Relatives,

This week the Indigenous people of Oceti Sakowin have begun the eviction process for the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines from our homelands. This is an invitation for our allies and other Indigenous peoples from Oceti Sakowin to stand with us. 


We need our allies to join us in this action, sign the eviction notice for allies here : [link removed]


If you are a citizen of an Oceti Sakowin nation join others in signing here : [link removed]


The Lakota, Nakota, and Dakota people have lived on these lands since time immemorial, long before the current settlers landed on Turtle Island. Lakota origins stories talk about a time when our ancestors emerged from the Black Hills, He Sapa, the center of everything that is. We have clung to these lands despite the genocide imposed upon us, even when the settler colonial state signed treaties with us that the according to their constitution states “treaties are the supreme law of the land.”


The letter is as follows:



Eviction Notice: 
DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE & KXL


We evict KXL and DAPL from our Lakota lands. 


Indigenous Peoples have lived on these lands since time immemorial, predating the Western concept of the nation state.  According to our history, we emerged from the Black Hills, He Sapa, the center of everything that is. 


The Oceti Sakowin and our allies signed treaties with the United States Government, which according to the US  Constitution, “treaties are the supreme law of the land.” The Ft. Laramie Treaty of 1868 acknowledges the sovereignty of the Oceti Sakowin, legally known as The Sioux Nation of Indians, over our lands “as long as the grass shall grow and the rivers will flow."


The Treaty states, “If bad men among the whites, or among other people subject to the authority of the United States, shall commit any wrong upon the person or property of the Indians, the United States will, upon proof made to the agent and forwarded to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs at Washington City, proceed at once to cause the offender to be arrested and punished according to the laws of the United States, and also reimburse the injured person for the loss sustained.”


Whereas corporations have fought hard to gain personhood, notably the right to freedom of religion (Burrell v Hobby Lobby) and freedom of political speech (Citizens United). We acknowledge the corporate personhood of the entities and owners of the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL pipeline in so far as they are the “bad men” mentioned in the Ft. Laramie Treaty. 


They attacked our people with dogs at Standing Rock, destroyed the graves of Indigenous ancestors, threaten our source of drinking water with deadly contamination, they use our water to build these pipelines, they bring their man camps that come with drugs and terrible violence, they build their pipelines across our lands without our consent. 


We hereby evict KXL and DAPL from our lands using our treaty rights. We also stand on our inherent rights as Indigenous people that are ours under Natural Law. 


We invoke our ancestors to be with us now, for our water, for our land, and the generations yet unborn.


__________
 
Will you join us? 
Mark K. Tilsen, Wahupa Luta, Oyupe Oglala Lakota
 

 

Allies can sign the eviction notice here : [link removed]
 

If you are a citizen of an Oceti Sakowin nation join others in signing here : [link removed]



The Indigenous Environmental Network - PO Box 485 - Bemidji - MN - 56619

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