A group of veterans has vowed to defend the rights of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, saying DAPL will never be completed, 'not on our watch.'
By: Claire Bernish / The Free Thought Project A group of U.S. military veterans, standing in defense of Indigenous rights, has vowed construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline will never be completed — and will put boots on the ground to ensure it.
“We are committed to the people of Standing Rock, we are committed to nonviolence, and we will do everything within our power to ensure that the environment and human life are respected,” Anthony Diggs, spokesman for Veterans Stand, told CNBC. “That pipeline will not get completed. Not on our watch.”
Veterans, said Diggs, seek to raise enough funds “to have a larger, solid boots-on-the-ground presence.”
As staunch a stance as that might sound, the veterans remain committed to nonviolent action in defense of the Standing Rock Sioux against Energy Transfer Partners, the company responsible for pipeline construction.
On Wednesday evening, heavily militarized and armed police and National Guard forces advanced en masse across Highway 1806’s Backwater Bridge for the first time in months to clear out a newer camp. At least 76 people were arrested, ostensibly for trespassing on private property — though the Morton County Sheriff’s Department told the Guardian on Wednesday specifics of the charges had yet to be determined.
“A lot of water protectors really felt that we needed to make some sort of stand as far as treaty rights,” Linda Black Elk of the Catawba Nation told the Guardian. “We basically started to see police mobilizing from all directions. Someone came along and told us we had about 15 minutes before the camp would get raided.”
Law enforcement moved to clear the camp just one day after Secretary of the Army Robert Speer told the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to grant ETP the easement required to complete drilling under the Missouri River’s Lake Oahe reservoir — the source of Standing Rock’s drinking water and the subject of furious contention over Dakota Access.
Speer’s command also follows the recent signing of executive orders by President Donald Trump for completion of both the Dakota Access and Keystone XL Pipelines — despite the latter being shot down by former President Obama.
Further indicative of a coming law enforcement crackdown on camps of water protectors, on Thursday, officials from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, tribal police, the ATF, the Standing Rock division of Fish and Wildlife, and USACE showed up unannounced and without a warrant on the property of LaDonna Tamakawastewin Allard to “assess” the Camp of the Sacred Stones.
http://www.trueactivist.com/not-on-our-watch-veterans-promise-boots-on-the-ground-to-stop-dapl/
