As a presidential memorandum aims to intimidate the resistance against the Dakota Access oil pipeline passing through the Standing Rock Sioux’s lands in North Dakota, Indigenous Peoples from all over the world have come out to show their solidarity while they, too, fight oil pipelines crossing their lands without their consent.
The Samburu community in Kenya demonstrated their support in a photo taken January 2017. For the Samburu, a semi-nomadic Indigenous tribe from Kenya, the fight to protect their homelands and their water from oil development hits close to home. Dipa Lenaya, community leader, explained that when the Chinese government crossed their lands in searching for and now transporting oil, thousands of Samburu were displaced, brutalized by security forces, and their homes and lands were destroyed. The tribe faces the same fear of negligent oil spills that could harm people, wildlife, and their environment and water sources.
“We all need to stand together as Indigenous tribes across the globe to protect the earth and our own lands,” he urged.
