It’s all over social media, but not so much in the news but in case you haven’t heard, Dakota Access Pipeline and partners are constructing a huge pipeline to carry oil across the country, because it’s the “right thing to do,” according to the Dakota Access Pipeline’s website. I think maybe I was taught “right and wrong” a little differently than these people. We should all be standing with the protesters in North Dakota, being attacked by dogs and pepper sprayed in the name of justice. What is happening to them and their land is most definitely not “right.” This is not just an example of big corporations walking all over the little man, it is so much worse than that.

The Missouri River and the Environment

The Missouri River is America’s longest river, 21 miles or so longer than the Mississippi, believe it or not, and it supplies millions of people with not only a water source, but also an area approved for recreational use. For years now, there have been groups of people flaring up to try and better the water quality, wetlands and grasslands around the river. SOS (Save our Streams) is just one of the organizations that test the runoff areas that make their way into the river. They monitor the runoff, and find ways to better not only the water but the things that live off of and in it. (you can find their website and ways to help on your own, here. The river itself is already in danger as more and more new chemicals and fertilizers make their way into it. As if pollution and the demise of land, animals and habitats around the river in general aren’t enough to worry about; let’s put another pipeline full of potential dangerous oil under it. Did I mention that the Missouri river drains into the Mississippi river? Pollution and harmful debris have a tendency to settle at the bottom of water ways; just digging under the water bed and disturbing the settlement can have serious consequences. So, in the case of a full blown gushing leak, Americans have a lot more to worry about than a bunch of angry protesters.

By now, we have figured out that big corporations, like oil companies, aren’t that great at protecting the environment, regardless of what measures they say that they take to protect it. Looking at you, BP. That was five years ago and in the Gulf though, people don’t use sea water as a source of drinking water. If that pipeline were to so much as leak into the Missouri River, it would get very nasty, very fast. We are talking about half a million gallons of crude oil, under the river, every day. On top of the eight other pipelines that already run across the river. That has the potential to do some serious damage not only to the water supply but the surrounding environments as well. We all had Science classes in school, we all know that organisms need habits to survive and we know that oil can do serious damage to said habits. I think we are pushing the boundaries here.

Now, BP is the sixth largest Oil and Gas Company IN THE WORLD and according to the Smithsonian Institute's Ocean Portal Team, managed to lose over 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf for 87 days before they got it under control. Oil deposits from that particular disaster traveled 1,200 miles across the sea floor. (Which is a little over half as far as the Mississippi river is long) Two years ago, three years after the fact, I took a trip to Orange Beach in Alabama, it’s a nice beach on the Gulf. Three years after the spill, there were still massive, black rock-like structures that had the remains of fish and birds visibly stuck in them. The mounds were even still sticky and tar-like to the touch and a lot of them had fresh feathers stuck to them and the occasional baby crab or lizards carcass. Now, I don’t care what BP says in regards to the toxicity of the remaining deposits, there is no way those things aren’t a negative impact on the environment. Creatures are STILL getting stuck to giant tar rocks on the beaches… but that’s too small to worry about, right? It was so overwhelming to even look at. Bones and decaying bodies of innocent little beings, stuck in a mess that was no fault of their own; it still makes me mad to even think about. Grant it, the spill happened after a rig exploded and eleven people died, it was very sad. But could you imagine what something like that would do inland?

The Dakota Access Pipeline is being constructed with the help of Energy Transfer Partners LLC, which is based out of Texas. They are part of Sunoco, The Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Company and Lone Star NGL LLC. That makes them one of the largest investment partners in the U.S. which is all fine and dandy but they started their search for excellence in 1995. BP started out in 1908 as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. So, the way I see it, if a company that has been going strong for over 100 years can mess up bad enough to have the honor of causing the worst oil spill in U.S. history, I don’t think I trust this new young company, American or not.

The North Dakota Petroleum Council and The Dakota Access Pipeline Company

“Protecting landowner interests and the local environment is a top priority of the Dakota Access Pipeline project. As an operating principle, Dakota Access Pipeline is committed to working with individual landowners to make accommodations, minimize disruptions, and achieve full restoration of impacted land. We will listen to and address questions from the community, landowners and other interested stakeholders about the project, proposed routes, landowner communications and more. It is our intent to live up to our promises of openness, honesty and responsiveness before, during and after construction and throughout operations.” – Straight from the Access Pipeline Website. Before the company brought in their private security, complete with tear gas and attack dogs.

When the government got involved and halted the construction, the President of the NDPC called it an overreach. Now, I don’t know about you, but I feel like destroying a part of someone else’s culture and then setting wild, untrained attack dogs on them and your own people, and gassing them for being mad about it… I would call that a bit more than an overreach. But then again, when have people ever had a problem resorting to violence when taking what isn’t theirs?

Spiritual Aspects

What started this protest was that Natives went to the construction site to pray for the safety of their water supply. Pray about it. Native Americans are some of the most spiritual people around, as I see it. Their practices and beliefs are pretty well documented, as a whole, not necessarily in a tribe to tribe database, but in general. We can probably all agree that indigenous tribes that still practice traditional spirituality are pretty intense. Sun Dance, need I say more? These folks take their culture very seriously and part of that culture is their spirituality. Can we just stop and think about this for a second? As a generally superstitious country that strives on horror movies and the idea of the paranormal, don’t you think we should be just a little worried about desecrating a sacred, and perhaps, ancient Burial ground? I mean, have you not seen Supernatural? I feel like even if there was no documented proof of paranormal happenings, which there is, I would most defiantly not risk pissing off ancient spirits. You’re looking at some bad juju there. Even if the destruction of such an area were absolutely necessary, which it isn’t, there are far better ways to go about doing it; Being even a little respectful to the bodies of the spirits that rest there would probably be a good start.

The News

At the beginning of this article, I said that these events are all over social media but not necessary in the news and I want to tell you why that is. When you look at the list the investment partners for this construction, they are big banks like the Bank of America, Wells Fargo, UBS, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Goldman Sachs and 30 or so other financial companies who have put out a couple billion dollars apiece towards the construction of this pipeline. Now, if you remember in 2008, the government had to bail out all sorts of companies... like Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. (You can see the full list of bailed out companies at here if you're curious.) Ironic isn’t it? So here were are, in a world where our government saved the same companies that are more than happy to back the unfair and violent treatment of peaceful protesters who only want to protect their water supply to their reservations, and their sacred land of their ancestors. But because the government controls the media, and you know it does, we are left with little coverage of the events. The most we have seen so far in the news is that the government intervened after a federal judge refused to stop the construction. We also know that a lot more protesters are headed that way and a lot of them are from other Native American Tribes.

All in All

There are a few counter arguments to this whole mess though. The one that I have heard people say most often is that the burial ground is not on the tribe’s reservation so they have no right to be up in arms about it… Is your great grandmother buried in your back yard? Would you still be mad if some bigwig dug her up with a backhoe? I bet you would. The other big argument is that the construction will give people jobs and help the economy. Sure, it will. Those people are welders, electricians, trained people who are coming from out of state to do this job. Yes, they will be spending their money in the towns they take up temporary residence in but it is just that, temporary. It’s not like they are looking to give Regular Joe a job. And on top of that, all the truck drivers and people who haul oil products on railways or roads are more than likely about to be put out of their jobs. That’s the whole point of the pipeline, to reduce the need for oil trucks to be used for transportation of the product. The oil company says its dangerous to have so many oil trucks on the roads and rail cars on the tracks, which is true. A lot of accidents happen in transit. But fracking, drilling and just about everything that has to do with gas and oil is dangerous, not only to people but to the environment. We already know this. And yet, we are still playing this game instead of exploring alternative, safer energy options.

I don’t understand how more people aren’t upset about this. All anyone cares about is money. If it is not in our own back yard, we couldn’t care less what happens to people. Right now, we are lucky enough to have peaceful protests… but what happens when that pipeline gets finished, we all know that the big guy will win over the little man because the big guy has more money at his disposal. What happens when someone loses their damn mind and blows up that pipeline? Boom. Half the country is on fire and the other half is going to be in a civil war over it. Will we be mad then?

We should be standing with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, now; standing with them to protect their culture and their rights as Americans, as people. We should be outraged that acts of violence have been taken to try to thwart their protests. What will it take for you to stand with your fellow, little Americans, against the injustices of the big guys?