WEBVTT - S12, Ep1: How did we get here? 0:00:00.960 --> 0:00:07.640 Coning, Why Minieway coning, Why Minieway coning Why. 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:11.879 A small crowd of people gathered on the side of 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:15.360 North Dakota Highway eighteen oh six, just north of the 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:19.799 Standing Rock Indian Reservation. A line of highway patrol officers 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:23.920 were standing between them and a construction site. Cody Hall, 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:26.079 a member of the Shian River Sioux tribe, was in 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:26.599 the crowd. 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:32.960 Those bulldozers were up and running, and we saw them 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:34.000 moving the earth. 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:39.760 If those bulldozers were allowed to continue, a massive drill 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:43.280 would soon bow a hole underneath the Missouri River to 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:46.280 make way for the Dakota Access Pipeline. 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:53.320 The tension was so thick that something was going to 0:00:53.520 --> 0:01:01.600 happen physically, and I remember thinking, I was like, oh gosh, 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:07.880 people are really at their bowing point. I'm sitting there, 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:10.920 you know, kind of pacing back and forth. I happen 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:16.800 to look over to my right and I saw the 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:25.920 women and they were singing their death song. And in 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:30.000 our culture, when you sing your death song, that means 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:34.680 you were obviously not afraid to die. And then all 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:39.920 of a sudden, a group of women went and jumped 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:40.840 the barb war fence. 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:44.560 Nobody had planned this. The fence marked the edge of 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:48.120 the area where police were allowing protests. Beyond it lay 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:50.720 the construction site and open grasslands. 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:55.560 I was like, hey, hey, you know, I stop. You know, 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:58.520 I was like, just we don't know what's going to happen, 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:03.680 and they might shoot you, right, And I remember one 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:10.080 of the ladies said she didn't care. She said she 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:15.680 doesn't fear a bullet, she doesn't fear death. And when 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:18.200 I saw her take off, and I remember looking back 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:21.680 at friends and people were like, whoa, you know, stop, stop, hey, 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:26.080 come back, come back. And then I said forget this. 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:32.520 I said, every man available, jump the fence and then 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:37.720 stand behind him. Let's go help. You know, these women defend, 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:40.280 defend our lives. 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:44.720 They ran onto the construction site, halting the work. 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:50.040 We do this to stop the des secretion of Ujimaka. 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:53.480 We do this for the next seven generations. We do 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:57.720 this for the unborn children that are coming through this world. 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:02.239 We're protecting the water. Our water is life. 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:09.160 The momentum was there. The people's energy was something I 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:11.080 never felt before in a big group. 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:15.320 We stand or land in our water. 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:22.600 We had that feeling that we were going to defeat this. 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:24.040 This energy company. 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:31.840 You probably already know. The Dakota Access Pipeline was eventually built, 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:36.080 but before it was tens of thousands of people arrived 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.280 on the prairie just outside the Standing Rock Reservation and 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:43.600 attempted to stop it. Standing Rock became the largest indigenous 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:46.680 uprising in the US in the last half century, and 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:49.920 it was happening in opposition to an oil pipeline company. 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:54.840 Maybe that's why the company behind the pipeline, Energy Transfer, 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:58.760 did what it did next. In twenty seventeen, after the 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:02.440 oil was flowing. After police force the huge encampments of 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:07.080 pipeline opponents and water protectors to go home, Energy Transfer 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:12.160 filed a lawsuit, a really big one. The company claimed 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:15.600 that the whole Standing Rock movement, the massive effort to 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:19.599 stop the Decode Access pipeline in twenty sixteen, was actually 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:24.320 a conspiracy driven by green Peace to save the whales GUIs. 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.120 According to the pipeline company, it wasn't the Standing Rock 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.239 Zoo tribe or other indigenous people who led the movement, 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:35.560 despite what numerous media reports, eye witnesses, and public officials 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:39.800 will tell you. It was a giant environmental nonprofit conspiring 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:44.440 to take down the fossil fuel industry. I'm an environmental 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:48.960 reporter focused on the criminalization of environmental defenders. I've been 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:51.840 covering Standing Rock since the early days of the movement 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:56.520 and energy transfers. Allegations against Greenpeace defied both what I'd 0:04:56.560 --> 0:04:59.440 seen with my own eyes at the protests and what 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:02.400 I learned over years of reporting on the Standing Rock movement. 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:06.719 The story the lawsuit told was so different from what 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:10.160 I'd heard from Cody and others. Source after source had 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:14.039 told me. Indigenous people and nations made their own decisions 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:16.599 to stand up against a company that threatened their water 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:21.200 and the rights to land, regardless of how ridiculous this 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:24.440 lawsuit seemed. In twenty twenty five, it made it to trial, 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:27.640 and in March I found myself sitting in a courtroom 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:30.960 in Mandan, North Dakota, listening to a court clerk revealed 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:34.640 the verdict. After three and a half weeks, the jury 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:38.960 decided overwhelmingly in favor of the pipeline company's story. The 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:43.760 total damages over six hundred and sixty six million dollars, 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:47.440 a number that threatened to bankrupt Greenpeace in the US. 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:51.000 I'd spent nearly a decade reporting on what happened with 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:54.440 the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Standing Rock movement. I 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:57.880 sat through the lawsuits nearly month long trial in that 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:01.919 same room with those nine jurors. The evidence I heard 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:06.320 was thin, and yet the jury delivered almost precisely what 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:13.440 Energy Transfers lawyers asked for. How the hell did this happen? 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.039 And if an oil company could push its version of 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:21.159 events so successfully here, then what did that mean? Beyond 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:25.640 this courthouse? This season of Drilled, we bring you slapped 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:28.719 the story of an indigenous nation fighting for its water, 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:33.600 an environmental nonprofit facing extinction, and an energy giant using 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:52.800 the courts to punish protesters. I'm Aline Brown. To understand 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:56.200 what happened in the Energy Transfer versus Greenpeace case, we 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:59.200 have to start at the beginning with Cody Hall, who 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:01.839 you heard from early. He was actually at the center 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:06.680 of Energy Transfers lawsuit until he wasn't from. 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:09.520 The Shine River Indian Reservation in South Dakota. 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:13.960 The Chyenne River Reservation where Cody lived is immediately south 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:17.360 of Standing Rock. Both reservations are home to the Ochechi 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:21.240 Shakoine people, also known as the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota. 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:24.880 The people who live there aren't just neighbors, they're relatives. 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:28.840 Cody helped start the Native Lives Matter movement there, so 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:31.040 it was natural that he would be asked to join 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:33.440 the fight to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:37.280 I was approached by an elder group in Eagle Butte 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:42.120 there on my home reservation, that said, there are people 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:49.680 gathering in Standing Rock. Can you go up and just 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:52.000 get an assessment of what's going on? Cody. 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:55.360 Cody arrived at a protest encampment on the Standing Rock 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:58.120 Reservation in early August of twenty sixteen. 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:01.000 I went up there with just a backpack of I 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:05.240 think three days of close you know, and then ended 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:07.280 up being there months. 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:11.440 Energy Transfer had originally considered putting the Dakota Access pipeline 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:14.520 upstream of the city of Bismarck, which is mostly white, 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:18.480 but the Federal Army Corps engineers rejected that route, in 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:21.240 part because it could have harmed the city's drinking water supply. 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:24.760 The new approved route crossed the river just north of 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:29.040 the Standing Rock Reservation and its drinking water intake. To 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:32.760 Cody and others, this was a case of environmental racism. 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:36.240 People had begun to travel from all around the country 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:40.520 to defend the Standing Rock Sioux tribes, drinking water, sacred sites, 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:45.600 and land rights. They called themselves water Protectors. Facebook Live 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:49.319 had launched that spring and many pipeline opponents were using it. 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:54.840 This is the main camp. There are still other camps 0:08:56.160 --> 0:09:01.280 like Sacred Stone which was up there, and Eagle's Nest, 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:04.640 and there's also the new Chayenne River Camp which is 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:06.200 further down that way. 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:10.280 In late summer, people began to set up additional tents 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:14.079 and teepees on federal land near the pipeline crossing. This 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:17.880 new encampment, called the Ochechi Shacoine Camp, was on land 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:21.040 officially possessed by the Army Corps of Engineers, but that 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:23.920 people from Standing Rock still considered theirs. 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:30.920 It felt home. It took your spirit back to a 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:38.160 much loving time period of our people. I thought, you 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:42.000 know what, Yeah, there's nothing wrong with taking back land right. 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:47.559 The camp was established on unseated territory, an official designation 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:50.760 that means that Ochechi Shacoine people never agreed to give 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:54.320 it up. The area where energy Transfer was building was 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:59.240 also unseated territory. For the water Protectors, the pipeline fight 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:03.120 was a matter of indigenous sovereignty. The Standing Rock Sioux 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:06.319 Tribe is a nation, and they argued that Army Corps 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:09.240 shouldn't allow the pipeline to pass under the river or 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:14.640 over culturally significant areas without substantial government to government consultation. 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:18.840 Soon after Cody arrived, he was approached by Deb white Plume, 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:21.000 a member of the Ogolalla Sioux tribe. 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:24.840 I knew of Deb and knew what she was doing, 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:32.360 long before any pipeline came about in our territories. 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:35.960 Deb died in twenty twenty one, but she lived a 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:40.280 life dedicated to defending Lakota people. In the nineteen seventies, 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:43.160 she joined the American Indian Movement and deb led a 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.640 resistance group that protested against the Keystone Excel pipeline, which 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:48.920 was set to be built through her nation's territory in 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:51.880 South Dakota. Now she was bringing a version of that 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:55.040 group to Standing Rock. They were called Red Warrior Camp. 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:57.600 I remember she asked me. She said, Cody, you speak 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:00.760 so eloquent, Maitan. She said, I would like for you 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:05.720 to be a spokesperson for my resistance camp. She talked 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:10.720 about how people chain themselves to block the proceedings of 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:13.280 whatever it may be. You know, and I thought, okay, 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:19.160 especially it being non violent. I said, wow, that's kind 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:20.760 of what I've been speaking about. 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:23.560 After giving it a couple of days thought, Cody agreed 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:27.440 to be spokesperson for Red Warrior Camp. Around the campfire 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:30.320 with other members of the group, he laid down some 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:31.400 ground rules. 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:33.640 But I said, I don't want to know what you're doing, 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:37.199 what you're planning. If you tell me what you were 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:41.680 doing and I get picked up, let's say, you know, 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:47.360 and they questioned me on, then you start breaking down 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:53.240 the chain of resistance. So don't tell me. I don't 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:53.600 want to know. 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:57.040 He also told them that he was only interested in 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:59.160 supporting nonviolent actions. 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:03.160 Hi, my name's Cody Hall, media correspondence for the Red 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:06.199 Warrior Camp and today up here in Manning. 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:08.360 Cody's job was to film short videos and live streams 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:11.640 that he posted to Red Warrior Camp's Facebook page. Some 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:14.560 were filmed from within construction sites where people were locked 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:18.400 down to machinery. He wasn't planning the actions, but he 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:20.200 became the public face of Red Warrior. 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:25.679 As you can see behind me, one of our warriors 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:31.360 put himself on the machinery to stop today's construction. They 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:33.680 are very near the camp. 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:36.720 The fight against the pipeline seemed to be taking off, 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:41.760 but really it was only getting started. Energy Transfer didn't 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:44.200 have an easement from the Army Corps yet which would 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:46.800 allow them to drill under the river, but there was 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:50.079 nothing stopping the pipeline company from building on private land. 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:53.520 Standing Rock had filed a lawsuit in July to stop 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:56.760 that construction, but while they waited for a judge to rule, 0:12:57.360 --> 0:12:59.320 Energy Transfer kept on bulldozing. 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:04.800 In North Dakota, security guards working for the Dakota Access 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:09.080 Pipeline Company attacked Native Americans with dogs and pepper spray 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:13.360 as they resisted the three point eight billion dollar pipelines construction. 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:19.400 Criminal by the criminal, We'll get your money somewhere out Okay. 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:26.760 Protesters advance as far as a small wooden bridge. Security 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:29.480 unleashes one of the dogs, which attacked two of the 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:39.720 Native Americans horses. Security has some kind of gas. People 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:40.760 are being pepper sprayed. 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:51.880 On Labor Day weekend, water protectors spotted bulldozers working right 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:55.080 where the Standing Rock Sooo tribe had just identified sacred 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:59.040 sites only the day before. Several people rushed onto the 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:04.040 construction site attempt to stop them. Democracy now captured security 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:09.600 dogs attacking the pipeline opponents, and the movement went viral. 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:12.880 With that dog, I was like walking through it on 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:14.560 me straight, even without any warning. 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:16.839 You don't look at this, Look at this dog. 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:17.599 The dog did it? 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:17.800 You know? 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:18.400 Look at this. 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:22.840 Man, your doctor, protester, you're. 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:24.720 Protester. 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:29.280 Are you telling the dogs to bite the protesters? Exactly? 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:33.000 The dog has blood and its nose in its mouth. 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:34.080 It's still. 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:46.320 It opened the floodgates. And when those gates were opened, craziness. 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:45.720 And soon. 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:56.960 People from around the world poured into the pipeline resistance camps, 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:00.360 from members of indigenous nations who saw this fight is 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:04.160 their own, to everyday people moved by water protectors, social 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:08.760 media feeds, to longtime environmental activists felt a responsibility to 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:14.440 show solidarity. Churches, community groups and individuals donated supplies to 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:18.480 keep the camps afloat. A school opened for families with children. 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:23.080 Several kitchens served meals throughout the day. By now, nonprofits 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:25.720 had joined the fight too, like three fifty dot Org, 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:30.680 Indigenous Environmental Network, Honor the Earth, Bold Alliance, and Yes 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:34.640 Green Peace. It was a powerful moment, but when protests 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:37.800 get the sort of international media attention. Standing rock got 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:40.840 it doesn't just attract the people who are committed to 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:46.520 the costs. Also arriving were crystal chasers, cult members, grifters, 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:50.200 and even professional infiltrators looking to get information about the 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:54.680 resistance to share with the pipeline company or police. Things 0:15:54.720 --> 0:16:02.280 started to spin beyond anyone's control. Tens of thousands of 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:05.240 people traveled in and out of the prairie encampments with 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:08.840 their egos and their agendas, which sometimes aligned with those 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:14.320 of the tribe and sometimes sat directly in opposition. Millions 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:17.800 of dollars also began pouring into hundreds of GoFundMe pages. 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:22.560 Sometimes the projects people promised were built, and sometimes they weren't. 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:26.760 At the same time, the governor of North Dakota called 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:30.280 in the National Guard, which joined law enforcement officers from 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:36.360 around the country to try and disperse the protests. They 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:41.560 brought military grade armored vehicles, surveillance drones, and surfaced to 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:45.600 air missiles, and word began to spread that the pipeline 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:49.080 company had hired a mercenary security firm fresh from the 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:52.520 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. As far as the water 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:56.560 protectors were concerned, the line between police and private security 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:02.880 was a blur overhead. Helicopters and little Sesna planes flown 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:07.359 by police and private security buzzed at all hours. In 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:10.719 between the steady beat of protests, a feeling had seeped 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:15.480 in that Cody was being targeted. Then, as he was 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:18.240 driving to drop someone off at the airport, a law 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:21.000 enforcement officer waved Cody to the side of the road. 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:23.560 He was under arrest for trespassing. 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:35.359 So when I turned around and the state patrolman is 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:40.080 handcuffing me, first thing I did was count how many 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:47.920 they were. Eighteen they had helmets on, the goggles, face masks, 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:53.879 body armor. And then they had their ar fifteen's pointed 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:58.080 at me. And then they brought me into the vehicle. 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:02.760 They put me in the back seat, and I met 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:08.840 with cheers. Right, wait, we got you, you motherfucker. Over 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:16.920 and over again, I said, whoa guys, Isaac Like I said, man, 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:18.760 you guys, take it, take it too far. 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:24.280 At the station, Cody says he was stripped, naked and searched. 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:28.720 Two FBI agents attempted to interview him, but he refused 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:33.040 to tell them anything. At night, cold air was blasted 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:36.400 into his cell and every couple hours, an officer would 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:42.640 enter and tower over him. Ultimately, he was bailed out. 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:46.040 As he left, a young officer told him the FBI 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:50.320 had been watching him on cameras the whole time. I 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:53.639 asked Jacob O'Connell, the FBI supervisor at the time for 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:56.680 the western half of North Dakota, if he remembered this. 0:18:57.359 --> 0:18:59.479 He said he didn't and that it wasn't something the 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:03.320 FBI will have done. The Morton County Sheriff's office declined 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:07.040 an interview request and didn't respond to a list of questions. 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:10.280 When Cody returned to camp, he says the feeling of 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:12.960 being watched was more intense than ever. 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:18.240 But also felt like that I might be being used 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:19.120 as a scapegoat. 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:22.920 Soon after his release, Cody attended a rally at the 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:26.199 Morton County Courthouse to support other water protectors who had 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:29.320 been arrested. He noticed something that seemed off. 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:37.320 This individual kept kailing me, and I thought, well, let 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:41.040 me just let me walk around right like, not where 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:44.680 everybody is speaking, but just let me walk around and 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:47.240 see if this person is still going to follow me. 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:50.640 And sure enough, this this individual was so I thought, 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:53.639 oh crap. The group of people came up and said, hey, Cody, 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:56.320 you got to ride back to camp and I said, no, 0:19:56.359 --> 0:19:56.680 I don't. 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:01.879 When Cody realized who the driver was, he hesitated. It 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:04.960 was that same guy who seemed to be following him around, 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:08.359 but his friends reassured him that the guy was vetted 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:09.840 and had been staying at the camp. 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:15.800 I just remember there was like thirteen of us that 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:18.480 packed into this van when he asked me to sit 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:24.159 with him up upfront, and I thought, oh shit. So 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:27.600 we get back to camp. I opened the door up 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:30.439 and he said, hey, hold on one second, Cody. He's like, 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:35.560 can I have a word with you? And then he 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:39.879 started to reach on his left pocket of his jacket 0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:44.440 inside and then he kind of he showed an envelope. 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:47.040 He didn't open it him. He just pulled his envelope 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:50.800 out and he said, I got money for you. And 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:55.280 I said, well, what do you mean. He said, we 0:20:55.320 --> 0:21:00.600 had Green Peas pile up all this money, and because 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:04.280 we watched one of your videos looking for support, so 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:09.560 we gathered up supplies and we have monetary donations here, 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:11.879 so I want to give it to you. 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:15.360 I asked s Greenpeace about this, and they said they're 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:18.000 so careful about money that this isn't something they would 0:21:18.040 --> 0:21:21.240 have done. Cody said, the man offered him over two 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:24.240 hundred thousand dollars. 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:27.959 And I said, no, no, I don't. I said, I'm 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:34.760 not I'm not taking anything man. And I remember my 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:37.680 instinct said get the hell out of there, get out 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:40.720 of this guy's vehicle. And I walked away, walking backwards, 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:43.840 looking at this guy. He drove away, and I just 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:48.760 remember telling security they watched that individual some sketchy. 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:52.040 Cody didn't mention the details of what happened to anyone. 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:55.440 It was another bizarre incident amongst the mountain of them 0:21:55.520 --> 0:21:59.719 piling up every passing week, But the envelope man incident 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:02.520 would come to take on greater meaning later. By the 0:22:02.640 --> 0:22:06.160 end of October twenty sixteen, Cody was clashing with members 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:07.240 of Red Warrior Camp. 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:12.640 People were being shot with rubber bullets and so called 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:17.680 non violent in the law enforcement area right in their 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:21.399 point of view. But so Red Warrior people were like 0:22:21.480 --> 0:22:26.439 eye for an eye and it started to turn the 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:36.360 They intercre them just you know, just hated everybody, including myself, 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:40.440 more myself. They didn't like the narrative that I was 0:22:40.560 --> 0:22:45.000 speaking of non violent and just take it right, just 0:22:45.040 --> 0:22:48.879 take it, take it taken. So they were frustrated and 0:22:48.920 --> 0:22:51.480 then took their frustration out of me. I just said, 0:22:51.480 --> 0:22:53.320 I'm done with you guys. That's the way you want, 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:55.640 and that's what you want. I said, then I'm done 0:22:55.680 --> 0:22:57.879 with y'all. And they were like, well, we're done with you. 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:00.679 And I was like, all right, mutual agreement. I'm not 0:23:00.680 --> 0:23:03.040 your spokespresson anymore. That's luck to you. 0:23:04.680 --> 0:23:06.800 Cody wasn't the only one who had problems with Red 0:23:06.840 --> 0:23:10.520 Warrior Camp. They'd become controversial at Standing Rock for using 0:23:10.560 --> 0:23:14.520 aggressive tactics. On the day after Halloween, the Standing Rock 0:23:14.560 --> 0:23:19.399 Tribal Council voted Red Warrior Camp out. Cody had already 0:23:19.400 --> 0:23:22.280 made his decision. He left Red Warrior Camp for good, 0:23:22.840 --> 0:23:25.439 driving south until he got back home to the Cheyenne 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:31.520 River Reservation. I actually arrived at Standing Rock a couple 0:23:31.560 --> 0:23:34.560 weeks after Cody left. I was there an assignment for 0:23:34.600 --> 0:23:38.240 the Intercept, an investigative news outlet. Part of the reason 0:23:38.280 --> 0:23:40.719 I was interested in these protests was because they were 0:23:40.760 --> 0:23:43.119 coming at a time when the fossil fuel industry was 0:23:43.240 --> 0:23:47.880 especially vulnerable. People were really beginning to recognize the impacts 0:23:47.920 --> 0:23:51.040 of the climate crisis and fossil fuel companies role in it. 0:23:51.840 --> 0:23:55.359 These corporations weren't just facing a single blockade of activists 0:23:55.359 --> 0:23:58.760 at Standing Rock as the climate crisis got worse, they 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:05.520 were facing the possibility of escalating protests. The road into 0:24:05.560 --> 0:24:09.080 camp was lined by flags from all the indigenous nations 0:24:09.080 --> 0:24:14.560 that had visited. Seemingly hundreds of teepees, tents, yurts, and 0:24:14.640 --> 0:24:17.760 trailers were set up in the middle of the prairie. 0:24:18.000 --> 0:24:20.960 The sky felt bigger here and closer to the ground. 0:24:22.000 --> 0:24:24.080 A lot of what was happening at camp was the 0:24:24.200 --> 0:24:28.560 daily work of surviving in the November cold. Respected elders 0:24:28.560 --> 0:24:32.360 from Standing Rock sat on folding chairs under blankets near 0:24:32.400 --> 0:24:37.040 a sacred fire that was always burning. Lakota and Dakota 0:24:37.080 --> 0:24:39.520 people I talked to told me that what was happening 0:24:39.520 --> 0:24:43.119 here was spiritual for them. When I asked for interviews, 0:24:43.400 --> 0:24:45.600 some people jokingly asked me if I worked for the 0:24:45.640 --> 0:24:53.280 pipeline company. Water protectors knew there were spies among them. 0:24:53.400 --> 0:24:56.040 There was a feeling in the air that something rare 0:24:56.200 --> 0:24:59.520 and important was happening, but that it could go off 0:24:59.520 --> 0:25:04.000 the rail at any moment. I saw the helicopters and 0:25:04.040 --> 0:25:07.520 little planes flying overhead all the time. I followed a 0:25:07.560 --> 0:25:11.000 caravan of protesters to a spot where people were blocking construction. 0:25:11.880 --> 0:25:15.959 The planes shadowed us as we drove. At night, a 0:25:16.040 --> 0:25:18.720 row of lights beamed eerily from up on a hill 0:25:19.280 --> 0:25:22.560 along where the pipeline was being built and next to 0:25:22.600 --> 0:25:27.040 the camp. Police and private security had erected concrete barriers 0:25:27.080 --> 0:25:31.199 and barbed wire across Highway eighteen oh six. Two burnt 0:25:31.200 --> 0:25:35.480 out trucks served as an additional boundary. Right after I left, 0:25:35.760 --> 0:25:38.760 water protectors attempted to tow away the burnt out trucks, 0:25:39.200 --> 0:25:42.520 and during the protests that followed, police used hoses to 0:25:42.520 --> 0:25:47.600 spray icy water at people in sub freezing weather. Medics 0:25:47.640 --> 0:25:49.879 on the ground told me they treated one hundred and 0:25:49.880 --> 0:25:54.160 sixty eight people for hypothermia. Here's from a Facebook live 0:25:54.280 --> 0:25:59.439 video filmed as the hoses were fired, so that you're. 0:25:59.320 --> 0:26:03.040 Looking on those just joining now. Yes, this is sub 0:26:03.160 --> 0:26:06.120 zero weather. That's the bridge on eighteen six, just north 0:26:06.119 --> 0:26:09.920 of camp. What you're watching right now is military police 0:26:10.240 --> 0:26:19.280 and national gods firing on unarmed citizens, prayerful, peaceful, unarmed citizens. 0:26:21.520 --> 0:26:25.679 As winter set in, anxiety over surveillance and infiltration was 0:26:25.720 --> 0:26:29.119 causing conflict as people whispered about who might be working 0:26:29.119 --> 0:26:31.600 as a spy for the pipeline company or the government. 0:26:32.680 --> 0:26:36.000 For Cody, weird stuff related to money had continued to 0:26:36.119 --> 0:26:39.280 happen back on Chian River. He says a guy he'd 0:26:39.320 --> 0:26:41.840 never met showed up in his hometown and attempted to 0:26:41.840 --> 0:26:45.400 hand him a duffel bag full of cash. Cody sent 0:26:45.520 --> 0:26:48.800 him away. He suspected these incidents where attempts to set 0:26:48.840 --> 0:26:53.320 him up. Meanwhile, local journalists had begun to raise questions 0:26:53.359 --> 0:26:56.600 about where the millions of dollars and go fundme donations 0:26:56.640 --> 0:27:00.680