Hundreds protest at White House against Dakota Access Pipeline easement

Update Standing Rock Feb 8:Permit approved 6PM EST, drilling started 15 min later. Indigenous Environmental Network warns "Police violence seems inevitable and mass casualties are very likely. The only way to keep people safe is to do the EIS. If not, any blood spilled is on Trump’s hands and the hands of the Corps. "

On the 8th of February, hundreds of water protectors showed up at an emergency protest at the White House in response to the US Army Corps of Engineers decision to offer a 30 year easement for the Dakota Access Pipeline. Similar protests were held all over Turtle Island.

Water protectors and military veterans are returning to front-line positions in Standing Rock despite warnings from the Indigenous Environmental Network (EIN) that "Police violence seems inevitable and mass casualties are very likely. " EIN has further warned that only a return to the now-cancelled Environmental Impact Statement process is likely to keep the peace, and that the blood of anyone who lays down his or her life to defend Standing Rock is on the hands of Donald Trump.

There are fears of another Wounded Knee, but with the very survival of Standing Rock on the line people are going to the front anyway. People have made sacrifices like this before fighting fascism, notably between 1939 and 1945 but also in all the "Indian Wars" ever fought to defend this continent from colonization and settler aggression.