Standing Rock and beyond

Al Letson:

But for Alice Brown Otter, it was a terrible thing. And just a few weeks later, in early March, she was getting ready to take her complaint to the President.

Al Letson:

A few days later, serious and unsmiling in her ribbon skirt, Alice stands right next to the tribal chairman, as he speaks to the crowd in front of the White House.

Leigh:

The road to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation is deserted. It’s mid-March, a week after Alice’s trip to Washington. The Missouri River is on my left, wide and frozen. The open prairie on my right is brown and also frozen. I look for the tribal radio station, KNLD.

Police:

Okay, get behind the pilot car, the next nine miles don’t stop, stay with the group, don’t stop your car, don’t slow down, just don’t get out of your car.

Leigh:

Security’s tight, because back in October, protestors lit vehicles on fire, on top of a nearby bridge, and law enforcement closed the road. The road is now reopened, but you have to follow a pilot car. I’ve seen this area on the news so many times, but it looks completely different now. In the distance, I can see some dark pipes lined up at the pipeline construction site, then we pass what’s left of the protest camps. Just a couple of tents, and a muddy spot near the river.

Leigh:

The Standing Rock Youth Council opens with a prayer. The group does things like hold clean-up days and dinners to honor tribal elders. Today, they’re meeting in a loud, echoing community center in Wakpala, South Dakota.

Tokata:

We have to talk about the color of our t-shirts, and raising …

Aleigha :

Leigh:

When you think back to the early days, could you ever have imagined how big this was gonna get?

Alice:

We had a meeting with the Army Corps of Engineers, and …

Leigh:

Another thing tribal youth did?

Speaker 2:

But it wasn’t long before thousands started pouring in to Standing Rock from all over the country, and the world. The protest camps became a symbol of Native empowerment, and fighting big oil, and the federal government.

Speaker 2:

In September, the Obama administration ordered pipeline construction near the Missouri river to stop, while it reconsidered the legality of the project. Here’s youth council president Takoda Iron Eyes again.

Takoda IronEyes:

Yeah, because everything manmade breaks at some point.

Speaker 2:

By the fall of last year, police were clashing with protestors using tasers, tear gas, and water cannons. Some protestors blocked roads, and railroad tracks. Over 700 people were arrested over the course of the protests, and the Obama administration was letting it all play out while it decided whether or not to grant a key permit needed to build under the river. And then, on December 4th, a turning point.

Speaker 9:

The corps of engineers is gonna deny the easement.

Speaker 2:

This was a huge deal. President Obama had come through. For people here, Obama was making good on a commitment he’d made to help the tribe before Dakota Access was even on the radar.

Barack Obama:

People of Standing Rock, people of Indian country-

Speaker 2:

What was it like when you walked in?

Kendrick Eagle:

Other people abusing them, touching them, and spanking them and stuff.

Speaker 2:

He said the Standing Rock youth reminded him of his own daughters.

Kendrick Eagle:

Right there it gave us a spark like, “Man, we got the president got our back,” and we got all these programs.

Dana Yellow Fat:

One of the biggest things and the biggest fears that I have is our youth taking their own lives, and it’s happened a lot on Standing Rock. It was a national story, that’s what we were known for.

Aleah Eagle:

Well, when I was younger, my cousin, she committed suicide, and it was really hard for me because we were really close and we used to live here together for a while, and then three days after that, my brother was murdered, and for a while there, after all that happened, I didn’t really want anything to do with anybody, and I couldn’t be in a public setting for a really long time, or for even a short time without feeling like the world was gonna crash on me.

Speaker 2:

Being part of the pipeline protest, that changed something for her.

Aleah Eagle:

Like … I’m sorry for saying “like” so much, I’m just trying to find the right words for this. All I can really say is that it was pretty amazing, and it really helped me gain people skills and just actually enjoy being in a public setting again.

Monique Runnels:

In the very beginning of when camp first started, we did see quite a significant decrease in the number of referrals, and attempts, and ideations, and all of that.

Speaker 2:

Meaning suicidal thoughts. And there are other factors on the reservation of course. Education efforts around youth suicide, and the hiring of more mental health care professionals. Monique wouldn’t share those numbers with me. The tribe doesn’t allow it, but she hopes this change will last. It’s been about a year since the fight against Dakota Access got going. The young people who were so immersed in the protests are moving on with their lives, but they’ve changed. What I found in spending time with these kids, is that you really cannot overstate what the runs, the protests, the TV cameras … you can’t overstate the impact of all that. Here’s Aleah Eagle again.

Aleah Eagle:

It would be cool to look back on and think, “Wow, I was really one of those people that was in there, that was actually helping,” and even though I only have a small part in this, it’s a really big pride to actually be a part …

Alice:

Yeah. When we passed by the pipeline this morning, it just brought flashbacks of how it used to be when the movement first started, the good feeling when it was just innocent and it was really prayerful, and there was no harm and violence going on because the youth started it, and the youth wanted it a certain way. And then the flashback of the macing came, and that just put bad medicine on the movement.

Lee:

Tokata Iron Eyes, President of the Standing Rock Youth Council, the one who was talking about the headstone at their meeting, she’s going to continue her fight. The group just hosted its annual Youth Conference earlier this month. Hundreds of kids from other reservations were there.

Al:

Our story was produced by Lee Patterson from the Public Media Collaboration Inside Energy. They recently finished a TV documentary on tribes and energy development called “Beyond Standing Rock.” The Standing Rock Sioux tribe is not giving up. They’re still suing the federal government to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. They argue that communication about the project, known as consultation, was flawed, and that the government didn’t take their concerns seriously.

Al:

From the Center for Investigating Reporting and PRX, this is Reveal. I’m Al Letson. The fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline attracted a flood of people to the Standing Rock protest camp on the prairie. Some even came from other countries.

Konahoose:

You can see the sign right here of the underwater pipeline crossing.

Al:

In Canada, tribes are called First Nations. And Kanahoose belongs to the Shíshálh Nation. Now that she’s back home, she’s planning a protest in her own backyard. But this one will be a little different. The Trans-Belt Pipeline is already in the ground. It’s been there for 60 years. But its owner, a company in Houston called Kinder Morgan, wants to put another, bigger pipeline next to it. To stop them, Konahoose wants to set up traditional villages along the pipeline route.

Al:

Challenging jurisdiction, asserting our title. For her, this fight isn’t just about stopping a pipeline; it’s about staking a claim to the land for good. Because unlike almost everywhere else in North America, native people in this province never signed over this land to the government.

Al:

That might sound like a long shot. But courts in Canada have recently said that First Nations have a big say in what happens on their land. Reporter Patrick Michaels has a story of a First Nation in Vancouver that’s hoping to use that momentum to kill the Trans-Mountain Project.

Charlene:

See the bank here? It’s full of shell midden. And that’s proof that our ancestors lived here, cooked here, and ate here. And the midden has been slowly eroded away by all the tankers that have come in. We have about 60 tankers a year, and they’re proposing over 400 tankers a year.

Patrick:

Those ships will be loading up with oil just across the water from the reservation. The new pipeline would triple the output coming from Alberta’s Oil Sands and open it up to markets in Asia. Charlene hopes they don’t get the chance. She comes from a long line of what she calls “modern-day warriors.”

Dan George:

Thank you for helping me to become a warrior.

Charlene:

We reached out to our community, and everybody just saw no huge benefits, even though there was millions of dollars offered.

Speaker 1:

You know, there’s a time when you gotta get up off your couch and turn off your remote and turn off your TV games and stand up for something. Now I’m telling all of you. You guys, warrior up, for God’s sake.

Michael:

Yeah.

Michael:

It’s an expensive hobby is what it is.

Speaker 3:

Balance. My grandfather always said, “There’s no right and wrong in nature. There’s only balance.” And so, it’s our responsibility to make sure there’s not too much development, that there’s not too much of a carbon footprint. This, to us as caretakers of the land and all that, was put here for us to benefit and enjoy from, to live a good life.

Speaker 2:

Michael says they got money, about as much as they get from the government each year. Plus, some tighter safety controls, like a promise to use thicker pipe under river crossings, and he’s not an outlier. So far, 50 other first nations have cut a deal with Kinder Morgan.

Speaker 4:

Do we have every single landowner that’s in favor of it? No. But, we continue to work with them and continue to resolve their issues, find out what it is, and try and come to point where there is an acceptance of the pipeline going through their property.

Speaker 4:

And, I think it’s a mutual respect is understanding that not everybody believes the same things you do.

Sharlene:

No. There was no consultation that happened. They just kinda came into the territory and told us that they would make our land prosperous for us, and that we would see jobs come out of it, kinda like what they’re saying today.

Speaker 2:

But, things are different now. Canada has a progressive Prime Minister, who has promised to respect first nations. So, when indigenous leaders complained about the pipeline, they expected Justin Trudo to listen. Instead-

Speaker 2:

Trudo announced his decision last November. He says the first nations are split on transmountain, and no individual tribe gets a veto. After years of trying to work with the government, the Slawa Tooth had finally run out of options, except one. A few weeks later, they filed a lawsuit.

Speaker 2:

That’s Eugene Kong, a lawyer for the Slawa Tooth. The key to their lawsuit is that this land was never signed over to the government. In British Colombia, first nations in Canada just didn’t sign a treaty. That weird bit of history has opened up a door here that isn’t opened anywhere else in Canada or the U.S.

Speaker 2:

Back on the banks of the inland, with a pipeline just across the way, waves are lapping up on the shore. For Sharlene, this fight to protect the water is just the latest chapter in the Slawa Tooth fight for self-preservation.

Speaker 2:

The story of Watsak and the Salmon is a Slawa Tooth legend. The tribe included it in a report they submitted to the government because for them, it helps explain their unique connection to the water better than any official document could.

Sharlene:

It’s not just a political thing. It’s to the Earth and to the water and all those living beings that are with it.

Speaker 9:

That’s Reveal’s Patrick Michaels. So far, no date has been set for the Slawa Tooth court case, but Kinder Morgan plans to start construction on the pipeline in September. In a moment, we’ll come back to the States and visit a tribe that, instead of fighting energy development, decided to embrace it, and they’ve been counting the money ever since.

Speaker 10:

Dollar, dollar-

Speaker 13:

From the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, this is Reveal. I’m Al Lexon.

Speaker 13:

For four decades-

Itris:

You’re talking through this microphone.

Clement Frost:

Back in my younger days when I was younger, you know, it was a struggle, it wasn’t like here, like we got now, you know, for young people to look at, we didn’t have these things.

Clement Frost:

When they placed the tribes in different reservations, I don’t think they realized that our reservation was over a big part of the gas that’s underground.

Leonard Burch:

So it was our thinking at that time, we should maintain and control our own operation.

Sam Maynes:

Now they own hundreds of gas wells

Al Letson:

Here he is in that same documentary.

Leonard Burch:

It looks like a gas well.

Patric Michaels:

Where are we and what do you do here?

Al Letson:

Dan’s in his 30s, he wears his long black hair in a ponytail. His arm is tattooed with tribal symbols depicting a house raid.

Daniel Roddy:

If I was able to make decisions I would veer away from it cause we’re just like raping the earth and we cannot keep doing this or else everybody’s going to die.

Daniel Roddy:

So those ‘no DAPL’ signs that you saw standing strong were actually made by some people that work here. I personally made a couple of trips up there and I felt super drawn to it.

Daniel Roddy:

And I packed my SUV full of supplies and I made the trip up there and it took me two days and it was really cold. There was one camp that didn’t have enough wood to go throughout the night so they were really thankful for when we showed up.

Tom Shipps:

The Southern Indian tribe is very supportive of the concerns that’s been raised by other Indian tribes and I can tell you even those tribes that are against energy development on or near their own lands to the extent that that’s consistent with the exercise of their sovereignty.

Tom Shipps:

I can tell you the Southern Utean tribe was very actively involved in trying to develop a wind project on another Indian reservation. Ultimately it didn’t work out but the tribe looked at that very seriously and was very far along in the planning process before ultimately it didn’t proceed.

Clement Frost:

We’ve had visits from other tribes to come to talk to us and asking us “how did you do it?” You know. “What did you all have to do to make it work and where you’re at now?” You know.

Lee Patterson:

So, if an energy project came to the reservation that would bring jobs and revenue to do all sorts of projects, what would you say to that?

Dana Yellow Fat:

If the choice is between clean water for our future generations or a few dollars, there’s really no choice, it would have to be the clean water.

Dana Yellow Fat:

You know I hope and I pray that we always have that foresight to protect what we have now. I want to make sure that my grandkids can go someplace along the river and see something that my great grandfather saw without having to look at a big oil well.

Al Letson:

Back on the Southern Ute reservation there are hundreds of pump jacks and miles and miles of pipeline. Chairman Frost acknowledges that yes, they have changed the landscape, but they try to make up for it.

Al Letson:

But they haven’t had to ask for too much forgiveness, if you look at the Southern Ute’s pipelines, they do leak out thousands of barrels of chemically laced brine, that’s the salt watery byproduct that comes from drilling and when it seeps out, it can make farmland useless, but if you take the rate of spills from pipelines here on the reservation and compare them to pipelines across the rest of Colorado, it’s only half as bad. And while the energy infrastructure does loom large across parts of the reservation, it’s not everywhere.

Clement Frost:

Right now, the west side is our major development and the east side, the tribe has said no development, let’s keep that as wilderness as possible. There’s coal out there, there’s gas out there. That’s for the future of the younger generation.

Clement Frost:

There’s no word for goodbyes you know, the Uteny people never have words for goodbye, it just says we’ll see you.

Al Letson:

I’m Al Letson and we’ll see you next time.