Stop DAPL. Stop Trump.

Stop DAPL in the Time of Trump

Within days of his inauguration, President Trump issued a memorandum expediting completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) across unceded sacred tribal lands of the Standing Rock Sioux and other indigenous nations.

Update  (2/7/17): Caving in to Trump’s hyperaggressive attempts to bypass logic and the law, the Army Corps (1) withdrew its proposed EIS, thereby rejecting a saner, safer route out of hand, (2) ended the 20-day comment period, (3) waived the 14-day waiting period following Congressional notification, and (4) granted the DAPL easement for the risky construction beneath Lake Oahe, based on the grievously inadequate EA ordered by ETP itself in July 2016.
 
THIS CHANGES NOTHING with respect to the various court cases going forward, including this one.
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For months, the greatest Native American tribal gathering in U.S. history has peacefully resisted completion of DAPL, in the face of sometimes brutal police violence and human-rights abuses. Water Protectors are now contending with the threat of forced eviction.

Last summer, pipeline owner Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) and the USACE rejected a safer route north of Bismarck that would have crossed a much narrower water body than the present route across contested treaty lands and beneath Lake Oahe.  Rerouting saved possible contamination of Bismarck wells and some money in exchange for endangering the water supply of these tribes and millions of citizens downriver.

#RevolutionTruth, a grassroots-based, human-rights organization dedicated to protecting democratic principles and civil liberties, is preparing a legal challenge to DAPL based on: (1) environmental injustice; (2) racial and class discrimination; and (3) defense of the fundamental rights of sovereign native citizens.

(1) Environmental Justice. We will show that the current route is far more dangerous to the environment than the one north of Bismarck originally considered.

(2) Racial and Class Discrimination. We will show that the current route has a significantly disproportionate impact on indigenous people who suffer a 63% unemployment rate and an average per-capita income about half of that of the overwhelmingly Caucasian Bismarck residents.

(3) Defense of Sovereign Rights. We will show that the original route crossed no unceded tribal lands, whereas the current route bisects that territory (originally ceded in 1851, redrawn in 1868 and reorganized in 1934 by the Indian Reorganization Act). These lands and waters are viewed by sovereign tribal nations as both sacred and belonging to them. As these tribes mainly exist in a state of dual sovereignty, we will show that only an act of Congress can influence a change in sovereign powers.

What happens now at #StandingRock is more important than ever. This lawsuit is an opportunity to help the Standing Rock Sioux stop DAPL while resisting the rising demagoguery of PresidentTrump. 

RevolutionTruth has consulted with several Indigenous attorneys during this work and are open to Indigenous attorneys potentially joining our legal team.

Please help us win this battle for Indigenous People’s rights, water, and life. We need at least $25,000 for legal fees to bring the case. If we do not reach this’ goal, all proceeds will go to the legal defense of individual Water Protectors facing criminal charges for peaceful protesting and citizen’s journalism.

Please donate and share. Together let us crowdsource justice for #StandingRock.

(Donations made to RevolutionTruth will be directed to the fund for legal and related fees for this court case. Please note that donations are NOT tax-deductible.)

Mni Wiconi! “Water Is Life!”

Jennifer (Tangerine) Bolen is the Executive Director of RevolutionTruth. All funds raised here will be withdrawn by Tangerine and the funds will be desosited into a checking account while we file for our 501(c)3 status. They will be used to cover the costs of an all-volunteer managed civil liberties and environmental justice case, including paying legal fees, court costs, and covering the travel expenses of our plaintiffs.