Ramapoughs Taking Peaceful Approach Against Pilgrim Pipeline [video]

MAHWAH, NJ — The Ramapough Lenape Nation is taking a peaceful approach to stopping the proposed Pilgrim Pipeline.

Nation members created the Split Rock Sweetwater Prayer Camp near Halifax Road as a place where people can go to learn about not just the pipeline, but about the ancestral land the camp exists on, tribal members said in a video by Fusion.

"If someone was going to harm your mother, rob your mother, you're going to protect your mother with your life because she is your life," said Niish'wahkomakwak, a.k.a. "Two Coulds." "This earth is our mother."

The Ramapoughs erected teepees and other structures at the camp last year to try protect local water against the proposed Pilgrim Pipeline project — a proposed 178-mile-long dual pipeline that would deliver up to 200,000 barrels of Bakken crude oil a day from Albany, New York through New Jersey to the Bayway Refinery in Linden.

RELATED: Judge Sides With Ramapoughs, Lifts Restraining Order Regarding Teepees At Prayer Site

A Superior Court judge last month vacated a temporary restraining order against the Ramapough Lenape Nation the township filed because the nation did not have the proper permission. The nation argued that it had a right to use the land on religious grounds.

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Image via Pixabay