On November 20, 2016, outside of the Standing Rock Indian Preservation, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, hundreds of people lined up in a peaceful protest in order to show their disapproval for an oil pipeline project soon to take place in North Dakota. According to protestors, this pipeline threatens many of the state's natural resources such as water resources and sacred tribal lands.
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Pictured above is a map of the intended pipeline in relation with the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. Though minute, the pipeline indeed does pass through part of the reservation. According to members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, bulldozers have already deteriorated scared burial sites important to their history. But it is more than just history that keeps the protestors persistent, it's the quality of life. Protesters fear that the water quality will downgrade tremendously if the pipeline is built in this location. History has shown us time and time again that pipeline leaks have a disastrous effect on our water resources and can damage natural resources almost indefinitely.
Protesters gathered together from many different tribes in order to protect their land for current and future generations to come. According to the BBC, the Standing Rock Indian Reservation quickly grew into the largest gathering of Native Americans in over 100 years. Judith LeBlanc, the director of the New York-based Native Organizers Alliance told ABC News that, "There's never been a coming together of tribes like this." So what went wrong?
In the 19th Century, the idea of the Manifest Destiny became a widely held belief in the United States. The Manifest Destiny is the belief that settlers were destined and chosen to expand across North America. Many are aware of the history of the United States, settlers came to explore the continent and found that there were others already currently inhabiting the land. As the story continues, what was once completely owned by Indians is now almost COMPLETELY owned by America. How did this come to happen? It all relates the the Manifest Destiny and entitlement. As Americans we have a history of taking what has never belonged to us. Our land was built off of the backs of others, and our history was created through the destruction of others. We have turned a land once owned by the Indians into a land where they are sectioned and sanctioned off, by boundaries WE set, and left alone. If taking their land was not enough, now we are trying to take even more. We, as Americans, we try to delineate ourselves as the savior for the oppressed and the broken. But how can we become that saving grace when we oppress the ones within our boundaries?
The pipeline may have massive benefits economically, but culturally what are we teaching? They say that history repeats itself, and it is plain to see. We will continue to live out this idea of the Manifest Destiny and continue to take, divide, and conquer as we wish until there is no more.
