Standing Rock Pipeline Protest is Flooding Facebook, but FB Doesn't Notice

The Water Protectors have called upon all friends and supporters to log onto Facebook and "check-in" at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.

The protestors, numbering in the thousands, are trying to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), which goes through sacred historical sites and under the Missouri River, the only source of water for tribal lands.

It is believed that the militant Law Enforcement sent in by North Dakota Governor (and DAPL Investor) Jack Dalrymple is using the FB check-in system to locate the protestor's prayer gatherings for violent raids. If a flood of people check-in, it will be harder for the Governor's forces to disrupt the peaceful prayers.

The protectors are unarmed, and include people of all ages, but they have been brutally attacked with dogs, mace, and rubber bullets.

While government agencies, including the Corps of Engineers, have asked the parent companies to stop construction, pending legal actions, the corporation continues to plow through private lands.

Meanwhile, in other states, arrests have been made as farmers have protested other land grabs by the pipeline. Some of the land seized under "eminent domain" law has been in farming families for generations.

"Eminent domain" was originally used to secure land for government projects, such as military bases, but was later warped into allowing the seizure of private lands for reasons of community economic improvement.

By using secretive political maneuvers to gain expedited approval, DAPL managed to:

1. Sidestep appropriate environmental impact studies;

2. Sidestep required negotiations with the Standing Rock Sioux (a sovereign nation); and

3. Not hold required public meetings with communities along the route.

In the name of profits for a few share holders and the towns at the beginning and end of the route, they have disrupted the lives, histories, and health of thousands of other individuals and communities that are affected by the construction.

Support for the Water Protectors has poured in from around the world, and representatives of Native American Tribes from across the country have come to join the protest camp. The United Nations, Amnesty International, and Indigenous People's organizations have called for a stop to the pipeline, but DAPL continues to plow up lands.

NAPL believes that if they complete enough of the work, they will be able to get a court to grant retroactive approval on the grounds of corporate economic loss.

These protests along the length of the NAPL route are not just about Native rights, historical sites, environmental impact, or sentimental family attachments.

The backroom collusion between Dalrymple and NAPL undermines the very concept of private land ownership in America.

This is a precedent for seizing anyone's land and giving it to any corporation for any purpose, without public hearings or objective oversight.

Whether you believe in the need to access fossil fuels or not, this is not the honest way to approve a major, multi-state, construction project.

Support government transparency and the right to private land ownership in the USA: go to Facebook and check-in at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.

Facebook's bizarre trending system won't see you, but Governor Dalrymple's army will.