PFP State Chair visits North Dakota to support "NoDAPL" forces

Posted on October 2, 2016 by the Webmaster

Margie and Kevin Akin

On Thursday 29 September 2016, Peace and Freedom Party California State Chair Kevin Akin, with State Central Committee member Dr. Margie Akin, visited the encampments of "Protectors" along the Cannonball River in North Dakota to express support for stopping the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) project that endangers both the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and its people, and the Missouri River environment. At the two main camps, a trunkload of groceries and checks for the purchase of more food were handed over in the name of the Peace and Freedom Party.

"We were very pleased to see how many people have mobilized to protect the environment, and support the sovereign rights and human rights of Native Americans," said Kevin Akin. "Most are from Native American groups throughout the country, though there are many others. We learned that documentary evidence exists showing that the sponsors of the project were aware of the environmental risks, and chose to avoid running the pipeline north of the state capital of Bismark because of those risks. The route across traditional Lakota sacred sites just north of the reservation was chosen because they considered the risk of wreaking environmental havoc on Native Americans to be acceptable. The Peace and Freedom Party considers this attitude absolutely unacceptable."

Dennis Banks, the Peace and Freedom Party nominee for Vice President of the United States, had been at Cannonball until two days before the Akins arrived. PFP Presidential nominee Gloria La Riva has previously visited to show her support, as has Cindy Sheehan, who ran for California Governor on the Peace and Freedom Party line in 2014. The encampment just north of the Cannonball River is full of signs urging that framed-up Native American hero Leonard Peltier be released from prison. Peltier appeared on the California ballot as the Peace and Freedom nominee for President in 2004.

Arrangements are underway for more substantial and effective support, including California-focused media efforts, by the Peace and Freedom Party on behalf of the protectors of the environment and Native American rights now camped in North Dakota. The Peace and Freedom Party, founded in 1967, has ballot status and over 75 thousand registered members in California.

For more on the struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline, see