Police from 5 States Escalate Violence, Shoot Horses to Clear 1851 Treaty Camp

Media release from Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN):

Police from 5 States Escalate Violence, Shoot Horses to Clear 1851 Treaty Camp

DAPL, Keep It In the Ground

For Immediate Release
October 28th, 2016

Press Contacts:
Dallas Goldtooth, 708-515-6158, Dallas@ienearth.org
Kandi Mossett, 701-214-1389, ienenergy@ienearth.org

Cannonball, ND - Over 300 police officers in riot gear, 8 ATVs, 5 armored vehicles, 2 helicopters, and numerous military-grade Humvees showed up north of the newly formed frontline camp just east of Highway 1806.  The 1851 Treaty Camp was set up this past Sunday directly in the path of the pipeline, on land recently purchased by DAPL.  Today this camp, a reclamation of unceded Dakota territory affirmed as part of the Standing Rock Reservation in the Ft. Laramie Treaty of 1851, was violently cleared.  Both blockades established this past weekend to enable that occupation were also cleared.  

In addition to pepper spray and percussion grenades, shotguns were fired into the crowd with less lethal ammunition and a sound cannon was used (see images below).  At least one person was tased and the barbed hook lodged in his face, just outside his eye. Another was hit in the face by a rubber bullet.

A prayer circle of elders, including several women, was interrupted and all were arrested for standing peacefully on the public road.  A tipi was erected in the road and was recklessly dismantled, despite promises from law enforcement that they would merely mark the tipi with a yellow ribbon and ask its owners to retrieve it.  A group of water protectors was also dragged out of a ceremony in a sweat lodge erected in the path of the pipeline, wearing minimal clothing, thrown to the ground, and arrested.

A member of the International Indigenous Youth Council (IIYC) that had her wrist broken during a mass-arrest on October 22nd was hurt again after an officer gripped her visibly injured wrist and twisted it during an attempted arrest. At least six other members of the youth council verified that they had been maced up to five times and were also shot and hit with bean bags. In addition to being assaulted, an altar item and sacred staff was wrenched from the hands of an IIYC member by police. Several other sacred items were reported stolen, including a canupa (sacred tobacco pipe).

Two medics giving aid at front line were hit with batons and thrown off the car they were sitting on. Then police grabbed another medic, who was driving the car, out of the driver side while it was still in motion. Another water protector had to jump into the car to stop it from hitting other people.

Members of the horse nation herded around 100 buffalo from the west and southwest of the Cannonball Ranch onto the the DAPL easement. One rider was reportedly hit with up to four rubber bullets his horse was reported to be hit in the legs by live rounds. Another horse was shot and did not survive.

 
A confirmed DAPL private security guard was spotted among the protectors with an automatic rifle heading towards camp. Water protectors acted swiftly to stop the man who was attempting to flee the scene in his pickup. One protector stopped the assailant’s vehicle with their own before the security guard fled to nearby waters, weapon in hand. Bureau of Indian Affairs police arrived on scene and apprehended him.

Three water protectors locked themselves to a truck in the middle of the road and surrounded it with large logs.   After several hours of standoff, the police advanced in a sweep line and moved people approximately 1 mile back down the highway towards the main encampment on the Cannonball River.  Water protectors then retreated to the bridge over Highway 1806  and erected a large burning blockade that the police were unable to cross.   

Law enforcement from at least five states (North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming, Nebraska) were present today through EMAC, the Emergency Management Assistance Compact.  This law was passed by the Bill Clinton administration and allows states to share law enforcement forces during emergencies.  It is intended for natural disasters and has only been used twice for protests; once in the summer of 2015 during the demonstrations in Baltimore and here on the Standing Rock Reservation. Over 100 were arrested today in total.

Kandi Mossett, Indigenous Environmental Network stated, “I went to the frontline in prayer for protection of the Missouri River & found myself in what I can only describe as a war zone. I was sprayed in the face with pepper spray, the guy next to me was shot by something that didn't break the skin but appeared to have broken the ribs & another guy beside me was randomly snatched violently by police shoving me into the officers who held me off with batons then tried to grab me.  I'm still in shock & keep waiting to wake from what's surely a nightmare though this is my reality as a native woman in 2016 trying to defend the sacred.”

Ladonna Bravebull Allard of Sacred Stone Camp says, "My people stand for the water, and they attack us. My people stand up for the graves of our people, and they attack us. My people stand up for our sacred places, and they attack us. My people pray, and they stop us, dragging us from our prayer, and throw us in the dirt. I know this is America- this is the history of my people. America has always walked though the blood of my people.

How can we stand in the face of violence? Because I was born to this land, because the roots grow out of my feet, because I love this land and I honor the water. Have we not learned from history? I pray for each of the people who stand up. We can not live like this anymore. It has to stop- my grandchildren have a right to live. The world has a right to live. The water, the life blood of the world? has a right to live. Mni Wiconi, Water of Life. Pray for the water, pray for the people. Stop Dakota Access- killer of the world."

Eryn Wise of the International Indigenous Youth Council stated, “Today more than half of our youth council were attacked, injured or arrested. In addition to our brothers and sisters being hurt and incarcerated, we saw police steal our sacred staff. I have no words for what happened to any of us today. They are trying to again rewrite our narrative and we simply will not allow it. Our youth are watching and remember the faces of the officers that assaulted them. They pray for them.”

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Shotgun into the crowd: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BysUexxOGui6a3BXQ3NWdDJ5TTQ/view?usp=sharing

Peppersray: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BysUexxOGui6VFZJemhaMU9Iek0/view?usp=sharing

Prayer Circle: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BysUexxOGui6NUJodDVKZDAxLTA/view?usp=sharing

 

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"A Shameful Moment for this Country"

See Democracy Now!'s full coverage.

Developing: 100+ Militarized Police Raiding #NoDAPL Resistance Camp Blocking Pipeline’s Path

As reported by Democracy Now!

Including from Democracy Now!, as well as the radio program "Native America Calling," (which just devoted most of its news of the month review to the NoDAPL# protests), MSNBC, and NPR news, reports have come in of rubber bullets being used by police against a Native American water protectors' drone, as well as shot at horses belonging to Native American water protectors, and even a Native American water protector horseback rider.

The FAA has declared a no fly zone in the area -- grounding the Native American water protectors' sole drone (owned and operated by Dr0ne2BWild Photography & Video, a Standing Rock Sioux Tribe member's business). However, large numbers of law enforcement aircraft -- a ubiquitous yellow helicopter (being dangerously used to harass and intimidate Native American water protectors on horseback by swooping down at low altitude), fixed wing planes, and multiple drones.

Reports have also come in of police use of bean bag rounds, Tasers, smoke/concussion/stun grenades, MACE, tear gas, and pepper spray, against the Native American water protectors themselves. Native American water protectors have reported police armed with assault rifles, being aimed directly at people. One Native American water protector described the MACE cans being fired at Native American water protectors as being as large as fire extinguishers.

On Democracy Now!, Tara Houska of Honor the Earth described police officers smiling and laughing as Native American water protectors were being injured by violent police tactics. Houska described a ricocheting bean bag round nearly hitting her in the head.

The police tactics are being described as "severe aggression," "severe force," "violent attack," "all out war," and "police were actively trying to hurt people."

Dozens of Native American water protectors reportedly have suffered severe bruises, and even broken bones. An image is circulating of a young Native American water protector with a severely bruised face, allegedly shot with a bean bag round.

A caller-in to "Native America Calling" has described her relative having her wrist broken by a police baton; the officer then forcefully dragged the young Native American woman water protector, further injuring her arms (in an earlier action, last weekend).

The police forces, numbering more than 100 officers (NPR has reported 200), from multiple states, are militarized. They are dressed in full riot gear, and wielding batons. They have deployed "multiple mine-resistant ambush protected military vehicles (MRAPs), a sound cannon, an armored truck and a bulldozer." Scores of police vehicles, as well as National Guard Humvees, have been described by Native American water protectors.

The sound cannon is called a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD, pronounced L-RAD). Its piercing shriek makes people sick. It is a sound weapons designed to disperse crowds.

It has also been reported:

"There have also been reports from water protectors that the police presence includes multiple snipers. Police appear to be evicting the camp in order to clear the way for the Dakota Access pipeline company to continue construction — which was active at times on Thursday just behind the police line."

(One call-in to "Native America Calling," an eye witness to the police violence, also mentioned there are rumors that live rounds -- not rubber bullets -- were fired at a Native American horseback water defender.)

The construction of the Dakota Access Pipe Line (DAPL) taking place immediately behind the militarized police lines is one sacred Standing Rock Sioux Tribe lands, as recognized by the treaty signed by the U.S. government in 1851. The construction is on the very site where attack dogs were sicced on Native American water protectors on Labor Day weekend, biting several people, including a pregnant woman and child. The water protectors were trying to stop the desecration of numerous sacred sites, including burial sites, as well as sites of deep religious and cultural significance. Energy Transfer Partners used the revelation of the location of the sites the previous day, in U.S. federal court in Washington, D.C., by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, as a roadmap to destroy those very sacred sites. Energy Transfer Partners rushed construction equipment, including industrial bulldozens, some 20 miles from the west, to make moot the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's legal arguments that sacred sites would be destroyed, by actually destroying those sites, in a great big hurry. This very location is where the militarized police are forcibly removing -- through 140 arrests, and counting -- a resistance encampment of Native American water protectors.

As reported by MSNBC just now: 140 Native American water protectors have been arrested since yesterday, with resistance and arrests continuing into the early morning hours last night. Images broadcast by MSNBC showed police hitting protestors with batons, as well as tackling and physically handcuffing them MSNBC also played video and audio showing the sound cannon truck being used -- emitting a high-pitched shriek, painful to the human ear -- to disperse the Native American water protectors.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe chairman, Dave Archambault II, has called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the excessive use of police force against peaceful, prayerful Native American water protectors. In a Democracy Now! interview, he even indicated he may call upon the United Nations for help.

A caller-in to "Native America Calling" described Native American water protectors in a sacred sweat lodge ceremony being ripped out by police and arrested. Similarly, elders engaging in a prayer ceremony were MACEd.

Chairman Archambault told Democracy Now! that he knew something bad was coming, when he saw State of North Dakota authorities setting up a pre-hospital tent in the area. He said that while the state government was willing to engage in negotiations with the Native American water protectors, and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the company -- Energy Transfer Partners -- was not. The ongoing construction of the Dakota Access Pipe Line, defended by a not so small army of law enforcement officers, has resulted in the police violence.

Jesse Jackson: Dakota Access Pipeline siting ‘racist’

As reported by the Williston Herald:

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Wednesday that the Dakota Access Pipeline was “ripest case of environmental racism” he’s seen in a long time. 

He was to be on site Wednesday at the Cannon Ball campsite, a location the tribe has set aside for peaceful protesters.

“Bismarck residents don’t want their water threatened, so why is it OK for North Dakota to react with guns and tanks when Native Americans ask for the same right?” Jackson asked in a release sent by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Wednesday morning. “The tribes of this country have sacrificed a lot so that this great country could be built. With promises broken, land stolen, sacred lands desecrated, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is standing up for their right to clean water. They have lost land for settlers to farm, more land for gold in the Black Hills, and then again even more land for the dam that was built for flood control and hydropower. When will the taking stop? When will we start treating the first peoples of this land with the respect and honor they deserve?”

More.

Dakota Access Pipeline: Police remove protesters; scores arrested

As reported by CNN:

Police in riot gear faced off with protesters on horseback as the monthslong protests over the Dakota Access Pipeline came to a head Thursday.

At least 117 protesters were arrested after law enforcement Humvees and helicopters began to flood the area to break up a protester encampment near the pipeline's path.

Calling themselves "water protectors," supporters of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe set up tents and teepees on the land, about an hour south of Bismarck, which they said belongs to the tribe under a 19-century treaty.

But authorities said they are trespassing on pipeline property. Officials brought in reinforcements from seven states to remove protesters and dismantle roadblocks made of hay bales and wood.

As the standoff continued, police deployed bean bag rounds and pepper spray gas and unleashed a high-pitched siren to disperse the crowd. (emphasis added)

More.