#NoDAPL

The Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline (#NoDAPL) happening at the Sacred Stone Camp near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, have been in and out of News Feeds on Facebook for months, but they made headlines again as things took a violent turn this weekend.

People are rejecting the pipeline because they say it potentially threatens Native communities’ drinking water supply — and disturbs sacred areas. The goal of the water protectors is to block the final phase of pipeline construction. Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the oil pipeline, intends to complete the project — despite a request from the Army Corps of Engineers to cease construction until more is known about risks to the drinking water supply and the pipeline’s potential impact on the existing Native community there.

Despite an increasingly violent response by police, the water protectors say they have and intend to remain unarmed and nonviolent.

Winters in North Dakota are no joke: The average low temperature is 2 degrees Fahrenheit, so hypothermia and frostbite are a real concern for the water protectors, who have no plans to leave anytime soon. One advantage, however, is that Native people from the Plains are teaching the folks from warmer climates how to adapt, using lots of traditional methods from bonfires to longhouses. According to its website, the Sacred Stone Camp is “a peaceful, prayerful camp, so firearms and weapons are strictly forbidden, as are alcohol and drugs.”

Please call (202)-456-1111 to let the President know about this and tell him #NoDAPL.