Standing Rock protesters to share stories, more at PT gathering

A group that traveled to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota in November to support the tribe in its effort to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline will share its stories, images and recordings in Port Townsend at 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 18.

The free presentation by members of the Pacific Northwest Stands with Standing Rock Caravan will be at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 2333 San Juan Ave.

More than 40 people took more than $20,000 in donations and supplies to the protesters opposing the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Protesters, who call themselves water protectors, had been camped on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation for months in opposition to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline by Energy Transfer Partners that would transfer oil from North Dakota’s Bakken region through South Dakota and Iowa into Illinois. The $3.7 billion pipeline would transport about 470,000 barrels of domestic crude oil a day.

The group also established an outdoor kitchen and dining area, successfully feeding more than 1,000 people in only a few days’ time.

The kitchen was made possible with support from Cape Cleare Fishery, Walter McQuillen, Desire Fish Co., Dharma Ridge Farm, River Run Farm, Red Dog Farm, FinnRiver Farm, Midori Farm, Pane d’ Amore, Mt. Townsend Creamery, Sunrise Coffee and the greater Jefferson County community.

Since then, the Army Corps of Engineers denied a permit for the Dakota Access Pipeline to cross beneath the Missouri River.

Nearly all of the 1,172-mile, $3.8 billion pipeline has been built by Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners except for a mile-long section across federal land and beneath Lake Oahe, a Missouri River reservoir.

Jesse Major is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. He can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsula dailynews.com.