Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztln

2016-2017 National M.E.Ch.A. Coordinating Council

September 12, 2016

To the Protectors of the North Dakota Standing Rock Sioux Nation;

We, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztln (M.E.Ch.A.), stand with you, the North Dakota
Standing Rock Sioux Nation, in full solidarity over the call to stop the construction of the Dakota
Access Pipeline. Time and time again, we have seen what the damage these pipelines can do and
the harm they can bring to Creators land and their creatures. We saw it in The Gulf Oil Spill in
April of 2010 which spilled roughly 200,000 gallons a day.

The construction of this pipeline has already destroyed so much sacred indigenous lands and has
even violated treaties signed by the United States and the local Native tribes. We stand with you
in solidarity because we see the dangers this pipeline has to not only the neighboring cities and
towns, but the Native populations which actually depend and rely on this and other riverbeds for
access to clean water. We stand with you because our ancestors also tended to this land, and it is
our duty to fight alongside our Indigenous family to protect their rights.

On countless occasions, the Protectors of this land have been attacked by dogs and pepper
sprayed by a private security detail sent by the Dakota Access Pipeline company. We; as a
people and as a nation, do not condone or stand idly by while peoples rights are wrongfully
violated. We do not tolerate the oppression of any people, and fully and unconditionally support
the North Dakota Standing Rock Sioux Nation in their pursuit to hold the United States
accountable for the treaties that they have signed, and rightfully protect their land.

In solidarity,

Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztln

National M.E.Ch.A. Coordinating Council 2016-2017
Angel Mandujano-Guevara, National M.E.Ch.A. Co-Chair
La Unin Hace La Fuerza!
chicanxdeaztlan@gmail.com