{"id":80420,"date":"2016-10-03T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T11:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=80420"},"modified":"2016-09-28T16:02:44","modified_gmt":"2016-09-28T15:02:44","slug":"robert-redford-i-stand-with-the-standing-rock-sioux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/10\/robert-redford-i-stand-with-the-standing-rock-sioux\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Redford: I Stand with the Standing Rock Sioux"},"content":{"rendered":"

In their protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which will affect far more families than their own.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Native<\/a>

Native American protestors wave a clan flag over land designated for the Dakota Access Pipeline, on September 3, 2016, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota.
ROBYN BECK\u2014AFP\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

26 Sep 2916 – <\/em>Something all too familiar<\/a> is happening in North Dakota right now: Once again, Native Americans are being asked to accept a raw deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The short version is this: a private energy company, Energy Transfer Partners, is building a pipeline that runs from North Dakota to Illinois like a 1,200-mile zipper that cuts across four states. If completed, the Dakota Access Pipeline<\/a> will carry nearly half a million barrels of oil each day across the watersheds the Standing Rock Sioux tribe use for drinking water. Now, thousands of Native Americans have gathered at one of the most controversial sections of the proposed pipeline\u2019s path and are staging a 24\/7 protest<\/a>. They\u2019ve created a settlement in the middle of their North Dakota home to try to prevent the pipeline from being finished.<\/p>\n

The pipeline\u2019s existence and its proposed path are each \u201clegal,\u201d of course. Permits were filed. Proposals were considered. A previous route much closer to Bismarck\u2014a primarily white city\u2014was scrapped amid concerns for its citizens\u2019 health and well-being, and a new \u201cmore acceptable\u201d route was carved through the home of the Standing Rock Sioux. In short, it\u2019s the business as usual that helps private corporations get what they want in most of the United States, often at the expense of Native Americans.<\/p>\n

But if this is legal, one must seriously question the laws of the land. They are laws that prioritize the profits of energy companies over the rights of people who actually have to live on the land, drink its water and eat its food.<\/p>\n

The net result is that yet another Native American tribe is being asked to suffer yet again for the \u201cgood\u201d of the rest of the country.<\/p>\n

But who is this deal good for? There is one winner (Energy Transfer Partners) and about 7 billion losers (everyone else). Climate change is altering how we think about resource use forever, because bad resource use now affects every single one of us. Once burned, the carbon that the proposed DPAL pipeline carried will continue warming our world for years.<\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/a>

Robert Redford, 2015
www.contactmusic.com<\/p><\/div>\n

We can\u2019t go back in time. We can\u2019t unburn the carbon we\u2019ve burnt\u2014just as we can\u2019t go back in time and change how we as a nation treated Native Americans. But what we can<\/em> do is try, with all of our might, to break from our country\u2019s tradition of deception and dishonesty in its treatment of its native people, and our deception and dishonesty about the true costs of fossil fuels. Often times\u2014as is the case with the DAPL pipeline\u2014the two are intertwined.<\/p>\n

The time has come to recognize and name the fossil fuel industry for what it is: a clear and present danger to the health, prosperity and national security of all of our nation\u2019s people.<\/p>\n

National Security? Yes. The American armed forces, the CIA and the FBI are all grappling with the impending consequences of climate change: increased refugee crises from food shortages, more frequent resource wars over scarce water and fertile land and even floodwater-inundated military bases. A recent article in the New York Times<\/em> reveals that because of climate change many cities on our Eastern Seaboard\u2014including Norfolk, Virginia, home of Naval Station Norfolk, the world\u2019s largest naval base\u2014are having to cope with regular floods that 100 years ago were unheard of<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Standing Rock protest is trying to prevent a pipeline from being built in North Dakota. But what we need to ask ourselves sooner rather than later is this: Should new pipelines be built at all?<\/p>\n

Thousands of people are actually going to North Dakota to support the Sioux. But anyone can help in other ways.<\/p>\n

You can give money. You can contribute to the Sacred Stone Camp Legal Defense Fund<\/a> or to the Sacred Stone Camp gofundme account<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can give time by making phone calls. Call North Dakota governor Jack Dalrymple at 701-328-2200 and politely share your opinion, or call the White House at 202-456-1111 and politely tell President Obama to rescind the Army Corps of Engineers\u2019 permit for the Dakota Access Pipeline.<\/p>\n

Though not all of us are able to go to North Dakota and actually stand with Standing Rock, we can stand united. We can be a sea of people, rising up together to prevent the seas from rising and our history of mistreatment of Native Americas from repeating. The Sioux people of North Dakota aren\u2019t just fighting for their homes and their water. They\u2019re fighting for our<\/em> homes and water, our families and futures, our children\u2019s chances for a habitable home.<\/p>\n

__________________________________<\/p>\n

Robert Redford is an actor, director and trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 time.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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