Native Americans visit local anti-mining campaigners

Three Native American environmental campaigners have visited anti-gold mining campaigners in the Sperrins.

Chas, Jeshua and Lewis Jewett, who are from the Dakotas, had accepted an invitation from the Save Our Sperrins campaign.

They were involved in protests at Standing Rock which generated international headlines.

This was sparked by plans for a 1,172 mile-long oil pipeline running beside the Standing Rock Native American Reservation.

Opponents said the controversial pipeline would destroy ancestral burial grounds and poison the water supply. The protests became rallying cry for indigenous rights and climate change activism.

The Native Americans were forcibly removed from their protest by aggressive police tactics. This was against a 1,172-mile-long oil pipeline running beside the Standing Rock Native American Reservation. Marella Fyffe, chair, Save Our Sperrins compared the Standing Rock protests to ongoing opposition to Dalradian’s plans for a goldmine in Greencastle.

“We were very pleased to receive our visitors,” she said. “We do not accept dirty and polluting mining, and related activities, being imposed on any community, anywhere in the world.”

The Native Americans  also visited the protest caravan at the Greencastle People’s Office. Before coming to the Sperrins, they also met with anti-mining campaigners in Leitrim.