Letter: Pipeline protesters being mistreated
Demonstrators stand next to burning tires as armed soldiers and law enforcement officers assemble on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016, to force Dakota Access pipeline protesters off private land where they had camped to block construction. Credit: AP
My organization is outraged at how members of the Standing Rock Sioux and their supporters are being treated [“Protest camp removed,” News, Oct. 28].
Energy Transfer Partners is building an oil pipeline in North Dakota, which brings to light legal questions of federal law, treaty rights and tribal sovereignty. The project also presents an imminent danger to the water supply of the tribe. The tribe has documented that construction will destroy sacred sites and burial grounds.
Before these concerns were adequately addressed, Energy Transfer Partners hired people to use pepper spray and attack dogs on protesters who had gathered nonviolently. At the same time, before a court could rule, sacred grounds were destroyed.
The government has sent in militarized units to continue the attack at Standing Rock. Arrests have been made of some indigenous men and women and some have been forced to endure strip searches.
Sharon Stanley, Westbuy
Editor’s note: The writer is a co-chapter chair of Humanists of Long Island.
