I am so happy to be able share it with you. May it incite your interest and arouse the wish to join the march on this Saturday, April 26th at the National Mall at 11 am in support of the Cowboy and Indian Alliance to protest against the Keystone XL pipeline.
Follow me below the squiggle and just listen and watch and read. It is an amazing testimony of the activities of the last three days of the Reject and Protect movement on the National Mall and of the persistent fight of the many other events organized to protect our land and water and our mother earth altogether.
FIRST NATIONS, TRIBAL LEADERS, & LANDOWNERS SEND MESSAGE TO CANADA, STOP TAR SANDS AT THE SOURCE
Idle No More stands in solidarity with the mass mobilization Reject and Protect happening in Washington, Deceit, as well as the Moccasins on the Ground blockade training in Red Shirt, South Dakota, and the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman Pipe Spiritual Encampment in Green Grass, South Dakota, and recognizes the words of Protect the Sacred spokesperson, Faith Spotted Eagle,
“These three encampments represent the physical, spiritual, and political manifestations of our movement.”
(Last words spoken by Casey Camp, sister of Kossack Carter Camp, RIP.)
Stand Our Sacred Ground and Reject and Protect Actions in DC
Throughout this week of sustained action in DC, Idle No More will be reporting out on the vision, leadership, and organizing happening of this unprecedented alliance between Natives and ranchers in opposition to the KXL pipeline.
From Idle No More - Stand our Sacred Ground
Honor the Treaties:
Yesterday, Day 2, representatives of the Dakota, Lakota, Nakota, Ponca, Ojibway, and Cree Nations stood at the Canadian Embassy alongside ranchers and farmers to hold up huge letters spelling out “Honor The Treaties” and blown-up images of Treaty 8, Treaty 6, and the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which cover Indigenous people’s lands affected by the controversial Canadian tar sands and the Keystone XL pipeline.
(1. Crystal Lameman - Beaver Lake Cree Nation 2. Heather Milton Lightening 3. pls help with identification 4. Casey Camp 5. pls help with identification) at the Canadian Embassy in Washington DC)
From Idle No More - Stand our Sacred Ground
#Connect2Truth:
The Canadian government is currently spending 20 million taxpayers’ dollars in a public relations campaign in the United States aimed at attracting investment into Canada’s tar sands and other harmful developments in Native lands titled Connect2Canada. This direct action at the Canadian embassy marked a launch of the #Connect2Truth twitter campaign to counter this propaganda.
Protect the Sacred - Reject KXL and Protect the Sacred
There is a story of "unprecedented unified action" unfolding as unlikely parties have come together to protect and restore our sacred Mother Earth. First Nations, Native Americans, and their allies, in the form of ranchers, farmers, landowners, lawyers, educators, activists, environmentalists, faith and spiritual leaders and others are teaming up to stop all tar sands projects; to challenge us to confront our dependency on fossil fuels, demand that we accelerate the shift to renewable energy, and stop destroying our planet.
The recent delay by President Obama on the Keystone XL pipeline is not just connected to the courts in Nebraska; the actions in the Dakotas and Nebraska come as the most unlikely of parties are joining forces. There are international treaties being signed between sovereign nations to stop the tar sands projects from all directions. There are prayer and spiritual camps being set up along the KXL pipeline route. First Nations, Native Americans and their allies have come together to form the Cowboy Indian Alliance (CIA). This new CIA is engaged and working cooperatively like never before to stop the Keystone XL pipeline.
Listen to the song.
“It’s time for our people to start developing our own policies and enforcing our inherent Treaty rights. It is time for us to start defining what that relationship looks like for our visitors and remind our visitors that they came here and we are the ones, as Indigenous people, that gave them the permission to settle here on Turtle Island,” said Crystal Lameman, member of Beaver Lake Cree Nation.
Heather Milton Lightening, co-director of the Indigenous Tar Sands campaign of the Polaris Institute, stated, “We need to stop tar sands at the source. We are going to do that as a solid movement from coast to coast from east to west. We are going to shut down the tar sands. We are going to stop it!”
Liberation Day 2014: Lakota resistance to the KXL pipeline
Listen to these too.
Join us on Saturday. If I had been with the C.I.A. tonight, I would have seen these spectacular projections at the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington DC. Photos are all shared from "The other 98 - SOS EPA: Giant Light Projections" facebook page.
That's what's going on April 26, Saturday:
Water ceremony, 9-10am – center tipi of tipi camp.
Painting of tipi canvass liner with general public’s thumbprints, 9:00 am-10:30 am
Group ceremony and procession with tipi, 11am-2pm
Kossack Welcome Meet-Up for Peregrine Kate at Mitsitam Cafe inside Museum of the American Indian - 2 pm - open ended
Music and sharing stories at tipi camp, 6-8pm
Documentary, 8 PM: White Water, Black Gold – An investigative point-of-view documentary about David Lavallee’s journey down the Athabasca River and across Western Canada in search of answers about the battle between water and oil. Following an imaginary drop of water, and later an imaginary drop of oil, he discovers the threats to the third largest watershed in the world and two separate oceans. Director: David Lavallee, courtesy of The Video Project