: That’s not something they can really easily do. It’s actually against some pretty well settled law that you can’t just make an about face and reverse an agency decision. (:11)

Reporter: And that is one thing everyone involved is watching for.

Host For Minnesota Native News, I’m Melissa Townsend.