WEBVTT - S12, Ep5: Sacred Sites 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.400 There's this moment that sticks in my head. From the 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:06.400 very first testimony in the Energy Transfer versus Greenpeace trial, 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:11.720 Energy Transfer's project manager for North Dakota, that tall, bald 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:15.120 man named Mike Futch is on the stand and he's 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:18.800 been speaking authoritatively about exactly how the pipeline was built 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.520 and everything the company did to avoid damaging any culturally 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:26.520 important sites. I can see why energy Transfer put him 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:29.600 on first. He's got this military vibe that as a 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:32.840 Midwesterner myself, I know that a lot of Midwesterners tend 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:36.720 to trust Energy Transfer's lawyers starts asking about one day 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:42.639 of construction, in particular September third, twenty sixteen. That's when 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:45.920 Energy Transfer began to expand the pipeline at a specific 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:50.159 site known as the cannon Ball Ranch. The lawyer asks 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:54.160 Mike this key question, how do you respond to the 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:59.520 allegation that there was desecration of burial grounds, Sir? That 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:03.280 didn't have and it's a personal insult, He tells the court. 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:12.440 It's a powerful statement coming from this guy. 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:20.280 He's cowered and he hides behind a shield that he 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:25.080 wants to keep him in his little cronies protected. 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:28.880 That's Cody Hall, the Shyanne River Sioux Tribe member who 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:32.840 was originally named an energy transfer's lawsuit, and he was 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:35.640 there at the Cannonball Ranch that day in twenty sixteen, 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:40.000 as bulldozers tore through what tribal members had identified as 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:41.280 a burial ground. 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:47.000 They got sneaky and moved their bulldozers and came to 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:50.480 that site and desecrated it. 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:01.240 One of energy transfers main to accusations against green Peace 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:05.600 is defamation, among other things. They say green Peace lied 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:09.720 by saying that the pipeline company intentionally desecrated Oceechi Shacoigne's 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:14.160 sacred sites. But that claim doesn't originate with Greenpeace. It 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:17.560 originates with indigenous leaders. And that's who we're going to 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:24.960 hear from today. This season of Drilled, we bring you 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:28.560 Slapped the story of an indigenous nation fighting for its water, 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:34.040 an environmental nonprofit facing extinction, and an energy giant using 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:47.880 the courts to punish protesters. It was the end of 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:50.959 August twenty sixteen, and Cody Hall had been at the 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:53.440 anti pipeline camps on the edge of the Standing Rocks 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:56.960 Too Reservation in North Dakota for a couple weeks. Now 0:02:57.080 --> 0:02:59.120 up the road from Camp in this area marked to 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:03.000 be bulldozed. A survey was underway. A respected elder from 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:06.120 the Standing Rocks Shoe tribe was looking for sacred sites. 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:10.880 People at camp kind of you know, mistook him and 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:13.240 his crew for ETP. 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:15.679 ETP, meaning Energy Transfer Partners. 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:18.600 We got to go after these people. They are out there, 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:21.240 you know. And it was like after we found out 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.280 it was Tim and his crew and stuff, I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:26.160 he's on our site. 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:29.800 Tim Mentz was the guy leading the crew, which told 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:31.480 Cody this was important. 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:32.639 Oh. 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:36.480 I knew a Tim for you know, ever since that 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:40.760 was just a young, you know, teenager, and I knew 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:44.600 his role. He is well respected for his knowledge of 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:49.360 pretty much everything from the stars down. When Tim talks 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:52.720 about stuff, it is something that you pay attention to 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:57.640 because it's of an importance to our livelihood and our 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:01.360 existence that that we keep on on these certain ways 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:05.000 of life. He was like our genius in our cultural ways. 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:09.480 Tim Menz is in his seventies. When his grandma was 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:13.160 a kid, it was illegal to practice indigenous religions. As 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:16.719 he grew up, that started to change. Still, he's faced 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:19.920 a lot of hurdles in protecting Oceechi Hikogin's sacred sites, 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:22.400 which is part of the reason that he didn't want 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:25.520 to talk to me on the record. Instead, I spoke 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:29.320 to Valerie Gressing, the executive director of the National Association 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:31.720 of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers. 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:38.119 What is a sacred site and real speak, I guess 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:40.000 it's anything a tribe says it is. 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:43.760 It's a place that they identify as sacred. 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:48.400 For whatever reason, Indigenous religions are often based on specific 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:52.680 places and lands. It's why the government criminalized indigenous spiritual 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:56.279 practices as they colonized what became the United States of America. 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.680 In the nineteen nineties, Tim fought for a change to 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:02.839 the now Sational Historic Preservation Act that gave tribes more 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:05.640 of a say in what places get protected from destruction. 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:10.479 It created the role of Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, which 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:14.120 over two hundred tribes now have. They especially way in 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:17.359 on projects built on federal land. In fact, Tim was 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:20.480 the first tribal Historic Preservation officer in the United States. 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:24.640 It was a big deal, but it wasn't enough because 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:28.240 Indigenous nations still don't have veto power over government approved 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:29.479 construction projects. 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:34.240 They can still make whatever decision they want if they 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:36.040 deem it to be in the national interest. 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:41.040 Outside of federal land, tribal historic preservation officers have even 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:43.560 less of a say in what happens to sacred sites, 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:48.360 and they're sometimes pitted against state historic preservation officers, who 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:52.200 are typically archaeologists and have a lot of decision making power. 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:58.159 The archaeologists often don't recognize that things Indigenous people consider sacred. 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:02.200 There's not any strong protect for a place anywhere. 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:05.679 In July twenty sixteen, the Standing Rocks Sioux Tribe filed 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:09.160 suit against the federal government against the Army Corps, and 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:13.160 that suit really revolved around protecting sacred sites. The sites 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:16.440 Tim was looking for are stones arranged in circles and 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:20.719 other shapes used for ceremonies and other purposes. They wanted 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:23.080 the agency to do a deeper review of the entire 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:26.800 Dakota Access Pipeline route, and they wanted construction stopped in 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:31.680 the meantime, including on private land. Tim submitted a statement 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:35.479 to the court describing what was at stake. Destruction of 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:39.479 these sites will eventually destroy generations of family connections to 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:44.719 these areas of spiritual power. He wrote, these sites still 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:48.719 retain the ability to mend our people. The pipeline company 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:51.760 replied that they'd already surveyed the route for culturally important 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:54.719 sites and avoided most of them. They said, the Standing 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:57.200 Rocks Sioux tribe had had opportunities to weigh in on 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:00.479 the route, and now it was too late. This was 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:03.280 all happening. A rancher named Dave Meyer was in touch 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:05.960 with the tribe. He owned the land where the pipeline 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:09.040 route met the Missouri River, the Cannonball Ranch. 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:12.640 That was our Buffalo ranch as what we were using 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:15.920 it for. It was a really beautiful ranch. That's pretty 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:18.920 much all grassland, you know, with trees and draws going 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:20.120 down to the Missouri River. 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:23.720 So very nice place. Dave says he had a good 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:25.800 relationship with the Standing rockso tribe. 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:30.080 We rent a lot of land from him, we owned 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:34.520 land on the reservation. Basically we got along really well. 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:38.120 They've generally supported the construction of the pipeline. But he 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:41.320 also didn't see any problem with letting Tim inspect the land. 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:42.440 You know. 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:46.040 I did invite Tim Mince right away, and there were 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:48.920 some other guys with him, and we drove around through 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:52.440 different spots and looked and stopped on hills and he 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.000 was showing us some different rocks and stuff, because I figured, 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:57.360 if the pipeline's going through there, everybody's going to have 0:07:57.400 --> 0:07:59.840 to walk through and give their opinion. 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:04.040 On a hot, bright day, Tim traveled about three quarters 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:06.720 of a mile from Dave's Buffalo fence on the side 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:09.800 of Highway eighteen oh six to a mode strip of 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:14.200 land that extended into the distance. It was the pipeline easement, 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:19.120 the area where Energy Transfer had permission to bulldoze. They 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:22.280 began to record what they saw. Tim and his team 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:26.560 sketched eighty two stone features, including twenty seven burial sites, 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:30.080 along two miles of the corridor. It didn't surprise Tim 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:32.640 too much that so many were there. It was near 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:35.400 where the Cannonball River flows into the Missouri and it 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:37.640 had long been an important gathering place. 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:43.040 It was very heartwarming that kind of anied, you know, 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.920 anny up the our position of. 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:51.480 More of a you know what we need to protect. 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:55.040 Cody Hall spoke to Tim as all this was unfolding. 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:58.720 Then Friday morning, before labor day, Tim wrote up what 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:02.640 he'd found. His biggest find was a cluster of stones 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.440 arranged in the shape of the big dipper with a 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.320 grave site attached to the cup from an important leader. 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:13.000 This is one of the most significant archaeological finds in 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:17.480 North Dakota in many years. He wrote. His declaration was 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:20.440 filed as part of the tribe's lawsuit against the Army Corps. 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:23.640 The lawyers entered the coordinates of the sites into the 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:27.840 public record. I know what happened next because of Cody. 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:31.480 I put in a public records request for his arrest report, 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:33.880 just to fact check details he told me about getting 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:37.640 stopped by police. But that report had a whole lot 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:40.920 more in it than I expected. It happened to include 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:45.000 interviews with security personnel and construction workers who are at 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:51.920 the Cannonball Ranch that week. The police interviews show that abruptly, 0:09:52.480 --> 0:09:55.240 just after the tribe's lawyers filed Tim's statement about the 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:59.480 sacred sites, a private security firm working for Energy Transfer 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:01.920 reached out in the middle of the night to a 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:06.360 security dog company called Frost Kennels. They wanted Frost to 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:09.319 bring their dogs out to the pipeline route the next morning. 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:15.600 Energy Transfer was expecting a protest. The report says the 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:18.880 company had made a change to their construction schedule. According 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:23.040 to records described during the Green Peace trial. Days earlier, 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:26.320 Mike Footch had sent a construction schedule to police with 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:28.800 the date they planned to start bulldozing in the area 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:32.960 that Tim's surveyed. Instead, the bulldozers showed up more than 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:37.559 five days early the morning after Tim shared the coordinates 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:41.959 of the sacred sites, construction workers apparently moved those bulldozers 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:46.080 around fifteen miles ahead of their course, directly to the 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:50.280 area of the sacred sites. For Cody, that day started 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:52.439 out normal at the Ochititishi Coin camp. 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:58.360 That morning was having some coffee and some breakfast, and 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:02.520 it was like reflecting on what happened during the week. 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:05.760 Right there was a there was a group of women 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:10.079 that came down from what was called the Treaty Camp area. 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:14.280 The Treaty camp was sometimes called the frontline camp. It 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:16.440 was much smaller than the other camps and located on 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:19.559 a hill right on the pathway of the pipeline. Positions 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:22.080 of campers could see what was happening along the route. 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:30.240 So these women drove down from from that camp, speeding 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:35.560 through and said, the bulldozers are are up by the 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:39.320 by the Treaty camp. We need everybody to come up 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:46.760 and and I thought bulldozers, and what the hell, right, 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:50.520 you know, So I got my vehicle and drove up there, 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:53.840 raced up there, and here, sure enough, on the left 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:59.080 side they were bulldozers. I thought, holy, holy crap. Here, 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:04.520 here's they are on a weekend. Nonetheless, because we knew 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:06.360 that they took the weekends off. 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:10.520 Cody knew that this was the same area where Tim 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:13.320 had identified sacred sites just the day before. 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:16.000 I couldn't help but thinking, you know, over and over 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:21.880 in my head of these sneaky bastards. They are trying 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:28.360 to rid of us literally and no, you know, gloves 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:33.559 are off. It felt like being pushed, you know, well, 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:35.520 what are you going to do now? Engine? 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:41.280 You know, a group of people kicked down the barb 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:45.320 wire fence. They will have gone through the fence, men, 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:49.720 women and children. The bulldozers are still going and they're 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:51.959 yelling at the men in hard hats. One man and 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:52.600 hard huts. 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:57.600 Throw one of the rochesters down. I remember looking down 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:01.720 the road right not eighteen oh six Hords Camp, looking 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:08.520 to the south, you saw vehicles full of people coming up, 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:15.560 people jumping out, you know, of all the vehicles and 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:16.760 running to the west. 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:21.559 Cody followed the others toward the area where bulldozers were rolling. 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:26.880 We ran upon it and that's when all these these 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:34.480 white pickup trucks. These guys jumped out and they had 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:39.200 their dogs. They had German shepherds and and I thought, 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:43.240 all right, they have dogs, and what do we have. 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:47.320 People began grabbing what they could use to fight back 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:49.160 against the destruction of the sites. 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:53.920 Some guys are grabbing a serving surveying sticks, and some 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:57.439 guys are trying to loosen up the steel posts in 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:03.800 the fence lines and stuff. Others grabbed, you know, rocks. 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:07.440 The dogs were barking and growling. 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:15.320 One of our female UH water protectors was talking to 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:19.920 that female officer, that female and security person, and she 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:23.880 let go over dog and it bid that while protector 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:27.800 gal It bit her left boob. That was the end. 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:31.520 And I saw a few gentlemen, you know, take their 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:36.520 those surveying sticks and stuff and just whip those security 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:39.080 officers and the dogs to get them back. 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:46.160 The police report says that one security guard went to 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:49.720 the er and three of the dogs were injured. Six 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:52.880 water protectors were bitten by dogs. According to a tribal 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:56.320 spokesperson at the time, I asked Cody what he would say, 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:59.320 So the accusation that the water protectors were violent. 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:04.120 Your listeners listened to this. They would protect what they 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:09.120 believe and what they love wholeheartedly. And if that meant 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:14.960 that there was a a consequence, then we'll take it. 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:19.160 We're not just going to allow a bunch of bulldozers 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:22.680 to come in, you know. And meanwhile, we're supposed to 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:24.640 stand on the other side of that bob oar fence 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:29.840 and just see that desecration and say, oh well, we're 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:32.320 going to wait for the legal system to protect us. 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:35.960 The bulldozers and security trucks backed down. 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:41.480 I remember there was people just throwing the dogs in 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:45.440 the back of the pickup trucks and jumped in those 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:47.840 trucks and literally just like drove off. 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:52.600 When Tim visited the construction site to survey the damage 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:55.520 from the bulldozers, he could see from the side of 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:59.040 the road that a significant portion of the site we'd 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:03.160 surveyed had been cleared. Tim wrote in another declaration to court, 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:08.640 I do not believe that the timing of this construction 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:11.320 was an accident or coincidence. 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:17.320 He added, people were crying, people were mentioning that there 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:21.320 was sacred sites here, and I didn't want our people 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:25.200 and our allies to go back to their vehicles. 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:29.720 Feeling defeated, Cody jumped onto the pile of dirt at 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:32.240 the edge of the Bulldozed easement and gave a speech 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:34.400 as people recorded on their phones. 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:37.880 They're the reason why you all banned up together here 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:43.560 from all different tribes, because your ancestors said, take one. 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:48.680 Leave of ackshit, and that's what you guys did today. 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:53.160 Police watched it and arrested him later that week. This 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:55.280 was the arrest he told me about in our first 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:59.960 episode of Slapped. Police weren't the only ones seeing video 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:03.320 from Standing Rock. All over the rest of the country. 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:07.000 People were watching the footage of water Protectors being attacked 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:08.280 by security docs. 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:10.720 It back for big time. 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:14.600 Suddenly the movement exploded. 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:19.800 Because within two days we saw the roads on eighteen 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:23.640 oh six jam packed getting into the camp like there 0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:25.920 was a There was a huge amount of people showing 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:29.439 up to stand up and stand with us. 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:41.399 Energy Transfer denied they'd done anything wrong that day. They 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:44.360 even got Dave Meyer, the rancher, to sign a document 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:47.360 saying he didn't invite tim Mens to survey his property 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:51.119 for sacred sites. The state of North Dakota sent their 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:56.480 own archaeologists out to investigate. Energy Transfer's private security team 0:17:56.720 --> 0:18:01.520 created an elaborate security plan involving on police snipers who 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:03.479 I guess were supposed to come to the rescue if 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:07.720 someone tried to attack the archaeologists. They called it Operation 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:12.160 Point Break Yes, also the name of a nineties Keanu 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:15.359 Reeves movie where he's an undercover FBI agent infiltrating a 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:19.240 group of surfer slash robbers. After it was over, the 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:22.960 chief archaeologist of the North Dakota State Historic Preservation Office 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:27.600 issued a statement. No cultural material was observed in the 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:32.120 expected corridor, he wrote, adding no human bone or other 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:36.560 evidence of burials was recorded. He concluded that Energy Transfer 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:41.320 had not broken North Dakota law. It was a big 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:45.639 victory for Energy Transfer. The North Dakota archaeologists had just 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:49.760 undercut Tim Menz's expertise and the stance of the Standing 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:54.480 Rock Sioux tribe. The bulldozing continued, and so did the 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:58.479 legal fight, and by then Energy Transfer hired Gibson, dun 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:01.160 and Krutcher to help them convey the judge to rule 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:09.200 against the tribe. In the years that followed, the pipeline 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:12.960 company doubled down on its questioning of what tim mens knew. 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:16.600 They filed their lawsuit against green Peace, which argued that 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:20.720 repeating the tribe's assertion that Energy Transfer deliberately destroyed sacred 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:26.400 sites amounted to defamation. Then, one day, around early twenty 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:30.359 twenty four, as the trial date loomed, Greenpeace showed up 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:33.720 on the Standing Rock reservation. They wanted to meet with 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:38.040 the tribe to talk. It turns out Energy Transfer had 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:41.400 put a settlement on the table, a way for Greenpeace 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:45.120 to get out of this trial, and Greenpeace was wondering 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:47.560 what the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe would think if they 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:52.280 accepted it, because if Greenpeace did accept the settlement, they 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:56.760 too would have to undermine the tribe's word on sacred sites. 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:04.840 Tom Goldtooth is a citizen of the Navajo Nation and 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:08.960 also has Dakota heritage. He runs an organization called Indigenous 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:10.120 Environmental Network. 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:14.800 I've been the lead in our Indigenous Environmental Network since 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:15.919 nineteen ninety one. 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:19.200 Tom first got to know Greenpeace at a critical moment 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:20.479 for the environmental movement. 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:25.240 We challenged the white organizations back in the early nineteen 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:32.560 nineties with environmental racism They did not have the native 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:37.119 people on their boarder directors, They did not hire native organizers. 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:42.480 Many just came into our territories, you know, to do 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:48.919 a direct action, you know, rappling down an incinerator power, 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:55.680 things like that, but not taken into consideration of building 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:58.359 respectful relationship with our people. 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:01.920 A new set of principles was being introduced, called the 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:05.600 Jimez Principles. They were guidelines meant to make it possible 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:08.520 for environmental organizers to be able to work together across 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:13.280 cultures and across struggles. Two of the key principles let 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:17.320 people speak for themselves and work together in solidarity. 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:22.080 Green Peace stepped up in twenty sixteen. 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:24.760 Tom was one of the people who asked Greenpeace Inc. 0:21:24.840 --> 0:21:27.640 To come to Standing Rock to bring nonviolent direct action 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:30.919 training and the solar trailer to the water protectors. And 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:34.080 in twenty twenty four Tom was again talking with Greenpeace 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:37.320 as they approached their court date in the energy transfer lawsuit. 0:21:38.280 --> 0:21:43.320 Our conversation with Greenpeace said, hey man, this is mucked up, okay, 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:48.359 and you know, well, we'll stand with you. You know 0:21:48.600 --> 0:21:49.520 you're going to fight this. 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:55.480 But for a little while it stopped being so clear 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:59.000 that Greenpeace was going to fight this. Green Pieces leaders 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:01.359 in the US had gamed out what would happen if 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:05.080 they did. Given a jury pool in Martin County, North Dakota. 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:08.040 They estimated they only had a five percent chance of 0:22:08.080 --> 0:22:11.720 winning if this went a trial. They determined that green 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:16.320 Peace as they knew it might cease to exist. Energy 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:19.600 transfers lawyers told them that if they simply settled, they 0:22:19.600 --> 0:22:24.040 would drop all this, They would let Greenpeace live. The 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:26.680 organizations would just have to put out a little statement. 0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:30.240 The statement included a few key points. 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:36.000 I'll put it into marcuson Telegraph word of mouth that 0:22:36.800 --> 0:22:41.760 I understand is that one of them was that they 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:47.119 were telling Greenpeace, if we're willing to settle, if you know, 0:22:47.359 --> 0:22:51.280 if you say that there was no destruction through any 0:22:51.320 --> 0:22:52.119 sacred sites. 0:22:53.040 --> 0:22:56.840 The precise settlement language shifted and changed over time. However, 0:22:56.840 --> 0:23:01.560 there were three themes that Energy Transfer kept pushing. Greenpeace 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:04.199 would have to indicate that there was violence within the 0:23:04.240 --> 0:23:08.080 Standing Rock movement. They'd have to say that the Dakota 0:23:08.200 --> 0:23:11.359 Access pipeline did not pass through the Standing Rock Shoe 0:23:11.400 --> 0:23:15.560 Tribe's land. And the thing that really rippled through Indian Country, 0:23:16.680 --> 0:23:20.240 energy Transfer wanted Greenpeace to declare that the pipeline company 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:25.320 did not deliberately desecrate sacred sites. In other words, the 0:23:25.359 --> 0:23:29.080 corporation behind the Dakota Access pipeline one of the best 0:23:29.160 --> 0:23:33.719 known environmental organization in the world to undercut assertions that 0:23:33.760 --> 0:23:37.160 the standing Rock Sioux tribe stands behind to this day. 0:23:38.520 --> 0:23:42.600 This would violate that respect of their standing Rock Sioux 0:23:42.680 --> 0:23:47.359 Tribe that relationship because they're continuing to hold. 0:23:47.080 --> 0:23:52.440 A line, But Greenpeace considered it. Over the next few months, 0:23:52.600 --> 0:23:55.879 Greenpeace's US leaders came to out the best and worst 0:23:55.920 --> 0:24:00.159 case scenarios for settlement and a trial. The worst case 0:24:00.160 --> 0:24:03.520 scenario for a trial was grim. A trial might mean 0:24:03.520 --> 0:24:06.240 the loss of a fifty year legacy in all of 0:24:06.280 --> 0:24:12.040 Greenpeace's future impact. It could cause reputational damage to the tribe, allies, 0:24:12.119 --> 0:24:16.200 and other activists who would be forced to testify. It 0:24:16.240 --> 0:24:20.280 could set a legal precedent for suing movements out of existence. 0:24:21.119 --> 0:24:23.280 A trial could put one hundred and thirty five staff 0:24:23.280 --> 0:24:26.600 members out of work and risk the whole global network 0:24:26.640 --> 0:24:32.639 of green Peace organizations. The best case trial scenario didn't 0:24:32.680 --> 0:24:36.280 offer much hope. If all went well, maybe they'd be 0:24:36.320 --> 0:24:41.160 able to say we went down fighting. Some concluded that 0:24:41.280 --> 0:24:46.320 any trial scenario would be catastrophic. On the other hand, 0:24:46.520 --> 0:24:49.760 the worst case settlement scenario wasn't looking quite as bad. 0:24:49.800 --> 0:24:50.040 To some. 0:24:51.119 --> 0:24:54.840 A settlement might cause a pr crisis. Greenpeace might lose 0:24:54.840 --> 0:24:57.199 a few million dollars a year in funding, and some 0:24:57.400 --> 0:25:03.120 staff might resign. Manageable, A settlement might mean indigenous allies 0:25:03.160 --> 0:25:08.680 stop working with them. Manageable, and a settlement might mean 0:25:09.080 --> 0:25:13.600 energy transfer uses Greenpeace's statements against the standing Rock Sioux 0:25:13.640 --> 0:25:19.800 Tribe to summit Greenpeace this seemed manageable too. A settlement 0:25:19.840 --> 0:25:23.680 would mean Greenpeace would live to fight another day. This 0:25:23.880 --> 0:25:27.320 was the option supported by Greenpeace USA as Executive Director 0:25:27.480 --> 0:25:32.280 Ebenie Twillie Martin and several senior green Peace managers, but 0:25:32.359 --> 0:25:36.359 multiple people high up in the organization strongly opposed energy 0:25:36.359 --> 0:25:41.880 transfer settlement proposal. For example, Dipa Panmanaba resigned as Deputy 0:25:41.920 --> 0:25:46.000 General Counsel because she disagreed with senior management's position. According 0:25:46.040 --> 0:25:49.280 to sources close to Greenpeace, and some staff members got 0:25:49.280 --> 0:25:51.359 wind of the settlement and organized a letter to the 0:25:51.400 --> 0:25:53.680 board urging them not to accept the terms. 0:25:54.520 --> 0:25:58.720 Through the start to be a division of those that 0:25:59.359 --> 0:26:03.320 wanted Toto and those that said no, we got to 0:26:03.400 --> 0:26:04.840 hold the line. You know. 0:26:05.680 --> 0:26:08.679 Tom gold To spoke to Green Pieces then director Abbeny 0:26:08.760 --> 0:26:11.640 Tulie Martin over the phone multiple times. 0:26:12.080 --> 0:26:18.000 She wasn't a dilemma. The pressure was on, you know, 0:26:18.280 --> 0:26:23.399 the fear. Imagine anyone that has a that that that 0:26:23.600 --> 0:26:31.080 isn't a leadership position of a large organization that if 0:26:31.119 --> 0:26:34.359 they lose this case, they would have to close down 0:26:34.400 --> 0:26:40.800