Apr 28, 2016 - Run For Your Life: NO DAPL A Relay Run In Opposition of Dakota Access Pipeline

For Immediate Release: April 27th, 2016

Run For Your Life: NO DAPL Contact:
Media contact personnel, Jessye Stein, peopleoverpipelines@gmail.com , 605-223-5930
Other: Manape LaMere (712)-204-0570
Joseph White Eyes (605)-200-1044
Donnielle Wanatee (641)-481-6152

Omaha, NE – In solidarity with the ongoing fight against the Dakota Access pipeline, a group of Native and Non-native youth have organized a 500-mile spiritual relay run from Cannonball, ND to the district office of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in Omaha, NE. The run is titled “Run For Your Life: No DAPL.” It departed the Cannonball community on April 24th, 2016 and plans to arrive in Omaha on May 3rd, 2016. The intention of the run is to deliver a unified statement to the USACE in resistance to the oil pipeline that proposed to cross beneath sacred water needed for life. The runners will will also turn over a petition calling for a full EIS to be conducted on the Bakken pipeline.

The running group is currently in Lake Andes, SD and plans for one day of rest, departing for Santee, NE on Thursday, April 28th.The participating runners are comprised of concerned citizens from across North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa.

For the past several months, Native and non-Native peoples in the Midwest have been battling the construction of the Dakota Access/Bakken pipeline, a project that will go from North Dakota into South Dakota, Iowa and southern Illinois. If constructed, this large-scale pipeline will cross the 12,000 year-old Missouri River, one of the largest water resources in the United States that supports millions of people with drinking and irrigation water. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has stated that they will make the final decision on Dakota Access, LLC’s final permit needed to construct the Dakota Access/Bakken Pipeline no later than May 6th, 2016 .

Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), owned by Energy Transfer Partners, L.P., is proposed to transport 450,000 barrels per day of Bakken crude oil from the lands of North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois. Dakota Access Pipeline is proposed to cross under the Missouri River twice, and poses as a threat to the sacred waters that the entire breadbasket of America depends on. . The construction of Dakota Access will threaten everything from farming and drinking water to entire ecosystems, wildlife and food sources surrounding the Missouri.

Group Statement:
“We ask that everyone stand with us against this threat to our health, our culture, and our sovereignty. We ask that everyone who lives on or near the Missouri River and its tributaries, everyone who farms or ranches in the local area, and everyone who cares about clean air and clean drinking water stand with us against the Dakota Access Pipeline!”

QUOTES FROM INDIVIDUAL RUNNERS AND SUPPORTERS:

Bobbi Jean Three Legs, Standing Rock Member, Lead Run Coordinator states: “I am doing Run For Your Life: No DAPL because I want the younger generations to know what they are looking forward to in the future if this pipeline comes through. I am running for the whole Oceti Sakowin. I am carrying all their prayers on the road with us. Water is essential to everyday life. Why hasn’t someone even given a thought about the 3 to 4million people who use our Missouri River water? It is 2016, and here we are fighting our battles, running across the state of South Dakota to show our statement.”

Manape LaMere, Community Organizer, Nebraska Segment Run Coordinator: “I have to paraphrase Russell Means: ”Welcome To the Reservation.” The Dakota Access Pipeline is going to affect everyone. These issues have been faced by Reservations since they were created. The Dakota Access Pipeline is now facing everyone… We need to stand for water.”

Waniya Locke (Ahtna Dene, Dakota, Lakota, Anishinaabe) Standing Rock Descendent, Logistics Coordinator states: “We do not need oil to live, but we do need water, and water is a human right and not a privilege.”

Roni Starlin, Santee Nebraska tribal citizen, Santee Segment Run Coordinator states:
“We as a tribe here in Santee, NE are running to oppose the DAPL to ensure our future generations are well and taken care of. We are borrowing this land from our grandchildren so we need to take care of our main life source: water. Without clean water we will cease to survive, thus exterminating our own existence. We are running for our future generations.”

Mona Young Bear (Eagle Butte CRST): “I’m here to support the runners, and for future generations to come.”

Melvin Young Bear (Eagle Butte CRST): “I am happy to be here and I am doing this for the generations way down the line. It’s them that we’re doing this for.

Chris Walton (Washington DC, Maryland): “I’m happy to be running and supporting my significant other Bobbi Jean. I’m running for everyone, we deserve clean water. We all deserve a future. Without water there is no future.”

Jasilyn Charger (Eagle Butte CRST): “I’m representing the two spirit oyate. I’m running for my brothers and my sisters across the world who stand in resistance. I run for every man, woman, and child that was, that is, and for those who will come to be. I run for my life, because I want to live.

Joseph White Eyes (eagle butte SD CRST): “I’m running against the Dakota Access pipeline not just to stop it, but to create strong unity within the Oceti Sakowin again.”

Dennis Sans the Third (Eagle Butte, SD CRST): “I’m running for my people.”

Dallas Goldtooth, Organizer with Indigenous Environmental Network: “We can not accept the risks an oil spill will cause upon the heartland of America. We cannot accept the trespassing across Oceti Sakowin lands by Big Oil. We cannot accept locking ourselves into more fossil fuels when Mother Earth demands us to leave fossil fuels in the ground. This Dakota Access pipeline is all risk, no reward. Simple as that.”