This Saturday from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m., Keep it Clean is hosting a Standing in Solidarity with Standing Rock march at the Sunken Gardens. The march will begin promptly at 1:30 p.m. and will make its way down to Stearns Wharf. Organizers say the event’s goal and mission is to spread awareness to the community of Santa Barbara about the protests happening in North Dakota at the Standing Rock Reservation.
The North Dakota Access Pipeline (NAPL) is a 1,170 mile, $3.7 billion pipeline that is designed to pass underneath the Missouri River. Native American tribes say the project risks poisoning the drinking water for hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of people. If completed, the pipeline would bring crude oil from the North Dakota Bakken region through South Dakota and Iowa into Illinois. The pipeline will also run through the Standing Rock Sioux’s sacred burial grounds.
The pipeline was originally rejected by the nearby residents of nearby Bismarck due to concerns of water poisoning.