Thousands of Native Americans resurrected the fighting spirit of their forefathers as they stood in unprecedented unity to contest an oil company’s desecration of their sacred land in North Dakota. Considering its burdened historical context, this has been one of the most moving events in recent memory. The standoff, involving 5,000-strong Native American protesters, including representatives of 200 tribes and …
This Can’t Be Happening – 09.21.16
Levi Rickert, editor of Native News Online, a national publication about indigenous peoples of North America, talks about what he calls the most significant political action by Native Americans since the 1973 Wounded Knee occupation on the Pine Ridge reservation. He tells how activists from over 200 Indian tribes as well as representatives of indigenous peoples from around the world have converged at Standing Rock in North Dakota to help the local embattled Standing Rock Sioux People defend their land and water against despoilation by the Army Corps of Engineers, which is trying to construct a pipeline across Sioux lands to carry Bakkan Field crude oil to St. Louis.
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 …
Sarah Lazare – Reckless Security Firm Hired to Protect Dakota Pipeline Company Has Dark Past in Palestine
When the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe mobilized thousands to protect their land and water in Cannon Ball, North Dakota from a proposed $3.8 billion crude-oil pipeline, they were met with national guard deployments [3], police crackdowns [4], an FBI investigation [5] and private security forces that attacked [6] them with dogs. A key firm hired during this time to provide security for the pipeline company, Dakota Access LLC, is the …
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 …