I first heard it from Dallas Goldtooth. There was just an announcement, the Army Corps of Engineers would deny the permit. It should mean an Evironmental Impact Study. Everyone is happy, everyone is celebrating.
I thought about January 1. When the contracts are up. When they’re supposed to have oil flowing through a pipeline, customers waiting for delivery, ready to renegotiate.
They say they’ll continue drilling underneath the Missouri River anyway, without the permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. They’re doing whatever they want. They have billion dollar contracts to play around with.
So the people will stay, and pray, and gather, and live. Some will go. They’ll go back to their own communities, with experience. New found skills in direct action, new lessons in how to work quickly on the ground, how to pray with one another every day, the power and challenges of gathering with a common goal, to live and survive.
And that will be the interesting thing. What kind of action will spread across communities all over?
In solidarity with the humans of Standing Rock and all of this earth, in an effort to educate myself and draw my voice back in shape, I vow to speak/reflect/investigate/act every day of December on the issues entangling the Dakota Excess Pipeline.
