SACRAMENTO – Sacramento Native American, environmental and other social justice groups Tuesday will join with others around the world in a mass international action calling on the federal government and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).
Sacramento protestors are targeting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (1325 J St.) Tuesday/Nov. 15 starting at 12 Noon.
*NOTE: Native Lakota and Davis resident Carol Standing Elk has just returned from Standing Rock and will hold a press briefing about conditions at Standing Rock.
The Army Corps of Engineers, the target of this demonstration, approved the pipeline without proper consultation or adequate environmental studies.
The Standing Rock Sioux, also known as Water Protectors, are resisting the DAPL, which threatens their water, ancestral burial sites, and Native sovereignty. They have been met with militarized police using automatic rifles, sound cannons, tear gas and mace, flash-bang grenades, bean bag rounds, and rubber bullets. The courage of the Water Protectors has inspired people all over the world.
The DAPL is being built to carry oil from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota and would run under the Missouri River, where a spill would endanger the drinking water for millions of people. It is noteworthy that early plans proposed routing the pipeline close to the city of Bismark, a largely white community, but when the people there objected because of the danger to their water, the pipeline was rerouted near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation.
DAPL is also a danger to the climate. A recent study from Oil Change International showed that fossil fuel projects already in production will carry us beyond the 2° rise commonly considered the maximum allowable to avoid the most serious effects of climate change. This means we must stop all new fossil fuel infrastructure (e.g., DAPL), and transition to a fossil free economy.
Sacramento cosponsors of this action include Sacramento Area Friends and Relatives of the Lakota Nation, Sacramento Climate Coalition, 350 Sacramento. Davis MoveOn, Davis Stands with Standing Rock, Raging Grannies of Sacramento, Sacramento Stands with Standing Rock, Alianza, and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Media Contact: Chris Brown 916-384-7476