The Lakota people have long prophesized the coming of a black snake which carries a darkness and a sickness that will stretch across the land. In 2017 this mythical snake manifested in the form of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The largest gathering of indigenous peoples since the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn came together to stop the black snake at Standing Rock. Thousands of allies from around the world joined to support the Lakota Standing Rock Sioux people in defending their water, land and sovereign rights.

While Catalyst Communication Services was filming at Standing Rock for Earth Wisdom for a World in Crisis, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made an official announcement that the Dakota Access Pipeline would not be allowed. Almost immediately, and in blatant violation of the government ruling, the owner of the Dakota Access Pipeline began drilling under the Missouri River.

Despite massive civil protests and legal challenges, the pipeline was built. It has already leaked at least 11 times on Lakota and other lands. Then, after Energy Transfer Partners tried to DOUBLE the amount of petroleum flowing through their pipeline, a federal judge ruled that the pipeline must be shut down and drained while a full Environmental Impact Statement is developed. But legal wrangling continued and the oil continues to flow.

Before even being published, the Environmental Impact Statement is challenged by Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, and Oglala Nations, due to the contractor working on it having a vested interest in the pipeline continuing to operate.

You can help keep the foxes out of the henhouse by signing this petition from Lakota People's Law Project.

To be determined:

1. Outcome of the legal controversy and how long the pipeline will continue to operate.
2. Will cumulative impacts to climate change be included in the environmental review? The Trump Administration removed this requirement for all petroleum infrastructure reviews.
3. Will the pipeline owner's request to double capacity be permanently denied?

Born in the California Gold Rush, Nevada City was once the scene of some of the most destructive environmental practices on earth. By the 1960s, the town was a backwater, its extractive industries dying. Then it was discovered by the "back to the land movement." It was a second gold rush but with a different idea of gold based on nature, community and a sense of place.

A campaign to save the Yuba River from a proposed dam brought conflicting factions of the community together. Not only did they stop the dam from being built, but they began a decades long process to protect the entire watershed. They also increased local food production, developed holistic education systems, attracted world class music and art, and committed to building community.

Redefining Prosperity is recommended as a blueprint for revitalizing places that suffer from economic instability upon the decline of extractive industries. It is the remarkable story of a beautiful California town and the outward-looking, creative people who call it home and forged its new identity.