On June 9. 2021 TransCanada (TC) Energy cancelled all their remaining plans for the Keystone XL pipeline. This came as good news to the native peoples and many environmentalists who were disappointed that a recent decision by D.C. Judge James Boasberg ruled that the Dakota Access Pipeline could keep the oil flowing while they prepared an Environmental Impact Statement. This is the same judge that had ruled last July to vacate the federal permits for Dakota Access because the Army Corps of Engineers had failed to conduct a full EIS, as demanded in a lawsuit filed by the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes.
Why am I posting this? Because a number of those who read this blog went to the Standing Rock Reservation in September 2016 and joined the protest at their Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation)camp. Thousands of native People and non-natives joined this camp for what is believed to be the single largest gathering of Native Americans in more than 100 years. Many were arrested. Some of us joined another protest at a local jail over a native woman who had been arrested.
Below are some photos we took on that trip and a link to more and more information on the event. You can see our camp in the photo above with the maroon “Eternal Knot” on the saffron-colored Tibetan door hanging from the nearby trees. This trip to the reservation renewed my wish to do more for our Native People and was the initial thrust that led me to take the dharma to our state prisons.
CLICK for news article and link to more photos on my trip to Standing Rock to protest the pipeline.
CLICK for Wikipedia article that details the history of this project.
CLICK for recent article from Washington Post.
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