In an interview last spring, Tex Hall, previous Chairman of Fort Berthold Indian reservation (Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation-MHA) said that he saw fracking as the ticket to self-determination. “When oil was discovered, we were poor,” he said. “It’s hard to be sovereign on an empty stomach.” More than 1,370 oil wells are shown in this article in what he has previously said, “sovereignty by the barrel”. Each well has been hydraulically fracked. They are pumping over 386,000 barrels of oil a day, a third of North Dakota’s output in the Bakken oil fields. I remember back in 2011 when tribal members invited Indigenous Environmental Network to have its 16th Protecting Mother Earth Gathering near Newtown, ND, next door to their Four Bears Casino, at their pow wow grounds. Tribal members were concerned about the lack of accountability of leadership and environmental justice issues. Concerned tribal members picked the title of this gathering in 2011, Water, Energy, Climate and the Importance of Health and Culture. There were many ceremonies and prayers back then for things to change. A ceremony for the sacredness of Water was held that brought people from Mexico, the four directions, with one of the traditional drum societies from MHA participating. Ms. Josephine Mandamin, the Anishinabe water walker from the Great Lakes came to help petition for the water.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 15:44:06 +0000
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