The events of the 20th of November convinced me that I was going to go up to Standing Rock, and join the Water Protectors for a few days, at least. As I started getting prepared, Wesley Clark Jr. announced the "Veterans Stand With Standing Rock" mission, and it seemed like a good way for me to go up there. Unfortunately, it overlapped with my work schedule, but I managed to move a trip back, and have barely enough time to go up there with them, and back.

Less than 200 miles away from Standing Rock, another pipeline has broken and is dumping oil into someone's water (my bold in quote below)

A leak from a six-inch pipeline prompted the shutdown. The 783-mile pipeline transports crude oil in the Williston Basin of western North Dakota and eastern Montana, according to the company website.
It is not the first time the Bell Fourche Pipeline has had a spill.
According to records from US Department of Transportation, the company has had 10 reported spills over the past five years. Those spills accounted for the loss of nearly 5,000 barrels of oil and caused $2.26 million in property damage.

Yesterday we decided to brave the cold and ride our bikes to yoga. Cold is relative of course, was up to 40F with a wind. Thinking about the Water Protectors spurred us on, up there in North Dakota where cold is damn cold.

On December 5, two masked men used their vehicles to block a car with two water protectors inside and then verbally assaulted and threatened them with violence. One of the attackers then chased another man, who was filming the encounter. The two videos below are two different views, one from inside the car, the other from outside the car. Warning: violent language and aggressive threats (each vid is 2-3 mins). I can't seem to embed the FB video, but the first link below is from inside the car.
**Edited: I found a Youtube version of the video from inside the car
https://www.facebook.com/100008607349356/videos/vb.100008607349356/16171...[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kfw6yxZRrs]

For the moment, the Dakota Access Pipeline has legally been delayed, but there are two important things to remember, in my opinion. First, Energy Transfer Partners and its investors have no intention of complying with the Army Corps of Engineers. Second, there are hundreds of pipelines and other extractive industries crisscrossing this country, all of which threaten indigenous lands, clean water, and air quality.

Is it over? I hope so, but I'm afraid not...

It looks like the Army Corps of Engineers has denied permission to Energy Transfer Partners to drill under Lake Oahe.

I have seen confirmation from Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network, and David Archambault, the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux, has issued a statement (I'm looking for the exact text). Text is below i comments in two parts

Oceti Sakowin from the air, December 3

MANDAN – Sheriff’s deputies in riot gear welcomed gifts donated by Oceti Sakowin and International Indigenous Youth Council Friday when the No DAPL activists delivered boxes filled from the department’s winter donation list.

Malcolm Gladwell, a gifted writer, popularized the idea of "tipping points". This concept is not limited to any one aspect of civil or even military life. It applies to animate and inanimate subjects.