The Pipeline, as it is now being constructed, runs from Alberta Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, pumping hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil. This pipeline is being built to go directly through the ancestral land of the Seven Council Fires of Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people. These tribes have called this land home for several thousand years, and they have a claim to the land outside of the colonial barriers that were put into place during western settlement. Not only is it disturbing the land, it severely threatens the water and life source for these people. The pollution physically harms the land and the people, while also being a reminder of the systematic oppression of Indigenous people in the United States.
These tribes are not passively letting this happen. For the past several years, they have been actively fighting and protesting to protect their land from destruction. However, in March of 2019, the state of South Dakota signed a bill known as the “Riot Booting Act” The bill signed into law by Governor Kristi Noem. It was a policy enacted to protect the progress of the pipeline and the large companies that benefit from its' oil, rather than protecting the people of South Dakota.
This new policy allowed South Dakota to sue any individual or organization for encouraging or enacting a protest where acts of violence occur. They do not define what their terms of violence mean, but it extends past a clear and present danger. Along with the lawsuits, this law could make individuals criminally or civilly liable even if they “do not personally participate in any riot but directs, advises, encourages or solicits other persons participating in the riot.”
The ACLU has been working with the NDN Collective and has filed a federal lawsuit to challenge the Riot Boosting Act because it violates their First Amendment rights and the Due Process Clause of the Constitution. This law extends past prosecuting violence in protest, but also works to silence anyone who is involved in the protest. It calls back to a time in the United States that speaking out against the government could have you thrown in jail during WWI and the Red Scare.
What is defined as a riot is usually racist and does not account for the mass violence that is systematically enforced on Indigenous nations. Since 2008, military-grade forces have been doing everything they can to silence these protestors as they fight for their homeland. They have a right to protest, to assemble, to petition, to exist in the spaces that they belong to. It more than just a dispute over land, it's a means of survival for the people of the Seven Council Fires.
Earlier last week, South Dakota agreed not to enforce to Riot Booting Act. Governor Noem still notes that is is illegal to violently riot in South Dakota, but her state can longer enforce a restrictive policy against protestors.
The Riot Booting Act seems like an obvious violation of the First Amendment to me, and I'm glad that the state of South Dakota has decided to not enforce the act, though it does worry me that the law was passed in the first place. Like what was said in the blog post, this is a clear example of government trying to protect the interests of corporations instead of people. I’d argue that it’s unethical for government to promote the interests of the fossil fuel industry in general but using eminent domain to promote those interests is even more reprehensible. And it’s even worse because the concerns of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota peoples are more than legitimate. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, pipeline accidents have spilled an average of more than 3 million gallons of oil per year in the U.S. since 1986. In fact, a little over a week ago it was reported that a portion of the Keystone pipeline (though it wasn’t part of the controversial XL expansion) spilled more than 380,00 gallons of oil, covering approximately half an acre of North Dakota wetland. This is just another example that proves the claim made by protesters and others who oppose the pipeline: It isn’t a question of if a pipeline will spill, but when.
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