Northern declines to endorse pipeline protestors' rights

The local university student senate voted against supporting a student proposal to endorse the right of demonstrators protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline.

"We are not here for you to get a political idea. We are here and we pay taxes for you so you can get an education," Willard Fladager, a local resident who spoke against going forward with the resolution, said Wednesday during a forum in the Montana State University-Northern Student Union Building Ballroom before the vote.

"I pay taxes, too, all my life," Mike Lamebull, who is a member of the Gros Ventre Tribe from Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and a Northern alumnus, said to the large crowd at the forum.  

In the end, 10 members of the Associated Students of Montana State University-Northern's Student Senate voted Wednesday night against the Montana Association of Students moving forward with the resolution, which had been proposed by three representatives at the Nov. 16 MAS meeting in Missoula.

Six other senators voted to have Northern's representatives abstain from voting on the issue. None voted in favor of MAS moving forward with the resolution.

The MAS resolution called for support of the rights of demonstrators to peacefully  protest the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota and for state and Montana officials not to send any additional personnel or tax dollars to North Dakota to assist with ongoing law enforcement efforts at sites where protesters have camped out.

Other campuses within the MUS system are also deciding how their MAS representatives should vote on the issue at the next MAS meeting.

Northern student Senate President Randy Roeber said he believed Northern was the only campus in the system that held a town hall meeting allowing students and others to weigh in on how their campus' should vote on the resolution.

If passed, a copy of  the MAS  resolution would be sent to Gov. Steve Bullock,  Montana Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines and Rep. Ryan Zinke, North Dakota Gov. Jack Darlymple and Steve Sitting Bear, the external affairs director for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.  

The town hall took place an hour before the Senate held their weekly meeting.

MSU-Northern Stockgrowers Association President Michael Peter said his group opposed moving forward with the resolution.

"We, as a club, urge that MSU-Northern Student Senate addresses the fact that higher education institutions should not involve themselves in political issues, " he said.

Peter added that protesters have caused damage to the property of farmers and ranchers  near the campsites where protesters are gathered, damaging fences, harassing livestock and discouraging harvesters from coming to that area.

He said refusing to send law enforcement assistance to North Dakota could cause states to not support Montana with personnel and resources to combat wildfires and other natural disasters.

Pipeline opponents and supporters of the resolution said that the issue of the pipeline is more than politics - it is a human and civil rights issue.

"We don't see how it's political that these people want clean water. How does that make it political?" asked Mia Lamebull, a student and treasurer of the Sweetgrass Society.

Other opponents of the MAS resolution said supporting the resolution could have repercussions for Northern.

Alex Lankford, a member of the Senate, said he does not see how the resolution helps those supporting the cause of the pipeline protests. However, he said, he was concerned the repercussions it could have for the university, whichever way they decide to vote.

"I can see this going totally south on us and dragging our school's name through the mud if it goes either way, from  either stand point. I do not want that to happen," Lankford said.

Roeber said that, based on his understanding, if the resolution moves forward and  is taken up by MAS, it would represent not just Northern but all students in the Montana University System.

"That would be a decision that would be made at the MUS level and that either decision will represent all students within the state of Montana," he said.