It’s a difficult morning in America.
Yesterday, as I finished writing about the resistance against the Dakota Access pipeline, I heard that another raid on one of the encampments was underway. As walls of soldier-cops marched toward the camp, flanked by an MRAP and firing LRAD sound cannons to disperse the crowd, it became clear that the State’s patience with the protest had run out.
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The invading force crossed into the sovereign native land of the Oceti Sakowin tribe – explicitly unceded territory outlined in an 1851 treaty – with the goal of dislodging the protesters that have been blocking the construction route of Energy Transfer Partner’s Dakota Access pipeline. The camp, located just north of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s reservation, had split from the original camp with the intent of digging in for winter.
But now that camp lays bare, after a day of seemingly unprovoked violence in which the State thoroughly abused its citizens as if they were instead feudal subjects. In all, the forces of the State arrested 141 people before midnight, according to NBC News.
Above: Footage of the 10/27/2016 assault on the encampment by law enforcement.
Dave Archambault II, chariman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, released this statement following the violence:
“We have repeatedly seen a disproportionate response from law enforcement to water protectors’ nonviolent exercise of their constitutional rights. Today we have witnessed people praying in peace, yet attacked with pepper spray, rubber bullets, sound and concussion cannons. We urge state and federal government agencies to give this tense situation their immediate and close attention.
We also call on the thousands of water protectors who stand in solidarity with us against DAPL to remain in peace and prayer. Any act of violence hurts our cause and is not welcome here. We invite all supporters to join us in prayer that, ultimately, the right decision—the moral decision—is made to protect our people, our sacred places, our land and our resources. We won't step down from this fight. As peoples of this earth, we all need water. This is about our water, our rights, and our dignity as human beings.”[Read the FULL STATEMENT]
“We want to protect our land, and we want to protect our water,” Archambault II told the Seattle Times. “Our concerns and interests don’t matter and this is how we have been treated for over 150 years.”
Indeed, the relationship between the U.S. and Sioux natives has been fraught with deceit and violence. According to the Seattle Times:
“The history of the Sioux people and the United States is also one all too familiar: of broken promises, and a relentless taking away of lands for white settlement, gold mining, and development. Those lands were promised to be reserved for the Indians’ sole use forever, in peace treaties that were supposed to be the highest law of the land.
The first treaty, in 1851 established the Great Sioux Reservation. It was quickly abrogated with one rewrite after another, each resulting in further land takeaways from the Sioux. If enough tribal members wouldn’t agree to a new treaty, acts of Congress took back the Sioux people’s land instead. Some of the Sioux’s most sacred lands, the Black Hills, were simply stolen after the discovery of gold brought miners streaming in.
Even the U.S. Supreme Court was appalled. In 1980, it upheld a U.S. Court of Claims decision in favor of the Sioux. The majority opinion by Justice Harry Blackmun quoted from the lower court’s decision: “A more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealings will never, in all probability, be found in our history.”
Standing up to Energy Transfer Partners, which Standing Rock claims obtained federal permits for the pipeline project without consulting them at all, has been a way for the natives and their allies to take some of that power back. But the standoff first escalated last week when police, seemingly unprovoked, attacked the unarmed protesters. Perhaps it was a testament to the effectiveness of the “water protectors” struggle, but that offers little consolation; in a single day, police nearly doubled the number of total arrests since the resistance actions began, proving once again that the State monopoly on force will reliably be deployed when the interests of big business are threatened; no matter that in this instance Energy Transfer’s interests include the likely decimation of the local ecology and blatant disrespect of an entire people.
Above: Footage of the first large-scale police raid on protest encampments.
I could tell you the pipeline costs $3.8 billion, or that its purpose is to pump 500,000 barrels of oil a day off to refineries. I could tell you oil production is booming in the U.S. and, as both an economic and geopolitical blue chip, that means the powers that be are salivating, chomping at the bit even, to get a crack at it. But somehow that removes the humanity from it all. Instead of harping on institutions (for once,) I’d like to focus on the victims.
The Oceti Sakowin did not have a concept of individual land ownership before Europeans arrived and colonized North America. The land was viewed communally prior to the imposition of an entity now known as “North Dakota.” The people were nomadic, moving with the hunting seasons. The land was unrestricted. Of course, today, the State maintains that the barricades and encampments run through private property, and are prepared to unleash force to defend it. Not only have the physical land and most valuable resources been stolen for exploitation by the American elites, but the very culture of the people who have called that land home for generations is being desecrated and erased. And when they protest, the U.S. breaks out the truncheon.
Natives and their allies from all over have traveled to North Dakota as the action against the pipeline has developed, but the State seems more interested in protecting corporate profits at home and U.S. hegemony abroad than the local ecology and the people who inhabit it. This convergence of state and corporate interest, and the subsequent anti-democratic repression, is alarming to say the least; perhaps we ought not be so surprised someone like Donald Trump could be a major party nominee.
The Standing Rock Sioux tribe were already seeking the intervention of the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the wake of the first law enforcement assault on peaceful demonstrators. The tribe sent a formal letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch calling on the DOJ to take investigative action and accusing police of civil rights violations.
“The militarization of law enforcement agencies has escalated violence at the campsite, protestors and tribal members have reported,” the letter reads. “Thousands of peaceful protestors from around the country have joined the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in solidarity to protect sacred places and water. Firsthand accounts and videos filmed by participants reveal a pattern of strong-arm tactics targeting Native Americans and peaceful protestors. The abuses include strip searches, violent security dog attacks, pepper-spraying of youth, and intimidation by law enforcement.”
Above: DAPL company security attacks protesters.
Meanwhile, the police maintain that protestors engaged in crimes including criminal trespass, engaging in riots, resisting arrest, and assaulting officers. Demonstrators deny those charges, stating their commitment to non-violence and alleging that the police are acting with impunity against protestors and journalists alike.
“We are here in prayer, and they came for war,” Leota Eastman Iron Cloud, a South Dakotan and native who has been at the protests for months told the Guardian. “I can’t believe that people out there can actually do this to other human beings.”
Previously, the DOJ, U.S. Department of the Interior, and Army Corps of Engineers requested the company stop construction, only to be rebuked by Energy Transfer and both federal circuit and appeals courts, which ruled construction could continue unabated. Some members of the federal government are now appealing to the president to order the Army Corps of Engineers to perform a full review of the pipeline, no doubt only because of the visibility brought to Dakota Access by the protestors.
Regardless of the outcome, the Dakota Access Pipeline is a drop in the bucket of America’s growing oil and gas infrastructure. Underground Construction reports that U.S. oil production is expected to rise 44 percent by 2040, with more oil than ever coming from shale formations (read: fracking). To accommodate that increased production (and subsequently the distribution to major markets and refineries) the U.S. has seen more than 23,000 miles of proposed pipelines from 2015 through the beginning of this year, some of which are already under construction. While the United States is also heavily funding renewable energy, society’s traditional reliance on fossil fuels is not going anywhere anytime soon. And the impact of the fossil fuel industry isn’t limited to oil-producing regions.
Direct action against corporate greed and State authoritarianism is but one tool in the radical’s toolbox, but it is an important one. Its effectiveness is evidenced by the brutal response of the State’s forces; they want to make an example of those employing the methods of direct action. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe has stood up in resistance to a project that they believe exploits their natural resources, pollutes their land, and which will further disrespect their culture. By organizing together they’ve thrown enough of a wrench in the gears to curry tepid, symbolic support from politicians eager to identify themselves with a progressive moment. Whether genuine or cynical, the support of a handful of bureaucrats does not equal success, especially when other arms of the state, like the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, have responded instead with a show of force.
In short, the action is working, so they’re ramping up efforts to break it.
This week’s musical guest is The Taxpayers with “Fuck America” (charming, no?) off of their most recent album “Big Delusion Factory.”
