Stand with Standing Rock

Dear President Obama,

President Obama, I was hoping you were finally going to take action to stop the rape of the land and the poisoning of the water going on right now in North Dakota, and halt and/or re-route the Dakota Access Pipeline. Your legacy is a sum total of nothing if you continue to ignore the cries of women, men, children, and elders who only want to protect those lands that they were relegated to after America was colonized, the lands you have forgotten, the people you have decided to forget.

You said you would stand for native rights, you lied. The have dug up sacred lands, now they want to poison the drinking water of millions, and they are ignoring your orders to stop at the water and wait until the Army Corps. of Engineers reassesses the 'situation'. In a recent interview you stated you were "going to see how it plays out", when there is irrefutable evidence that construction is full steam ahead. The oil company doesn't care about fines, they are going to make billions either way. They have no concern for Americans, and if you fail to act, you are saying you don't care either.

No one is watching, or 'observing', as the oil company Energy Transfer Partners, now begin to drill and are ready to go under the lake within two weeks. They tried to slip that bit of news by on Election Day, they wanted as few people to see it as possible, and they love that the media is focussed on doing a post-election autopsy. 

What Energy Transfer Partners, doesn't want you to know - they have brought in police who are pepper spraying, arresting, and firing rubber bullets at unarmed peaceful Indigenous people on their own ancestral lands. They arrest as many journalists as they can and stop any attempt to film what is actually going on at Standing Rock. Obama, you can stop it, but you won't because you have shown yourself to be a coward. The police are facing the wrong way, the ones breaking your orders are not the protectors, they are the construction workers and oil company that feels they are untouchable. Are they untouchable? 

Obama, you took campaign money from Big Oil, are you in their pocket? Now a lame-duck President, you just want it all to go away. It won't go away, people will die trying to protect their water, I know they will.

Your successor Mr. Trump won't stop it, he will make it worse. The next administer of the EPA is slated to be a noted Climate Change denier, I doubt he will even care. We are at a critical point in the battle for the environment and to stop climate change before it is too late. Even if they reverse your decision, at least you will have done the right thing. People will remember that. We have to stop the drilling, mining, and fracking and leave it in the ground, we must shift to renewable energy now.

Barack Obama, please keep your word and stop using Native Land as an alternative whenever an affluent white area refuses to allow a pipeline through. Bismarck ND (largely white population) refused to allow the pipeline to near their residents. All pipelines spill, a lot, and it's only a matter of time before the water will be poison and people will die. Please Mr. President, say no to the Dakota Access Pipeline. This shouldn't still be happening, not in our lifetime, not ever. Money is not life, water is life; please save the humans and animals that depend on that water. We are at a point of no return. This will be your legacy one way or the other, what side of history do wish to be on? Show us your humanity, your basic human decency. Show your daughters that you care about the planet they, and their children, will inherit.

Sincerely,

The Water Protectors of the World.