One key part of your health is your connection to your community. And one way to connect with your community is to get involved and give back. Each Saturday, we feature different ways members of the Northshore Acupuncture Center community are rolling up their sleeves and giving back.
This week we are featuring Aija’s “standing up” with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to halt the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Here is Aija’s account:
“We stood at Standing Rock.
We went, we saw, we worked, we helped.
We stood in honor and prayer with the Standing Rock Sioux. We felt the warm, peaceful community on one side of the river and the cold corporate greed on the other.
We learned. We witnessed that when people come together peacefully and believe in a cause, great things can happen. We helped build a permanent school. We made winter-proof signs. We sorted supplies.
It is difficult to describe the feeling when you participate in the early stages of building a community—so much progress in such a short time. A thankfulness that can never be felt in today’s busy urban life.
We participated in a ceremony to thank the many people who helped build 16 yurts that were donated from Europe and brought over by ship from Mongolia. A beautiful drum circle with stunning Native American songs while everyone in the camp individually thanked each builder. Amazing outpouring of community love and thanks.
We’ve been lucky that this fall has been so unseasonably warm—much work has been done, but with winter literally right around the corner, there is still so much to be done for those who will stay.
We brought our children because we wanted them to see what it’s like to stand up for something you believe in. They brought an innocent perspective, a youthful curiosity, which was evident by others. They thanked us for bringing our children. We were standing for THEIR water and THEIR CHILDREN’S water and OUR children’s water.
Though we are no longer physically at Sacred Stone camp, we continue to be there in spirit, sending positive energy, hoping that all can come to a peaceful resolution very soon.
Mni Wiconi
Water is Life”
You can get involved by donating money, purchasing items from their Amazon list, signing their letter to President Obama, and/or calling or emailing government representatives and Energy Transfer Partners executives to tell them you oppose the construction of the pipeline.
Here are some phone numbers and e-mail addresses to get you started:
a. Jack Dalrymple, governor of North Dakota: (701) 328-2200, www.governor.nd.gov/contact-us
b. Army Corps of Engineers (demand that they reverse the permit allowing the Dakota Access Pipeline): (202) 761-5903
c. Jo-Ellen Darcy, assistant secretary of the Army Corp of Engineers: joellen.darcy@us.army.mil, (703)697-8986
Energy Transfer Partners
d. Lee Hanse, executive vice president: (210) 403-6455, Lee.Hanse@energytransfer.com
e. Glenn Emery, vice president: (210) 403-6762, Glenn.Emery@energytransfer.com
f. Michael Cliff Waters, lead analyst: (713) 989-2404
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