WPLC was born to protect Water Protectors criminalized by the state and federal authorities for peaceful protest and standing against the Dakota Access Pipeline. From Standing Rock to Line 3, to fighting SLAPP subpoenas from multinational corporations, today, WPLC continues this work by working to protect those protecting the Earth, working on behalf of political prisoners, SLAPP defense, and other forms of defense work, as well as strategic litigation and impact litigation. The ongoing criminalization of frontline defenders in the United States and internationally, affects us all. We stand with our relatives and work to protect them the way they have protected all of us.
#NoDAPL Political Prisoners
Those who faced federal charges are all Indigenous people.
The NoDAPL Political Prisoner Support Committee members consist of sentenced federal defendants/Water Protectors Michael Little Feather Giron, Michael Rattler Markus, RedFawn Fallis, Dion Ortiz, and James Angry Bird White, along with their family members and members from their legal teams.
For more info on the Water Protector political prisoners check out the collaborative website www.nodaplpoliticalprisoners.org. This is the official and only collaborative support committee for the NoDAPL political prisoners.
Leonard Peltier
"Leonard Peltier's journey home is a victory of the movement.”
Natali Segovia (Quechua), WPLC Executive Director
Elder Leonard Peltier, a 81-year-old Citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and of Lakota/Dakota descent, was the longest-serving political prisoner in United States history - he is now home after decades of Indigenous-led struggle and advocacy. One of the original founders of the American Indian Movement (AIM), a prominent Indigenous civil rights organization founded in 1968, AIM played a pivotal role in raising awareness about issues like land rights, cultural preservation, and social justice.
Protect Protectors:
Steven Donziger
Steven Donziger, the environmental and human rights lawyer who won a $9.5 billion settlement against Chevron over oil dumped in Indigenous lands in the Amazon rainforest. The courts in Ecuador had found Chevron guilty of one of the worst environmental crimes in history—deliberately dumping 16 billion gallons of toxic oil waste into Indigenous territories in the Amazon. Ordered by those courts to pay $9.5 billion, Chevron sold its assets and fled the country. By evading court judgments, Chevron has yet to pay even one penny to the 30,000 people it poisoned. WPLC served on Steven's Appellate team and is currently part of his legal team working to secure his law license once again.
Jessica Reznicek
In 2016, Jessica Reznicek took action to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) by dismantling construction equipment and pipeline valves. In 2021, she was sentenced to 8 years in prison with a domestic terrorism enhancement. Under normal conditions, Jess would have been sentenced to 37 months, but the terrorism enhancement resulted in a sentence of 96 months. NLG and WPLC filed a joint amicus brief in support of Water Protector, Jessica Reznicek.
Support Jessica at supportjessicareznicek.com.
Line 3 Water Protectors
WPLC partnered with the Civil Liberties Defense Center (CLDC) to represent over 100 Water Protectors arrested at Line 3.
Anishinaabe and Indigenous leaders have spearheaded a resistance against the construction of the Line 3 tar sands pipeline through sacred land and waters in northern Minnesota. Over 1,000 Water Protectors have been arrested. Nearly 200 Water Protectors lacked movement-aligned representation and we stepped into the void. Water Protector Legal Collective, in partnership with CLDC, hired legal fellow, Claire Glenn, to support Water Protectors fighting Line 3. Additionally, our Law Fellow, Summer Blaze Aubrey (Cherokee/Blackfeet), and Board Member, Pat Handlin, published “Stop Line 3: A Call to Clear Danger to Our Water, Climate, and Land in Minnesota” in the CUNY Law Review bringing scholarship to the Line 3 frontlines and calling on President Biden to #StopLine3.
Movement Defense: Santa Fe Obelisk
WPLC and WPLC Cooperating Attorneys represented two Indigenous women in the case resulting in dropped charges.
For over fifty years, the obelisk that stood at the center of Santa Fe (Oga Po’geh) Plaza (located on ancestral lands of Tewa Pueblos), was the subject of considerable debate and dispute. On Indigenous Peoples’ Day on October 12, 2020, and after the City of Santa Fe’s failure to remove the obelisk despite a June proclamation signaling a commitment to do so, the obelisk was toppled by over fifty protestors in a deeply divisive case. WPLC and WPLC cooperating attorneys Jeffrey Haas, Larry Kronen, and Sandra Freeman, represented two Indigenous women out of the seven people that were charged in connection with this case. Their charges have since been dropped as a result of the completion of a Pre-prosecution Diversion Restorative Justice Agreement.
