Vol. 80/No. 43 November 14, 2016
Rallies oppose cop attack on Standing Rock Sioux protest
AND TONY LANE
The attack has spurred solidarity actions here and elsewhere, including protests against sending cops from other states to reinforce North Dakota police agencies.
Since April thousands of people across the country and beyond have come to Standing Rock, including many from other tribes across North America who face similar government indifference and abuse. They’ve organized several encampments on or near the reservation. Protesters set up a new camp Oct. 23 directly in the path of the proposed pipeline. It was on land that pipeline owner Energy Transfer Partners bought recently — land that protest leaders say the Sioux never agreed to relinquish and still consider theirs.
Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chief Dave Archambault II and Harold Frazier, chairman of the adjacent Cheyenne River Sioux, held a press conference Oct. 29 to denounce the assault. “It’s just wrong to use that type of force on innocent people,” Archambault said, speaking in front of the Morton County Sheriff’s Department in Mandan, North Dakota, where those arrested had been processed.
He also called for the pipeline to be rerouted. “Keep it away from water; get it out of our land,” he said. “If the state can spend $7 million to $9 million to fight peaceful, innocent people, then the resources are there.”
Workers on the reservation face dire economic straits, with an official unemployment rate of 86 percent. Of those who do have a job 43 percent live below the federal poverty level.
At the request of North Dakota officials, state troopers from Nebraska and scores of other cops from Wisconsin, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming and Indiana have reinforced the Morton County Sheriff’s Department.
They were mobilized under the federal Emergency Management Assistance Compact, a 1995 law authorizing state officials to call for help in case of natural disaster, from hurricanes to forest fires. But the Bill Clinton-era bill also allowed for mobilization of out-of-state cops in case of “community disorders, insurgency or enemy attack.”
It has been used only twice on these grounds — in Baltimore, when cops from throughout the region were called in after the police killing of Freddie Gray, and in Standing Rock today.
Hundreds of people rallied here Oct. 25 and again three days later to protest the involvement of Hennepin County sheriff’s deputies. Dozens of students walked out of South High School to join the Oct. 28 actions. “I’m kind of angry that they are arresting us and shooting rubber bullets at us for just trying to protect our water,” South High student Edward Roberts told the local CBS station.
These cops have now been recalled.
Some 200 people rallied in Lincoln, Nebraska, at the state Capitol Oct. 29, supporting the Standing Rock protests and demanding Nebraska state troopers sent to join the cop mobilization to confront protesters be sent home. The rally was organized by Kara Knutson, a 17-year-old high school student who had traveled to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in support of their fight.
In Madison, Wisconsin, the Dane County Sheriff’s Office withdrew its deputies after a week, saying in a statement that the decision was made after talking with a “wide cross-section of the community who all share the opinion that our deputies should not be involved in this situation.”
Related articles:
SWP: Defend sovereign rights of Dakota Sioux
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