1. The DAPL Protest, land disputes in Canada
Indigenous Issues
The DAPL Protest, land disputes in Canada

2. How much do you know? 1. Who are the Metis people?
2. What are the 3 main groups of Indigenous Canadians? (hint: the Metis are one)
3. What benefits does a Status Indian in Canada have?
4. What is the name of the language of the Inuit?
5. Name some different Aboriginal bands/tribes in Canada.
6. How many live in Canada?
7. What percentage live on reserves?
8. Besides the 3 territories, what area of Canada has the highest percentage of Indigenous people?

3. The DAPL Protest North Dakota
Thousands of protesters, including Native Americans from more than 100 tribes across the country
They are there to help the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe block the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)from being built

5. Violence The peaceful protestors call themselves “water protectors”
They tried to dismantle a police- enforced barricade on a bridge
The police responded with armored trucks, rubber bullets, tear-gas, mace, dogs, sound cannons, and in sub-zero weather, water cannons

6. Disturbing stories
Reports of some Native protestors being arrested and held in dog cages, with numbers written on their arms
6 people have been bitten by the dogs

7. What Started this?
September: the Standing Rock Nation filed an emergency petition to overturn the permit for the pipeline
The pipeline will be located a half- mile from the reservation through land taken from the tribe in 1958.
The tribe says they were not consulted
A survey of the area found several sites of “significant cultural and historic value” in the pipeline path
But crews began bulldozing anyway

8. What is the dapl? It cost $3.78 billion
This pipe leads from the oil-rich Bakken fields in North Dakota through several states until it will join up with existing pipelines to transport crude oil to refineries and markets in the Gulf and on the East Coast
1,172 miles long
(So it is 7 miles shorter than the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline that the Obama administration rejected last November)

9. Political Connection
The Texas-based company Energy Transfer Partners, whose investors include Donald Trump
ETP’s CEO Kelsy Warren gave $100,000 in support of the Trump campaign

10. The Threat
The tribe says the pipeline disturbs sacred sites, infringes on past treaty promises and tribal sovereignty
It is a significant danger to their water supply since it passes underneath the Missouri River
An earlier proposal had the pipeline crossing the Missouri north of Bismarck, but authorities were concerned about the risk to the capital’s water supply in the advent of a pipeline spill

11. Gaining supporters
Standing Rock youth launched a petition called Rezpect our Water, and in mid-July set out on a 500- mile relay run to Washington, DC to deliver a petition of 160,000 signatures.
Dozens of environmental groups joined together to oppose the DAPL
Many celebrities spoke out in support

12. On Aug. 10, construction began and a dozen demonstrators were arrested as they tried to stop it.
The call for help went out, using social media and the #NoDAPL and #WaterIsLife hashtags to spread information
Within a week hundreds of protesters arrived, swelling the ranks to more than 2,500
State officials shut down the highways leading to the site
The governor declared a state of emergency on Aug. 19

13. Environmental impact reviews
The Dakota Access pipeline was fast- tracked
This process treats the pipeline as a series of small construction sites
This grants exemption from the environmental review required by the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
It does not cross an international border, as the Keystone XL project did, thus avoiding an even more probing federal analysis of its economic justification and environmental impact

14. The Other Side
The DAPL is 99% on private land with the exception of a section under Lake Oahe. The pipeline is nearly complete except for that section.
The company building the DAPL adjusted their route to avoid all 91 designated areas of cultural significance in their plan.
Police Officers met violence and resistance including a protester who fired a gun at officers in the police line, protesters who threw molotov cocktails at them and set vehicles and debris on fire.

15. Jobs & Money
Energy Transfer says on its website, “We need to close the gap between what we produce as a country and what we consume before we can be truly independent of foreign imports. While the U.S. produced 7.5 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2013, it still imported 7.7 million barrels per day in order to meet consumer demands.”
The company also says the project will create 8,000 to 12,000 local jobs during construction
They say the pipeline “will translate into millions in state and local revenues during the construction phase and an estimated $129 million annually in property and income taxes.”

16. Saving the water
The Tribe has received millions of dollars in Federal funding for their new water system from 70 miles away
However, this area will still be downstream, so a leak in the river will still affect their drinking water
The state mandated a double-walled construction to minimize the danger of a breach of the pipeline
The pipeline will be directionally drilled 90+ feet under the bed of the reservoir like the other pipeline in the area.

18. Obama’s response He’s been oddly quiet on this one
He was interviewed two weeks ago and said they were looking into re- routing the pipeline around their sacred spots
He calls for the protestors to be calm and the police to show restraint

19. A reporter’s view
standing-rock
Lawrence O’Donnell’s (MSNBC) take on the treatment of Native Americans (captioned)

20. Aboriginal issues
Canadian Aboriginals

21. Suicide Rate
Suicide and self-inflicted injuries are the leading causes of death for First Nations youth and adults up to 44 years of age.
The suicide rate for First Nations male youth (age 15-24) is 126 per 100,000 compared to 24 per 100,000 for non-Aboriginal male youth.
For First Nations females, the suicide rate is 35 per 100,000 compared to 5 per 100,000 for non-Aboriginal females
Suicide rates for Inuit youth are among the highest in the world, at 11 times the national average.

22. Substance Abuse High rates of drug abuse and alcoholism
High rates of fetal alcohol syndrome
Many communities have gone “dry” to and stop it
In 2000 the small Innu village of Sheshatshiu in northern Labrador, native leaders asked the government to take nearly 2 dozen children away to rehab.
1,200 of the 2,000 members are addicted to sniffing gasoline. Several kids had become brain-damaged from the gas, and several had been burned in accidents.

23. Living conditions Life expectancy for Native Canadians: 72.8 years
Their infant mortality rate is 2.3 times as high as the rest of Canada
Their homicide rate is 6.1 times the national average
They are 10 times as likely as other Canadians to go to jail
Their unemployment rate is 2.1 times higher than the national average

24. Missing or murdered women
Aboriginal women are 3 times more likely to experience violent victimization than non-Aboriginal women.
1,181 police-recorded incidents of aboriginal homicides and unresolved missing women investigations over 30 years
Many of them get sucked into human trafficking

25. The legacy of Residential schools
Over 100,000 kids were taken from their communities and put into church-run schools
Students lived in substandard conditions
Many allegations of sexual abuse
Students were in boarding school 10 months a year, away from their parents
All letters from the children were written in English, which many parents couldn't read
When students returned to the reserve, they often found they didn't belong. They didn't have the skills to help their parents.
Students were discouraged from speaking their first language or practising native traditions. If they were caught, they would experience severe punishment
Students became ashamed of their native heritage

26. Truth and reconciliation
A legal case resulted in settlement of 2 billion $ in and the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission which confirmed the harmful effect on children of this system and turmoil created
In 2008 Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued an apology on behalf of the Canadian government and its citizens for the residential school system

27. compensation
Common Experience Payment: Former residential school students were eligible for $10,000 for the first year or part of a year they attended school, plus $3,000 for each subsequent year.
Deadline to submit Sept. 2012
Any remaining money to support learning needs of aboriginals.
As of Sept. 30, 2012, $1.55 billion paid, representing 75,800 cases.

28. Canada has its own land disputes too
The Oka Crisis
Ipperwash, Caledonia