Tonya Stands recovers after being pepper sprayed by police after swimming across a creek with other protesters hoping to build a new camp to block construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, near Cannon Ball, N.D., Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2016. Officers in riot gear clashed again Wednesday with protesters near the Dakota Access pipeline, hitting several dozen with pepper spray as they waded through waist-deep water in an attempt to reach property owned by the pipeline’s developer. (AP Photo/John L. Mone)
While many gathered around the family table to give thanks for this and that and then punched babies to get a good deal on a crappy television on Black Friday, the tribes up at Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation were busy. Not that they didn’t gather and give thanks and all that, but ask any native family and the “values” of thanksgiving are more a constant than an annual thing, but first and foremost the tribes were protecting the land they’ve been protecting since April.
I’ve checked in occasionally via my column and I keep myself abreast on the news coming out of Standing Rock through the media network in Indian country, but the wider world isn’t paying all that much attention. I had to inform my mother, whose channels rarely shift away from CNN, HLN, or MSNBC, that the police had taken things to a violent level on the front lines, using tear gas and concussion grenades indiscriminately (I say indiscriminately because one of the protectors had a concussion grenade go off so close, they’ll likely lose their arm). As it stands, the media have been down to Standing Rock a handful of times, only offering coverage when they think the situation will draw in viewers.
Naturally, come Monday, a mass media exodus has gathered on Media Hill, the only area of the reservation with access to things like wi-fi and other digital needs.
This is a worrying thing, especially for the natives like me who can’t get up there for one reason or another. Folks can tell me not to worry all they like, but we’re still one of the most under-served groups in the United States. Native Americans are killed by police more than any other minority, and based on history, we know how the federal government feels about us. This entire thing, the Water Protectors protecting the Missouri river, the entire reason this is even a thing at all is because white voters voted to move the pipeline away from the area where it threatened their water. The Standing Rock Sioux are being asked to accept environmental conditions already rejected by white people.
“Wounded Knee” is a phrase you’ll hear a lot from the native community right now. “I really hope this doesn’t turn into another Wounded Knee.” We aren’t talking about the armed occupation that happened a few decades ago, we’re talking about the massacre that happened a century prior. You see, the Army Corps of Engineers has issued an ultimatum in regards to part of the occupied land. The claim is that this is being done for the “protection” of the tribes, but since this is a piece of land the company needs to put a crucial part of the pipeline in, and because the bloody army doing things to natives in the name of “protection” isn’t a new thing by any stretch of the imagination, the tribes are taking this with a massive grain of salt, which is to say, they don’t believe them and are refusing to move. Dec. 3 is the stated date that the protectors have to be gone. The media has arrived just in time.
The police have also blocked off the main roads into the camp, ensuring that no more protectors join while also ensuring that no emergency vehicles have access to the camp and that no more supplies can reach them.
Are you as disgusted and scared about all of this as I am, or do you have to have direct ties to the native world to actually feel that fear? When you see a line of people standing in freezing water in open defiance of the police and hired company thugs, whose side do you back? Is this a situation where the people need to just shut up and get in line, or do you see this as another in a long line of violations against Native Americans?
I just honestly hope that this time next week doesn’t see me writing an article in memoriam, naming victims of the Standing Rock massacre and wondering aloud how the hell this was allowed to happen. You can call me paranoid and say I’m over-reacting, but there’s a history here that can’t be denied, a bloody history built on the bones of my ancestors and those of every other Native American. Native Americans have a damn good reason to look at this with fear. The federal government has only recently decided we count as people. I doubt corporations are held to the same standard.
Check-In With Standing Rock
Tonya Stands recovers after being pepper sprayed by police after swimming across a creek with other protesters hoping to build a new camp to block construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, near Cannon Ball, N.D., Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2016. Officers in riot gear clashed again Wednesday with protesters near the Dakota Access pipeline, hitting several dozen with pepper spray as they waded through waist-deep water in an attempt to reach property owned by the pipeline’s developer. (AP Photo/John L. Mone)
While many gathered around the family table to give thanks for this and that and then punched babies to get a good deal on a crappy television on Black Friday, the tribes up at Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation were busy. Not that they didn’t gather and give thanks and all that, but ask any native family and the “values” of thanksgiving are more a constant than an annual thing, but first and foremost the tribes were protecting the land they’ve been protecting since April.
I’ve checked in occasionally via my column and I keep myself abreast on the news coming out of Standing Rock through the media network in Indian country, but the wider world isn’t paying all that much attention. I had to inform my mother, whose channels rarely shift away from CNN, HLN, or MSNBC, that the police had taken things to a violent level on the front lines, using tear gas and concussion grenades indiscriminately (I say indiscriminately because one of the protectors had a concussion grenade go off so close, they’ll likely lose their arm). As it stands, the media have been down to Standing Rock a handful of times, only offering coverage when they think the situation will draw in viewers.
Naturally, come Monday, a mass media exodus has gathered on Media Hill, the only area of the reservation with access to things like wi-fi and other digital needs.
This is a worrying thing, especially for the natives like me who can’t get up there for one reason or another. Folks can tell me not to worry all they like, but we’re still one of the most under-served groups in the United States. Native Americans are killed by police more than any other minority, and based on history, we know how the federal government feels about us. This entire thing, the Water Protectors protecting the Missouri river, the entire reason this is even a thing at all is because white voters voted to move the pipeline away from the area where it threatened their water. The Standing Rock Sioux are being asked to accept environmental conditions already rejected by white people.
“Wounded Knee” is a phrase you’ll hear a lot from the native community right now. “I really hope this doesn’t turn into another Wounded Knee.” We aren’t talking about the armed occupation that happened a few decades ago, we’re talking about the massacre that happened a century prior. You see, the Army Corps of Engineers has issued an ultimatum in regards to part of the occupied land. The claim is that this is being done for the “protection” of the tribes, but since this is a piece of land the company needs to put a crucial part of the pipeline in, and because the bloody army doing things to natives in the name of “protection” isn’t a new thing by any stretch of the imagination, the tribes are taking this with a massive grain of salt, which is to say, they don’t believe them and are refusing to move. Dec. 3 is the stated date that the protectors have to be gone. The media has arrived just in time.
The police have also blocked off the main roads into the camp, ensuring that no more protectors join while also ensuring that no emergency vehicles have access to the camp and that no more supplies can reach them.
Are you as disgusted and scared about all of this as I am, or do you have to have direct ties to the native world to actually feel that fear? When you see a line of people standing in freezing water in open defiance of the police and hired company thugs, whose side do you back? Is this a situation where the people need to just shut up and get in line, or do you see this as another in a long line of violations against Native Americans?
I just honestly hope that this time next week doesn’t see me writing an article in memoriam, naming victims of the Standing Rock massacre and wondering aloud how the hell this was allowed to happen. You can call me paranoid and say I’m over-reacting, but there’s a history here that can’t be denied, a bloody history built on the bones of my ancestors and those of every other Native American. Native Americans have a damn good reason to look at this with fear. The federal government has only recently decided we count as people. I doubt corporations are held to the same standard.