This was a big day of action in the fight to stop the Dakota Access and Line 3 pipelines. On the fifth anniversary of the opening of the Sacred Stone Camp, Native youth runners delivered petitions along with a 200-foot black snake representing the pipelines to the White House, part of a day-long pipeline protest action in the nation’s capital.
PRESS RELEASE
Indigenous Environmental Network
On Thursday, April 1st, frontline Indigenous youth and organizers from the Dakota Access and Line 3 pipeline fights will arrive in Washington, D.C. for a series of actions to urge President Biden to Build Back Fossil Free by stopping these climate-destroying projects and upholding his commitments to climate action, Indigenous rights, and environmental justice.
Indigenous youth and organizers will hold a rally at the Army Corps of Engineers Headquarters building on Thursday morning, amplifying the voices of 400,000 people across the country who signed a petition calling on the Corps to withdraw its permit approving of Line 3. Then, organizers will lead a march to Black Lives Matter plaza near the White House carrying a 200-foot-long “black snake,” representing the threat of the Enbridge Line 3 and the Dakota Access Pipelines to Indigenous communities, clean water, and our climate.
Many of these youth pressuring President Biden are from the tribal nations that would be hit hard by the construction of Line 3 and the Dakota Access Pipeline, and they have been leading the resistance to these dangerous projects for years. These actions occur on the five year anniversary of the founding of the Sacred Stone Camp by Standing Rock Lakota Nation and ally Lakota, Nakota, & Dakota citizens, near Cannon Ball, the northeastern border of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. There, history was made as thousands of people descended to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline
A 200-foot black snake carried by around 45 people will be used as a backdrop to the rally stage while Indigenous youth speak about the need for the Biden administration to reject dirty pipelines.
Indigenous youth arrive in DC to tell Biden: Stop Dakota Access and Line 3 pipelines
Big news! To all of you who acted on our petition telling President Biden to shut down the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL), I thank you. More than 21,000 of you signed, and now those petitions have been sealed and delivered to Washington, D.C.
Today we joined a host of other organizations — including Earthjustice, which represents the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in its lawsuit against the pipeline, Indigenous Environmental Network, Food & Water Watch, and the Sierra Club — in delivering nearly 175,000 petitions calling for an end to DAPL and Line 3, another dangerous pipeline threatening my Anishinaabe relatives in Minnesota.
On the fifth anniversary of the opening of the Sacred Stone Camp — the first Standing Rock protest camp, and the place that inspired our NoDAPL movement — Native youth runners delivered your petitions along with a 200-foot black snake representing the pipelines to the White House, part of a day-long pipeline protest action in the nation’s capital.
Over the past months, your support has enabled Lakota Law to take on a special organizing role on the ground at Standing Rock. We interviewed and filmed councilmembers, treaty experts, and land defenders, making sure Indigenous perspectives about DAPL’s encroachment stayed in the national conversation.
Now, we approach the moment of truth. The courts have placed the onus on the president and the Army Corps of Engineers to do the right thing and cease DAPL’s non-permitted, illegal operations. Based on Biden’s prior request for a 60-day review period, we expect an executive decision soon. Until that hour comes — or as long as necessary until we win this fight — we hope you’ll help us keep the pressure on!
Wopila tanka — thank you, always, for empowering our NoDAPL stand.
Chase Iron Eyes
Co-Director & Lead Counsel
The Lakota People’s Law Project
Quakers, social justice and revolution 