Stand-off in Standing Rock – First Nations resistance to North Dakota pipeline is growing
Thousands of First Nations and activists have rallied around the Sioux of North Dakota in their opposition of the Dakota Access oil pipeline and joined the Sacred Stone resistance camp set up this past April. The camp is directed by Ladonna Brave Bull Allard, Standing Rock’s Historical Preservation Officer, and stands near the proposed construction site about a half-mile from Standing Rock Reservation in Cannonball, North Dakota.
The “black snake”, originally planned to pass the Missouri River north of Bismarck, was fast tracked by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers without the consultation or consent of the Sioux people. Its path would tear through sacred land, burial grounds and dig under the river-bed, endangering the nearby water supply and both the Missouri and Cannonball rivers.
“It is a historic trading ground, a place held sacred not only by the Sioux Nations, but also the Arikara, the Mandan and the Northern Cheyenne,” said Brave Bull in an article she wrote for Yes! Magazine.
What began as a peaceful protest turned violent on September 3, when unannounced bulldozing began on Sioux burial grounds over Labour Day weekend. Site security clashed with protesters who stepped over fences to obstruct the heavy machinery, spraying mace and siccing attack dogs on protestors, or from Sioux First Nation’s perspective, protectors of the land.
On the following Tuesday, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order halting construction between Route 1806 and Lake Oahe but the order does not protect any of the sacred land in question. Energy Transfer Partners, the company responsible for the project has already built half of the pipeline. Should it see completion it would reach from Stanley, North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois.
While a federal ruling is imminent, resistance is growing stronger as more and more Indigenous peoples and their supporters journey to Standing Rock to join the fight. On September 8, North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple activated the National Guard in a limited role, having “about a dozen” armed soldiers take over a traffic control point on Highway 1806 in an effort to limit southbound traffic in the directions of the resistance camp to locals only.
Brave Bull remembers the way her family thrived thanks to the meeting point of the Missouri and Cannonball rivers, before U.S. Energy flooded the area when they created the Oahe dam in 1950. Even before energy projects came their way the military was attempting to eradicate their culture – Brave Bull’s great-great-grandmother Mary Big Moccasin was one of the few survivors of the 1863 Inyan Ska (Whitestone) Massacre, taking a bullet and being held captive until 1870.
“The U.S. government is wiping out our most important cultural and spiritual areas,” said Brave Bull. “And as it erases our footprint from the world, it erases us as a people.
“These sites must be protected, or our world will end, it is that simple. Our young people have a right to know who they are. They have a right to language, to culture, to tradition. The way they learn these things is through connection to our lands and our history.”
The situation in Standing Rock remains volatile and tense as both sides prepare for action.