LEAP Stands with Standing Rock
LEAP Architecture stands with our Water Protectors at Standing Rock in North Dakota. We have committed to design efficient, yet inexpensive, winter-worthy housing structures. Please consider making a contribution to purchase building materials for this effort.
Donate to the Winter Shelters Here.
Standing Rock Sioux Nation
Standing Rock Sioux Nation is protesting the construction of a controversial oil pipeline that would cut across the American heartland. The Dakota Access Pipeline construction route crosses land that is sacred to the Sioux Nation. If that wasn’t enough, there are fears that a potential oil spill would contaminate water locally, as well as in greater North Dakota area. The tribe wants the federal government to stop work on the pipeline and conduct a full environmental impact study of the pipeline.
Protesters have been present near Cannon Ball, N.D. since April 2016, and continue to be vigilant in their cause. And as House of Stark knows, winter is coming. Which means that the tents many people have been camping out in aren’t sufficient to stand up to the harsh Dakota winter. Warmer, more structurally sound shelters are needed, and needed quickly.
Protecting our Water Protectors
LEAP founder, Eric Davenport, was fortunate enough to link up with a plan for providing such structures. Bill Record (tribal name Medicine Bear) has already started an effort to raise funds in order to build shelters for protesters. The two key needs are community space and sleeping space. The structures must withstand cold and high winds and be movable. The structures can be heated by RV camper style propane furnaces.
“Safety, ventilation, thermal protection, and security are some of the most critical design aspects”, Eric Davenport.
The design needs to be finalized very quickly, and a prototype built locally in NYS. The structures will consist of readily available materials (plywood, rigid insulation), and be constructed from panels that can be easily screwed together for assembly, or disassembled and moved if necessary. This will make it feasible to source materials locally in North Dakota, and fabricate them according to the final LEAP design.
Trailer bed which will be used to transport the prototype shelter, along with some assembled panels from New York to North Dakota.
Help Build Winter Shelters
Donate to the Winter Shelters Here.
You can help fund the building of these winter shelters. A GoFundMe campaign has been set-up to raise $12,000 for building materials. Volunteers will provide the labor for fabricating the panels and assembling structures.
We are reaching out to our network to help in whatever way you can. At LEAP, we believe in doing what we can, everyday. We know that our small effort in sustainable building practices won’t cure global warming, but combined with other people and projects working toward the same goal, the efforts start to coalesce, and start to make a real difference.
Standing Rock is an example of a small effort coalescing into something larger. Something that is making America great again, or at the very least, providing us a glimpse of what we could be. Along with nearly 200 Native American tribes, celebrities, environmentalists, politicians, leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement and other activists have joined together to create one of the more unusual coalitions to back a cause.
With our many thanks and sincere gratitude,
The LEAP Team
