Though president Obama has just ordered that the Army Corp of Engineers halt construction of the pipeline, the fight carries on in Utica NY. Last week on Saturday, a bar and restaurant called The Dev hosted a NoDAPL fundraiser with live musical performances. The event was called Stand Up For Standing Rock. With the holiday season in full swing, it’s abnormal, but somewhat encouraging, to see so many people taking time away from shopping and decorating in order to help the Sioux nation’s desperate strive to protect their land and water. I personally went to this event to see what everybody’s personal motive was for attending. I was expecting to see a small crowd of casual onlookers only there for the same reason they’re there every night, which is to get wasted. While the flow of booze went un-altered, I was still surprised to see that the place was packed. Not only that, virtually everyone there seemed personally motivated to help in whatever way they could. A woman I spoke with there, Sarita Ruiz, who had just spent a week at the protest site told me why she was personally invested. "As a native women I feel it is my duty, but more importantly as a human being who drinks water and lives on this earth. What we're seeing at Standing Rock is nothing new. Pipelines have taken over our planet and new energy sources are being ignored by big pocket politicians who want to suck the earth dry, literally. I'm committed to investing my time to a cause that helps everyone, our earth, and the environment. And I plan on returning to Standing Rock soon."
More specifically than the protest against DAPL, the fundraiser revolved around the case of Aaron Dorn. Aaron Dorn is an activist local to the Standing Rock reservation who was leading a convoy of supply cars for the protest camp. While at a direct action protest, he noticed the police coming towards him. He put his hands up and yelled, “Get Back” right before the North Dakota Police rushed, tackled, and beat him senseless. The beating he suffered was enough to put him in the hospital where he was later discharged to the NDP and then taken to the Morton county jail. He is being charged with Obstruction of Justice and Reckless Endangerment. You can view the video of him being assaulted on youtube here. The funds collected through the cover charge and a donations jar were sent to the legal defense fund for Aaron Dorn. You can donate to his medical/legal fee here.
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In between performances, I spoke with another activist named Harrison Landry, the man who set up this fundraiser. When I asked him what he would say to the people who don’t care about this issue he told me, “I would appeal to their sense of history and I think that most people recognize that what we’ve done to native people in this country, pretty much since its founding, has been a travesty. We’ve misrepresented them and I would, in fact, call it a genocide. And the fact that its 2016 and we’re still breaking treaty obligations, I’d hope that’d have an impact. Beyond that, global warming doesn’t have boundaries. Our climate doesn’t adhere to national borders. Doesn’t care if you’re here or out west. A pipeline like this, adding emissions both through its production and for increasing the demand for foreign oil affects this entire planet. The Missouri river isn’t just a water source for standing rock. It is a water source for tens of millions of people. A pipeline spill there….the ramifications would disastrous.”
