UPDATED on December 2, 2018: WPLC Cooperating Attorney Melinda Power called the Jessee decision: “a good victory for… everyone arrested on November 15th…”. Power was right. Another of her clients with the same charges from the same day, Water Protector Brian O’Keefe, who’d been scheduled to stand trial on November 27, had his charges dismissed by Morton County prosecutors on November 23. Mere Presence at Railroad Tracks Is Not Tampering With a Public Service: State Felony Co

“When they’re raping our mother earth, they are also raping our women.” Mandan, ND: The second group of trials from the Standing Rock action in commemoration of missing and murdered indigenous women concluded today. These were among the first of over 20 Water Protectors going to trial during the coming weeks from the November 15, 2016 action at a so-called “man camp” – temporary housing for oilfield workers that become havens for gendered violence and human trafficking of ind

Mandan, ND: The first of the trials from the November 15, 2106 action in commemoration of missing and murdered indigenous women concluded today. Water Protector Rodrick Joe was convicted of Tampering with a Public Service, a Class C felony. “I was there to support my indigenous sisters,” said Joe upon sentencing. “There are still people out there killing and raping our women. It happens to all indigenous women everywhere. I want to bring awareness to it. People need to realiz