America's border treaties include those made with her indigenous peoples.
Dear Fellow Earthlings,
Humans continue to bleed Earth. Specifically, a company called "Dakota Access" seeks to remove
crude oil from Earth's bowels in an area known as the North Dakota Bakken region and then send it in
a continuous stream by pipeline over 1,000 miles into Illinois. The resulting Dakota Access
Pipeline (DAPL) would pass perilously close to the Standing Rock Reservation, home to the
Sioux Nation of Native Americans. Here we see another instance of a total lack of regard for treaties,
Native Americans, nature, beauty, or Earth. America's border treaties are not merely with Mexico, Canada, and Russia -- but also with her Amerindian peoples' nations!
Earthsaver Leonardo DiCaprio, in his tweet of 10 May 2016 notes that he is "standing with the Great Sioux Nation to protect their water and lands." I, Steve Walker, am also voicing my opposition to pipelines and fracking across the north-to-south midline of the United States. Earth is already protesting as she quakes in Oklahoma. Furthermore, pipelines are not leakproof. They DO leak, resulting in damage to our environment. And even assuming that fracking and pipelines DID work without damaging peoples' lives, we still have the global warming that results from the release of more hydrocarbons into our atmosphere to contend with.
A petition written to the Army Corps of Engineers by a 13-year-old Sioux named Anna Lee Rain YellowHammer sums up the situation quite concisely:
"A private oil company wants to build a pipeline that would cross the Missouri River less than
a mile away from the Standing Rock Reservation and if we don’t stop it, it will poison our river
and threaten the health of my community when it leaks. My friends and I have played in the
river since we were little; my great grandparents raised chickens and horses along it. When
the pipeline leaks, it will wipe out plants and animals, ruin our drinking water and poison the
center of community life for the Standing Rock Sioux."
Ms. Yellowhammer is skeptical of assurances by Dakota Access that the pipeline is safe. She notes that in 2012 and 2013, "there were 300 oil pipeline breaks in the state of North Dakota."they (the Dakota Access people) think our lives are more expendable than others." Due to the gravity of the situation, I ask my fellow Earthlings to contact as many people as you can by following the links Mr. DiCaprio has posted. Working together, we CAN stop the pipeline. It is time to realize that we humans are not the absolute rulers of nature. If we don't, then there will be little probability that we will ever bring our destruction of Earth's ecosystems to an end! Even as I write this blog huge excavating equipment continues to rip open the ground as it responds to the humans controlling it. Within two weeks, Dakota Access expects to commence drilling under the Missouri River. Can enough people sign the petition addressed to the Army Corps of Engineers to convince them to deny Dakota Access the construction permits they need to go on with the project? I can only hope so!... If only humans would control themselves! Steve Walker Earthsaver and Jingles Creator
© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.