How 21 Water Protectors Got Arrested at the End of September 2016.

Most Treasured Readers,

Have I told you lately how much I love you?  Well, I am telling you now, I love you.

Toward the end of September 2016, just days before I visited the Oceti Sakowin camp at the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation in North Dakota (see previous blog post), 21 Water Protectors were arrested and spent the night in jail.  This is a story about how this could happen in a democratic country, the United States of America, to its own citizens in the year 2016.

I met a lot of incredible people in general and women in particular at the camp, all very strong and smart.  One of the most delightful and inspiring was Bea from New Jersey.  She had driven herself, along with her precious little canine companion, all the way out there from the east coast.  And not only that, she did it while hauling a camper full of supplies.  I really do not believe that I would have made it home safely through high winds and a hail storm complete with icy roads had I not met and been so inspired by Bea from New Jersey!

Bea didn’t manage to get to the Oceti Sakowin camp alive with that camper and her beloved rescue dog for nothing!  She proceeded to go out with 20 others to check a couple of sites where digging to bury the more than a thousand-mile-long crude oil pipeline was supposed to stop.  Shouldn’t somebody go check?  I think so.

Lawyers (including and even led by Native American women!) had won a temporary administrative injunction from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit restricting construction on the crude oil pipeline for 20 miles on both sides of Lake Oahe.  Further, the Department of Justice, Department of the Army, and Department of the Interior had issued a joint statement requesting that the pipeline company voluntarily pause all construction activity within 20 miles east or west of the large reservoir Lake Oahe.

Kelcy Warren, the CEO of Energy Transfer, the Texas-based company building the pipeline, has written that concerns about the pipeline’s impact on the local water supply are unfounded.  Yet even the federal government has admitted that this case highlights the need to consider nationwide reform with respect to considering tribes’ views on these types of infrastructure projects.  I would like to be considered, too.  Does my Ph.D. degree in biology qualify for anything?  What qualifies Kelcy Warren to state an opinion publicly that gets so much visibility?  The answer is money.  See, there are two sides to this story:  the right side and the wrong side!

For what it is worth, I agree that an adequate environmental and cultural exploration has not been completed since it would show that construction of the pipeline must stop forever and that all the trash must be removed and damage cleaned up as best as possible.  So by all means, construction of an unnecessary pipeline could wait while we honestly assess its danger to us all and implement a plan for remediation of the damage that has already been done.

So the energy company was supposed to stop digging at two sites and the Water Protectors went to check.  Twenty-one people got into cars and went over to the first site in a caravan.  A beautiful and moving ceremony was held at the site that was full of prayer and song and dance and horses and peace.  After a while, the Water Protectors returned to the caravan and headed to the second site.

The second site involved a private access road between the dig site and the public road they were driving on.  They arrived at an area that was cut for hay about a quarter mile out from the digging site.  To avoid the private road, they made sure to walk on the grass only.  Upon arrival at the site, the prayer and drumming commenced and the horses rode around.

When the ceremony was complete, the Water Protectors walked back to the cars in a little parking area.  They gave water to their dogs.  Then the cars reformed the caravan to head back to camp and they sat and sat and sat there waiting.  Police were converging from all different jurisdictions.  There were sheriffs and city police from Mandan and Bismarck and even a guy with a vest imprinted with “Border Patrol.”  What border is he defending in North Dakota?  Some other guy named Rick would not give his last name and any badges were covered.

Finally, a woman came down the line saying, “if you want us to leave, then why are you blocking the exit?”

They were informed that they were being arrested for criminal trespass (Class B misdemeanor) on a private road.  The “road” is actually a “track.”  Half of the “track” belongs to the landowner on that side, and the other half belongs to the landowner on the other side.  Apparently one of the track owners called and complained.  Wow, did not people call and complain when they dug up sacred burial grounds?  But who got arrested and spent the night in jail then?

Bea along with 20 more Water Protectors got arrested.  Bea and her friend each had a dog in the car.  Rick said animal control would be called!  That is a horror for anyone who loves their dog like a child, which is pretty much every dog owner.  But thanks Rick for staying with the dogs until animal control came and for assuring Bea that you would do so as she got hauled away.  That means a lot when people do whatever they can, which is a lot.

Twenty-one water protectors spent that night in jail for all of us.  Thank you and bless you, each and every brave soul.  Next morning, Standing Rock paid the $250 bond per person.  Bea will have to come back for her trial on December 20^th.  Or maybe she will just stay and strengthen the stand against oppression.

The project developers say the $3.8 billion project will “bring significant economic benefits to the region that it transverses.”  The project developer, Dakota Access, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Crude Oil, estimates the pipeline would bring an estimated $156 million in sales and income taxes to state and local governments as well as add 8,000 to 12,000 construction jobs.  Temporary construction jobs until the pipeline is built which is scheduled to be completed by end of the year?  Is there any accounting of the actual jobs and tax dollars?  Are there any guarantees?

And as for the millions of dollars in tax revenue for the states that the pipeline will traipse through (from production areas in North Dakota through South Dakota, Iowa and into Illinois):  $156 million is only about 4% of the $3.8-billion-dollar pipeline project!  Kelcy Warren is personally worth $3.8 billion dollars.  He has spent more than $70 million on just two of his at least three properties.

The money never justifies the deed or the dead.

Eminent domain is a tenet of our current legal system whereby the government (which theoretically is the people of the USA) can take private property for public use.  I hereby invoke eminent domain to take and protect all water for public use.

Below is a summary of the doctrine upheld that had been used to justify the wars that led to the treaties with the Native Americans:

“We maintain, that the principle declared in the fifteenth century as the law of Christendom, that discovery gave title to assume sovereignty over, and to govern the unconverted natives of Africa, Asia, and North and South America, has been recognized as a part of the national law [Law of Nations], for nearly four centuries, and that it is now so recognized by every Christian power, in its political department and its judicial.” Judge John Catron for the Supreme Court of Tennessee in the case State v. Foreman (16 Tenn. (8 Yerg.) 256, 277 (1835), USA).

Lands were taken under the guise of Christian Dominion.  The current “owners” are no longer following Christian practices, so the current ownership is null and void.

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5).  For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth (Psalms 37:9).  The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever (Psalms 37:29).  Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:10).  But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked (Isaiah 11:4).  Wait on the Lord and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land:  when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it (Psalms 37:34).

You can’t drink oil, so keep it in the soil!

Most esteemed readers in at least 8 different countries,

Peaceful and together we will overcome oppression.

The Dakota Access Pipeline project is oppression that threatens us all.  It is part of the conspiracy to keep us in the dark, yet the light can always extinguish the darkness including every last shadow hiding in the far reaches and nooks and crannies.

I visited camp on the weekend of October 1 and 2, 2016, just by myself, a single white woman, a writer, a scientist, a dreamer.  I think they could plainly see that white man and his war-mongering world has hurt me, too.

The camp was unarmed.  The camp was peaceful, prayerful, and spiritual.  The camp was industrious, productive, and successful.  The camp was competent.  I found unity and song, drum and dance that replenished my worn and wounded soul.

 

There is no reason to bring military weapons anywhere near the camp as the Water Protectors pose no threat.  (I did arrange to bring knives back the next day upon request from the kitchens where people were cooking meals of real food for hundreds if not thousands of Water Protectors.)  There is no reason to sic dogs on the Water Protectors.  Even children got bit by dogs that were sicced on the Water Protectors very recently.  But you would not know that unless you seek out sources of information that are not mainstream propaganda or brainwashing or advertising or conflicts of interest or even outright lies.

 

 

This story is about water.  Water is the key to life.  If you dedicate your life to the study of biology as I have done, you will keep coming back to the molecular structure and unique properties of water, even long after you have achieved the highest level of education possible.  Water is that important.  In fact, it is essential.

We cannot live without water!  But we can certainly live without oil!  We have already burned up millions of years’ worth of fossil fuels in less than hundreds of years.

Without water, you will die in days to weeks at the most.  Without food, you will live for months, many months for most.  Contaminated water makes us sick and kills us quickly and slowly.  We cannot drink water with any oil in it.

All pipelines break.  It is a matter of when, not if.  Oil has been spilled everywhere on land and in water.  The margin of error for the pipeline is 0.5-1%.  It may sound like a small number, but 1% of the 500,000 barrels/day of crude oil flowing through the pipeline = 5,000 barrels or about 200,000 gallons of crude oil spilled when the pipeline breaks, and that is if all goes as planned!

When the pipeline leaks into the Missouri River and the Ogallala aquifer, then more than 80 million people will die, not to mention all the wildlife!

In addition to water, the pipeline threatens and has already bulldozed through sacred land, including farm fields full of corn and sunflowers and beef as well as burial grounds.

This struggle against oppression is already won by the Water Protectors.  I have merely joined the winning side.  Further, I did not write this story.  I am just sharing words given to me so generously and passionately by fellow Water Protectors.  The winners are super smart and they are right.  But that is not why or how they win.  Indeed, science alone will not cure all the people and this planet.  So I ask, why are you sitting there simply watching while the very last spiritual people who can cure the people and planet are getting culturally extinguished?

It is unity that wins.  And the unity inspired by the necessity of this very last stand is historic to say the least, spiritual to say the obvious, and miraculous to refer to the Word.  If this is not the reality show of the book of Revelation, then what could be?  Then the good news is that the new church is coming!

Now it is just about the losers showing themselves fully, or last judgment, as some call it.  The losers have no unity.  They are out for themselves.  Divided they fall.

The Governor of North Dakota was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  His family amassed a huge number of acres of wheat farms in North Dakota and Minnesota.  He was educated in all the best schools, like Yale College.

By the way, Minneapolis took over the grain milling and eventually we got General Mills.  You should see the corporate headquarters and scratch your head wondering how a company could get so rich selling cereal?  Anyway, back to Jack.

The oil industry is the top contributor to Gov. Jack Dalrymple.  The influence of the oil industry has become so pervasive that attempts to tighten regulatory oversight or even restrict the industry’s most wasteful practices either failed or passed only after being stripped of their core.  As usual, the people receiving the benefits are not the ones suffering the consequences.  The town refused the pipeline and pushed it down onto the Indian reservation.

Did the Governor, coming from a long line of former wheat farmers, sell out?  Doesn’t he care about children or grandchildren?  Doesn’t he believe in reincarnation?  What does he believe in?  He is in charge!

 

Some people may be tempted to point out the current condition of the Native Americans and claim that they have nothing to offer.  Their current situation is not how they live at peace and in harmony with this planet.  Their natural way of life has been taken away from them.  Their current situation has been dictated to them by the dictators who have controlled and still control the minds and ethos of this country.

 

Just look around at the diseases and suffering and starvation and abuse and stress and ask if that is the life you want for yourself or for your children or for anyone.  Are you happy?  Are you really happy?  If so, then great!  Keep on keeping on, but please be sure that your happiness is not at the expense, pain, suffering, illness and exploitation of other souls.

How dependent are you on oil and petrochemical-based life?  Do you know what all those chemicals do to your body?  Great!  You should really start speaking up, because as a scientist I can assure you that science has absolutely NO idea what all those combinations of chemicals are doing to your body.  We are all one gigantic experiment, except the data are not being collected and analyzed and shared ethically and responsibly.  The few who dare are silenced.  The even fewer who may actually succeed are killed.

Something to ponder is that Euro-Western cultural founders had to come up with something different.  Otherwise the people at the time would have stayed with what they had.  It is quite clear that our society’s tenets are not 100% correct!  Even worse, aspiring to erase, eradicate, exploit, disrespect, repudiate, destroy or otherwise abolish other cultures is always a grave error, even when white man makes it!  Look how many of us speak English now, which is great.  Just think about how this came to be.  Further, re-writing history and losing the real knowledge and expertise developed over millennia of human clinical trials that took place in the original clinic set out for us, the natural world, is a tragedy of epic proportions.

 

Yet most of us have been standing, or rather sitting, by while cultures around the world are conquered by wars, brutality, technology, sickness, fear, threats and death.

We have the rare, perhaps the only, perhaps even the last opportunity for a peaceful assimilation of people and cultures in a manner that both respects and maintains those cultures.  The culture of dominance through conflict, civil war, war, fear, threats, intimidation, spread of hunger and disease while purporting to endow peace and love, freedom and prosperity is the one that must end in favor of a society that really propagates peace, joy and love to encompass this planet and people.  Competition must yield, indeed bow down, to cooperation.

Join your brothers and sisters and resist the power that is causing your unhappiness, stress, fear, pain, suffering, emptiness and desires to fight or harm others!  Join the winners for peace, love, freedom, happiness and fulfillment for everyone.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside still waters (Psalm 23:1-2).