Alexandra Jacobo – Veterans arrive at Standing Rock to act as human shields for water protectors

For the past several days hundreds of veterans have begun arriving at Standing Rock to show solidarity with the water protectors. Starting on Thursday, veterans from across the country began arriving at the Oceti Sakowin and Sacred Stone camps in North Dakota. Over 1,000 veterans plan to “deploy” and are calling on their fellow veterans to assemble as a “peaceful, …

Chip Ward – Indians and Cowboys: The 2016 Version of an Old Story on a New Planet

Cowboys and Indians are at it again. Americans who don’t live in the West may think that the historic clash of Native Americans and pioneering settlers is long past because the Indians were, after all, defeated and now drive cars, watch television, and shop at Walmart.  Not so.  That classic American narrative is back big time, only the Indians are …

Winona LaDuke – An Oil Pipeline and a River: What Would Sitting Bull Do?

It’s 2016, and the weight of American corporate interests has come to the Missouri River, the Mother River. This time, instead of the Seventh Cavalry, or the Indian police dispatched to assassinate Sitting Bull, it is Enbridge and Dakota Access Pipeline. In mid-August, Standing Rock Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II was arrested by state police, along with 27 others, for …