City of San Luis Obispo lobbied for pro-Standing Rock resolution
A map of the Dakota Pipeline path was included in the petition for a Standing Rock resolution.
Some SLO County residents support resolution
—A coalition of San Luis Obispo County residents, including San Luis Obispo mayor-elect Heidi Harmon, have presented a petition to the City of San Luis Obispo, calling for an official resolution in support of the Standing Rock Sioux protesters.
Thousands of indigenous Lakota Sioux and their non-indigenous supporters continue to oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline snaking through contested areas south of Bismarck, ND. The Standing Rock Native American Reservation is a Hunkpapa Lakota and Yanktonai Dakota Native American reservation in North Dakota and South Dakota. The pipeline has been routed through areas of the reservation.
More than 20 other American cities have issued resolutions expressing solidarity with those opposing the pipeline, including Santa Barbara, Berkeley, Oakland and Davis, Calif. as well as Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minn., Portland, Or. and Sitka in Alaska.
Among the local groups supporting the resolution are members of the Northern Chumash, City Repair SLO, the Outside Now Nature Academy, SLO Permaculture Guild and more than 200 individuals who have joined a new Facebook group called “SLO County Defending the Sacred.”
In their petition to the city, they argue that the “proposed Dakota Access Pipeline would carry as many as 570,000 barrels of fracked crude oil per day for more than 1,170 miles from the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota to Illinois. It would imperil sensitive landscapes including treaty-protected land containing recognized cultural resources and across or under 209 rivers, creeks, and tributaries including the pristine Missouri River, the longest river in North America. The Missouri provides drinking water to many cities and towns and irrigates agricultural land across the Midwest and it is estimated that 17 million people rely on its water.”
The text of the proposed Resolution reads as follows:
“Whereas, the horizontal direction drilling in the construction of the pipeline would destroy valuable cultural resources of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe; and
Whereas, the Dakota Access Pipeline violates Article 2 of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty which guarantees that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe shall enjoy the “undisturbed use and occupation” of our permanent homeland, the Standing Rock Indian Reservation;
Now, therefore be it resolved that the City Council of the City of San Luis Obispo, stands in support of the opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline process and project and calls on all residents of San Luis Obispo to raise awareness about this important struggle for indigenous sovereignty and environmental justice and to support the Sacred Stones Camp efforts.
—Citizens of San Luis Obispo.”
The group presenting the petition, including organizer Roberto Monge, is still waiting for the city council to address their proposal. Meanwhile, Jan Marx, the outgoing mayor of San Luis Obispo, told organizers, “We have a policy of not taking a stand on something that’s not local.”
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