Rocky Boy group joining pipeline protest

A small group from Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation will travel to North Dakota this week to join the Standing Rock Sioux and others protesting the construction of an oil pipeline.

Linda Webster, pastor with Our Saviours Lutheran Church at Rocky Boy, said on the church’s Facebook page that 11 people will be going, nine from Rocky Boy including herself and two Lutheran Ministers from elsewhere in the state.

The group from Rocky Boy is not the only representation from local reservations. A group from the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation not associated with the church went to the protest Friday and returned Sunday.

Webster said in an interview Sunday that the Rocky Boy group will leave Wednesday at 7 a.m. to make the estimated nine-hour drive to the campsite on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. They will then depart from the campsite early Saturday morning.

The group will make the trip in the church’s 15-passenger van. However, those going will have to stay at the campsite, or make arrangements to stay at a motel and pay for their own food. Each traveler will also have to pitch in $40 for gas.

“We haven’t really done any fundraising, so everybody is kind of on their own,” Webster said. The group also plans on bringing blankets, quilts and sweet grass to those at the camp site.

Webster first received word that Lutherans were organizing efforts to visit the campsite last Monday in an email from Bishop Jessica Crist of the Montana Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

Webster, who is white, said those interested in going do not have to be Lutheran or Native.

Demonstrations against the Dakota Access Pipeline have made headlines and  spurred opposition both within and beyond the Native American community. The planned route for the $3,8 billion, 1,172-mile-long pipeline that spans from North Dakota to Illinois runs through the Sioux Standing Rock Reservation.

The Sioux Standing Rock and other pipeline opponents say the tribe was not properly consulted, saying the Army Corp of Engineers fast-tracked approval of construction and did not consult the tribe to determine whether the land affected by the construction has historic or cultural significance to the tribe.

“This pipeline is going through sacred ground, possibly damaging the water table and the Missouri River water supply,” Webster said.

A temporary injunction was issued on construction of the pipeline in late August. A federal judge is scheduled to rule Friday whether construction of the pipeline can resume.

Webster said she is not sure what her role will be at the protest. She said that she and those she is going with will be at the site as observers standing in solidarity with the protesters.

“We’re more of the background to be there to help in any way we can to support our native brothers in this protest and stand with them.”