Representatives of several tribal nations demonstrate. (Kyle Martin/For the North Dakota Monitor)
(. North Dakota Monitor) – A Lakota organizer said in a video deposition played to jurors Monday that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe led the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, not Greenpeace.
Nick Tilsen, an Oglala Sioux Tribe citizen and activist, called the notion that Greenpeace orchestrated the protests “paternalistic.”
“I think that people underestimate the complexity and the sophistication of tribal nations,” Tilsen said.
Tilsen’s deposition was the latest testimony heard by the nine-person jury in the marathon trial between pipeline developer Energy Transfer and Greenpeace.
Energy Transfer claims Greenpeace secretly aided and abetted destructive and violent behavior by protesters during the demonstrations, which took place in south central North Dakota near the Standing Rock Reservation in 2016 and 2017. It also claims that Greenpeace orchestrated a misinformation campaign to defame the company, leading a group of banks to back out of financing the project. Energy Transfer seeks roughly $300 million from the environmental organization.
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