Dispatches from Joye: The Beginning of Resistance to Dakota Access Pipeline

Dakota, Lakota and Nakota Defenders Rode into Cannonball, North Dakota, to defend Sacred land and water from Dakota Access Pipeline on Standing Rock Nation on April 1, 2016. Courtesy photo for Censored News. "We can live without oil, but we can not live without water."

Dispatches from Joye: The Beginning of Resistance to Dakota Access Pipeline, Spring of 2016

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Feb. 25, 2025

MANDAN, North Dakota -- We travel back in time to the beginning of the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Jury selection is underway in the case of Energy Transfer v Greenpeace and Red Warrior Society, and oral arguments are to begin tomorrow, in North Dakota District Court.

Energy Transfer, the owner of Dakota Access Pipeline, seeks to erase the fact that this is, and has always been, an Indigenous-led movement, Greenpeace said.

On March 29, 2016 -- five months before hundreds, and then thousands arrived at the Standing Rock camps -- Joye Braun, Cheyenne River Lakota, sent Censored News the announcement of the resistance.

"It must be stopped," Joye said in the media statement.

LaDonna Bravebull Allard, working then in the Standing Rock Historic Preservation Office, released the statement with Joye. 

The headline read, "Tribal Citizens Rise Up Against Bakken Oil Pipeline: Horse Ride and Spiritual Camp to be Held Along Proposed Route of Dakota Access Pipeline."

With the dateline of Cannonball, the statement says, "On April 1st, 2016, tribal citizens of the Standing Rock Lakota Nation and ally Lakota, Nakota, and Dakota citizens, under the group name Chante tin'sa kinanzi Po will have a Horse Ride to celebrate the founding of a Spirit Camp that will be erected along the proposed route of the bakken oil pipeline, Dakota Access."

While the first camp was being set up on April 1, 2016, LaDonna Bravebull Allard told Unicorn Riot media, "They are going to put it through a burial ground right there. What happens when that breaks? What happens to our water? It's the same old story with the government, the agencies and big oil -- we don't matter. They're coming again.When will this stop? I am not expendable. My grandchildren are not expendable. We have to fight to live."

"We're on the front lines right now. We are going to fight this pipeline, we are going to fight big oil," a Lakota warrior said as the thirty mile horseback ride began. As the first teepees were being set up, another Lakota opposing the pipeline said, "They bust they don't last. We know that's what's going to happen to our river. That's our way of life, it's not good anyway you look at it."

The statement on March 29, 2016 announcing the camp to block the pipeline said:

"This camp will be called Iŋyaŋ Wakȟáŋaǧapi Othí, translated as Sacred Rock, the original name of the Cannonball area. The Spirit Camp is dedicated to stopping and raising awareness of the Dakota Access pipeline, the dangers associated with pipeline spills and the necessity to protect the water resources of the Missouri river."

"Chante tin'sa kinanzi Po is a grassroots group with the following mission statement:

"They claim this mother of ours, the Earth, for their own use, and fence their neighbors away from her, and deface her with their buildings and their refuse." - Chief Sitting Bull. His way of life is our way of life--standing in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline is our duty."

"Group: Chante tin'sa kinanzi Po translates as People, Stand with a Strong Heart!"

"Spirit Camp Name: Iŋyaŋ Wakȟáŋaǧapi Othí translates as Sacred Rock Camp"

"Both are in the Lakota language."

"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."

"The threats this pipeline poses to the environment, human health and human rights are strikingly similar to those posed by the Keystone XL. Because the DAPL will cross over the Ogallala Aquifer (one of the largest aquifers in the world) and under the Missouri River twice (the longest river in the United States), the possible contamination of these water sources makes the Dakota Access pipeline a national threat."

"The construction of Dakota Access will threaten everything from farming and drinking water to entire ecosystems, wildlife and food sources surrounding the Missouri. The nesting of bald eagles and piping plovers as well as the quality of wild rice and medicinal plants like sweet grass are just a few of the species at stake here."

"We ask that everyone stands 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!"

The statement includes Joye's words.

"The dangers imposed by the greed of big oil on the people who live along the Missouri river is astounding. When this proposed pipeline breaks, as the vast majority of pipelines do, over half of the drinking water in South Dakota will be affected. How can rubber-stamping this project be good for the people, agriculture, and livestock?"

"It must be stopped. The people of the four bands of Cheyenne River stand with our sister nation in this fight as we are calling on all the Oceti Sakowin or Seven Council Fires to do so with our allies, both native and non native in opposing this pipeline."

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Spirit Camp goes up, on April 1, 2016

The first camp at Standing Rock resisting Dakota Access Pipeline on April 1, 2016.

Greenpeace said the $300 million SLAPP lawsuit filed by the pipeline is meant to shut down Greenpeace International. Oral argument are slated to begin tomorrow, Wednesday, and the jury trial is expected to last five weeks.

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