As more than 150 tribes join the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota to oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline, about a hundred people in Juneau gathered Wednesday night to rally with them.
“We stand with everybody in Standing Rock in North Dakota, our brothers and sisters who are down there on the front lines fighting for our sacred waters,” Rhonda Butler, one of the event organizers, said through a megaphone to the crowd at Twin Lakes.
Many wore Native regalia and carried signs that read, “Alaskans stand with Standing Rock,” “Water is life” and “Protect our water 4 future generations.”
“We are all people of the water. We are made of water and our water is life. As a Native person, my connection to our land and water compelled me to take this action as an individual to stand here with each and everyone one of you,” Butler continued.
The Dakota Access Pipeline, when complete, would bring crude oil 1,168 miles from North Dakota, through South Dakota and Iowa, to Illinois. Parts of the $3.7 billion pipeline project developed by Dakota Access would run under the Missouri River — a source of water for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. It would also cross the tribe’s sacred lands.
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In July, the tribe filed a complaint in federal court opposing the construction and operation of the pipeline. The complaint claims that when approving the Dakota Access project, the Army Corps of Engineers ignored federal clean water, environmental and cultural laws.
The complaint alleges the “construction and operation of the pipeline, as authorized by the Corps, threatens the Tribe’s environmental and economic well-being, and would damage and destroy sites of great historic, religious, and cultural significance to the Tribe.”
Twin Lakes rally participant Pauline Williams said she is against the pipeline going through sacred grounds.
“If the pipeline was wanting to go through a United States national cemetery, would you think it was right? I don’t. I don’t think the Native’s sacred grounds are any different. There are burial grounds they’re trying to go through,” she said.
Another rally goer said a pipeline could jeopardize the health of Natives and non-Natives living in the area.
“Even if it’s a high probability that nothing will happen, there’s still a chance that a leakage could happen and contaminate the water,” Duain White said.
Butler told the crowd what’s happening in North Dakota has relevance to the people in Southeast.
“We’re looking at the same exact thing in our own backyard. We have transboundary issues occurring right now on our Taku River and the Stikine River further south. We could be looking at some very large mines and the issue of polluting our water if any accident occurs,” she said. “This is part of our responsibility as people of the water and people of Southeast Alaska — to stand here and fight for our sacred waters that we fish out of, that we feed our children out of.”
On the Missouri River
Thousands of miles away in North Dakota, Tlingit artist Doug Chilton and his nephew DeAndre King Jr. — both of Juneau — paddled a fiberglass dugout-style canoe on the Missouri River earlier on Wednesday.
“Today was amazing. I don’t even know where to start,” King, 26, said by phone Wednesday.
After waking up early and joining the other paddlers, the Southeast Alaska canoe crew representing the One People Canoe Society joined a “caravan of different-style canoes, canoes I’ve never seen before and tribes I just met, and we launched from Bismarck and made our way south back towards camp,” King described.
They paddled with about 14 other canoes and four kayaks belonging to different coastal community tribes, many from Washington and Oregon.
King and Chilton left Juneau on the ferry Aug. 31 and arrived in North Dakota the morning of Sept. 6. On their journey to North Dakota, they found 13 others to fill the canoe.
“There are Tlingit all over the place and we managed to round some up when we stopped in Washington,” King said.
About 30 miles into their paddle on the Missouri River on Wednesday, the paddlers got caught up in a thunder and lightning storm, but it didn’t faze them, King said, “Everybody was hooting and hollering, and excited.”
“Words cannot describe the power I’ve felt since coming onto this land, and being on that water was a totally different experience than anything I’ve experienced canoeing at home. It’s just the energy we’re all bringing and what we’re trying to do. Everybody is positive, everybody is smiling, everybody is lifting each other up and focusing in on the moment,” King said.
King said the decision to travel to North Dakota was made last minute, but it’s important to him.
“It’s not about stopping big oil, it’s about helping and protecting a way of life and the water source. We’re not doing this to rouse; we’re doing this so the generations after us will no longer have to fight, so they know peace,” he said.
King said the One People Canoe Society’s efforts help to protect the Standing Rock Sioux, to “ensure that they can continue living on this land and they don’t have to worry about poor drinking water quality or contamination in the rivers that they base their lives around.”
King doesn’t know how long he and Chilton will be in North Dakota, but they have more paddling before them. On Thursday, the plan was to pick up paddling the Missouri River where they left off and continue south toward camp.
In unity
Besides representing the One People Canoe Society, King and Chilton waved a flag belonging to the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. The tribe helped fund King and Chilton’s trip to support Standing Rock in North Dakota.
“As we saw the groundswell growing, tribal people from all across the nation go there and gather, you just feel that calling and the pull,” Central Council President Richard Peterson said on the phone Wednesday. The gathering in North Dakota is being called the largest unification of Native American tribes in decades.
“I’d received numerous requests from our tribal citizens who wanted to see our leadership there, wanted to see our flag there, wanted to see us stand with our other indigenous people,” he continued.
Last month, Central Council passed a resolution to stand in unity with the Standing Rock Sioux in opposition of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
“While this may seem like a world away because it’s North Dakota, we are facing threats to our natural resources as well, to our scared headwater so this should be a wake up call,” Peterson said, alluding to transboundary mining issues.
“We may find ourselves in a position very much like the Standing Rock people and we’ll be asking on our brothers and sisters to stand with us just like we’re standing with them.”
On Tuesday, a federal judge temporarily stopped construction of part of the Dakota Access Pipeline. A ruling could come on Friday, which may determine if construction on the pipeline continues or stops.
• Contact reporter Lisa Phu at 523-2246 or lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.
Doug Chilton, middle in blue T-shirt, stands with part of the canoe crew representing the One People Canoe Society along the Missouri River in North Dakota.
Andrew Stephenson starts a smudge pot to burn cedar for a blessing as about 100 people attend a rally at Twin Lakes Wednesday evening in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota over the construction of the 1,172-mile Dakota Access pipeline.
Ramona Gerber takes pictures as about 100 people attend a rally at Twin Lakes Wednesday evening in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota over the construction of the 1,172-mile Dakota Access pipeline.
About 100 people attend a rally at Twin Lakes Wednesday evening in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota over the construction of the 1,172-mile Dakota Access pipeline.
