NoDAPL Depositions Unsealed

Victory! NoDAPL Depositions Unsealed

Lakota Law

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I write to you to share a big win for our movement. On Aug. 28—the day a North Dakota court wiped clean my record from the protests at Standing Rock—my legal team succeeded in convincing our judge that discovery material from my trial must be made public. This important victory for transparency and the First Amendment can better position water protectors for the battle against Keystone XL. These depositions now become valuable legal resources, especially as more states criminalize protest and hire private armies to protect their fossil fuel investments.

It’s critical that friends like you make an alternative investment in our movement. Your gift today can help us counter efforts to protect profits over people and oil over water by growing the power and reach of our resistance. We’re dedicating considerable staff hours to honing and disseminating our discovery materials so we and other legal teams can be fully prepared to fight environmental racism in court. We are all in this together.

Outside the courthouse in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Daniel Sheehan and I discuss the importance of the judge’s decision to release discovery materials from my trial.

In depositions, our Lakota Law legal team pressed law enforcement officers on their lack of knowledge about treaty law and their inappropriate collusion with TigerSwan, a private military security firm for hire. These records can now assist other water protectors, attorneys, journalists, and filmmakers still trying to accurately convey the real story of Standing Rock and protect the importance of free speech in America.

Today, our movement to safeguard sacred water and ancestral lands has new momentum, but we still have much to do. White nationalists beholden to the oil lobby remain in power and, every day, our climate slips closer to the brink—just two more reasons to fight harder together. Free at last of any legal restrictions, I’m ready to press forward with all required urgency! I hope you’ll keep standing at my side, in person and in spirit.

Wopila tanka — Thank you, always, for your compassion and determination.

Chase Iron Eyes
Lead Counsel
The Lakota People’s Law Project