There's this moment that sticks in my head from the very first testimony in the Energy Transfer

versus Greenpeace trial. Energy transfers project manager for North Dakota, that tall bald

man named Mike Futch, is on the stand. And he's been speaking authoritatively about exactly

how the pipeline was built and everything the company did to avoid damaging any

culturally important sites. I can see why energy transfer put him on first. He's got this military

vibe that as a midwesterner myself, I know that a lot of midwesterners tend to trust. Energy

transfers lawyers starts asking about one day of construction in particular, September 3, 2016.

That's when energy transfer began to expand the pipeline at a specific site known as the Cannonball Ranch.

The lawyer asks Mike this key question, how do you respond to the allegation that there was desecration of burial ground, sir?

That didn't happen and it's a personal insult, he tells the court.

It's a powerful statement coming from this guy.

He's a powerful statement coming from this guy. He's a coward, and he hides behind a shield that he wants to keep him and his little cronies protected.

That's Cody Hall, the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe member

who was originally named an energy transfer's lawsuit.

And he was there at the Cannonball Ranch that day in 2016

as bulldozers tore through what tribal members had identified as a burial ground.

They got sneaky and moved their bulldozers and came to that site and desecrated it.

One of Energy Transfer's main accusations against Greenpeace is defamation.

Among other things, they say Greenpeace lied by saying that the pipeline company intentionally desecrated Ocetchi-Chicoyne's sacred sites.

But that claim doesn't originate with Greenpeace.

It originates with indigenous leaders.

And that's who we're going to hear from today.

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