Clergy join Dakota Access pipeline protesters for ceremony

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Nov 3, 8:53 PM EDT
By JAMES MacPHERSON
Associated Press

CANNON BALL, N.D. (AP) -- Hundreds of clergy of various faiths joined protests Thursday against the Dakota Access oil pipeline in southern North Dakota, singing hymns, marching and ceremonially burning a copy of a 600-year-old document.

The interfaith event was organized to draw attention to the concerns of the Standing Rock Sioux and push elected officials to call for a halt to construction of the $3.8 billion pipeline that's to carry North Dakota oil through South Dakota and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois. The tribe believes the pipeline that will skirt its reservation threatens its drinking water and cultural sites.

The pipeline "is a textbook case of marginalizing minority communities in the drive to increase fossil fuel supplies," the Rev. Peter Morales, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, said in a statement. Morales' group sent more than 30 clergy to the event.

More than 500 clergy from around the world gathered with protesters on Thursday at a campfire at the main protest camp to burn a copy of a religious document from the 1400s sanctioning the taking of land from indigenous peoples. About 200 people then sang hymns while they marched to a bridge that was the site of a recent clash between protesters and law officers. Some held signs that read, "Clergy for Standing Rock."

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OIL_PIPELINE_PROTEST?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-11-03-20-53-04

[DK504]

2. God bless these Native Americans

that have stood their ground forcing this issue into the light. It took how many months for us to even find out about this?

I'd like to see if the dogs are released by mall security on the clergy.