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Standing Rock: Youth Water Protectors Light New All Nations Fire

HeadlineDec 13, 2016

At Standing Rock in North Dakota, Native American elders fighting the Dakota Access pipeline have extinguished the Seven Council Fires, which has been burning for months at the main resistance camp, and young Native water protectors have relit a new fire, the All Nations Fire, as part of the continued resistance to the $3.8 billion pipeline. This is Standing Rock Sioux Tribe member Chase Iron Eyes.

Chase Iron Eyes: “There is probably a thousand people still here who are committed to staying until the pipeline is dead. They’re committed to staying to protect our treaty rights and to create a new existence for our people. They’re committed even to protecting American constitutional, civil and human rights. And so we approached the elders, and they told us how to conduct ourselves and to build a new fire. It’s all young people who came out.”

The water protectors are fighting the pipeline over concerns a leak could contaminate the Missouri River, which serves as a drinking source for millions. On Monday, North Dakota officials confirmed that another pipeline leak earlier this month has spilled more than 176,000 gallons of crude oil into the Ash Coulee Creek about 150 miles west of Standing Rock.

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