Efforts to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline have drawn attention across the country. As you will read below, the Quakers in the Baltimore region have been moved to take a stand. The publicity from the pipeline also has highlighted other problems in Indian Country.
For example, a group of Dakota/Lakota youth credit their local Boys & Girls Club for helping them become leaders in efforts to protect land and water near the Standing Rock Reservation. They started a petition against the pipeline as well as a fundraiser on the website Change.org.
These youth also say that their Club is almost out of money and could shut down. In a recent update, they wrote:
On Standing Rock, like many other reservations, there is a severe lack of opportunities and resources for Native youth to grow and learn in a safe environment. Because of this, many young people struggle with addiction, and suicide is an all too common occurrence.
One of the ways our community works to combat this is with youth groups, which provide mentoring, tutoring, and youth leadership programs for kids in Standing Rock. In fact, it’s thanks to our local Boys & Girls club that many of the young people behind this petition felt empowered to take part in the movement against the pipeline.
But if our club can’t raise enough money, it’s about to shut down for good.
Here is a link to the full post and to the fundraiser. Help if you can.
For on the pipeline, fry bread, an art competition and Quakers, keep reading.
Fry Bread Fundraiser for Standing Rock
Tomorrow, Friday, All Saints Indian Mission, 3044 Longfellow Ave. S. in Minneapolis, is hosting a Fry Bread Taco and Beadwork Sale to support the work at the Standing Rock Reservation to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline.
It will run from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. or until supplies run out.
According to a website, its mission is: “Bringing communities together to support the protection of clean water for generations present and future. To better the environment one step at a time by standing together.” Click on the link for more details.
Baltimore Area Quakers Latest Religious Group to Show Support for Standing Rock
The Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) approved a statement supporting the Standing Rock Reservation’s opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline. (Baltimore’s Annual Meeting is a regional association of 54 Quaker Meetings with more than 7,000 Quakers in Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
In its Oct. 15 statement, called a “Minute,” the Quakers said:
The Baltimore Yearly Meeting supports the sovereign government and people of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe as they wage a nonviolent, legal battle against those who would endanger their heritage and their future natural resources. The wise leaders and their supporters are strong in spirit and wisdom, in patience and in vision. The Lakota and Dakota people, with their allies, have inspired unity among Native nations and others in their quest to save their lands and people from harm. They are waging this moral and legal struggle not for themselves, but for future generations.
It is the latest in a string of statements from religious organizations that have spoken up in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s efforts to preserve its sacred lands and water. (A previous blog has links to statements by the ELCA, the Presbyterian Church U.S.A, the Episcopal Church, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Minnesota Annual Conference of Methodists, and others.)
ELCA Pastor Joann Conroy (Oglala) on Standing Rock
Pastor Joann Conroy (Oglala) is the President of the ELCA American Indian/Alaska Native Lutheran Association and a friend of Healing Minnesota Stories. Here is what she posted on the organization’s Facebook page Oct. 12 — Indigenous Peoples Day — on the Dakota Access Pipeline standoff.
As I read and watch the unjust treatment of our people at Standing Rock Sacred Stone Camp in ND; crimes against our black brothers and sisters and against other people of ethnic descent, I can hardly hold back tears and the sadness of my heart.
From the Gospel of Luke 18: 1-8 we hear “this parable that serves to encourage those suffering injustice to continue their complaints and calls for justice. … Sometimes it takes extreme, even socially unacceptable behavior to affect change. … God gives special attention to those who are most vulnerable; therefore we should persist in our complaints, even to the point of embarrassing the powers that be in order to induce change.”
A Call for Artists for Standing Rock!
The American Indian Community Housing Organization (AICHO) in Duluth will be hosting an art exhibition / concert / community feast / benefit titled Standing Strong for Our Precious Water on Friday, December 9, 2016. More details to come. Right now, they are looking for visual artists to submit work in any medium for display. They encourage artists interested in selling their pieces to contribute a portion of their profit to the Standing Rock cause.
Submit works of art to standingrockexhibit@gmail.com – from there, you will be notified if your work has been selected. Artwork must relate back to the #NoDAPL Movement, Standing Rock, or the sacredness of water. You will have until December 1, 2016 to drop-off your work.
Questions? Email standingrockexhibit@gmail.com or contact Wendy (607-760-8235) or Moira (call only, 218-722-7225).
Native-led Standing Rock Panel Discussion
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