Dallas Activists To Hold Rally In Solidarity With Standing Rock
Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook | Twitter
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The fight to block construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline heads to downtown Dallas tomorrow.
WHERE: US Army Corps of Engineers ofc, Earle Cabell Federal Bldg., 1100 Commerce St., Dallas
WHEN: 4:00pm - 7:00pm, Tuesday, November 15, 2016
For months, demonstrators — or "water protectors" as they prefer to be called — have occupied land along the path of the Dakota Access Pipeline, staging prayer ceremonies and advocating for a halt to construction of the pipeline. The $3.8 billion pipeline, which crosses four states, would transport up to 570,000 barrels of fracked crude oil daily, 92 feet below the Missouri River. Demonstrators opposed to the plan were pepper-sprayed and faced arrest. Local law enforcement has said among the thousands of activists opposed to the pipeline are criminals who trespassed and vandalized private property.
In response, Indigenous leaders put out a national call to action to take to the streets one week after the election to demand that President Obama's Army Corps of Engineers and the incoming Administration put a stop to the Dakota Access Pipeline and to show President Obama and the new president-elect that the resistance movement will not fade away.
"The fight at Standing Rock showcases the need to come together in defense of Natives whose right to drinking water is being jeopardized by corporate greed," said North Texan Kristian Steffany, who recently returned from the camp. "We must bear witness by keeping our eyes to Standing Rock, and our hands must act to keep up the fight of the courageous water protectors."
Click here for a map of the Army Corps of Engineers District Headquarter offices around the country.
The Army Corps can approve or deny the final permit needed to complete construction, so people everywhere will be holding actions at ACE offices or federal government buildings to demand rejection of the permit. The national call to action has quickly turned into a global event.
The Texas-based Society of Native Nations has organized the rally and march in downtown Dallas called, "National #NoDAPL Day of Action at Army Corps of Engineers in Dallas." Recent visitors to Standing Rock are scheduled to speak. The North Texas Light Brigade will display a pro-active message in lights when night falls.
The Dakota Access Pipeline is a project of Dakota Access LLP, and that is a fully-owned subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners. Kelcy Warren, who lives in Preston Hollow, is chairman and chief executive officer of ETP.
Warren told employees in a memo he sent in September that the 1,172-mile project is "nearly 60 percent complete and concerns about the pipeline's impact on the local water supply are unfounded."
But the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and others argue the project will greatly impact drinking water for thousands of tribal members and millions of people downstream.
(©2016 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
