Children Targeted for Similar Threatening Attacks at Anti-Bakken Dakota Access Pipeline Actions in Iowa and Camp in North Dakota

Cannon Ball, N.D. and Lohrville, IA – Children participating in anti-Bakken Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) actions in Iowa and North Dakota were targets of similar disturbing attacks this week when men asked the price to buy the children.

Extreme Emergency Cell Phone Alert Issued For Anti-Bakken Dakota Access Pipeline Prayer Action

Public officials in North Dakota issued an extreme emergency cell phone alert in response to anti-Bakken Dakota Access Pipeline Water Protector non-violent direct actions.

The alert, which went out at approximately 11:30 am local time, read:

“Emergency alert

PROTEST ACTIVITY NEAR ST

ANTHONY AND TO THE SE

PLEASE AVOID OFFICERS ARE

ACTIVE IN AREA

Type: Extreme Alert”

The emergency alert was issued in response to three simultaneous actions performed by Water Protectors; neither action resulted in violence. Water Protectors are a Native American led group dedicated to stopping the pipeline construction.

Forty Police in Riot Gear Order Five Unarmed Praying Water Protectors to Stop Praying and Leave or Get Arrested

Five unarmed Native American anti-Bakken Dakota Access Pipeline protestors praying on the side of the road were given five minutes to stop praying and leave or face arrest by over 40 police officers from at least eight departments in three states. Officers had an armored vehicle, acoustic weapon, riot gear, automatic weapons, and batons.

Water Protectors, a group of Native Americans and their allies lead by the Standing Rock Sioux working to defeat the Bakken Dakota Access Pipeline, sat down on the shoulder of a public road to pray after the voluntary end of a larger protest.

The prayer lasted approximately 10 minutes. As they prayed the police continued to garner more forces. Police forces started at about 30 officers with no armored vehicles and swelled up to 40 officers with an armored vehicle.

Accusation of Missing Livestock Made Against Standing Rock Water Protectors Hindered By Reality

Cannon Ball, N.D. - October 16 – North Dakota Stockmen’s Association (NDSA) suggested that livestock near Standing Rock Water Protectors are going missing in an article posted by Morton County Sheriff’s Office. The article on Inforum.com asserts that 30 cows are missing, and four cows, three bison and a saddle horse were killed.

NDSA Chief Brand Inspector Stan Misek asserted, "They're missing from right beside the camps, right there. We don't know. We don't know for sure. We're just putting it out there and hopefully somebody will come forward."

However, the reality on the ground for the Standing Rock Water Protectors makes an assertion of cattle rustling of this scale preposterous. The camps are under surveillance by air and car nearly 24 hours a day. On an average day, two helicopters, a drone, and an airplane monitor the camps throughout the day. Stingray electronic surveillance devices have been detected in the area. Police are stationed along the road. Federal law enforcement agencies have a nearby outpost station on the same road as the camps. Police regularly patrol the roads around the camp.

Ranchers Create Armed Defense Group Against Anti-Bakken Dakota Access Pipeline Water Defenders

Farmers and ranchers near St. Anthony, N.D. admitted on videos to arming themselves in response to their fear of Native American led camp opposing the Bakken Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).

An unnamed rancher explained in an interview with Scott Hennen on the radio show “What’s On Your Mind” that he was rattled when police cars escorted his children home on the school bus after the Standing Rock Water Protector camp was formed.

Standing Rock vs Crawford - Coverage Matters

 Two journalists present at Water Protector action

I was at the Camp Casey protest outside the Crawford Ranch in 2005. Protestors joined Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a fallen soldier in the Iraq War, as she demanded a face to face meeting with the president. When denied, she made camp right outside President Bush’s Crawford, Texas vacation ranch. For most protestors it was an exercise in expressing discontent with the decision to go to war with Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction.

To get to the rural Camp Casey, we had to drive for hours in the hot Texas sun. When we got close, we were made to squint as light ricocheted off the throngs of clean white media trucks; each with different colorful logos and satellite dishes popping out like lightning rods for the emotion of the country. 

Videos Cast Doubt on Police Justification for Brandishing Weapons at Anti-Pipeline Protestors in North Dakota

Two newly reviewed videos casts doubt on on police justification for brandishing weapons at anti-Dakota Access Pipeline protestors at a prayer event resulting in 21 arrests.

Anti-DAPL protestors called Water Protectors were holding a prayer event on September 28 at the end of dead end county road near Mandan, North Dakota. Police responded to the event with with two armored police cars, an LRAD, automatic weapons, shot guns, and dozens of officers from several agencies.

During the interaction, police officers pointed guns at the Water Protectors. In a press release, the Sheriff’s Office of Morton County explained the reason for the officer pointing his gun as a horse charged the officer and was an "imminent threat" to the police.

The first video shows the Water Protectors yell “GUN” because the officers have pointed their weapons and put their hands up. Some of the crowd screams, others run away. As a group of men and women move forward through the crowd with their hands up and out and stand in front of the children and the elderly.

Only after the police put their gun up, the crowd runs away, and the protectors on foot move forward do the horses enter the picture.

Dead End Surveillance - Stingrays and Civil Rights

Photo by Rob Wilson 

The terminus of a lonely dead end county road in North Dakota’s contested territory laid beneath one of the most terrifying civil rights moments in modern American history; an echo of historical injustices come around the canyon of time to ring again.

Water Protectors, a group of Native Americans and their allies lead by the Standing Rock Sioux, prayed for the end of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) at one of its construction sites in rural North Dakota on September 28, 2016. Elders, children, horse riders, and adults gathered in prayer. Some Water Protectors were live streaming the prayer on Facebook, until the signal suddenly stopped.

They feared the consequences of their prayer event was just coming around the corner.

In recent weeks, the police and oil company security have been escalating hostilities. At one prayer meeting a tribal grave site was dug up, resulting in an attempt by protestors to block the bulldozers. In response, the oil company’s security unleashed attack dogs and used pepper spray. Police said they were nowhere nearby during the prayer vigil which resulted in 30 people being pepper-sprayed, and about half a dozen people being bitten by dogs – including a child and a pregnant woman. The journalist who broke the story, Amy Goodman, has been hit with an arrest warrant for criminal trespass.

Police are dispatching ever larger contingents of officers to each action. It seems every police agency in North Dakota is taking its turn sending officers.

The Water Protectors on the dead end road were greeted by dozens of police officers who seemed to spring from the grass like a swarm of locusts, with automatic weapons, shotguns, and armored vehicles. Police helicopters and airplanes occupied the airspace overhead. Officers walked down through the hills, arriving on foot from over crests overlooking the Water Protector’s prayer location. Police SUVs rushed in across fields around the Water Protectors.