Thank you to the many people who shared, rec'd and commented on Monday's call to support and draw attention to the Treaty Awareness Walk to DC!
Special thanks to the Rescue Rangers and ongoing community Kossack support keeping this issue in the Community Spotlight.
Special thanks are also due to Kossack IKWEWE, who is taking advantage of 'virgin' posting status by providing on-the-ground updates in that thread.
But the defining spirit of gratitude is perhaps best captured in this worth-a-1,000-words image:
That's Joseph Hock, taking it one step at a time. Hauling ass with a mammoth Denali pack. Probably thinking to himself, "Man, this is so not what I signed up for." But walking nonetheless. Putting one foot in front of the other.
Let's remember what is at stake here. As Darryl Brown, AIM-Michigan member and tribal elder for the Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians, reminds us in this article from the Cadillac News:
The walk is also serving as a public call by environmentalists and local tribes to have the Enbridge Mackinac pipelines shut down, Brown added.
The lines carry an estimated 23 million gallons of oil and natural gas liquids per day through the Straights of Mackinac.
But Brown said the aging condition of the pipelines and the potential of a spill have environmentalists demanding the pipelines be shut down.
“We are asking them to shut it down,” Brown said. “If we have a disruption, it will destroy the Upper and Northern Lower Peninsula.”
Ever wonder what a pipeline bursting in air looks like? Something like this from a pipeline blowing on the Moscow River.
So that was Russia: Sarah Palin probably watched it from her backyard and thought it was tourist attraction: BOOM! FUCKING BOOM.
What is at stake here, though, is not only the "potential" for an inland oil spill in the Straits of Mackinac, but the probability…(at the risk of sounding hyperbolic, I would go so far as to claim it is a CERTAINTY….)
This report from Motherboard breaks it down for us: "Oil spills. You never really hear about them until they blow up."
As Blackwolf53 has noted, the US government's track record on honoring treaties with sovereign nations on the soils, sands, and shores it has stolen from our People/s has not exactly been "stellar": one might even say they are as trustworthy as Enbridge/Exxon/BP and others on the government's oil-caholicas onerous roll!
But NOW is the time to draw a line in the sand. These treaties exist. These peoples exist. And we are not going anywhere anytime soon. A skeletal breakdown of the Treaties (and treaty VIOLATIONS) at issue in this matter is available here.
Nope. We're not going anywhere. Except to Washington DC.
But we cannot do it alone. It takes more than a village. It takes a nation. A nation of nations. A nation of individuals.
Isn't it time we start stopping the oil-aholics in their tracks?
In gratitude and appreciation for the networking and support Kossacks have provided so far, I am posting a renewed request for support in the form of drivers (bet Joseph Hock would appreciate a REAL Denali showing up about now!)
Please continue to share this information with your networks and help draw attention to this issue: please, let us walk the walk, draw the line in the sand. Let us use those treaties to sustain what is left of "America the Beautiful".
What is MOST needed right now are boots (and drivers) on the ground. Don't let Joseph Hock and David Gaskin go this alone, knowing that if they have to, they will.
For those who cannot provide on-the-ground logistical support, donations in any amount are also appreciated, and can be made here:
https://www.gofundme.com/...
Pump up the volume--not the pipelines….
Know that all your efforts--however great or small; whether you are Native or not matters NOT-are appreciated.
Please help this story/issue gain traction before it's too late because otherwise, it won't be just the little piggies in the oil industry weeping, "boom, boom, boom" all the way home--WE will be the ones paying the piper!
Chi-miigwech.
In smoke, in prayer, in gratitude.