Oakland City Council Votes to Support Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s Opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline

I recently gathered with community activists in front of Oakland City Hall to express our solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the environment, and all First Nation Peoples, and spoke up in defense of the water and the Native people’s rights in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).

The pipeline threatens the safety of area drinking water, as the sovereignty of native lands. I introduced a Resolution to the Oakland City Council for us to officially go on record opposing the pipeline. Following this rally, I am proud to announce that Oakland City Council unanimously passed the Resolution in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s opposition to the DAPL.

The Resolution, which I co-authored along with Councilmembers Kalb and Guillen, expresses the City of Oakland’s support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s opposition to the DAPL, and details why our support is so necessary.

The proposed DAPL will carry as much as 570,000 barrels of fracked crude oil per day for more than 1,100 miles from the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota to Illinois. The DAPL will grossly impact ancestral lands, including the removal of burial grounds and sacred cultural, religious, and historic sites.

The City of Oakland, which sits on native lands of the Ohlone Tribe, continues to appreciate diversity of its communities, their culture, and beliefs. Oakland is also an environmentally conscious city and has endeavored to support policy and legislation that will create healthier living conditions, leading to better quality of life for its community and its neighbors.

As the author of the Resolution opposing the Dakota Pipeline, I am proud to be part of a City that stands up for justice. Together, we have a moral obligation to say NO to poisoning our water, NO to the violence against those being harmed in North Dakota, and YES to honoring our First Nations peoples. Oakland has a large Native American population and has often been a center of activism. We continue an important tradition.

A related video may be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs65FBTTSdA&feature=youtu.be

Oakland City Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan was elected in 2008 and was re-elected in 2012. She is working for safe neighborhoods, for local jobs and for a fresh start for Oakland. Councilmember Kaplan graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, obtained a master’s degree from Tufts University and a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School.