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In_Defense_of_Our_Relatives.pdf
Studies in Arts and Humanities VOL03/ISSUE02/2017 PERSPECTIVE | sahjournal.com
In Defense of Our Relatives
Karyn Mo Wells Department of American Studies, University of Hawaii at Mãnoa,
Honolulu, United States
© Karyn Mo Wells. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Abstract Groups often act against threats to their kin, but what if one group denies the very existence of another’s
relatives? Among the people of Oceti Sakowin, what it means to care for 'relatives' starkly contrasts
conventional non-Native ways of reckoning with water, land, and other beings. If, according to an
indigenous view, sacred places are relatives, then words like 'emergency' or 'crisis' are apt to describe
Indigenous people’s feelings about clashes such as what recently occurred around Standing Rock,
North Dakota. There, the matter of what counts as kin was a central ingredient to collective protests
that, even if labeled as a one-off defeat, may empower those who have been historically disempowered.
Led by a well-coordinated and social media-savvy Indigenous youth movement, the struggle to protect
a relative—a river, in this case—may indicate a renewed sense of efficacy among Indigenous peoples,
perhaps especially among those who had not previously identified as activists.
Keywords: Sacred space; Social media; Protest camps; Standing Rock Indian Reservation (N.D. and
S.D.); Dakota Indians, Lakota Indians; Youth protest movements
Introduction
The Missouri is the longest river system on Turtle Island and the fourth-longest in the world.
Rising in the Rocky Mountains of western Montana, the Missouri flows east and south for
2,341 miles (~3,767 km) before entering the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis, Missouri.
The semi-arid watershed that makes up the Missouri ecosystem covers more than 500,000
square miles (~1,294,994 km2). According to Cody Knudson, a contributor to the Encyclopedia
of the Great Plains, 'The river drains roughly one-sixth of the United States, including portions
of ten states, the homelands of twenty-eight Native American tribes, and a small portion of two
Canadian provinces.'1 Historically, the river channel meandered freely across its flood plain
moving immense amounts of sediment in the process. This sediment transport kept the basin’s
soil rich and supported a thriving ecological community. But by the late twentieth century, the
vastness of this ecosystem, its vibrant other-than-human communities, and its wild grandeur
was irrevocably diminished by dams, and then again by oil production and transport.
Today, the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) cuts across the same northern plain that the
Missouri river does. In fact, the two have become indelibly linked. In 2014, however, a legal 1 Cody L. Knutson 'PICK-SLOAN PLAN'. Encyclopedia of the Great Plains ed. David J. Wishart.
http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.wat.019. Accessed 21 Sept 2017.
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battle was waged to obviate this linkage. Two years later, the battle mutated into a physical
defense of the river and Indigenous lands and sacred sites. That this battle was not successful
in stopping the construction of the pipeline is less important than understanding what happened
in defense of our relatives and embracing what we have learned as Indigenous people.
Damming of the Missouri
During the Great Depression, unsustainable agricultural practices on the Great Plains and the
prolonged drought of the 1930s, which caused the Dust Bowl, focused the attention of the US
Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation on the Missouri River basin and advanced
the development of large scale water storage and irrigation projects. It was the three historic
floods of 1943, however, that brought the Flood Control Act and the Pick-Sloan Plan to the
banks of the Missouri. To curtail the damage wrought by severe drought-flood oscillations and
to support growing non-Indigenous human populations, the United States turned its attention
to dam building with limited scientific or historical hydrologic and geomorphologic
knowledge. The drafters of the Pick-Sloan legislation2 posited that management of the river
would decrease damage caused by future flooding events, and 'benefit the region’s economy
through increased irrigation and hydropower production, enhanced navigation, and job
opportunities for veterans returning from World War II.'3 To this end, seven large dams were
built along the main stem of the river, six pursuant to the Pick-Sloan legislation. Once
functioning, the dams caused massive flooding resulting in the formation of six lakes: Fort
Peck Lake, Lake Oahe, Lake Sakakawea, Lewis and Clark Lake, Lake Francis Case and Lake
Sharpe.
Setting the Flood Control Act and the Pick-Sloan Plan into action was a violation of the
judicially crafted Winters Doctrine of 1908. This doctrine clarifies the water rights of
Indigenous peoples who reside on reservations. It acknowledges the superior right of
Indigenous people to maintain jurisdiction and control of waterways even within a diminished
land base as long as the rivers are traveling through original territories. It is important to
consider that policy does not work unless there is force behind it. Most think of the United
States as an acting force that is facilitated by state police and military, but the same thinking
does not apprehend the state as an acting force by way of large scale irrigation projects. Most
are simply unable, or unwilling, to acknowledge the amount of calculation that was involved
in the planning of the Flood Control Act and the Pick-Sloan Plan. Three government agencies
worked in tandem to eliminate Indigenous people from the river basin. This may not be as
discernably violent as the use of nineteenth-century Gatling guns, but this legislation achieves
much the same thing: Indigenous elimination by paper bills, acts, plans, laws and dams.4
Patrick Wolfe correctly recognizes that this long logic of elimination is another part of a
colonial mentality that is an enormous sociological structure and not simply an event.5 In direct
violation of the Winters Doctrine, treaties and the US Constitution, the Pick-Sloan Plan
unilaterally stripped Indigenous people of all jurisdiction over the water and large portions of
land along the banks of the Missouri.
The Oahe Dam alone was responsible for flooding over 200,000 acres on the Standing
Rock and Cheyenne River Reservations, while other main stem dams negatively impacted the
2 The Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program was the product of the Flood Control Act of 1944, a collaborative
plan of the US Army Corps of Engineers and US Bureau of Reclamation. 3 Knutson, 'PICK-SLOAN PLAN'. 4 Michelle Latimer. Red Power: Standing Rock Part II. Documentary, 2017.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6508412/. 5 Patrick Wolfe. 'Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native'. Journal of Genocide Research 8, no. 4
(20061201): 387–409.
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Indigenous populations on the Fort Berthold, Crow Creek and Lower Brule Reservations.6 The
dams and subsequent reservoirs flooded prime agricultural and grazing lands. They were also
responsible for eliminating nearly ninety percent of timber resources and seventy-five percent
of wildlife on the reservations,7 submerging sacred sites and ceremonial grounds and displacing
hundreds of Indigenous families from their homes.
Presently, there are fifteen large-structure dams on the main stem of the Missouri and
twenty-one on its tributaries. The total number of dams and reservoirs in the region is estimated
to be somewhere near 17,200, most of which are smaller locally maintained structures.8 The
second portion of the plan, the 1945 Rivers and Harbors Act authorized by Congress, paved
the way for the Missouri River Bank Stabilization and Navigation Project. This resulted in the
channelization of the Missouri downstream of Sioux City, Iowa. Finally, in 1972, the Bureau
of Reclamation authorized the building of an additional six dams in Nebraska. Upon
completion of these projects in 1994, the Missouri River and its tributaries had become the
backbone of the largest engineering and infrastructure development endeavor in the United
States to date. Over the last fifty years the river has given much, but in 2014 it was called upon
again—this time by a deadlier foe.
The Dakota Access Pipeline
The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is a project of Dakota Access, LLC, a subsidiary
of Energy Transfer Partners (ETP). It is a subsurface pipeline that begins in the Bakken shale
oil fields9 of northwest North Dakota. From this point, it travels southeast through South
Dakota and Iowa, finding its terminus in an oil depot in Patoka, Illinois. In total, it traverses
1,172 miles (1,886 km) of plains land, crossing under the Missouri once in south central North
Dakota. Seven counties in this state alone bear the weight of 346 miles (557 km) of both
gathering and transmission pipelines, while South Dakota houses 274 miles of pipeline and an
electric pump station. Once in use, the pipeline is slated to transfer 470,000 barrels of crude oil
per day (75,000 m³/d)10 to the refinery in Illinois where it will be sold to international
corporations.
The project was officially introduced to the public in June 2014 and faced a two-year
court battle waged by Indigenous peoples from the affected states, conservation groups, and
environmentalists. The arguments against DAPL are based on concerns pertaining to
environmental impact, Indigenous sacred site destruction, unceded land seizures and the danger
versus benefit of eminent domain land seizures. In these court proceedings, ETP claimed that
the transfer of crude via pipeline is safer and less expensive than transport by rail or road. This
claim is quantitatively difficult to prove, however, when considering human and environmental
safety. Statistics have shown rail transport to be more flexible and adaptable than pipeline
6 Trymaine Lee, 'Geography of Poverty Northwest', No Man’s Land: The Last Tribes of the Plains. As Industry
Closes in, Native Americans Fight for Dignity and Natural Resources, accessed September 21, 2017,
http://www.msnbc.com/interactives/geography-of-poverty/nw.html. 7 Bernard D. Shanks. 'The American Indian and Missouri River Water Developments'. JAWRA: Journal of the
American Water Resources Association, 1 June 1974. 573–79. doi:10.1111/j.1752-1688.1974.tb00598.x. 8 US Geological Survey. 'The Missouri River Basin in North Dakota'. Water Resources of North Dakota.
https://nd.water.usgs.gov/missouririver/index.html. Page last modified 4 Jan 2017. Accessed 21 Sept 2017. 9 The Bakken Formation covers approximately 200,000 subsurface square miles (520,000 km²) and underlies
northeastern Montana, northwestern North Dakota, Manitoba and Saskatchewan Canada. It was discovered in
1952. 10 Jack Healy. 'North Dakota Oil Pipeline Battle: Who’s Fighting and Why'. The New York Times, 26 August
2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/02/us/north-dakota-oil-pipeline-battle-whos-fighting-and-why.html.
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transport, with significantly less spill volume,11 and rail transport infrastructure for Bakken is
already in place. More importantly, studies have shown that a decline in Bakken heavy oil
production took place as early as January 2015. Even as extant data shows an immediate
increase in well production, actual well performance shows that the overall reservoir energy
has been depleted by gas expansion. This will accelerate the decline of production in the
coming years.12 Yet the argument implicit in these findings is not that oil-by-rail shipment of
Bakken crude is a favorable alternative to pipeline transportation. Conservative estimates show
that at least 10,200,000 gallons of crude oil were spilled in the United States between 2000 and
2017. Clearly, both modes of transport are unacceptable, as is a 3.8 billion-dollar investment
in a waning oil field and industry. Despite claims made by all parties, there is no
counterargument to the reality that pipelines will fail and ecological disasters will inevitably
follow.
The truth of this statement was acknowledged when the original pipeline corridor, north
of Bismarck, North Dakota, was rejected by the US Army Corps of Engineers, citing the threat
to drinking water and farmland contamination in a largely white municipality. The current route
travels through the unceded territory of the Sioux Nation recognized in the 1868 Treaty of Fort
Laramie, then passes under three rivers and Lake Oahe (all tributaries of the Missouri River
System) a half-mile north of the Standing Rock Reservation border. On approving this southern
route, the US Army Corps of Engineers failed to meet the minimum requirements of its federal
mandate for meaningful consultation with the Standing Rock Tribe. Certainly, the people of
Bismarck should not be subjected to the contamination of their environment by an oil spill. It
is clear, however, that the Yanktonai Dakota, the Hunkpapa and Sihasapa Lakota are being
forced at gunpoint to accept ecological risks that northern white communities refused to accept.
Legal Fight
The Standing Rock Tribe, Cheyenne River Tribe and Meskwaki Tribe (to name a few
of the indigenous nations seeking to stop DAPL) began legal proceedings against Energy
Transfer Partners as early as 2014. Standing Rock Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II stated
that DAPL construction threatens the 'tribe’s way of life, [its] water, people and land' and
indicated the 'tribe’s opposition to any pipeline within the treaty boundaries encompassing
North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota.'13 Of particular concern was the impact
that the pipeline would have on important landscapes and sacred sites. This was the subject of
a lawsuit filed by Standing Rock Tribe against the US Army Corps of Engineers for violating
the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and the National Historic
Preservation Act, by which the Tribe sought injunctive relief from construction. In 2016,
finding little legal support within the United States to halt DAPL construction, Archambault
addressed the UN Human Rights Council and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Rights,
citing the 1851 Treaty of Traverse des Sioux and 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, ratified by the
US government and acknowledging the sovereignty of the Sioux Nation. He argued that by
failing to consult the Tribe about the proposed DAPL route, the United States failed to fulfill
its legal obligations to the Tribe in recognition of its sovereign rights under the terms of these
11 John Frittelli, Anthony Andrews, Paul W. Parfomak, Robert Pirog, Jonathan L. Ramseur and Michael Ratner.
'US Rail Transportation of Crude Oil: Background and Issues for Congress'. Report. Congressional Research
Service. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 March 2014 by Federation of American Scientists.
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43390.pdf. Accessed 25 Sept 2017. 12 Art Berman. 'The Beginning Of The End For The Bakken Shale Play'. Forbes, 1 March 2017.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/arthurberman/2017/03/01/the-beginning-of-the-end-for-the-bakken-shale-play/.
Accessed 23 Sept 2017. 13 Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Sept 30th DAPL Meeting with SRST. Audio recording, 30 Sept 2014.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlwdtnZXmtY.
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treaties. Further, Section 106 of the Treaty of Fort Laramie specifically names the area in
question 'ancestral lands that are treatied territory'.
Because of this, the land cannot be legally expropriated by a state or the federal
government through eminent domain powers, as treatied land is different from privately held
property. In response to these claims, the UN agreed that 'the tribe was denied access to
information and excluded from consultations at the planning stage of the project and
environmental assessments failed to disclose the presence and proximity of the Standing Rock
Sioux Reservation'. The UN statement continued with an eye toward the rights of the water
protectors: 'The U.S. authorities should fully protect and facilitate the right to freedom of
peaceful assembly of Indigenous peoples, which plays a key role in their ability to claim other
rights'.14
Volumes could be filled with accounts of the legal battles waged by Indigenous groups,
and the discussion of these issues here must be somewhat truncated. Still, it is imperative to
recognize that our fight to protect our relatives began long before the first shovel for DAPL
construction sank into the ground. The two and a half years of court battles waged by
Indigenous and environmental groups irrefutably discounts the claim made by Energy Transfer
Partners that if the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe had voiced their objections to the project earlier,
they would have changed the route: they did change the route. ETP and USACE chose to run
the pipeline through sacred landscapes and to desecrate sacred sites in spaces the US has legally
deemed national sacrifice areas, or indigenous territories of cultural and religious significance.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated event. Dispossession, land theft, the creation of
reservations, the illegal seizure of the Black Hills, flooding of homelands and contamination
of Mnίšoše15 all demonstrate a continued disregard for Indigenous culture, traditions and
knowledges. These actions exemplify a widespread effort to limit our ability to fulfill our
responsibilities to our relations. After two years of court battles, in March 2016, pipeline
construction began. But before we talk about the camps and the resistance, we must consider
Indigenous affection for the land and what we mean when we talk about our relatives.
Our History
This story is not an aggrandizement of US technological advancement or superiority. It is a
story about relatives and the Indigenous obligation to protect our sacred and reciprocal
relationships with them. These relationships are not simply metaphorical, they are substantive
and based on interactions with a plethora of other-than-human beings cultivated in place, with
the earth and the larger cosmos over the long history of Indigenous existence. All things are
perceived as possessing a unique energy, intelligence and innovatory method which includes
other-than-human beings, plants and microorganisms, as well as streams, rocks, mountains and
all other places. This way of being in the world is unilaterally rejected by the western world as
fallacious superstition. Anthropologists call it animism; a term largely misinterpreted through
ethnocentric notions of supremacy.
For most Indigenous peoples, this relationship with all beings, places and the universe
begins at birth and continues until death—and beyond. At birth, humans come into being
'through the elegant cycles of metamorphosis, transformation, and regeneration that form the
14 Andrea Germanos. 'UN Experts to United States: Stop DAPL Now'. Common Dreams, 25 Sept 2016.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/25/un-experts-united-states-stop-dapl-now. 15 This is the Lakota name for the Missouri River. On 4 April 2017, less than one month after the first crude was
delivered through the pipeline and two months before it was commercially operational, 84 gallons of oil leaked
from the pipeline.
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basis for all life on earth.'16 At death, through the process of decomposition, all organic
substances are broken down into the simple elemental matter of earth. This nutrient cycle is
not only essential for the return of finite matter to the biosphere, it also marks the biological
transformation of relatives and ancestors into place ecosystems and landscapes. Death is
understood as the process through which the spirit (energy) is not lost to creation, it simply
changes form. Through the processes of these biogeochemical cycles our ancestors become the
wind, water, fire, soil and clouds, and are taken in by all other-than-human beings of our places.
These entities, then, by scientific definition and metaphysical understanding, are truly our
relatives. As Indigenous people, we do not see ourselves as standing outside of nature, but as
an integral part of it and 'as we experience the world, so we are experienced by it'.17 These
relationships are innate to both the formation of larger collective spheres of Indigenous
language, culture, science and philosophies as well as individual acts of reciprocity to the land
and all other relatives. For this reason, these relationships help to define what it is to be
Indigenous.18
I will focus on the land and water near Standing Rock Reservation, which straddles the
border in the area that is now known as central North and South Dakota. The population here
is a mix of Hunkpapa Lakota, Sihasapa Lakota and Yanktonai Dakota—a part of the Oceti
Sakowin. This reservation is the sixth-largest (although greatly diminished in size) within the
borders of the United States. It currently covers 3,572 square miles (~9,251 km2) with a
population of over 8,000 people. Here, and for approximately 15 million non-Indigenous
people living downstream along the Missouri, mní wičόni (water is life).
In acknowledging the above, one can begin to understand the urgent and extreme
gravity of the defense of our relatives near Standing Rock. At the site of the first Dakota Access
Pipeline resistance camp, the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri Rivers, there once
was a whirlpool that created large spherical sandstone formations. The river’s true name is
Inyan Wakangapi Wakpa, the River that Makes Sacred Stones, and this is why the first
resistance camp was named Sacred Stone Camp.19 Stones are no longer forged at this meeting
place, since the US Army Corps of Engineers dredged the mouth of the Cannonball and flooded
the area in the late 1950s while completing the Oahe Dam downstream. When the floods came,
they desecrated important spiritual sites. From Sacred Stone Camp, if you look east to where
USACE drilled under the river, you can see the remains of the burial grounds, ancient Sundance
grounds and old village sites that the dams destroyed. If you look with your memory, you can
see the place that made the sacred stones. The dredging of Cannonball River happened before
I was born, but I know the stories of loss, and I feel the pain of knowing that the Army Corps
killed a part of our river and violated our relatives. Unfortunately, this is not the last of our
sacred places that is in danger: there are 380 archeological sites along the length of the DAPL
that face destruction. Twenty-six of these sites are here at the confluence of the Cannonball
and Missouri rivers. Illegal land seizure, mining, oil production and transport, fracking, seismic
blasting and sacred site destruction demonstrate a continuance of acts by the US government
bent on the erasure of our sacred places and cultural sites, the ultimate objective of which is
the obliteration of Indigenous existence in this place. In defending our relatives, we are acting
in a centered, prayerful way and refusing this erasure.
16 Gregory Cajete. Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence. Santa Fe, NM: Clear Light Publishers,
2000. 21. 17 Ibid. 20 18 It is important to understand that how these relationships are cultivated in Indigenous societies are similar, but
the specific relationships and responsibilities they require are as numerous as the Nations of Peoples. 19 LaDonna Brave Bull Allard. 'Why the Founder of Standing Rock Sioux Camp Can’t Forget the Whitestone
Massacre'. YES! Magazine, 3 Sept 2016. http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/why-the-founder-of-
standing-rock-sioux-camp-cant-forget-the-whitestone-massacre-20160903. Accessed 27 Sept 2017.
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Youth Movement
While it is not widely acknowledged, the defense of our relatives near Standing Rock
began as an Indigenous youth movement. In April 2016, after receiving the approval of the
Standing Rock Tribal Council, a group of Indigenous youth set up a small camp on the extreme
north end of Standing Rock Reservation in a protected ravine near the planned Dakota Access
route. Initially, the camp was meant to provide a safe place of prayer for youth.20 This was to
be a place to live in ceremony and to teach children how to navigate everyday difficulties
through activism. Members of the One Mind Youth Movement hoped they could pass on what
they had been taught by activists from the Keystone XL protests, which contested the 2011
plan for a pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta, to refineries in Texas. During that campaign, groups
like the Indigenous Environmental Network had instructed surrounding communities about
civil disobedience and trained One Mind members as organizers. After weeks at the camp with
little support, the youth decided that some sort of action was needed to stimulate interest in
their project. A young woman, Bobby Jean Three Legs from Standing Rock, proposed a 500-
mile run to Omaha to present a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers, requesting that they deny
permissions for DAPL to cross the Missouri.
Even though the Army Corps of Engineers agreed to meet with members of the tribe,
the youth decided to go ahead with the run in the hope that it would stimulate support from the
tribal government and bring together youth from all Sioux reservations. After delivering the
message in Omaha without much effect, the runners decided that they would take the request
to the Washington, DC headquarters of the Army Corps of Engineers. On 15 July 2016, thirty
runners set off from Sacred Stone on a 2,000-mile run, with more participants joining as the
runners moved along the route. Despite the USACE granting the Dakota Access pipeline
easement on 29 July, the runners continued to Washington, DC, while the focus returned to
Sacred Stone camp. A massive nation-wide social media push began, calling all Indigenous
Nations and urban communities to mirror the example of the youth movement and come to
Sacred Stone. This call was heard. What happened next was nothing short of historic.
By late August, the camp population had grown from a few dozen to thousands. Social
media coverage of the youth run had accomplished what it set out to do. Dallas Goldtooth—an
organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network's "Keep It In the Ground" initiative, and
one of the on-the-ground journalists at the #NoDAPL resistance camps—said that these actions
'forced their [Elders'] support by transforming the Dakota Access pipeline from a regional
Lakota issue into an international one.'21 While the camp expanded, traditional leadership and
elders began to take more visible roles in the movement. Soon after, a Council Lodge was
erected, establishing a place where head men, medicine men, youth and other organizers
collaborated to restore Indigenous self-governance. This was not an insignificant event. It
signified a reawakening of the political will of the people in a structure that had only been seen
by the youth in their collective memory. In form, theory and praxis, the movement had come
full circle: embracing a holistic Indigenous approach in defense of our relatives.
Talk in the camp had begun. Prayer, resistance and traditional leadership were soon
linked to prophecy, the weight of which was borne by Indigenous youth. While some discredit
the existence of the Black Snake Prophecy prior to the 2014 Keystone XL protests, others link
20 The camp was meant to provide a place away from family and other stresses of their environment, after a
2015 wave of Indigenous youth suicides. 21 Saul Elbein. 'The Youth Group That Launched a Movement at Standing Rock'. The New York Times
Magazine, 31 Jan 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/31/magazine/the-youth-group-that-launched-a-
movement-at-standing-rock.html.
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its origin to a vision of the Ogata Lakota medicine man, Black Elk. It is said he dreamt of a
black snake crossing a river. If this came to fruition, he prophesied that it would signal the
beginning of the end of the world, but if this was prevented by the Seventh Generation—
Indigenous populations living after seven generations of contact with Europeans—a new age
of balance and peace would result. It is not for me to say which perspective on the prophecy is
true. For this discussion, it does not really matter: it was a part of the conversation on the ground
in the camps and the weight of delivering a positive outcome was felt by the youth.
By early September, the gravity of the movement was officially recognized by the
elders through ceremony. Chief Arvol Looking Horse, a beloved spiritual leader of the Lakota,
presented the youth with a čhanunpa, a ceremonial pipe symbolizing the unification of all our
relations. In the same ceremony, the youth were recognized as warriors for the people. The
youth may have been unprepared for the leadership positions that they had assumed, and the
process of managing this weight in the maelstrom of violent conflict precipitated many
complicated realities. Participation aided the release of trauma caused by colonization, in a
space that reflected both colonial brutality and the beauty of living in ceremony. Acting as
water protectors from an Indigenous place of non-violent, prayerful action aided youth in
developing tangible ways to combat present and historical trauma. Their resistance gave the
youth a vital role in their nations, a responsibility to forgive and a mandate to act for the
betterment of coming generations. Finally, witnessing a gathering of Nations on this scale
conveyed an immense amount of pride and power that was felt by all on the ground.
As the weeks passed and the camps continued to grow, the youth remained at the front
lines of the peaceful actions, taking risks and bringing more to the cause through example. On
4 December 2016, the Department of the Army unexpectedly announced that they would deny
the easement for the Dakota Access route. Disbelief, amazement and the release of tension was
palpable. In a video interview from the camps that flooded social media, we watch as Naomi
Klein tells Tokata Iron Eyes, a 13-year-old water protector, about the decision. Upon hearing
the news, Iron Eyes's surprise is clear. First she says, 'What?' Then, while crying, she exposes
a huge white-toothed grin. For a moment she is silent, then the camp explodes into singing as
the news spreads and she gasps. In a tiny, powerful voice Iron Eyes says, 'I feel like I have my
future back!' hugging Klein before nearly collapsing on the ground. This reprieve did not last
for long, but it was needed if only for a moment.
The Camps
The idea of the camps and what they became are different stories to be told. In the
beginning, five months before the early September influx, the idea was simple and powerful:
to create a safe place for healing, learning and resisting in a prayerful way. None of the original
organizers could have imagined what or how large the movement would become. Social media
brought our fight to the doorstep of the world and people responded. Indigenous nations from
around the globe entered through the camp gates in culturally significant ways, demonstrating
their resolve and appreciation of the gravity of the situation. Other non-Indigenous people
showed up too. Some were long-time allies of the people that had stood with us before. Some
were not entirely sure of why they were there, but recognized a need to stand against
something—inequality, genocide, big oil, corporatocracy, the environment, or global
warming—in a rapidly approaching Trump era.
Once direct action had begun, simply getting to the camp gate always brought some
amount of relief. My first time through the gate brought a smile and sense of pride. The car
was inspected, the driver and I were asked about drugs, alcohol and weapons, and then
welcomed home. This struck an interesting chord in me. Being Sihasapa-German, I know that
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I am a part of the Oceti Sakowin and that this place is part of our ancestral lands, but it is a
place I did not know. My realization was that the reservation system was meant not only to
confine, but to cleave the Nation's unity and break extended familial ties. I realized that I was
home again for the first time and wondered how many others felt the same way.
The massive and rapid increase in population brought with it unexpected logistical
issues. Food, water, clothing, tents, portable toilets, wood and other essentials were sometimes
in short supply, and the Medic and Healer’s Council22 was always on the move, providing aid
to the wounded and ill. Occupying the camp was physically difficult. This was particularly true
as the days got shorter, the wind grew stronger, the temperature dropped and violence
increased. There was not a lot of rest. With cooking, cleaning, attending ceremony, daily direct-
action training and participation in direct actions, most were happy to find a pillow when the
moment presented itself. Still, the general feeling was one of willingness to play whatever part
was needed. The functioning of the camp, however, was not always idyllic. There was some
contention between headsmen, tribal leaders and traditional leaders that resulted in disharmony,
as well as some violence against women and drinking. It is folly to think, even in a prayerful
environment, that realities of the outside world simply vanish. The violence of years of
oppression, colonization, treaty violations, forced relocation, boarding schools, incarceration
and genocidal policy, has proven to transmit itself through genetic pathology and historical
trauma. Despite efforts to combat these practices, some of these pathologies found their way
into the camp. Though this was a focus of embedded reporters and mainstream media, it was
not the lesson that we took from our experience. Instead, we realized that we were a part of a
historic gathering of the people. Nations put aside differences to unite for one cause, and we
could confront violence with love and good hearts because of the strength of ceremony, for our
relatives, and the coming generations.
Cyber Warfare
In the early days of the camp, cell phone and streaming issues became a bit of an uneasy joke.
Certainly, the camps were in a remote area in rough terrain, but the nearly hourly airplane 'fly-
bys' that coincided with loss of connectivity began to raise questions. We knew from the
beginning that social media would be our only access to the outside world and our only vector
for disseminating unbiased information to the mainstream media, allies and family away from
camp. We also knew that, in such a remote area, social media might be our only form of
protection if conflict was escalated by Energy Transfer Partners mercenaries or North Dakota
Police. Therefore, access was not simply movement-aggrandizing desire, it was a vital
necessity. Fortunately, Geeks Without Bounds, an accelerator for humanitarian projects and
grassroots mutual aid coordinator, had heard of our plight and difficulties. They had been
working with the water protectors since September when signal loss had been acknowledged
as an artificial (not natural) phenomenon. They helped to increase internet access by connecting
us to Standing Rock Telecom, erected the 'stick in the ground', a tower to boost the signal, and
set up a large tent on 'hop hill' for journalists and activists. This area was affectionately known
as 'Facebook Hill' and became the main social media hub for the camps. Even with these heroic
efforts, communication was sometimes sporadic, particularly during the two known media
blackouts that were issued by North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple.
We now know that the methods of digital espionage used against those at the camps
and our social media allies is normally reserved for use by the US upon external states thought
to present a security risk to the nation. Some of the methods of digital attack cannot be proven,
but the 'top suspects include a collusion between Morton County Sheriff’s Department, Energy
22 This council consisted of general medical doctors, healers, mental health professionals and chiropractors.
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Transfer Partners’ security and intelligence contractor TigerSwan,23 the National Guard, and/or
the North Dakota Police.'24 However, 'legal observers are documenting and investigating the
real threats that come from digital surveillance and communication interference',25 mass data
seizure and electronic bugs.
It is not difficult to understand why such attention was paid by the opposition to
blocking our contact with the outside would. Authoritarian systems of control are set in place
to establish a recognized enemy other and predicate mainstream reactions to that other.26 The
tendency of Western colonial states is to treat the whole of world history as if it could be viewed
as a kind of Western super-subject. Western historicizing and disciplinary rigor either takes
away or, in the postcolonial period, restores history to people and cultures 'without' history. To
take away the voices of cultures that seek to complicate this narrative is imperative to the
creation of an unreal other.27 It also nullifies the claim to humanity of all groups defined as
'other', making these groups vulnerable to any action taken by the colonial apparatus. At the
camps, digital blackouts were used for this very purpose. That is, the blackout afforded the
opposition an opportunity to create a partisan narrative that condoned any violent action taken
against the water protectors.
Digital and connectivity sabotage were not the only methods employed to discredit the
movement. The early days of December 2016 brought hope and a bit of fear. Those in the
camps and the opposition knew that military veterans would be coming to join the water
protectors at Standing Rock on 4 December and the opposition was gearing up to incite a
conflict. Creating public tension was imperative for mainstream support of this clash. To this
end, the Federal Aviation Administration set in place a 'no-fly zone' over North Dakota and
Attorney General Lynch released a public statement on behalf of the United States Department
of Justice. Herein, she painted a picture of unlawful behavior and placed blame for all violent
action squarely on the water protectors despite our unarmed defense of our relatives. While the
video was politically correct, she set a clear tone that condoned all violent action taken by the
Morton County Police, DAPL private security/TigerSwan, mercenaries and the National
Guard. All of this transpired as nearly daily direct action took place.
Physical Violence
It is understandable, although unfortunate, that people identify with the idea of hate. In
the US, it is regrettable that hate is so commonly focused on people of color. Where present,
the generation of hatred should be at least tangentially related to a qualitative measurement,
established through experience of or interactions with the focus of one’s ire. This was not the
case with the security forces we faced. Most had never met, had a discussion with or interacted
in any way with an Indigenous person. It is probable, then, that this hatred sprang from a
lifetime of assimilatory education based in national narratives that work to obstruct citizens'
unification through the use of erroneous stereotypes and ideology. Most often, these
assumptions are about presumed deficits in social, economic, cultural and racial character. This
is the space in which racism, bigotry and hatred are fomented to a particular end.
23 Since 2014, TigerSwan has won more that thirteen contracts worth more than nine million dollars with the US
Department of State, the US Department of Defense, and the Department of Homeland Security. See 'Advanced
Data Search' [results filter: tigerswan]. USAspending.gov.
https://www.usaspending.gov/Pages/AdvancedSearch.aspx?k=tigerswan. Accessed 29 Sept 2017. 24 C.S. Hagen. 'Standing Rock’s Invisible Enemy'. High Plains Reader, 30 Nov 2016.
http://hpr1.com/index.php/feature/news/standing-rocks-invisible-enemy. Accessed 29 Sept 2017. 25 Ibid. 26 Michel Foucault tr. Alan Sheridan. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York: Vintage
Books, 1995). 27 Edward W. Said. Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1979).
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It is difficult to explain how it feels to stand in the face of extreme hate. Certainly, there
is power in following the ancestors’ example, knowing they made greater sacrifices. But there
is also an immense sadness in knowing that you are still fighting simply to exist, over 500 years
later, in different ways that are the same. I would not consider myself an activist, but I am not
new to what the United States considers civil disobedience, nor am I new to the unique racism
that Indigenous people face in the US. Still, I was shocked by my first direct action at the camp.
The military grade turtle gear, the batons, and high-powered mace were commonplace, but the
anticipatory glee that registered on almost every face of the DAPL security forces was
sickening. I was prepared to be maced, bitten by attack dogs or injured in another way; but
these men, it was clear, wanted more.
There are many stories that can be told here. Indigenous peoples and their allies
occupied the camps for nine months. We could talk about the 2 September discovery of one of
the most significant Indigenous cultural finds in the upper northwest, or the submission of
documentation of the site to the Federal Court in Washington, DC to support the injunction that
was already in review by that court. We could talk about DAPL personnel halting construction
nearly fifteen miles to the northeast to hop-scotch bulldozers to the exact coordinates of the
sacred site provided to the court. We could also talk about the same personnel plowing through
the sacred site and the last two miles of the pipeline route on Sunday 4 September, before
government officials had a chance to survey the area. We could talk about the horses and people
who suffered from dog bites; or those who were maced, pummeled by batons or physically
beaten; or the mass arrests made. But this was one of the first major conflicts and does not
demonstrate the full extent to which wartime technologies were used against us. Instead we
will focus on the night of the Backwater Bridge incident.
Leading up to this event, private security employees hired by Energy Transfer Partners
participated in covert actions designed to pin illegal activities on water protectors. Stealing or
damaging their own equipment and camp infiltration were among the actions taken to taint the
integrity of the unarmed, non-violent Indigenous movement. On another occasion, an armed
Energy Transfer Partner employee was instructed to break into the camp to support retaliatory
DAPL security action. In an interview, Kourtni Dockter, a former DAPL security agent, spoke
specifically about two Humvee military trucks that were set ablaze by DAPL employees on the
1806 highway bridge just north of the camp.28 She also recalled that on the night of the incident,
just prior to a mass casualty incident, infiltrators of the camp attempted to provoke water
protectors and carried out actions that supported violent suppression by security forces.29
Morton County police claimed that the incident on 20 November began due to the firing
of the above-mentioned vehicles by water protectors. The water cannons, they told the media,
were there only to extinguish the flames. In truth, water protectors were trying to move the
flaming vehicles so that access to and from the camps would be open. Given Dockter’s
statement above and accounts from the scene, it is more likely that the vehicles were
intentionally placed and set ablaze by Energy Transfer Partner agents to block access into and
escape from the camp prior to the assault. By mid-evening, more than 300 injuries had been
sustained as the direct result of excessive force used by the Morton County Police. In the first
seven hours of a ten-hour incident, in temperatures as low as 22˚F (-6˚C), the police assaulted
demonstrators with water cannons causing hypothermia in almost all of nearly 400 direct-
28 C.S. Hagen. 'Former DAPL Security Speaks Out, Damning TigerSwan Tactics'. High Plains Reader, 8 June
2017. http://hpr1.com/index.php/feature/news/former-dapl-security-speaks-out-damning-tigerswan-tactics/.
Accessed 30 Sept 2017. 29 Ibid.
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action participants. According to the press release prepared by the Standing Rock Medic and
Healer Council,
'Chemical weapons in the form of pepper spray and tear gas were also used extensively,
requiring chemical decontamination.' Concomitantly, 'projectiles in the form of tear gas
canisters, rubber bullets and concussion grenades led to numerous blunt force traumas
including head wounds, lacerations, serious orthopedic injuries, eye trauma, and internal
bleeding.'30
The force of the violence continued unabated throughout the night and into early morning. It
was at this time that Sophia Wilansky’s arm was nearly blown off by an exploding concussion
grenade. She sustained the injury while she was transporting water to flush pepper spray and
tear gas from the eyes of the defenders. Because no one died as a direct result of this incident,
the force used is considered near-lethal. But our survival, I can assure you, was an inadvertent
outcome.31
By 4 December 2016, the US could no longer avert the bright glare of social and
mainstream media attention focused on the camps due to the arrival of Veteran support. To be
sure, more violence would have ensued had the Morton County Police force not been worried
about injuring one of these allies. With the camp numbers swelling to somewhere between
11,000 and 15,000 people, the water protectors became a formidable foe. Despite severely
inequitable armament, it should be clear that if conflict was the goal of the movement this
would have been the time for action. However, no large-scale conflicts were carried out. This
day also brought the news that the US Department of the Army would not grant easement for
the Dakota Access Pipeline crossing of the Missouri river. Interestingly, reprieve came when
mainstream media had been drawn to the camps by the presence of Veteran allies. Even as
mainstream media portrayals of water protectors were egregiously erroneous, their presence
alongside the Veterans stifled violent action by police that assuredly would have occurred in
their absence. The world was watching. Unfortunately, these positive gains were negated on 9
February.
On 24 January 2017, in fulfillment of his campaign vow to expand fossil fuel production
and roll back environmental regulations, Donald Trump signed an executive action to advance
approval of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines. In doing so, he 'encouraged the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to abandon the review ordered under [President] Obama. On
Tuesday, the Corps announced that it had done so.'32 On Wednesday, 10 November, the
easement was granted and less than twenty-four hours later construction of the pipeline
resumed. DAPL and Energy Transfer Partners completed drilling under Mnίšoše and by April
oil was flowing through the pipes.33
On a cold day in late February, the US Army Corps of Engineers and the state of North
Dakota led federal and state troops down highway 1806 to clear out the main camp. They came
in with military force, slashing teepees with knives and arresting dozens of water protectors
30 Standing Rock Medic and Healer Council. 'Standing Rock: Critical Injuries After Police Attack with Water
Cannons, Rubber Bullets in Freezing Temps' [PR_Nov_20_English]. Google Docs.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11Aail5LREUaOwVCEMgOiQQAgeT8nF0Je1VZZO5Fkg8A/edit?usp=e
mbed_facebook. Accessed 30 Sept 2017. 31 Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRAD’s or sound cannons) were also used. They were designed to broadcast
pain-inducing 'deterrent' tones over long distances. The LRAD corporation says that anyone within 100 meters
of the device’s sound path will experience extreme pain. 32 William Yardly. 'Trump Wants to Boost Defense Spending by 10% and Cut Social Spending'. Los Angeles
Times, 24 March 2017. http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-essential-washington-updates-
construction-resumes-on-dakota-access-1486673813-htmlstory.html. Accessed 4 Oct 2017. 33 By 4 April 2017 an 84-gallon leak of crude oil had already occurred.
Karyn Mo Wells
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engaged in peaceful prayer at gun point. These forces brutalized water protectors and the
independent press once more, but they kept their honor and remained non-violent. In talking
about this day, Floris White Bull, principle subject and co-writer of Awake poignantly added,
'To keep them from the disrespect of the invading officers, structures were burnt in ceremony.
The physical manifestation of our dreams went into the sky in the smoke and flames.
Although the camp is gone, our spirit is not broken. It is stronger than ever. It has spread
throughout the land; throughout the world—like cottonwood seeds in the wind.'34
Aftermath
It is difficult to believe, even as a participant, that this kind of force was brought to bear
on unarmed citizens of the US acting in a constitutionally supported matter. It is more difficult
to absorb the reality that many mainstream citizens supported these violent actions. In fact,
across the United States, citizen assaults on individuals thought to be Indigenous increased
during the attacks on the camps, as did state police assaults near reservation borders. Since the
forced disbanding of the camps in early February, some things have changed but the resultant
violence has not. The number of missing (or disappeared) Indigenous women and girls
nationwide, and for First Nations Peoples of Canada, has reached epidemic proportions.35 The
youth responsible for igniting this movement have had difficulty acclimatizing to their changed
reality. They had a place to be and a mission to perform. With both gone and an incipient
feeling of failure in the defense of our relatives, the weight borne by these groups has become
heavy indeed. Coming full circle, another wave of youth suicides has become a reality in Indian
Country. As we pass the one-year anniversary of the 27 October raid of north camp, many
water protectors have begun to speak about their experience of different levels of Post-
Traumatic Stress Disorder. One can only assume that, as we approach the anniversary some of
the most violent incidents of the #noDAPL resistance, more will be triggered. Certainly, we
must watch our relatives closely.
Due to extended individual commitment to this resistance, many people lost their jobs.
This complicates daily life and hundreds continue to fight legal battles with little access to
council or funding. Red Fawn, a Lakota water protector from Pine Ridge Reservation, who is
scheduled to stand trial in federal district court on 29 January 2018 on multiple charges
stemming from her participation in the protests, has been imprisoned for over a year. While
this and other high-profile cases like those of Chase Iron Eyes, Amy Goodman and Shailene
Woodley demonstrate the continued weight born by water protectors, it does not acknowledge
the expansiveness of the legal nightmare. Currently, there are more than seven hundred lower
profile cases awaiting legal dispensation. As these individual cases continue, so too do the
larger Federal cases brought by the Standing Rock Tribe against Dakota Access Pipeline (et.
al.) and the Army Corps of Engineers.
On 14 June 2017, Federal Judge James Boasberg issued his latest ruling that the federal
permits authorizing the pipeline to cross Mnίšoše, issued by the Trump administration, violated
the rule of law in several critical respects. Boasberg stated that while the Corps largely
complied with the National Environmental Policy Act there were substantial exceptions. In the
decision, the 'judge cited the Corps’ study of "the impacts of an oil spill on fishing rights,
hunting rights, or environmental justice" as particularly deficient, and he ordered it to prepare
34 Myron Dewey and Josh Fox. Awake, a Dream from Standing Rock. Documentary, 2017.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6691862/. 35 As of the date of writing there are at least 1200 reported cases of murdered women and girls. Added to this,
Indigenous women are seven times more likely to die of violence than are their non-Indigenous counterparts in
the US or Canada.
Karyn Mo Wells
155
a new report on its risks.'36 While the ruling may set precedents concerning environmental
justice, there is no indication that issuing a directive for a new impact study will alter the
outcome of the case. The judge’s emphasis on the failure of the Army Corps to reach an
acceptable legal level of consideration in their impact study is important; it demonstrates the
broader nature of the legal fight. An attorney for the nonprofit environmental law organization
Earthjustice says that the decision should be taken as a positive outcome, but also recognizes
that in actuality the 'case is not about how the pipeline may harm Standing Rock, but whether
the Corps adequately studied and reported on those harms before approving it in the first
place.'37 Even Boasberg’s second complaint, concerning federal regulations mandating
environmental justice studies on any constructions with proximity to poor or Indigenous
communities, was based largely methodological grounds. As has been discussed earlier, it is
unlikely that any outcome in favor of Standing Rock would have been rendered had the grounds
for juridical consideration been foreclosed to Federal Indian Law, law that pertains solely to
Indigenous rights.
While the issue is not new, it demonstrates a great deal about the complexities of US
acknowledgement of Indigenous sovereignty and the limited or reluctant vision of the courts
regarding this issue. Moving fluidly between notions of exclusive, preemptive and
unlimited/absolute powers of Federal Indian Law, Indigenous nations are placed at an extreme
disadvantage due to the inconsistency in the definitional legal standards being applied in any
given case. While all tribes have been subject to changing interpretations and applications of
Federal Indian Law, this is the only juridical space where legal arbiters return to original
documents to re-form opinions of the court, instead of using precedents set in more recent
cases, as in all other areas of law. For this reason, the status of Indigenous nations is continually
interrupted by various government agencies, their historic relationship to the US government,
and the immediate desires of corporate entities and the states. Most positive legal gains from
Standing Rock stem from legal decisions based on law external to Federal Indian Law and
outside of any consideration of our sovereign rights.
Acknowledgement that oil now flows under Mnίšoše speaks to a deep pain that is
affirmation of the continuing harm done to this river—our relative. Some of the Water
Protectors have moved on to support the resistance in other sacred places on other Indigenous
lands. Some have gone back to their reservation to help heal the physical and psychological
damage done. Some remain in jail and hundreds await their court dates. But all sacrificed an
enormous amount to stand for the sacred at Standing Rock. Despite these heart-wrenching
realities, we have become stronger. We did come together in a historically unprecedented way
and we were able to slow the completion of the pipeline in the face of a state-waged full military
response. There can be no doubt that resistance to the Keystone XL, Trans Pecos, Comanche
Trail, Sabal Trail Transmission and the Pilgrim/Aim pipelines will bring more of the same.38
More importantly, we have learned how to organize and how to use social media to our
advantage. Never has our voice been more central in the public consciousness. At the base of
all of it we have developed a grassroots methodology that can be implemented in all future
defenses of our land, culture, knowledge and sacred sites.
36 Robinson Meyer. 'The Standing Rock Sioux Claim "Victory and Vindication" in Court'. The Atlantic. 14 June
2017. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/06/dakota-access-standing-rock-sioux-victory-
court/530427/. 37 Meyer. 38 These proposed pipeline sites are found in tribal homelands. Two, the Trans Pecos Pipeline and the Comanche
Trail Pipeline, are slated to be built by a coalition led by Energy Transfer Partners.
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What We Have Learned
At the camps, a common refrain was, now I understand. The reference was used when speaking
about state- and corporate-sponsored violence, sometimes when discussing legal frames, or
when talking about ceded and unceded territories, ceremony, sacred places, good relations with
our relatives and the benefit of non-violent direct action, to name a few contexts. While the
conversations spoke of the singular, the scope of the statement alluded to a much larger,
intuitive coalescing. In our youth and young adulthood, we are taught many things about what
it is to be Indigenous. Often these lessons are about the way Indigenous people do things. We
are told this is how it is done, but in some cases, we are not taught why. In coming to Standing
Rock, people learned in place from the People and through our stories. Connecting these stories
to the lessons of our youth has provided the reasons for doing the things that we do. Even
though the artificial spaces of reservations have little to offer, they are situated in place and in
an ancient continuum of being. At Standing Rock, centered in Indigenous knowledges,
ceremony was resistance. The physical and metaphysical recognition of this reality was
palpable and healing.
In speaking about the trauma suffered by many protectors, we highlight an important
discussion of Indigenous emotional reaction to their continuing existence as colonized entities.
During the actions, the protectors focused on ceremony and meeting DAPL security and state
police non-violently and with a good heart. However, success in this effort does not account
for more latent feelings of Indigenous animosity/resentment based in the long history of
colonial rule that has served to justify the supremacy of white values and the continued
exploitation and domination of Indigenous peoples. This animosity is the effect of internalized
colonization and therefore is a part of the historical traumas experienced by the colonized. Glen
Coulthard suggests that in some situations 'Indigenous peoples’ individual and collective
expressions of anger and resentment can help prompt the very forms of self-affirmative praxis
that generate rehabilitated Indigenous subjectivities and decolonized forms of life.'39
Considering the continued structural and physical violence that is a part of our everyday life
and that interferes with our relationships with humans, other-than-humans and to the land, this
anger should be seen as a justified response and not simply 'an incapacitating inability or
unwillingness to get over the past.'40 This cannot be the single point on which an activist or
liberation praxis should be built, but through the disgorging of internalized subjectivities
Indigenous peoples can redirect destructive cycles onto an externalized 'enemy' where it
belongs.
More than this, the refusal accept this occupied state can 'revalue and affirm Indigenous
cultural traditions and social practices that are systematically denigrated yet never fully
destroyed in situations of colonial rule.'41 Understanding the history of systemic colonization,
treaty violation, and the illegal juridical decisions upon which the United States has been
formed, it is unlikely that the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island will experience any
significant stage of reconciliation with the United States. Despite this, movement toward
decolonization and active participation in activist movements like #noDAPL can help facilitate
resistance located within, not outside, Indigenous space. In this effort, we must understand that
what constitutes traditional practices is fluid and in the re-creation of political and cultural
practices that promote healthy and productive Indigenous lifeways, we must guard against
essentializing our understanding of the traditional. Additionally, Leanne Simpson asserts
39 Glen Sean Coulthard, Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition, Indigenous Americas; Variation: Indigenous Americas. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014), pg. 109. 40 Ibid. 109. 41 Frantz Fanon tr. Richard Philcox. The Wretched of the Earth. Grove Press, 2004. 31.
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rightfully that we must turn away from assimilative reformism and decolonize 'on our own
terms, without the sanction, permission, or engagement of the state, [or] western theory.'42
Indigenous resistance has been a part of everyday life since Columbus and other
Europeans invaded the Americas. The act of Indigenous survival in the face of colonial
oppressions can be counted as one of the many facets of resistance as it thwarted the colonizers
genocidal policies toward the annihilation of all Turtle Island peoples. The genealogy of
resistance is continually evolving and is manifold in its vectors. The use of media for
mainstream/global visibility, militancy, civil disobedience, direct action, non-violence and US
jurisprudence have all been employed to effect change in policy making, in support of
Indigenous sovereignty, and the protection of Indigenous rights guaranteed in treaties and the
Constitution. Grassroots activist efforts can be traced from the American Indian Movement
(AIM), that burst onto the mainstream scene in their nineteen-month occupation of Alcatraz
Island, to the United Native American members who occupied Mount Rushmore in 1970.
Activist groups continued with the Trail of Broken Treaties Caravan that culminated in the
occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, DC and the 1973 occupation of
Wounded Knee, which brought global attention to the unsafe living conditions on the Pine
Ridge Reservation. The contemporary resurgence of similar groups—like the National
Coalition in Sports and Media Forms, the Transform Columbus Day Alliance, the Keystone
XL Pipeline Protestors, the Dakota 38 Riders, Idle No More and the DAPL Water Protects—
sought to combat the legion of issues faced by Indigenous and First Nation Peoples. Although
these groups used diverse methods in their attempts to transform policy making into programs
and organizations to serve Indigenous peoples, each was based in Indigenous spirituality and
ceremony.
At the heart of the AIM movement is a belief in the connectedness of all Indigenous
peoples. To this end, activists focused on inclusion of Urban Indigenous populations that had
been displaced by government programs that forced them from reservation spaces. It is
imperative that we continue to embrace our collective whole to empower youth and individuals
in the project of rebuilding (our nations and the fight against the issues of focus). Certainly, the
strength of inter- and intra-nation cohesion was evidenced at DAPL camps. Following AIM’s
example, media exposure is imperative for successful dissemination of Indigenous demands
and the security of those involved in actions. The presence of social media allows this to occur
on a world-wide stage. Because mainstream media reports of our activism are often negative
within US borders, telegraphing untainted journalism beyond these spaces can create world-
wide networks and pressure governmental response. This was certainly the case with #noDAPL
media communications.
Recognizing the advantages of creating solid informational, organizational, Indigenous
and ally networks is imperative to successful activism. It has become clear that maintaining
fluidity in these networks is essential in guarding against governmental infiltration and
subsequent bureaucratization which diminishes the cohesiveness and effectiveness of any
activist movement. These perils were encountered by the American Indian Movement (AIM)
in the late sixties and seventies. For this reason, activist networks must be able to form and
disband quickly with the same strength of sustained efforts. We must also continue to fight
against the colonial influences that erode productive leadership and familial cohesiveness in
our communities. Until we successfully navigate these spaces, we must recognize that they will
be a part of all movements as they have become a part of our daily reality. To this end, we must
42 Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back: Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-Creation,
Resurgence and a New Emergence. Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring Pub., 2011. 17.
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set in place mechanisms to minimize the adverse effects of colonialism on coordinated activist
movements.
The reality is that the United States never thought that we would remain. For this reason,
our voices have been silenced and the laws set in place for our protection are largely cosmetic.
If the treaties made between sovereign nations had been upheld, if the law had supported our
legal petitions to prevent the destruction of our sacred sites and cultural patrimony, if people
meant more than corporations, and if hate had not been the response to our pleas, none of this
would have occurred. As I recount the incidents of this movement and its aftermath, I am
reminded of the words of Hinmatόowyalahtq’it.43 In 1876 he said, '… And if the voice of our
people could have been heard, that act would never have been done. But alas, though they stood
around, they could neither be seen nor heard. Their tears fell like drops of rain.'
As the continued US negation of Indigenous Nations and peoples occurs, so too does
the degradation of the land. As we recognize the indelible link between our people, other-than-
human beings and all places of our lands it is easy to understand that we share a similar future.
We belong to the water and the land, not the other way around. We are not separate from spirit
and life. We do not subscribe to the Western proclivity toward the notion of human supremacy.
Logic and reason do not exist apart from the whole. They are based in accumulated knowledge
and the experience of interaction with all beings and entities. The symbiotic compilation of
each of these elements produces the wisdom to live well in this place. We must ask ourselves,
what stories will be told about our present and future generations? Perhaps we should continue
down a dual road, where we find resonance in ancestral refrains and seek a parallel wisdom in
the activism of today’s youth. Certainly, we have witnessed the power of their vision. The
tobacco is down, prayers are up and, through continued healing, we are picking up our hearts
as we continue to act in defense of our relatives.
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