Speaker 1: There's this moment that sticks in my head. From the
Speaker 1: very first testimony in the Energy Transfer versus Greenpeace trial,
Speaker 1: Energy Transfer's project manager for North Dakota, that tall, bald
Speaker 1: man named Mike Futch is on the stand and he's
Speaker 1: been speaking authoritatively about exactly how the pipeline was built
Speaker 1: and everything the company did to avoid damaging any culturally
Speaker 1: important sites. I can see why energy Transfer put him
Speaker 1: on first. He's got this military vibe that as a
Speaker 1: Midwesterner myself, I know that a lot of Midwesterners tend
Speaker 1: to trust Energy Transfer's lawyers starts asking about one day
Speaker 1: of construction, in particular September third, twenty sixteen. That's when
Speaker 1: Energy Transfer began to expand the pipeline at a specific
Speaker 1: site known as the cannon Ball Ranch. The lawyer asks
Speaker 1: Mike this key question, how do you respond to the
Speaker 1: allegation that there was desecration of burial grounds, Sir? That
Speaker 1: didn't have and it's a personal insult, He tells the court.
Speaker 1: It's a powerful statement coming from this guy.
Speaker 2: He's cowered and he hides behind a shield that he
Speaker 2: wants to keep him in his little cronies protected.
Speaker 1: That's Cody Hall, the Shyanne River Sioux Tribe member who
Speaker 1: was originally named an energy transfer's lawsuit, and he was
Speaker 1: there at the Cannonball Ranch that day in twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: as bulldozers tore through what tribal members had identified as
Speaker 1: a burial ground.
Speaker 2: They got sneaky and moved their bulldozers and came to
Speaker 2: that site and desecrated it.
Speaker 1: One of energy transfers main to accusations against green Peace
Speaker 1: is defamation, among other things. They say green Peace lied
Speaker 1: by saying that the pipeline company intentionally desecrated Oceechi Shacoigne's
Speaker 1: sacred sites. But that claim doesn't originate with Greenpeace. It
Speaker 1: originates with indigenous leaders. And that's who we're going to
Speaker 1: hear from today. This season of Drilled, we bring you
Speaker 1: Slapped the story of an indigenous nation fighting for its water,
Speaker 1: an environmental nonprofit facing extinction, and an energy giant using
Speaker 1: the courts to punish protesters. It was the end of
Speaker 1: August twenty sixteen, and Cody Hall had been at the
Speaker 1: anti pipeline camps on the edge of the Standing Rocks
Speaker 1: Too Reservation in North Dakota for a couple weeks. Now
Speaker 1: up the road from Camp in this area marked to
Speaker 1: be bulldozed. A survey was underway. A respected elder from
Speaker 1: the Standing Rocks Shoe tribe was looking for sacred sites.
Speaker 2: People at camp kind of you know, mistook him and
Speaker 2: his crew for ETP.
Speaker 1: ETP, meaning Energy Transfer Partners.
Speaker 2: We got to go after these people. They are out there,
Speaker 2: you know. And it was like after we found out
Speaker 2: it was Tim and his crew and stuff, I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: he's on our site.
Speaker 1: Tim Mentz was the guy leading the crew, which told
Speaker 1: Cody this was important.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 2: I knew a Tim for you know, ever since that
Speaker 2: was just a young, you know, teenager, and I knew
Speaker 2: his role. He is well respected for his knowledge of
Speaker 2: pretty much everything from the stars down. When Tim talks
Speaker 2: about stuff, it is something that you pay attention to
Speaker 2: because it's of an importance to our livelihood and our
Speaker 2: existence that that we keep on on these certain ways
Speaker 2: of life. He was like our genius in our cultural ways.
Speaker 1: Tim Menz is in his seventies. When his grandma was
Speaker 1: a kid, it was illegal to practice indigenous religions. As
Speaker 1: he grew up, that started to change. Still, he's faced
Speaker 1: a lot of hurdles in protecting Oceechi Hikogin's sacred sites,
Speaker 1: which is part of the reason that he didn't want
Speaker 1: to talk to me on the record. Instead, I spoke
Speaker 1: to Valerie Gressing, the executive director of the National Association
Speaker 1: of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers.
Speaker 4: What is a sacred site and real speak, I guess
Speaker 4: it's anything a tribe says it is.
Speaker 5: It's a place that they identify as sacred.
Speaker 1: For whatever reason, Indigenous religions are often based on specific
Speaker 1: places and lands. It's why the government criminalized indigenous spiritual
Speaker 1: practices as they colonized what became the United States of America.
Speaker 1: In the nineteen nineties, Tim fought for a change to
Speaker 1: the now Sational Historic Preservation Act that gave tribes more
Speaker 1: of a say in what places get protected from destruction.
Speaker 1: It created the role of Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, which
Speaker 1: over two hundred tribes now have. They especially way in
Speaker 1: on projects built on federal land. In fact, Tim was
Speaker 1: the first tribal Historic Preservation officer in the United States.
Speaker 1: It was a big deal, but it wasn't enough because
Speaker 1: Indigenous nations still don't have veto power over government approved
Speaker 1: construction projects.
Speaker 2: They can still make whatever decision they want if they
Speaker 2: deem it to be in the national interest.
Speaker 1: Outside of federal land, tribal historic preservation officers have even
Speaker 1: less of a say in what happens to sacred sites,
Speaker 1: and they're sometimes pitted against state historic preservation officers, who
Speaker 1: are typically archaeologists and have a lot of decision making power.
Speaker 1: The archaeologists often don't recognize that things Indigenous people consider sacred.
Speaker 4: There's not any strong protect for a place anywhere.
Speaker 1: In July twenty sixteen, the Standing Rocks Sioux Tribe filed
Speaker 1: suit against the federal government against the Army Corps, and
Speaker 1: that suit really revolved around protecting sacred sites. The sites
Speaker 1: Tim was looking for are stones arranged in circles and
Speaker 1: other shapes used for ceremonies and other purposes. They wanted
Speaker 1: the agency to do a deeper review of the entire
Speaker 1: Dakota Access Pipeline route, and they wanted construction stopped in
Speaker 1: the meantime, including on private land. Tim submitted a statement
Speaker 1: to the court describing what was at stake. Destruction of
Speaker 1: these sites will eventually destroy generations of family connections to
Speaker 1: these areas of spiritual power. He wrote, these sites still
Speaker 1: retain the ability to mend our people. The pipeline company
Speaker 1: replied that they'd already surveyed the route for culturally important
Speaker 1: sites and avoided most of them. They said, the Standing
Speaker 1: Rocks Sioux tribe had had opportunities to weigh in on
Speaker 1: the route, and now it was too late. This was
Speaker 1: all happening. A rancher named Dave Meyer was in touch
Speaker 1: with the tribe. He owned the land where the pipeline
Speaker 1: route met the Missouri River, the Cannonball Ranch.
Speaker 5: That was our Buffalo ranch as what we were using
Speaker 5: it for. It was a really beautiful ranch. That's pretty
Speaker 5: much all grassland, you know, with trees and draws going
Speaker 5: down to the Missouri River.
Speaker 1: So very nice place. Dave says he had a good
Speaker 1: relationship with the Standing rockso tribe.
Speaker 5: We rent a lot of land from him, we owned
Speaker 5: land on the reservation. Basically we got along really well.
Speaker 1: They've generally supported the construction of the pipeline. But he
Speaker 1: also didn't see any problem with letting Tim inspect the land.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 5: I did invite Tim Mince right away, and there were
Speaker 5: some other guys with him, and we drove around through
Speaker 5: different spots and looked and stopped on hills and he
Speaker 5: was showing us some different rocks and stuff, because I figured,
Speaker 5: if the pipeline's going through there, everybody's going to have
Speaker 5: to walk through and give their opinion.
Speaker 1: On a hot, bright day, Tim traveled about three quarters
Speaker 1: of a mile from Dave's Buffalo fence on the side
Speaker 1: of Highway eighteen oh six to a mode strip of
Speaker 1: land that extended into the distance. It was the pipeline easement,
Speaker 1: the area where Energy Transfer had permission to bulldoze. They
Speaker 1: began to record what they saw. Tim and his team
Speaker 1: sketched eighty two stone features, including twenty seven burial sites,
Speaker 1: along two miles of the corridor. It didn't surprise Tim
Speaker 1: too much that so many were there. It was near
Speaker 1: where the Cannonball River flows into the Missouri and it
Speaker 1: had long been an important gathering place.
Speaker 2: It was very heartwarming that kind of anied, you know,
Speaker 2: anny up the our position of.
Speaker 1: More of a you know what we need to protect.
Speaker 1: Cody Hall spoke to Tim as all this was unfolding.
Speaker 1: Then Friday morning, before labor day, Tim wrote up what
Speaker 1: he'd found. His biggest find was a cluster of stones
Speaker 1: arranged in the shape of the big dipper with a
Speaker 1: grave site attached to the cup from an important leader.
Speaker 1: This is one of the most significant archaeological finds in
Speaker 1: North Dakota in many years. He wrote. His declaration was
Speaker 1: filed as part of the tribe's lawsuit against the Army Corps.
Speaker 1: The lawyers entered the coordinates of the sites into the
Speaker 1: public record. I know what happened next because of Cody.
Speaker 1: I put in a public records request for his arrest report,
Speaker 1: just to fact check details he told me about getting
Speaker 1: stopped by police. But that report had a whole lot
Speaker 1: more in it than I expected. It happened to include
Speaker 1: interviews with security personnel and construction workers who are at
Speaker 1: the Cannonball Ranch that week. The police interviews show that abruptly,
Speaker 1: just after the tribe's lawyers filed Tim's statement about the
Speaker 1: sacred sites, a private security firm working for Energy Transfer
Speaker 1: reached out in the middle of the night to a
Speaker 1: security dog company called Frost Kennels. They wanted Frost to
Speaker 1: bring their dogs out to the pipeline route the next morning.
Speaker 1: Energy Transfer was expecting a protest. The report says the
Speaker 1: company had made a change to their construction schedule. According
Speaker 1: to records described during the Green Peace trial. Days earlier,
Speaker 1: Mike Footch had sent a construction schedule to police with
Speaker 1: the date they planned to start bulldozing in the area
Speaker 1: that Tim's surveyed. Instead, the bulldozers showed up more than
Speaker 1: five days early the morning after Tim shared the coordinates
Speaker 1: of the sacred sites, construction workers apparently moved those bulldozers
Speaker 1: around fifteen miles ahead of their course, directly to the
Speaker 1: area of the sacred sites. For Cody, that day started
Speaker 1: out normal at the Ochititishi Coin camp.
Speaker 2: That morning was having some coffee and some breakfast, and
Speaker 2: it was like reflecting on what happened during the week.
Speaker 2: Right there was a there was a group of women
Speaker 2: that came down from what was called the Treaty Camp area.
Speaker 1: The Treaty camp was sometimes called the frontline camp. It
Speaker 1: was much smaller than the other camps and located on
Speaker 1: a hill right on the pathway of the pipeline. Positions
Speaker 1: of campers could see what was happening along the route.
Speaker 2: So these women drove down from from that camp, speeding
Speaker 2: through and said, the bulldozers are are up by the
Speaker 2: by the Treaty camp. We need everybody to come up
Speaker 2: and and I thought bulldozers, and what the hell, right,
Speaker 2: you know, So I got my vehicle and drove up there,
Speaker 2: raced up there, and here, sure enough, on the left
Speaker 2: side they were bulldozers. I thought, holy, holy crap. Here,
Speaker 2: here's they are on a weekend. Nonetheless, because we knew
Speaker 2: that they took the weekends off.
Speaker 1: Cody knew that this was the same area where Tim
Speaker 1: had identified sacred sites just the day before.
Speaker 2: I couldn't help but thinking, you know, over and over
Speaker 2: in my head of these sneaky bastards. They are trying
Speaker 2: to rid of us literally and no, you know, gloves
Speaker 2: are off. It felt like being pushed, you know, well,
Speaker 2: what are you going to do now? Engine?
Speaker 1: You know, a group of people kicked down the barb
Speaker 1: wire fence. They will have gone through the fence, men,
Speaker 1: women and children. The bulldozers are still going and they're
Speaker 1: yelling at the men in hard hats. One man and
Speaker 1: hard huts.
Speaker 2: Throw one of the rochesters down. I remember looking down
Speaker 2: the road right not eighteen oh six Hords Camp, looking
Speaker 2: to the south, you saw vehicles full of people coming up,
Speaker 2: people jumping out, you know, of all the vehicles and
Speaker 2: running to the west.
Speaker 1: Cody followed the others toward the area where bulldozers were rolling.
Speaker 2: We ran upon it and that's when all these these
Speaker 2: white pickup trucks. These guys jumped out and they had
Speaker 2: their dogs. They had German shepherds and and I thought,
Speaker 2: all right, they have dogs, and what do we have.
Speaker 1: People began grabbing what they could use to fight back
Speaker 1: against the destruction of the sites.
Speaker 2: Some guys are grabbing a serving surveying sticks, and some
Speaker 2: guys are trying to loosen up the steel posts in
Speaker 2: the fence lines and stuff. Others grabbed, you know, rocks.
Speaker 1: The dogs were barking and growling.
Speaker 2: One of our female UH water protectors was talking to
Speaker 2: that female officer, that female and security person, and she
Speaker 2: let go over dog and it bid that while protector
Speaker 2: gal It bit her left boob. That was the end.
Speaker 2: And I saw a few gentlemen, you know, take their
Speaker 2: those surveying sticks and stuff and just whip those security
Speaker 2: officers and the dogs to get them back.
Speaker 1: The police report says that one security guard went to
Speaker 1: the er and three of the dogs were injured. Six
Speaker 1: water protectors were bitten by dogs. According to a tribal
Speaker 1: spokesperson at the time, I asked Cody what he would say,
Speaker 1: So the accusation that the water protectors were violent.
Speaker 2: Your listeners listened to this. They would protect what they
Speaker 2: believe and what they love wholeheartedly. And if that meant
Speaker 2: that there was a a consequence, then we'll take it.
Speaker 2: We're not just going to allow a bunch of bulldozers
Speaker 2: to come in, you know. And meanwhile, we're supposed to
Speaker 2: stand on the other side of that bob oar fence
Speaker 2: and just see that desecration and say, oh well, we're
Speaker 2: going to wait for the legal system to protect us.
Speaker 1: The bulldozers and security trucks backed down.
Speaker 2: I remember there was people just throwing the dogs in
Speaker 2: the back of the pickup trucks and jumped in those
Speaker 2: trucks and literally just like drove off.
Speaker 1: When Tim visited the construction site to survey the damage
Speaker 1: from the bulldozers, he could see from the side of
Speaker 1: the road that a significant portion of the site we'd
Speaker 1: surveyed had been cleared. Tim wrote in another declaration to court,
Speaker 1: I do not believe that the timing of this construction
Speaker 1: was an accident or coincidence.
Speaker 2: He added, people were crying, people were mentioning that there
Speaker 2: was sacred sites here, and I didn't want our people
Speaker 2: and our allies to go back to their vehicles.
Speaker 1: Feeling defeated, Cody jumped onto the pile of dirt at
Speaker 1: the edge of the Bulldozed easement and gave a speech
Speaker 1: as people recorded on their phones.
Speaker 2: They're the reason why you all banned up together here
Speaker 2: from all different tribes, because your ancestors said, take one.
Speaker 6: Leave of ackshit, and that's what you guys did today.
Speaker 1: Police watched it and arrested him later that week. This
Speaker 1: was the arrest he told me about in our first
Speaker 1: episode of Slapped. Police weren't the only ones seeing video
Speaker 1: from Standing Rock. All over the rest of the country.
Speaker 1: People were watching the footage of water Protectors being attacked
Speaker 1: by security docs.
Speaker 2: It back for big time.
Speaker 1: Suddenly the movement exploded.
Speaker 2: Because within two days we saw the roads on eighteen
Speaker 2: oh six jam packed getting into the camp like there
Speaker 2: was a There was a huge amount of people showing
Speaker 2: up to stand up and stand with us.
Speaker 1: Energy Transfer denied they'd done anything wrong that day. They
Speaker 1: even got Dave Meyer, the rancher, to sign a document
Speaker 1: saying he didn't invite tim Mens to survey his property
Speaker 1: for sacred sites. The state of North Dakota sent their
Speaker 1: own archaeologists out to investigate. Energy Transfer's private security team
Speaker 1: created an elaborate security plan involving on police snipers who
Speaker 1: I guess were supposed to come to the rescue if
Speaker 1: someone tried to attack the archaeologists. They called it Operation
Speaker 1: Point Break Yes, also the name of a nineties Keanu
Speaker 1: Reeves movie where he's an undercover FBI agent infiltrating a
Speaker 1: group of surfer slash robbers. After it was over, the
Speaker 1: chief archaeologist of the North Dakota State Historic Preservation Office
Speaker 1: issued a statement. No cultural material was observed in the
Speaker 1: expected corridor, he wrote, adding no human bone or other
Speaker 1: evidence of burials was recorded. He concluded that Energy Transfer
Speaker 1: had not broken North Dakota law. It was a big
Speaker 1: victory for Energy Transfer. The North Dakota archaeologists had just
Speaker 1: undercut Tim Menz's expertise and the stance of the Standing
Speaker 1: Rock Sioux tribe. The bulldozing continued, and so did the
Speaker 1: legal fight, and by then Energy Transfer hired Gibson, dun
Speaker 1: and Krutcher to help them convey the judge to rule
Speaker 1: against the tribe. In the years that followed, the pipeline
Speaker 1: company doubled down on its questioning of what tim mens knew.
Speaker 1: They filed their lawsuit against green Peace, which argued that
Speaker 1: repeating the tribe's assertion that Energy Transfer deliberately destroyed sacred
Speaker 1: sites amounted to defamation. Then, one day, around early twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four, as the trial date loomed, Greenpeace showed up
Speaker 1: on the Standing Rock reservation. They wanted to meet with
Speaker 1: the tribe to talk. It turns out Energy Transfer had
Speaker 1: put a settlement on the table, a way for Greenpeace
Speaker 1: to get out of this trial, and Greenpeace was wondering
Speaker 1: what the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe would think if they
Speaker 1: accepted it, because if Greenpeace did accept the settlement, they
Speaker 1: too would have to undermine the tribe's word on sacred sites.
Speaker 1: Tom Goldtooth is a citizen of the Navajo Nation and
Speaker 1: also has Dakota heritage. He runs an organization called Indigenous
Speaker 1: Environmental Network.
Speaker 3: I've been the lead in our Indigenous Environmental Network since
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 1: Tom first got to know Greenpeace at a critical moment
Speaker 1: for the environmental movement.
Speaker 3: We challenged the white organizations back in the early nineteen
Speaker 3: nineties with environmental racism They did not have the native
Speaker 3: people on their boarder directors, They did not hire native organizers.
Speaker 3: Many just came into our territories, you know, to do
Speaker 3: a direct action, you know, rappling down an incinerator power,
Speaker 3: things like that, but not taken into consideration of building
Speaker 3: respectful relationship with our people.
Speaker 1: A new set of principles was being introduced, called the
Speaker 1: Jimez Principles. They were guidelines meant to make it possible
Speaker 1: for environmental organizers to be able to work together across
Speaker 1: cultures and across struggles. Two of the key principles let
Speaker 1: people speak for themselves and work together in solidarity.
Speaker 3: Green Peace stepped up in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: Tom was one of the people who asked Greenpeace Inc.
Speaker 1: To come to Standing Rock to bring nonviolent direct action
Speaker 1: training and the solar trailer to the water protectors. And
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four Tom was again talking with Greenpeace
Speaker 1: as they approached their court date in the energy transfer lawsuit.
Speaker 3: Our conversation with Greenpeace said, hey man, this is mucked up, okay,
Speaker 3: and you know, well, we'll stand with you. You know
Speaker 3: you're going to fight this.
Speaker 1: But for a little while it stopped being so clear
Speaker 1: that Greenpeace was going to fight this. Green Pieces leaders
Speaker 1: in the US had gamed out what would happen if
Speaker 1: they did. Given a jury pool in Martin County, North Dakota.
Speaker 1: They estimated they only had a five percent chance of
Speaker 1: winning if this went a trial. They determined that green
Speaker 1: Peace as they knew it might cease to exist. Energy
Speaker 1: transfers lawyers told them that if they simply settled, they
Speaker 1: would drop all this, They would let Greenpeace live. The
Speaker 1: organizations would just have to put out a little statement.
Speaker 1: The statement included a few key points.
Speaker 3: I'll put it into marcuson Telegraph word of mouth that
Speaker 3: I understand is that one of them was that they
Speaker 3: were telling Greenpeace, if we're willing to settle, if you know,
Speaker 3: if you say that there was no destruction through any
Speaker 3: sacred sites.
Speaker 1: The precise settlement language shifted and changed over time. However,
Speaker 1: there were three themes that Energy Transfer kept pushing. Greenpeace
Speaker 1: would have to indicate that there was violence within the
Speaker 1: Standing Rock movement. They'd have to say that the Dakota
Speaker 1: Access pipeline did not pass through the Standing Rock Shoe
Speaker 1: Tribe's land. And the thing that really rippled through Indian Country,
Speaker 1: energy Transfer wanted Greenpeace to declare that the pipeline company
Speaker 1: did not deliberately desecrate sacred sites. In other words, the
Speaker 1: corporation behind the Dakota Access pipeline one of the best
Speaker 1: known environmental organization in the world to undercut assertions that
Speaker 1: the standing Rock Sioux tribe stands behind to this day.
Speaker 3: This would violate that respect of their standing Rock Sioux
Speaker 3: Tribe that relationship because they're continuing to hold.
Speaker 1: A line, But Greenpeace considered it. Over the next few months,
Speaker 1: Greenpeace's US leaders came to out the best and worst
Speaker 1: case scenarios for settlement and a trial. The worst case
Speaker 1: scenario for a trial was grim. A trial might mean
Speaker 1: the loss of a fifty year legacy in all of
Speaker 1: Greenpeace's future impact. It could cause reputational damage to the tribe, allies,
Speaker 1: and other activists who would be forced to testify. It
Speaker 1: could set a legal precedent for suing movements out of existence.
Speaker 1: A trial could put one hundred and thirty five staff
Speaker 1: members out of work and risk the whole global network
Speaker 1: of green Peace organizations. The best case trial scenario didn't
Speaker 1: offer much hope. If all went well, maybe they'd be
Speaker 1: able to say we went down fighting. Some concluded that
Speaker 1: any trial scenario would be catastrophic. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: the worst case settlement scenario wasn't looking quite as bad.
Speaker 3: To some.
Speaker 1: A settlement might cause a pr crisis. Greenpeace might lose
Speaker 1: a few million dollars a year in funding, and some
Speaker 1: staff might resign. Manageable, A settlement might mean indigenous allies
Speaker 1: stop working with them. Manageable, and a settlement might mean
Speaker 1: energy transfer uses Greenpeace's statements against the standing Rock Sioux
Speaker 1: Tribe to summit Greenpeace this seemed manageable too. A settlement
Speaker 1: would mean Greenpeace would live to fight another day. This
Speaker 1: was the option supported by Greenpeace USA as Executive Director
Speaker 1: Ebenie Twillie Martin and several senior green Peace managers, but
Speaker 1: multiple people high up in the organization strongly opposed energy
Speaker 1: transfer settlement proposal. For example, Dipa Panmanaba resigned as Deputy
Speaker 1: General Counsel because she disagreed with senior management's position. According
Speaker 1: to sources close to Greenpeace, and some staff members got
Speaker 1: wind of the settlement and organized a letter to the
Speaker 1: board urging them not to accept the terms.
Speaker 3: Through the start to be a division of those that
Speaker 3: wanted Toto and those that said no, we got to
Speaker 3: hold the line. You know.
Speaker 1: Tom gold To spoke to Green Pieces then director Abbeny
Speaker 1: Tulie Martin over the phone multiple times.
Speaker 3: She wasn't a dilemma. The pressure was on, you know,
Speaker 3: the fear. Imagine anyone that has a that that that
Speaker 3: isn't a leadership position of a large organization that if
Speaker 3: they lose this case, they would have to close down
Speaker 3: their offices, right, you know. And that was the depth
Speaker 3: of the debate.
Speaker 1: You know what would have happened if they had accepted
Speaker 1: that settlement and said those things.
Speaker 3: I'm chuckling on this one. Oh jeez, I can see
Speaker 3: you quoting me.
Speaker 1: I know you got something to say.
Speaker 3: I would say, this would end our relationship with you
Speaker 3: with green Peace, it was that serious. This is a
Speaker 3: life and death issue to our indigenous peoples. This is
Speaker 3: a life and death issue to life itself, to water,
Speaker 3: to the river.
Speaker 1: What was her response to that.
Speaker 3: Quietness? And I feel it hit her hard.
Speaker 1: Back on the Standing Rock Reservation, Janet al Chayre, the
Speaker 1: chair of the Standing Rock Shoe Tribe, prepared for Greenpeace
Speaker 1: to accept the settlement.
Speaker 4: We didn't know.
Speaker 1: What they were going to do.
Speaker 4: So I had to basically not only prepare myself, but
Speaker 4: talking to the council and the team.
Speaker 1: She didn't share all the details of what tribal leaders
Speaker 1: had discussed with the Greenpeace lawyers, but she recalls what
Speaker 1: she told the tribal council.
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter if they what, you know, that decision
Speaker 4: is theirs, just like our decision is ours, and we'll
Speaker 4: be Okay, we'll be We'll you know, it'll just make
Speaker 4: it harder, but we'll We're still not going to stop fighting,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 1: Ultimately, it was up to Greenpeace's boards to decide. Nidia
Speaker 1: Alicia Garcia is an Indigenous Chicano organizer who sits on
Speaker 1: greenpeace inks board. It was clear for us that it
Speaker 1: was it was a hell no to media. It was
Speaker 1: obvious that the survival of Greenpeace was not the most
Speaker 1: important thing on the line, But it made sense to
Speaker 1: her that certain people in the organization did want a settlement.
Speaker 7: When you're an eight figure legacy, big Green, you're going
Speaker 7: to have to hire people who know how to keep
Speaker 7: five oh one C three.
Speaker 1: Is viable and the flow.
Speaker 7: And at the same time you're going to need to
Speaker 7: hire people who are fully fully aligned and ready to
Speaker 7: embody the mission and everything they say, think and do,
Speaker 7: and that.
Speaker 8: Is the forever tension.
Speaker 7: In nonprofits that exist to be in service to the movement.
Speaker 1: It came time to vote on whether or not to
Speaker 1: take the settlement, and the boards decided to reject it.
Speaker 1: It came at a cost, though, and I don't just
Speaker 1: mean losing the trial. Abany Tulie Martin, green Piece's first
Speaker 1: black woman executive director, left green Peace USA, but Deepa
Speaker 1: ultimately reached joined as senior legal advisor and media stands
Speaker 1: by the choice that her board made.
Speaker 9: I'm proud that we stuck to our values and decided
Speaker 9: to stay true to the spirit and the mission and
Speaker 9: the purpose of why Greenpeace ever came to exist.
Speaker 1: Anyway, She connects what happened with Greenpeace to what institutions
Speaker 1: all across the US are now facing.
Speaker 8: Look at what we're seeing this happening right now. If
Speaker 8: they don't like you, if they don't like the language
Speaker 8: there on your website, you know, funders, the government, it
Speaker 8: can all everything that's given to you top down can
Speaker 8: be taken from you top down. But at the end
Speaker 8: of the day, nonprofits are discardible, They are revocable. They
Speaker 8: are replaceable, and the movement is not. Relationships are not,
Speaker 8: and morals and values are not.
Speaker 1: A year later, the trial is proceeding. We're in the
Speaker 1: courtroom in Mandan, North Dakota, back with Mike Futch, who's
Speaker 1: still being asked about the bulldozers and sacred sites on
Speaker 1: the Cannonball Ranch. He says, the very day the tribe's
Speaker 1: lawyer filed Tim's declaration identifying sacred sites, he dispatched his
Speaker 1: construction manager and a security contractor to check it out,
Speaker 1: and they told him the sites were outside the pipeline's
Speaker 1: path and the bulldozers would be able to avoid the
Speaker 1: ones on the edge. They decided they didn't even need
Speaker 1: to call in an archaeologist to visit the area and
Speaker 1: double check, and they certainly didn't call the tribe. Here's
Speaker 1: Energy Transfer's lawyer during a pre trial hearing.
Speaker 10: There was just blocks and loose dirt when Energy Transfer
Speaker 10: looked and investigated at those sites where they said there
Speaker 10: might be some culturally significant resources, and there was also
Speaker 10: no human owns or other evidence of burials always recovered
Speaker 10: in that area.
Speaker 1: He shifts his focus and.
Speaker 10: Then what about the issue of deliberates, There's no evidence
Speaker 10: of deliberateness.
Speaker 1: The tribe's argument that Energy Transfer deliberately bulldozed sacred sites
Speaker 1: has to do with the timing of when bulldozers came
Speaker 1: to the Cannonball Ranch. They'd moved the bulldozers there sooner
Speaker 1: than originally planned, immediately after Tim Menz identified the sacred sites.
Speaker 1: On the stand, Mike Futch says Energy Transfer had planned
Speaker 1: at least a week in advance to move the bulldozers
Speaker 1: out of order because a big powow was coming to
Speaker 1: town and they wanted construction in the area to wrap
Speaker 1: up before new people showed up. Mike tells the court
Speaker 1: that he notified several law enforcement officers of the plan,
Speaker 1: except that story seems to conflict with the schedule they
Speaker 1: sent police, and when the Morton County Sheriff takes the stand,
Speaker 1: he says he didn't know Energy Transfer was going to
Speaker 1: be in that area, and he adds that that was abnormal.
Speaker 1: He usually did know the company's construction plans. Another Energy
Speaker 1: Transfer executive takes the stand to argue that another pipeline
Speaker 1: had actually been built in the area way back in
Speaker 1: the early eighties. If there were any sacred sites there,
Speaker 1: they would have already been destroyed by that construction. But
Speaker 1: this is another one of those moments where unexpected information
Speaker 1: is laid bare through a public records request. I got
Speaker 1: a copy of a report written by a contract archaeology
Speaker 1: firm hired by Energy Transfer. They made this map or
Speaker 1: a strip of color shows the area that got dug
Speaker 1: up back in the eighties, and it shows TIM sites
Speaker 1: outside of that zone. So what this executive is saying
Speaker 1: about the existence of sacred sites being impossible because of
Speaker 1: that old pipeline, it doesn't seem to be accurate. The
Speaker 1: pipeline company's stories about the sacred sites aren't totally adding up. Remember,
Speaker 1: Energy Transfer kept pointing to the archaeologists reports to prove
Speaker 1: they hadn't destroyed anything. In fact, that contract archaeology report
Speaker 1: concluded that four of TIM sites were in the Dakota
Speaker 1: Access Pipelines right of way, and one of them was
Speaker 1: covered by dirt when they visited. Greenpeace calls to the
Speaker 1: stand Sebastian Braun. He reviewed those reports as well as
Speaker 1: Timmns's findings.
Speaker 6: If I walk across a field in Pennsylvania, it's a field.
Speaker 6: I don't necessarily know that that was Gettysburg Battlefield.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 6: If I walk across the mall in Washington, DC and
Speaker 6: I see this weird obelisk tower there, I don't know
Speaker 6: that that's sacred ground. I just don't know, you know,
Speaker 6: with anything cultural, I depend on the people from that
Speaker 6: culture to tell me what the things mean.
Speaker 1: I spoke to Sebastian about his t testimony, especially that
Speaker 1: report we mentioned earlier in the episode where the North
Speaker 1: Dakota State archaeologists that he hadn't found anything. Does that
Speaker 1: actually tell you whether or not there were burial sites
Speaker 1: or sacred sites there.
Speaker 6: No, it does not say there were no sacred sites.
Speaker 6: It does not say there were no burial grounds there.
Speaker 6: It does not say anything really apart from we didn't
Speaker 6: find any human remains and we didn't find any evidence
Speaker 6: that any laws are broken.
Speaker 1: He tells me what the report say is simply that
Speaker 1: they didn't find anything archaeological.
Speaker 6: We only find that things are archaeological if we can
Speaker 6: identify them as man made. And as an anthropologist, okay,
Speaker 6: I have to say that is appalling. It is a
Speaker 6: narrow definition of significance and meaning.
Speaker 1: Sebastian says, that kind of logic doesn't even work where
Speaker 1: it comes to burial sites. In indigenous planes cultures, people
Speaker 1: were often laid to rest on scaffolds, so a burial
Speaker 1: site wouldn't even necessarily mean that bones could be found
Speaker 1: in the ground. The other archaeologists basically confirmed what Sebastian
Speaker 1: is saying about the limitations of archaeology in their own testimony,
Speaker 1: which was pre recorded but never made it into the trial.
Speaker 6: Both archaeologists are very honest, as you said, are very
Speaker 6: honest and open about actually not being able to identify,
Speaker 6: recognize significant sites, sacred sites, or to assign meaning to them.
Speaker 6: It doesn't not all say there were no sites, It
Speaker 6: just says we didn't find anything.
Speaker 1: In other words, the archaeologists used by energy transfer to
Speaker 1: prove that sacred sites were not destroyed didn't actually have
Speaker 1: the expertise to know the answer, and indicated as much
Speaker 1: to the court.
Speaker 6: Those are questions that should be left to the people
Speaker 6: who hold that place in significence.
Speaker 1: Greenpeace International's executive director Mads Christensen is called to the stand.
Speaker 1: Energy transfers lawyer Trey Cox points to what seems to
Speaker 1: be the key piece of evidence in their case against
Speaker 1: Greenpeace International, which is a letter written by a different
Speaker 1: organization called bank Track in November twenty sixteen. It's signed
Speaker 1: by over five hundred other organizations, including Greenpeace International. On
Speaker 1: page nine and the letter says that sacred sites were
Speaker 1: deliberately desecrated. Trey is interrogating Mads about the letter, the
Speaker 1: letter that Greenpeace didn't even write. He looks the lawyer
Speaker 1: in the eye. If you're aware of the fact of
Speaker 1: these sacred sites and still go ahead, then it must
Speaker 1: be deliberate. Greenpeace had made their choice. They stood behind
Speaker 1: the tribe. The standing Rocks Doe tribe did not make
Speaker 1: an appearance in court. Janet, the tribal chair, explained to
Speaker 1: me that they don't mess with state courts. As a rule.
Speaker 4: We don't go to state courts. We go to federal
Speaker 4: courts because we are a sovereign nation. We are the
Speaker 4: original sovereigns of the United States, and we went into
Speaker 4: treaties with the United States government, so basically we are
Speaker 4: elevated above the States. She said she's grateful that Greenpeace
Speaker 4: decided to reject the settlement. The demonstration of that strength
Speaker 4: and courage is a huge testament, and to show other
Speaker 4: organizations that you don't undermine your own integrity, you know,
Speaker 4: to take the easy road of anything.
Speaker 1: Ultimately, Energy Transfers deal making felt familiar to her.
Speaker 4: We've always had to deal with the dividing conquer, and
Speaker 4: we do it amongst each other too. But I think
Speaker 4: that wasn't divide and conquer, so to say, of Standing Rock.
Speaker 4: It was to divide and conquer of this planet.
Speaker 1: Actually, that Greenpeace settlement wasn't the first time that the
Speaker 1: pipeline company attempted to use deal making to undermine the
Speaker 1: water protector movement, but the last time Energy Transfer tried
Speaker 1: to make a deal, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe was
Speaker 1: directly in the crosshairs. Drilled as an original Critical Frequency production,
Speaker 1: this season was reported and written by me Allen Brown.
Speaker 1: Our senior editor is Audrey Quinn. Additional editing by Tristan
Speaker 1: Atto at Grist. Our producer and sound designer is Ray Pang.
Speaker 1: Mixing and mastering by Martin Saltz Austwich and Peter Duff.
Speaker 1: Fact checking by Shilpa Jindia. Our First Amendment attorney is
Speaker 1: James Wheaton of the First Amendment Project. We're also a
Speaker 1: member of Reporter Shield. Our impact producer is Lindsay Crowder.
Speaker 1: Marketing by Maggie Taylor. Original artwork for this season was
Speaker 1: created by Victor Pasqual of Digital Navajo. Our theme music
Speaker 1: is by Dear Lady. The show was created and executive
Speaker 1: produced by Amy Westerveldt. The Center for Media and Democracy
Speaker 1: support a document review for this season. You can find
Speaker 1: a companion feature story to this season at GRIS dot org.
Speaker 1: For related stories and to support our work, checkout Drill
Speaker 1: dot Media To follow my work. Check out my newsletter
Speaker 1: Eco files at Allen Brown dot Ghost do im no
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