We all know the history of the start to America: in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue…right into pre-established land. Bringing over disease and destruction, the Europeans utterly decimated the native populations in the Americas. This massive slaughter spread across both North and South America, well into the founding of America as a country. Then came the gold rushes of North America, which started in my current town Dahlonega, and ultimately led to the forced removal of the remaining native populations out of states on the east side of the Mississippi River. Signing the Indian Removal Act of 1830, President Andrew Jackson legally enforced the mass exodus of the native population. This movement would later be deemed The Trail of Tears due to its extensive death tolls and brutal treatment of the Native Americans. Not only did we, as Americans, permit this genocide to occur, we seem to have thought nothing of it. Even to this day, there are still people I know who think that this land we live on is, and always was, ours. News flash: we’re the immigrants here, we’re the invaders and oppressive regime.

Not only did The Trail of Tears lead to the mass death of the native populations in North America, it also incited a large movement of either forced (or “voluntary”) conversion to European culture. This meant that these people were told they must completely learn another language, deny their religion, modify their appearance and even take on a new name just to survive. We took their children from them and forced them to attend European style schools, so early on that some of them never even knew their birth names. It’s beyond disgusting, but it’s still happening. In fact, it wasn’t until 1978 with the passing of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act that Native Americans were permitted to legally to practice their religions again. We had previously, up until only 38 years ago, legislatively denied them the right to their religion, which if you didn’t know, is fundamentally against our Constitution. So basically, we have subjectified Native Americans under our government without really giving them the full rights of a citizen. They were not considered true of residents of the land they have inhabited for thousands of years, all because of what we saw was our own divine right (Manifest Destiny) to take all the land we want. But no God has ever called for death and plundering, rape and torture. This is the selfish man’s doing, and it continues to be the selfish man’s will that the Native Americans are treated as so.

Personally, I don’t even feel like I do justice to this topic because I don’t know each tribe’s names, customs and struggles. Because, although this history is some of the most brutal this land has seen, we are never really taught in school who the Native Americans are and what we have done to them. Is it because, like slavery, this is another ugly side of our country, and thus we are not told it for fear of losing nationalistic sentiments? Is it a government ploy to stop the average American from becoming educated enough to demand rights for these peoples? Or is it because the government still does not consider Native Americans to be valuable citizens of our country? I think it’s a mixture of all of the above. But what I do know is that the Dakota Access Pipeline is just further reinforcement of the idea that, to this day, we do not regard the Native Americans as a sovereign people with rights to maintain their own land and government.

The Dakota Access Pipeline Project (DAPL), also known as the Bakken Pipeline, is a $3.78 billion project being built by Dakota Access, LLC, a branch of the Texas-Based Energy Transfer Partners, of which 570,000 barrels of crude oil per day will be transferred across 1,172 miles from North Dakota to Illinois. Advocates of the pipeline believe that it will help ease our dependence on foreign oil supply as well as create thousands of jobs, as it will eventually connect to the Gulf of Mexico. Not only does this project move onto private property, it also will cross through sacred land for the Standing Rock Sioux, Lokata and Dakota tribes, and pass under the Missouri River twice. On top of the pipeline, quite literally ripping apart sacred Native American land, it threatens to taint the valuable waters of the Missouri River, which the tribes depend on for culturally significant agriculture. In protest, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe held a 500-mile relay race, named “Rezpect Our Water," in hopes of convincing the Army Corps of Engineers to not permit the build. However, the project was still given the go-ahead, and now the tribe will take the Corps to federal court in hopes of getting the project shut down. But, as history has proved, judicial verdicts do not favor the rights of Native Americans.

All of this seems familiar though, doesn’t it? Well that’s because only a year ago there were plans to build a pipeline called the Keystone XL, which is only a few miles shorter than the DAPL. It, however, was vetoed by President Obama because Congress tried to rush the approval by stating that it was in our “national interest” to build it as soon as possible. So what makes this case different? Both pipelines were strongly opposed by the residents of the Dakotas and Iowa, with the valid fear of environmental damage, usurpation of property and the denial of native heritage and sovereignty. This all ties together as, in most Native American religions, the secular and divine interact within our environment; they are all existing in and of this world. So, seeing as there have been 11 pipeline accidents carrying oil or gasoline across the Dakotas since 2000, one particularly nasty spill resulting in 865,00 gallons of oil spilling beneath a farm in North Dakota only three years ago, it’s no wonder this project is vehemently protested.

But, the government does not seem to show concern for these ideologies as even North Dakota’s Governor Jack Darlymple has signed an executive order which allows for the funding of additional police patrol to stop protesters, either by arresting them of hindering their movement by blockading them into specific areas. The state has even gone as far to stop water supply to the protesters and pettily refuse to empty the portable toilets. A temporary restraining order has also been granted to the Dakota Access LLC by a federal district court to be used against protesters who “interfere” with pipeline work as well as allowing for the prevention of some tribes from leaving reservations. And once again, we are reminded that, although our government wants these peoples to submit to it, they will not fulfill their social contract and grant them basic American rights such as those of the first amendment.

However, there is some hope that this atrocity can be stopped, as the Obama Administration and the Department of Justice has just announced that it will be temporarily halting the construction of the pipeline until further notice. Obama, who has earlier proclaimed that he believes we must reform both our treatment and mindset towards Native Americans, released that statement: “This case has highlighted the need for a serious discussion on whether there should be nationwide reform with respect to considering tribes’ views on these types of infrastructure projects…Therefore, this fall, we will invite tribes to formal, government-to-government consultations on two questions: (1) within the existing statutory framework, what should the federal government do to better ensure meaningful tribal input into infrastructure-related reviews and decisions and the protection of tribal lands, resources, and treaty rights; and (2) should new legislation be proposed to Congress to alter that statutory framework and promote those goals.” But, there is still the possibility of the project continuing. So, if you are like me and want to see the rights and voices of these people conformed, sign the petition by the group Other98 to permanently end the construction.

On both a moral and national level, we are obligated to look seriously into this topic and make a decision that preserves the lives, believes and lands of a people that we have never truly extended a basic sense of human compassion to. This is only a little part of the good that we can do to make up for the years and years of unnecessary destruction we that we have caused to their culture, lives and land.