Spirit Camp prayers oppose Bakken Pipeline

By Lauren Donovan, Bismarck Tribune

CANNON BALL, N.D. — It was lunch time and whoever was in camp was handed a plate of frank and beans, with a few chips on the side.

A fire of box elder and cottonwood crackled and smoked and a warm breeze chased the soot from one person to the next.

It was quiet and serene day this week at the camp founded to protest the Bakken oil pipeline, which will cross the Missouri River about a half mile from where tents and tepees are pitched in the dry grass against budding bull berry bushes.

The camp just north of the town of Cannon Ball on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation has been occupied for two weeks now. People are coming and going, sleeping in thin shelter, living off donated food and spending their days in contemplation, conversation and prayer. Willow frames for sweat lodges and a colorful prayer post stand beside the camp.

The pipeline will carry as much as 570,000 barrels daily of Bakken crude and pass under the Missouri River near its confluence with the Cannonball River just 1,000 feet from the reservation boundary.

The pipeline, being built by Dakota Access LLC, will pass through 18 counties in Iowa — diagonally from northwest to southeast — before crossing the Mississippi River and ending in Illinois. State approvals for its construction have been granted, but work in Iowa is awaiting action from the Army Corps of Engineers.

People who come to the camp near Cannon Ball south of Bismark in are in view of the proposed Missouri River crossing and can pray as they are moved to for the water and the land they believe are threatened should the pipeline break and spill oil.

The aim is to stop the pipeline and LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, a tribal historian and preservation employee, has no doubt that aim will find its mark.

'We will stop it. We have prayer with us,' said Allard, who donated family land for the camp. She said the area is rich with history, ancient settlements and burials.

'We are not expendable,' she said.

The tribal leadership has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps for a full-blown environmental impact statement, rather than a less rigorous finding of no significant impact, for where the pipeline will cross the river, The Corps has not yet issued any permits for that part.

Kat Eng, from Winona, Minn., joined the camp three days ago to show her support. She was grimy, in need of a non-existent shower and becoming used to picking off pesky ticks, but cheerful.

She said she has been getting up early to watch the sunrise from a hill overlooking the confluence and to listen to the birdsong. She is not a tribal member, but she belongs to Honor the Earth and said she tries to live what she believes.

'To me, it's really important to support the indigenous people and all people who deserve clean water. That's what we're here to defend, and we want to feel what it's like,' said Eng, who describes the evenings, when the drumming echoes over the water, as especially meaningful.

About 30 people have been living in the camp. Allard said the number will grow with warm weather and the end of school.

Wiyaka Eagleman, of Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, lived in camp there for nine months in protest of the Keystone XL. He came to Standing Rock because of the harm oil companies can do to the water.

Activities to keep people involved are scheduled, including a gathering April 29 at the Grand River Casino near Mobridge, S.D. A ranking Corps official will be there to take comments, and a women's run, motorcycle ride and horse ride are also planned.

The Spirit Camp activities are updated daily on Facebook pages People Over Pipeline and No Dakota Access in Treaty Territory, pages started with the camp.