Devastation at Standing Rock

I just read of the wanton vandalism of the Native American graves at Standing Rock. According to a Fox News report, on Saturday, September 4, construction crews working for Energy Transfer Partners

removed topsoil across an area about 150 feet wide stretching for 2 miles.

"This demolition is devastating," Standing Rock Sioux chairman David Archambault II said. "These grounds are the resting places of our ancestors. The ancient cairns and stone prayer rings there cannot be replaced. In one day, our sacred land has been turned into hollow ground."

Energy Transfer Partners is building The Dakota Access petroleum pipeline across the Dakotas and Iowa and terminating in Illinois. The permit request to the Army Corps of Engineers failed to mention that the path of the pipeline crossed graveyards and other culturally sensitive sites.

The Standing Rock Sioux have filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to stop construction. The Tribe says it was not properly consulted before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers fast-tracked construction approval. (Indian Country Today)

The Tribe filed court papers on Friday, September 2, stating that there were

several sites of "significant cultural and historic value" along the path of the proposed pipeline.

A federal judge will rule before Sept. 9 whether construction can be halted on the Dakota Access pipeline.

The next day, the graves were desecrated.

“We’re days away from getting a resolution on the legal issues, and they came in on a holiday weekend and destroyed the site,” said Jan Hasselman, attorney for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. “What they have done is absolutely outrageous.” Read more at Indian Country Today

If this type of desecration was was done to a Jewish cemetery or a Veterans' Cemetery, the news news media would be covering this story with daily reports and constantly asking when prosecutions would begin. They would scream "HATE CRIME" loud and long. The local police would be arresting the members of the construction crew, along with Energy Transfer Partners officials who ordered the desecration.

This was a Hate Crime. There is no doubt about it. There is absolutely no excuse for the heinous actions taken by Energy Transfer Partners and they should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.