Watch this video of Kandi Mossett, Indigenous Environmental Network, sharing the impact on the local communities of the “Man Camps” — camps of hundreds and sometimes thousands of men from the oil industry living in camps around the area. “The violence against women increased in our communities by 168%. We saw an increase in rape, domestic abuse, drug abuse, violent crimes against women and children. The call out for us is to end the extraction of this oil because it is not only what it is doing to our earth, which is raping and pillaging our earth, that is also causing the rape and pillage of our women and children. These man camps should not be legal.”
Kandi calls on us to contact North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp, and tell her if she really wants to support Native women and children like she claims, she needs to make this connection to the oil industry’s impact on increased violence against Native women and children in her region. She also urges us to reach out to North Dakota Senator John Hoeven and North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple and ask them if they are aware of the situation with the man camps surrounding the oil industry.
Tweets from the Women’s Press Conference: