Picture this: Peaceful protesters being physically attacked, having dogs put on them and being maced. This isn’t the attack on civil rights protesters in the 1960’s; this is the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe protesting the Dakota Access pipeline.
It all started over a year ago. The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) contacted the Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO) as they were supposed to, according to section 106 of the Natural Historic Preservation Act, because they were going through tribal lands. THPO responded that they were, in fact, going through important land that they didn’t want the Dakota Access pipeline to be built on. For months, USACE did not respond, and when they finally did, they told THPO that they wanted to meet with their tribal leaders. THPO responded once again and received no further response from USACE.
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THPO concluded that USACE was trying to bypass section 106 and began filing a lawsuit against them back in September in 2015. The lawsuit concluded in April 22, 2016, stating that no tribal historic properties were being affected -- which, as anyone who knows what is going on with current events, is not at all true. The pipeline is going through a sacred tribal burial ground, and subsequently through the tribes and the surrounding area’s water supply. The THPO went back to the judicial system and were on the brink of coming to a resolution with the court system. Construction still went forward during Labor Day weekend and bulldozed through the burial ground. On September 3rd, the protests began, and that is when things got ugly.
That is to say, when the construction workers decided to physically attack the protesters. When the protesters decided to keep standing their ground, that is when they eventually set dogs on them. Over 30 people were maced, and six were injured by the dogs, one of the people being only a mere child. By September 6th, the protests have grown with representations from over 200 tribes, providing on the ground support and supplying food and water, with over 80 acres of tents and tepees. Also, with videos of what happened on September 3rd, online support has increased for the protests via #NoDAPL and #StandingRock. So far, there has been no word from the white house about the issue, but there has been support from presidential candidate Jill Stein, although she was arrested under two charges of criminal mischief and criminal trespassing using the video of her spray painting a bulldozer.
So far, no final decision has been made about of the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline, but the surrounding support from other tribes and supporting donations from organizations like the Environmental Protection Agency has stocked the protesters well until the upcoming winter. So, sadly, it may be too late to save the sacred burial ground of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, but hopefully we can still save the drinking water for the Standing Rock Sioux and the surrounding area.
