If anyone has been on Facebook recently, there has been a trend of check-in posts popping up on news feeds at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota. This was in response to the Dakota Access Pipeline and the viral rumor that claimed police were using Facebook check-ins and posts to track the activists protesting. In order to understand the protesting and the Facebook check-ins, the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and the Dakota Access Pipeline needs to be explained. The Dakota Access Pipeline (aka DAPL) is an underground pipeline under construction that will span 1,172 miles from the oil fields of North Dakota to a terminal in Illinois to transport 570,000 barrels of Bakken crude oil every day. The construction will go through Native burial grounds and cross the Missouri River, which is close to the Standing Rock's primary source of drinking water. This concerns the Native inhabitants and activists because oil pipelines have a tendency to leak and cause economic, environmental, and tribal sovereignty issues.
The issue of tribal sovereignty and resources with the Sioux tribe goes back to 1868 where half of the Greater Sioux Reservation established by the Treaty of Fort Laramie was split by the settlers. In 1874, miners claimed another 1.3 million acres of the broken up reservation. By 1958, the Sioux lost 200,000 acres to a flood due to the Army Corps of Engineers, which is the same agency advancing the progress for DAPL. The Sioux tribe has a right to voice their concerns over actions that influence their lives. Social media users also took a stand for their beliefs and show support in solidarity by checking into Standing Rock on Facebook. However, this trend may not necessarily have overwhelmed or confused the authorities on the whereabouts for the protesting activists. This is because the local Morton County Sheriff's Department had come out to state, "In response to the latest rumor/false claim circulating on social media we have the following response: The Morton County Sheriff’s Department is not and does not follow Facebook check-ins for the protest camp or any location. This claim/rumor is absolutely false." So whether the increasing amount of Standing Rock check-in updates are baffling the authorities or not, it is an inciting further discussion and involvement in understanding the historical and modern issues that this country faces.
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