A RESOLUTION IN OPPOSITION TO THE DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE STANDING ROCK SIOUX NATION

WHEREAS, the Standing Rock Sioux are proud, respectful and sovereign people, who self-govern their nation of approximately 8,508 people on a reservation that spans a vast but disputed land spanning geographical boundaries in North and South Dakota, and

WHEREAS, the Standing Rock Sioux respect our shared natural environment and work diligently, along with every other tribal nation, to safeguard it for future generations, and

WHEREAS, Phillips 66 and Energy Transfer Partners are Texas based oil companies that invest in, among other things, the construction of oil and gas pipelines, including what is known as the Dakota Access Pipeline, a $3.8 Billion, 30-inch diameter, 1,172-mile pipeline that will transport natural gas laden, hydro-fracked oil from the Bakken region of the North Dakota to Southern Illinois, and

WHEREAS, Energy Transfer Partners has a long history of violating environmental laws including pending lawsuits by the states of New Jersey, Vermont, Pennsylvania, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico as well as citations for releases of hazardous materials from its pipelines and facilities in Ohio, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Missouri, Texas, Pennsylvania, Texas and Hawaii, and

WHEREAS, the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline, which was fast-tracked using the Nationwide Permit Number 12 Process (which grants exemptions from environmental reviews required by the Clean Water Act and National Environmental Policy Act) would snake through treaty lands and ancestral burial grounds of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation before it bores under the Missouri River just a half mile away from their reservation border, thereby endangering both theirs and the nation’s natural water supply, and

WHEREAS, Energy Transfer Partners employees and contractors have already intentionally disrupted ancient burial sites, places of prayer and other significant cultural sites and artifacts in areas identified as scared by the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, and

WHEREAS, the Missouri River is the most significant tributary to the Mississippi River that serves tens of millions of Americans by providing a vast food and water supply, and

WHEREAS, pipelines spilled three times as much crude oil as trains between 2004-2014, largely because everything made by man will eventually either break or leak, and

WHEREAS, beginning in April of 2016, leaders of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation have organized an encampment along the Cannonball River where members of more than 280 tribes have camped in with their Brothers and Sisters where numbers have fluctuated between hundreds and thousands, thereby becoming not only the largest gathering of Native Americans in more than 100 years, but also the first time that all seven bands of the Sioux have come together as one since General George Custer’s ill-fated 1876 expedition at the Battle of Little Bighorn, and

WHEREAS, those largely peaceful protesters who are protecting their ancestral burial grounds, their water supply and our collective natural environment have been subjected to pepper spray, water cannons in near zero temperatures, mass arrests, assault by private security forces, dogs attacks characteristic of Pinkerton violence against the labor organizers in the late 1800’s or similar attacks on desegregation marchers in Birmingham in 1963, and

WHEREAS, according to the National Lawyers Guild, in approving the pipeline proposal, not only has it violated the collective human rights of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, but the Federal Government has also breached its obligations to the terms of the 1851 and 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaties between Oceti Sakowin and the United States, and

WHEREAS, the position of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation has been supported by hundreds of Tribal Nations, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior, the National Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, Labor Unions (including some from New York), the National Lawyers Guild, hundreds of city and municipal governments throughout the country, scores of environmental protection and civil rights groups.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Democratic Rural Conference of New York State stands in solidarity with our Brothers and Sisters of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation in opposition to construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline unless proper and ethical environmental reviews have been conducted.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Democratic Rural Conference of New York State believes that if the desecration of native burial grounds and an assault on our shared environment and natural waterways is allowed to continue in North Dakota, then it will open the door for the same thing to happen throughout the nation including, potentially, in New York State.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this resolution be distributed to President Barack Obama; Senate Minority Leader, Hon. Charles E. Schumer; Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand; Members of the New York State Congressional Delegation, the St. Regis Mohawk Nation Tribal Council, David Archambault II, Chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple, Lt. General Todd Semonite, Commanding General of the United States Army Corp of Engineers and Kelcy Warren, Chief Executive Officer of Energy Transfer Partners.

By: ______Date: ______

Mark Bellardini, Chair

St. Lawrence County

Democratic Committee