Lakota people secure deal to reclaim sacred site in Black Hills

Lakota people secure deal to reclaim sacred site in Black Hills

By Lakota People’s Law Project and Last Real Indians

Last Saturday, at a press conference in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, Lakota leaders of the movement to secure the Lakota pilgrimage site Pe’ Sla for the Sioux Nation announced that the tribes will purchase the 2000 acres of sacred land in the Black Hills. After several weeks of intense fundraising, the nine tribes raised enough to make a deal with the current owners of Pe’ Sla, Leonard and Margaret Reynolds—though details of the arrangement are still being negotiated. The fundraising effort on the part of the Sioux tribes was begun by Attorney Chase Iron Eyes, and the negotiations were carried out in part by Cheyenne River Tribal Councilwoman Robin Lebeau. Both leaders spoke on Saturday. Saturday’s action was organized by Last Real Indians and the Lakota People’s Law Project, two organizations operating in South Dakota that support the return of the Black Hills to the Sioux.

Saturday’s action was organized by Last Real Indians and the Lakota People’s Law Project, two organizations operating in South Dakota that support the return of the Black Hills to the Sioux. The action took place in front of an enormous banner by artist Shepard Fairey and photographer Aaron Huey which read “The Black Hills Are Not For Sale,” a reference to the U.S.’s current policy of ignoring the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851). The treaty, unilaterally overturned by Congress in 1877, acknowledged Sioux ownership of the Black Hills. The United States has offered the tribes $105 million (plus interest) since 1979 as compensation for the seizure of the land, but the Sioux have refused it and maintain that the land belongs to them.

Shepard Fairey created the red and blue “Hope poster” for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, and Aaron Huey is the photographer who co-created last month’s National Geographic cover story about the Pine Ridge Reservation. The banner art was driven from California to South Dakota by the Lakota People’s Law Project, an organization which works to return Lakota children from state-run foster care to their families and tribes.

Speakers at Saturday’s press conference were Chase Iron Eyes, spokesperson for the Pe’ Sla movement; Robin Lebeau, tribal councilwoman from the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe; Madonna Thunder Hawk, activist and tribal liaison for the Lakota People’s Law Project; Phyllis Young, activist and tribal councilwoman for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe; and Joe Brings Plenty, former tribal council chairman for the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe.

Iron Eyes described the process by which his organization, Last Real Indians, conducted a fundraising effort to save Pe’ Sla, raising $300,000. This sum was combined with $1.3 million put forth by the Rosebud Sioux tribe, enough to seal the land deal. Mr. Iron Eyes, an attorney in his mid thirties, discussed the teachings concerning the Black Hills that he received from his elders a a youth: “Its back, we’re talking about the Black Hills again, and it’s the right time for it to happen.” Councilwoman Lebeau, also under forty, described the complicated negotiations by which the tribes acquired the land. She implored the tribes to come together: “What I want to stress is unity… All I am asking for you [Sioux] to do is to take [the idea of Pe’ Sla] back to who whomever your spiritual leaders are—your treaty councils, your IRAs—and let’s come together.” Thunder Hawk talked of the importance of land possession to Sioux identity, saying “The land the priceless. The land is who we are. That’s why we still are who we are, because we have a land base…It doesn’t matter how much money the tribes have to put up for Pe’ Sla. We have to have it.” Councilwoman Young, who participated in the conference calls during which the land deal occurred, thanked both her fellow Sioux negotiators and the Reynolds family for obliging Sioux appeals. “As we continue to renew our belief systems and ceremonies, we urge our people to…continue as human beings to contribute and share our lifesystems with the world…so that Pe’ Sla becomes a universal symbol of peace everywhere.” Former tribal chairman Brings Plenty discussed the Sioux struggle for self-empowerment and the role that land plays in it. “This Pe’ Sla movement, it is a victory.”

The organizers of Saturday’s press conference are holding a rally in Rapid City this Wednesday, September 5, to celebrate the purchase of Pe’ Sla. It will be at the Memorial Park Band Shell at 5 PM.

From Intercontinental Cry: http://intercontinentalcry.org/lakota-announce-new-deal-with-landowners-for-the-return-of-pe-sla/

Sexual violence, breast cancer, and birth defects: how fracking impacts women

By Sara Jerving / PR Watch

Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” has generated widespread media attention this year. The process, which injects water and chemicals into the ground to release “natural” gas and oil from shale bedrock, has been shown to contribute significantly to air and water pollution and has even been linked to earthquakes. But little has been reported on the ways in which fracking may have unique impacts on women. Chemicals used in fracking have been linked to breast cancer and reproductive health problems and there have been reports of rises in crimes against women in some fracking “boom” towns, which have attracted itinerant workers with few ties to the community.

Toxins in Fracking Process Linked to Breast Cancer

Not only has the chemical cocktail inserted into the ground been shown to contaminate groundwater and drinking water, but fracking fluid also picks up toxins on its trip down to the bedrock and back up again that had previously been safely locked away underground. Chemicals linked to cancer are present in nearly all of the steps of extraction — in the fracking fluids, the release of radioactive and other hazardous materials from the shale, and in transportation and drilling related air pollution and contaminated water disposal.

Some reports indicate that more than 25 percent of the chemicals used in natural gas operations have been linked to cancer or mutations, although companies like Haliburton have lobbied hard to keep the public in the dark about the exact formula of fracking fluids. According to the U.S. Committee on Energy and Commerce, fracking companies used 95 products containing 13 different known and suspected carcinogens between 2005 and 2009 as part of the fracking fluid that is injected in the ground. These include naphthalene, benzene, and acrylamide. Benzene, which the U.S. EPA has classified as a Group A, human carcinogen, is released in the fracking process through air pollution and in the water contaminated by the drilling process. The Institute of Medicine released a report in December 2011 that links breast cancer to exposure to benzene.

Up to thirty-seven percent of chemicals in fracking fluids have been identified as endocrine-disruptors — chemicals that have potential adverse developmental and reproductive effects. According to the U.S. EPA, exposure to these types of chemicals has also been implicated in breast cancer.

The Marcellus Shale in the northeast part of the United States also naturally contains radioactive materials, including radium, which is largely locked away in the bedrock. The New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) analyzed 13 samples of water, contaminated by the fracking process, as a result of the hydraulic fracturing of the shale during the extraction process. The DEC found that the resulting water contained levels of radium-226, some as high as 267 times the limit for safe discharge into the environment and more than 3000 times the limit safe for people to drink. One gas well can produce over a million gallons of contaminated water. A New York Times expose in 2011, released secret EPA documents that illustrated how this water is sometimes sent to sewage plants that are not designed to process the dangerous chemicals or radiation which in some instances are used in municipal drinking supplies or are released into rivers and streams that supply drinking water.

Emerging data points to a problem requiring more study. In the six counties in Texas which have seen the most concentrated gas drilling, breast cancer rates have risen significantly, while over the same period the rates for this kind of cancer have declined elsewhere in the state. Similarly, in western New York, where traditional gas drilling processes have been used for decades before hydrofracking came along, has been practiced for nearly two centuries, rural counties with historically intensive gas industry activity show consistently higher cancer death rates (PDF) than rural counties without drilling activity. For women, this includes breast, cervix, colon, endocrine glands, larynx, ovary, rectal, uterine, and other cancers.

Toxins linked to Spontaneous Abortion and Birth Defects

Certain compounds, such as toluene, that are released as gas at the wellhead and also found in water contaminated by fracking have the potential to harm pregnant women or women wishing to become pregnant. According to the U.S. EPA, studies have shown that toluene can cause an assortment of developmental disorders in children born to pregnant women that have been exposed to toulene. Pregnant women also carry an increase risk of spontaneous abortion from exposure to toluene. Wyoming, which contains some of the most active drilling fields in the country, failed to meet federal standards for air quality due to fumes containing toluene and benzene in 2009.

Sandra Steingraber, an acclaimed ecologist and author of “Raising Elijah” — a book on how to raise a child in an age of environmental hazards, takes the strong stand that fracking violates a woman’s reproductive rights. “If you want to plan a pregnancy and someone else’s chemicals sabotage that — it’s a violation of your rights as a woman to have agency over your own reproductive destiny,” she said.

Steingraber sees banning fracking as an issue that both the pro-choice and anti-abortion camps can both rally behind. She has been giving talks on why opposition to fracking should be considered a feminist issue. The author won a Heinz award — which recognizes individuals for their contributions in areas including the environment — for her work on environmental toxins. She dedicated the $100,000 prize to the fight against fracking.

Crimes Against Women on the Rise in Some Energy Boom Towns

Beyond concerns about cancer and toxins are other societal ills related to fracking that disproportionately impact women. Some areas across the country where fracking has boomed have noted an increase in crime — including domestic violence and sexual assault. In Dickinson, North Dakota, there has been at least a 300% increase in assault and sex crimes over the past year. The mayor has attributed the increase in crime to the oil and “natural” gas boom in their area.

The Executive Director of the Abuse & Rape Crisis Center in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, Amy Miller, confirmed that there has been an increase in unknown assailant rapes since the gas industry moved into the region — which are much harder to prosecute. Miller also noted that domestic abuse has spiked locally, with the cases primarily from gas industry families. The county has more than 700 wells drilled, with more than 300 of these operational, and another 2,000 drilling permits have been issued.

The Gas Industry’s Pink Rig

Even though fracking and drilling are dependent on a potpourri of carcinogenic chemicals, big energy companies don’t hesitate to slap on pink paint in PR campaigns championing breast cancer awareness.

In 2009, a natural gas drilling rig in Colorado was painted pink with a percentage of the daily profits from the unit going to the Breast Cancer Foundation. This and other showy gestures by the methane gas industry appear to do little to alleviate concerns about the impact that fracking chemicals and practices may be having on public health and safety.

From TruthOut: http://truth-out.org/news/item/8336-the-fracking-frenzys-impact-on-women