US Drops Charges Against Indigenous Water Protectors Who Occupied BIA

US Attorney Drops Charges Against Indigenous Water Protectors and Allies Who Occupied Bureau of Indian Affairs


US Attorney Drops Charges Against Indigenous Water Protectors and Allies Who Occupied Bureau of Indian Affairs Demanding Indigenous Rights Be Upheld

By Last Real Indians

Washington, D.C. -- The United States Attorney’s office has decided to not charge 33 Indigenous water protectors and their allies who were arrested while peacefully occupying the Bureau of Indian Affairs lobby in the US Department of Affairs building on October 14th, 2021. This was the first time since the 1972’s Trail of Broken Treaties that Indigenous leaders occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Indigenous leaders were met with extreme violence from the police leaving one Indigenous woman with a broken hand, others were hit with batons, two people were tazed and an Indigenous media reporter was assaulted with an officer kneeling on his neck and had his equipment damaged by the police during the attack on peaceful water protectors.

Read the article at Last Real Indians

https://lastrealindians.com/news/2022/1/21/us-attorney-drops-charges-against-indigenous-water-protectors-and-allies-who-occupied-bureau-of-indian-affairs

The following is a statement from Indigenous Leaders who occupied the DOI and their allies:

Our fight is far from over, we will continue to rise for our youth, for the land, and for the water.
We will not back down until our natural balance is restored and our relationship to the sacred knowledge of Mother Earth and all who depend on her is honored. From the Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota to oil and gas drilling in Alaska, Indigenous peoples and our allies will continue to stand on the frontlines of the fight against fossil fuels. Major pipeline projects and other forms of oil and gas extraction not only threaten the land and water in Native communities, but are often in direct violation of treaty rights or violate laws around Free, Prior and Informed Consent. Fossil fuel construction has also been linked to sex trafficking and an increase in Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

Politicians do not take care of us. Presidents will break their promises but Mother Earth has always given us what we need to thrive. Those who ignore climate change and the destruction and loss it creates in our communities, will be held accountable. We protect the sacred. Another world is possible, expect us.