More than six months after the establishment of Sacred Stone Camp at Standing Rock Reservation, protesters are continuing to resist the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The oil pipeline was originally routed through Bismarck, North Dakota—a city that is over 90 percent white—but was rerouted through sacred Sioux land when Bismarck residents complained that it might contaminate their drinking water. As Jodi Gillette, former White House senior policy adviser for Native American Affairs, says: “We didn’t matter.”
In this video from Divided Films, Native activists fight the corporate power behind the pipeline. Interviews with water protectors from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe detail the increasingly militarized crackdown on activists. Footage from the front lines shows the land that has already been destroyed.
You don’t have to be in South Dakota to be a part of this fight. As part of a national day of action on Tuesday, November 15, Standing Rock organizers are calling on all of us to amplify their message. Together, we can protect life.
—Contact the Army Corps of Engineers to demand that they reverse the permit sanctioning the Dakota Access Pipeline. Call the regulatory complaint line at (202) 761-5903, or contact Jo-Ellen Darcy, the assistant secretary of the Corps, directly at (703) 697-8986 or joellen.darcy@us.army.mil —Read The Nation’s “7 Things You Can Do to Help Fight the Dakota Access Pipeline”
Julia MeadTwitterJulia Mead is a recent college graduate living in New York City.