Citibank Targeted at Sacramento Picket in Solidarity With Standing Rock Sioux

By Dan Bacher |

After news that Native Americans were attacked by dogs and private security guards at the encampment against the Dakota Access Pipeline on Saturday, a series of support actions in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Nation and those fighting the pipeline will be starting today through Friday this week in Sacramento.

On Wednesday, September 7, there will be a picket at Citibank (1116 Alhambra Blvd, Sacramento, CA 95816) at 12:15 p.m. For more information, contact, Phillip Kim, California Labor for Bernie Sanders, phillipkim@gmail.com, 301-518-2631.

Citibank is being targeted because it is one of the financial institutions whose loans have funded the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

There are also 2 solidarity events scheduled on Friday: 11 a.m. at the Sacramento County Courthouse, 720 9th St.

12 p.m. at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office, 1325 J St. 

More information is available here. 

On Sunday,  September 4, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) to “prevent further destruction of the Tribe’s sacred sites” by Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).  The U.S. District judge denied the TRO as requested by the Tribe.

“Today’s denial of a temporary restraining order against Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) west of Lake Oahe puts my people’s sacred places at further risk of ruin and desecration," said David Archambault II, Chairman of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. “We are disappointed that the U.S. District Court’s decision does not prevent DAPL from destroying our sacred sites as we await a ruling on our original motion to stop construction of the pipeline.”

Thousands of people from more than 200 Native Tribes have joined the Standing Rock Sioux’s efforts to protect their lands, waters and sacred sites from harm during construction of the 1,200-mile pipeline. The Yurok, Hoopa Valley, Winnemem Wintu and other Tribes from California and the Klamath Tribes of Oregon have passed resolutions in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux while tribal members have traveled to the camp to join the defenders.

On Saturday, private security guards working for DAPL unleashed attack dogs on American Indian water protectors, drawing outrage from people throughout the country and world. 

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On the same day, “Dakota Access Pipeline and Energy Transfer Partners brazenly used bulldozers to destroy our burial sites, prayer sites and culturally significant artifacts,” Chairman Archambault said in a press release. “They did this on a holiday weekend, one day after we filed court papers identifying these sacred sites. The desecration of these ancient places has already caused the Standing Rock Sioux irreparable harm. We’re asking the court to halt this path of destruction.”

After the initial destruction Saturday, Dakota Access Pipeline returned to the area and dug up additional grounds in the pre-dawn hours Sunday, Archambault said.

The motion sought to prevent additional construction work on an area two miles west of North Dakota Highway 1806, and within 20 miles of Lake Oahe until a judge rules on the Tribe’s previous motion to stop construction, according to Archambault. That motion is based on the Standing Rock Sioux’s assertion that it was not properly consulted before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers fast-tracked approval of the pipeline project. 

A decision on the case, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is expected by Sept. 9.

“Destroying the Tribe’s sacred places over a holiday weekend, while the judge is considering whether to block the pipeline, shows a flagrant disregard for the legal process,” said Jan Hasselman, attorney for the Standing Rock Sioux. “The Tribe has been seeking to vindicate its rights peacefully through the courts. But Dakota Access Pipeline used evidence submitted to the Court as their roadmap for what to bulldoze. That’s just wrong.”

If built, the 1,200-mile pipeline would carry a half-million barrels of crude oil across the Tribe’s treaty lands each day, according to the Tribe.

In a message on Tuesday, September 6, Chairman Archambault said, "Today, as we remain peaceful and prayerful, I feel we are turning the corner! As the injustices implemented on our indigenous rights and lands start to surface, eventually, this great nation will do the right thing and stop the pipeline from crossing our water!"

As detailed in a report just released by Food & Water Watch, the Standing Rock Sioux are not just up against the oil and gas industry and the federal government. “They are up against the many of the most powerful financial and corporate interests on Wall Street, the profit-driven institutions that are bankrolling this pipeline plan and so many others like it throughout the country,” according to Jo Miles and Hugh MacMillan. 

Seventeen financial institutions, including Citibank, Wells Fargo, and BNP Paribas,l have loaned Dakota Access LLC $2.5 billion to construct the pipeline. Banks have also committed substantial resources to the Energy Transfer Family of companies so it can build out more oil and gas infrastructure:

• Energy Transfer Partners has a revolving credit line of $3.75 billion toward expanding its oil and gas infrastructure holdings, with commitments from just 26 banks.
• Sunoco Logistics has a credit line with $2.5 billion in commitments from just 24 banks.
• Energy Transfer Equity has a credit line with another $1.5 billion in commitments from most of the same big international banks.  To read the full article, go to: www.foodandwaterwatch.org/...'s-banking-dakota-access-pipeline