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For Immediate Release: Grandmothers, Activists to Confront ND with 55,000 Petitions Calling to Drop Charges Against Water Protectors

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55,000 Sign Petition to Drop All Charges Against Standing Rock Protesters
Grandmothers, Activists to Deliver Petitions and Hold Press Conference at North Dakota Courthouse on Monday

Mandan, North Dakota On the one-year anniversary of a violent attack by law enforcement officers against Dakota Access pipeline
activists on Backwater Bridge near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, Lakota Grandmothers and anti-pipeline activists will hand-
deliver more than 55,000 petitions to states attorney Allen Koppy asking the State of North Dakota to drop all charges against
hundreds of people arrested and still facing charges for anti-pipeline activism.

The petitions, signed by concerned people all over the country and the world, were collected online and in-person by representatives
of the Lakota Peoples Law Project over the past four months. Theyll be delivered by Standing Rock leaders and grandmothers Phyllis
Young and Ladonna Brave Bull Allard, Cheyenne River pipeline activist HolyElk Lafferty and Lakota Peoples Law Project director
Daniel Paul Nelson.

The overwhelming support expressed by so many speaks volumes about what is just and what is fair, said Nelson. Its heartening
that so many continue to stand with those falsely accused of crimes for their peaceful and prayerful vigil on land guaranteed to the
Great Sioux Nation by the Treaty of Fort Laramie.

The group will hold a press conference, slated to begin at 11 a.m., on the Morton County Courthouse steps prior to the drop.

Lafferty was among 76 people arrested at Last Child Camp on February 1. She and fellow Lakota Peoples Law Project client Chase
Iron Eyes intend to present a rare necessity defense, arguing they had no choice but to protest the pipeline given its potential to
cause greater harm to their communities and the planet.

Lafferty said she, Iron Eyes, and hundreds of others either being defended by the Water Protectors Legal Collective or currently
without representation are innocent of all charges. Nobody should suffer consequences for protecting our only source of water, said
Lafferty. Im pursuing my case because its important to set a new legal precedent for protectors of the Earth.

The first hearing on whether or not her legal team will be allowed to pursue discovery around the special defense is today at 10 a.m.
CST at Burleigh County Courthouse in Bismarck, ND.

Lafferty asserted that, even once the petitions are dropped and the cases are over, the movement created at Standing Rock will live
on.

The veil was lifted and now there are millions of people staring straight at the dysfunction created by capitalism, and specifically the
fossil fuel industry she said. Standing Rock activated a sense of responsibility in each of us, a sense of courage. People saw what
we were doing on the ground and people became active within their own environments. Now there are many, many people out there
who, because of what they did for Standing Rock, know they have the power to make change.

The public push to drop the charges in North Dakota comes amid a conservative congressional call to Attorney General Jeff Sessions
to begin treating pipeline protesters as domestic terrorists. Young took exception to any such description of pipeline activists.

We are water protectors, we are protectors of our resources the resources of Mother Earth, she said. Ive worked in national and
international arenas all of my life, and I have never felt better about a mobilization than I do about what Ive seen occurring here. Im
hopeful during my twilight years because I see such a positive response from Americans especially young Americans who are
protesting the lack of freedom they see among Native people. They care about climate change and basic human rights and dignity.

Who: Standing Rock Sioux grandmother Ladonna Brave Bull Allard, founder of Sacred Stone Camp (the first NoDAPL protest camp);
Phyllis Young, Standing Rock grandmother/elder and former tribal council member; Cheyenne River member and pipeline activist and
HolyElk Lafferty; Daniel Paul Nelson, director of Lakota Peoples Law Project

What: A drop of 55,000-plus petitions to #DropDAPLCharges against all water protectors of Standing Rock to North Dakota States
Attorney Allen Koppy, and attendant press conference

When: Monday, Nov. 20 at 11 a.m.

Where: Mandan, North Dakota, office of the States Attorney Allen Koppy

Why: To ask the State of North Dakota to drop all DAPL-related charges against the water protectors of Standing Rock

About Lakota Peoples Law Project: A project of the Santa Cruz-based interfaith social justice non-profit Romero Institute, Lakota
Peoples Law Project has provided legal, media and legislative strategy around Lakota issues, particularly directed toward the
elimination of systemic injustices affecting the tribes, since 2005.
This email was sent to rob@sayanythingblog.com
Lakota People's Law Project, 740 Front St., Suite 265, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, USA
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