[News] Standing Rock Sioux Issue Emergency Proclamation

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Standing-Rock-Sioux-Issue-Emergency-Proclamation-20161201-0003.html 



  Standing Rock Sioux Issue Emergency Proclamation

December 1, 2016

On Wednesday, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Dave Archambault II 
issued an emergency proclamation calling on the United Nations and U.S. 
President Barack Obama to take “immediate action” to defend the water 
protectors at the Oceti Sakowin camp from “retaliatory actions and 
practices” by state law enforcement agencies, and to defend activists' 
“rights to free speech and peaceable assembly.”

“This week is the anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre. It’s time for 
the United States to end its legacy of abuses against Native Americans. 
We call on the United Nations and President Barack Obama to take 
immediate action to prohibit North Dakota from engaging in its 
retaliatory actions and practices,” Archambault said. “As a tribal 
nation, we call on the President to take all the appropriate steps to 
ensure water protectors are safe and that their rights to free speech 
and peaceful assembly are protected. Gov. Dalrymple had a chance today 
to condemn the violence and unlawful acts of state and local 
governments, but failed to do so,” the statement added.

The statement is the first official response by Chairman Archambault to 
the most recent actions by North Dakota officials, which have threatened 
the lives and well-being of the Water Protectors at the Oceti Sakowin 
camp who are protesting the construction of the multi-billion dollar 
Dakota Access Pipeline that threatens Indigenous sovereignty, local 
water sources and a devastating increase in carbon emissions.

The estimated 3 thousand water protectors gathered at the Oceti Sakowin 
camp face increasingly harsh conditions as winter descends on North 
Dakota. The Standing Rock Medic & Healer Council issued a statement on 
Monday saying the combination of sub-zero temperatures and the 
increasingly violent actions of law enforcement agencies, including the 
use of water cannons and chemical weapons, threatens the health and 
safety of thousands at the camp.

On Tuesday, North Dakota law enforcement announced that essential 
supplies, including food and building materials, would be blocked from 
entering the camp in an attempt to enforce North Dakota Governor Jack 
Dalrymple’s emergency evacuation order issued on Monday. After outrage 
at this fundamental attack on the water protectors' basic human rights, 
the sheriff's office later clarified that supplies would not be 
physically blocked, but that they would issue US$1,000 fines to any 
vehicle attempting to deliver supplies. This echoes earlier threats by 
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers which issued an evacuation order last 
Friday saying that anyone remaining at the camp after Dec. 5 “may be 
subject to citation under federal, state, or local laws.”

However dire the conditions may be, they have not dampened the 
determination of the water protectors. Madonna Antoine Eagle Hawk, who 
runs a kitchen at the camp told Vice News, "We've been here for hundreds 
of years. We've survived through hundreds of years of winters — we're 
not going anywhere. If they think we're not prepared for it, they need 
to think again."

In defiance of both federal and state evacuation orders, an estimated 
2,000 U.S. Army veterans have pledged to act as “human shields” to 
prevent any attempt at forcible removal of the camp. They are expected 
to arrive at Oceti Sakowin Camp on Dec. 4.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20161201/8225f54f/attachment.htm>