Science
Standing Rock Water Protectors: Climate Justice Showdown Still Hanging Fire In what defense attorneys are calling a major victory for their client and for the water protectors of Standing Rock, prosecutors have dropped all serious charges against former North Dakota congressional candidate Chase Iron Eyes in his case resulting from protests of the Dakota Access pipeline. Chief Iron Eyes, an attorney who works for the Lakota People’s Law Project, was facing a maximum of six years in state prison after his arrest for alleged criminal trespass and incitement of a riot near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation on February 1, 2017. “The world should know that it’s legally impossible for me and other Native people to trespass on treaty land," stated Chief Iron Eyes. Iron Eyes’ attorneys filed documents on Monday proving that his arrest occurred on treaty land never ceded by the Sioux tribe. The state of North Dakota ruled weeks ago that this land had never been acquired nor legally owned by pipeline parent company Energy Transfer Partners (ETP). "I and the water protectors are not terrorists. We and the US veterans who stood with us to protect Mother Earth are the true patriots,” said Iron Eyes. Romero Institute co-founder Daniel Sheehan was chief attorney on Iron Eyes’ defense team for the Lakota People’s Law Project. Lakota People's Law is an ongoing campaign of the Romero Institute, an interfaith, nonprofit law and public policy center that grew out of the Christic Institute, and which has been at the center of profoundly significant landmark legal cases for social and environmental justice since the 1980's. Radio Planet Watch is honored to host Daniel Sheehan's son, Lakota People's Law Project Program Director Danny Paul Nelson. Nelson, who holds a BA in Political Theory from Harvard and an MA in Social Science from the University of Chicago, speaks with Planet Watch hosts Jordan and Goodman about the recent legal victory from Standing Rock, and connections between indigenous rights and climate justice. “Our work to prepare Chase’s defense unveiled solid evidence of a racially motivated criminal alliance between the oil companies and the private military security industry (colluding with local, state, and federal law enforcement) to deny Native Americans and their allies their civil and treaty rights,” said Danny Paul. “Standing Rock focused the attention of the world on the importance of Native sovereignty and the needs to protect water and resist climate change. Chase’s willingness to pursue a 'necessity' defense has produced strong legal tools for future protesters.” Prior to the interview with Danny Paul on today's show, Planet Watch shared an audio clip from a just released video, We Are Not Terrorists. In the video, Iron Eyes and his team position their anti-pipeline protest in the context of what they assert to be a growing threat posed to civil liberties, embodied by the rise of antiprotest legislation and the burgeoning alliance between the oil companies and the private military security industry. The video is accompanied by an open letter to President Donald Trump. Danny Paul exposes a dangerous trend has emerging in Trump's America: The administration is opening Native American reservations and national monument lands to fossil fuel extraction, and activists are being targeted by law enforcement and treated like terrorists. Currently, 20 states have passed or are considering legislation that would curtail citizen rights to protest environmental destruction and human rights violations. Moving forward, Lakota People’s Law Project Chief Counsel Daniel Sheehan and the entire team will continue to strategically confront the fossil fuel industry and their destructive agenda, which threatens our water, our planet, and the entire human family. Positive steps forward now include the Green the Rez initiative.