UPDATE:David Meyer, who sold the Cannnonball Ranch to DAPL, also has a grazing lease on the 429 acres owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers just north of the Cannonball River where the main encampment is located. If you remember, the special permit issued by the Corps last week did not include this land, due "to grazing rights."
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Water and sacred land protectors near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota are facing a formidable foe. Months of prayerful and peaceful protest have come under additional assault with the sale of private land adjoining the protest area to Dakota Access LLC. The Dakota Access Pipeline now owns the Cannonball Ranch, where there are known and unknown burial grounds. This puts additional mapping of spiritual sites essential to tribal identity in jeopardy. Adding to the insult and uncertainty, there is a 1500-foot easement on either side of the property, according to protest spokespeople.
In an emotional appeal yesterday at the Protecting Native Land and Resources, Rejecting North Dakota Pipeline Forum, Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II invoked the memory of Sitting Bull as he pleading for a future that includes clean water for future generations.
Sitting Bull came from Standing Rock and one the most famous quotes that he has is, "Let's put our minds together and see what we can build for our children." So today as this is the topic, something that guides us in our decision-making as leaders: We are putting our minds together so that the kids, the ones not yet born, have something better than what we have today.
At the same forum, Archambault broke the news that the Cannonball Ranch was sold to the pipeline company.
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