We Need a National Outcry About That Pipeline Now, Please (Updated)

(Image via Pixabay.)

There have to better ways to respond to protesters than this. Also did anyone catch that this pipeline construction is taking place in violation of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples? A declaration that the US supposedly agrees with?

Update: If you were wondering about why they the protesters were so up in arms- the reason for Saturday’s bulldozing was to destroy Native burial sites before the North Dakota preservation office could intervene. Furthermore it is also reported that original approval of the pipeline project violated the Federal Historic Preservation Act and existing treaty agreements with the affected tribes. You can read about all that here.
Catholics- this should bother you. If it doesn’t bother you- imagine that they are bulldozing St. Peter’s in Rome and the National Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. Because the ethical reasons against doing the later for a quick buck are some of the same ones that apply here. Although the whole history of abusing native peoples and violating treaties with them adds elements of evil that would not be present in my example of what it would be like if they were doing it to us Catholics, instead of to the rightful owners of the land being exploited.

Additional update: Here’s a little more information about what was going in that video clip in the first article linked above:

“We made it to the top of the hill and saw several bulldozers and trucks, and we walked up to the fence,” Frejo told ICTMN. “There’s sacred sites up there, so one woman stepped through the fence, just feet in, telling them with her son at her side that this is sacred land. She yelled at them to stop.” 

“Bulldozers were less than 10-feet from her, and I was thinking, ‘Why can’t this bulldozer that is so close to her stop?’ So I ran in front of the bulldozer to stop, and security came up from behind and just grabbed me and flipped me over,” Frejo said. “All of sudden I’m on the ground, and then more people started coming through the fence and got him off me.”

You can read the rest here.
Additional update: Also see more here:

“The Tribe has been seeking to vindicate its rights peacefully through the courts. But Dakota Access Pipeline used evidence submitted to the Court as their roadmap for what to bulldoze. That’s just wrong,” said Jan Hasselman, attorney for the Standing Rock Sioux.

“Destroying the Tribe’s sacred places over a holiday weekend, while the judge is considering whether to block the pipeline, shows a flagrant disregard for the legal process,” Hasselman added.”