This past Sunday, the United States Army Corps of Engineers denied the Energy Transfer Partners’ Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) permit that would have sent a portion of the 1,172-mile pipeline under the nation’s largest fresh water river, the Missouri River.
This act would have threatened numerous sacred sites, but also, most importantly, the fresh water of all those downriver, including the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation whose sovereign land is dependent on access to fresh, clean water. The DAPL pipeline was originally scheduled to run north of Bismarck, North Dakota, but the residents complained and it was re-routed to Native American land.
The permit to cross the river was the last piece of the pipeline that the Native Americans going by the name of Water Protectors - as they call themselves - have been protesting since April of this year.
And while the permit has been denied and the Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II is urging the Water Protectors to leave the Oceti Sakowin Camp, before many can depart the land, which is currently home to 5,000 residents living with up to two feet of snow, it will take some time to disassemble the structures that make up the encampment.
Rapid Growth is joining East Hills’ The Meanwhile to raise funds to assist with the Michigan Host Tent at Standing Rock, with 30 percent of the entire night's sales to be donated to our Water Protectors.
And while the event is all day, the special reception for this event will take place from 6-8 pm.
If you cannot make it and just want to donate directly to the to the Michigan Host Tent, please click
here.
Want more background on the event? Read about Rapid Growth’s Tommy Allen’s journey to Standing Rock in November and why this battle for fresh water will continue in our state -- you can visit our publisher’s in-depth story
here.
Admission: Free