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| Fragment 864, Blaise Pascal |
As a child raised in the light of the FOX news logo, I have never been acquainted with the emic perspective of those least-advantaged. It is always represented by delegates in business suits, who find themselves shouted down by Sean Hannity and Eric Bolling. Even the gentler hosts, like Neil Cavuto, cannot stop groupthink from dominating the airwaves. A search on the Fox News webpage for "dakota access pipeline" reveals stories about arrests, framing the protestors as irresponsible and thereby decreasing credibility. 1 Other stories focus on the legal threads of the controversy and the federal response to it. One article whose title begins as "Tribe files legal challenge" implies it might offer a tribal point of view. It does include a statement from the chairman that "[w]e will continue to fight against an administration that seeks to dismiss . . . our treaty rights . . . status as sovereign nations, [and] the safe drinking water of millions of Americans." Nevertheless, the article ends with the statement that "[a]n assessment . . . determined the river crossing would not have a significant effect on the environment." 2 The closing statement, combined with the comment that continued investigation into the pipeline's safety was an attempt to address "tribal concerns," conveys a paternalistic sense that the Standing Rock tribe is a misguided child who cannot sleep unless its parent turns on the nightlight, despite reassurances to the contrary.
Disappointed by this soundbyte commentary on the DAPL controversy, I was grateful for the opportunity to research the emic perspective of the natives along with conflicts of interests DAPL and its supporters might have. The main source of the Standing Rock Sioux's perception of the pipeline was obtained through Viceland's documentary RISE Sacred Water: Standing Rock. This two-part documentary focused entirely on the Native view, largely ignoring non-Native motivations for participating in the protest.3
To glean the emic perspective of the Standing Rock Sioux, I will outline the reasons they give for opposing and not opposing the pipeline.
1. The construction runs through sacred sites and burial grounds. Western thought, originating in ancient Greece, tends to view space as an opportunity for profit. To the Standing Rock Sioux, space can be sacred and place is the birthplace of identity. When asked by Sarain Carson-Fox why the Sioux don't just leave the area, LaDonna Brave Bull Allard replies that their identity is tied to the land and to the dead of that land, their ancestors. To leave is to leave a part of themselves. It is even to leave behind the entire self, not just a part. As Seneca Iroquois Oren Lyons was told by his uncle, "Do you see that bluff over there? Oren, you are that bluff. And that giant pine on the other shore? Oren, you are that pine. And this water that supports our boat? You are this water". 4 To crumble the soil and stuff a pipeline through it is to gut the soul of the people and, now hollowed out, molded into a vessel of profit. We care more about our relatives than our money, she said.
2. The pipeline runs under multiple bodies of water, namely the Missouri, which is the water source for millions of people for 1,100 miles. The main "slogan" of the protest is "Mni Wiconi", or "Water is life." Bobbi Jean Three Legs relates how her two-year old daughter will ask for a cup of water in the morning, and Bobbi wondered what would happen if she couldn't give it to her--because their water source, the Missouri, is contaminated from an oil spill. Water is their future; it is everyone's future. Though those of us like myself who are never faced with the risk of water loss or contamination may take it for granted.
3. It is a part of the fossil-fuel industry, which specializes in raping the earth. The Standing Rock Sioux make a connection between the metaphorical (or literal?) role of earth as Mother and the treatment of human mothers, or women. When Mother earth is desecrated and treated as a object from which to mine profits, objectification and mistreatment of women makes more sense to those who engage in it. Perhaps this is an unconscious connection, but it is a real one in the eyes of the Sioux. Ever since "man camps" of workers on the pipeline arrived, violence against women rose 168%. Not all the natives oppose the pipeline on the fossil-fuel basis. Chairman of the Standing Rock Tribe, Dave Archambault II, stated that if the pipeline is rerouted, then they are fine with it being completed and used to transport oil. That does not mean he is reconciled to fossil fuels, since many associate the industry with corruption and callous wealth; it simply is a compromise he is trying to make. It was in fact a compromise that Jo-Ellen Darcy, United States Assistant Secretary to the Army, began to make, stating that "the Dakota Access Pipeline . . . location merits additional analysis," 7 an analysis that was reroute the pipe so it would no longer cross the Missouri half a mile away from the Reservation. This would have taken the form of an Environmental Impact Statement. The EIS analysis was prematurely terminated by President Donald Trump's Executive Order 13766, which sped up the review process for federal infrastructure projects.
The single opposing viewpoint given in the documentaries is by Bobbi's dad. He argues that the rich always win, and since the rich support the pipeline, Bobbi and her comrades are fighting a futile battle.
As an indirect response to Bobbi's dad, historian Nicholas admits that the "rich" can take their land, but they can't take away the experience, the hope that a new world is possible.
All of these reasons have to do with historical trauma, an experience unique to the Indians as the First Americans, which forms the background of their worldview and their relations with non-Natives: in particular whites.
It is their ancestral wrestling with whites forms the consciousness of contemporary Indians, who tend to view federal actions with suspicion and weighted in favor of whites. Examples of trauma given in the documentary involve Lewis and Clark, who held Sioux as hostage to guarantee passage through other Indian territory and who rebuffed Sioux offers of kinship. They later put the blame on the Sioux, calling them the foulest of Indians. At least four hundred of the over five-hundred treaties made between the United States and Indian nations have been broken, and by the United States at that. The formation of boarding schools for Indians was designed to annihilate the Native cultures (deemed barbaric and unredeemable) and water the seed of human feeling and intellect buried inside superstition. In the 60s, the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River reservation were forced to relocate because of flooding of over 200,000 acres from federally-built dams in the Missouri River. In all these instances, the United States acted to undermine Indian sovereignty. Federal and white American interests guided legislation. Simon Moya-Smith puts it succinctly, “The invaders have stolen billions of acres from this land’s first peoples, and to hell if they think they will poison the little we have left...We survived their white relatives. We will survive their progeny, too.” 5 Whatever the American system churns out that affects them today, the Indians bet it will be oppression in disguise. It's not fashionable to be racist today, so it comes out in subtle ways. They've taken it on themselves to let the world know what's really going on, given the apathy of the privileged majority. Call it paranoid, or call it courageous, this is the emic perspective of the Standing Rock Sioux.
I had once heard the story of a man who had been hired to play bagpipes at a funeral. He showed up late, played the bagpipes magnificently, and the people in the vicinity informed him that he was playing for the installation of a septic tank. He was at the wrong location. Was all the drama and heartfelt passion of the people in Sacred Waters: Standing Rock misplaced and ignorant? Not only was this my response to the film, it awakened further interest in Native American history and relations with their white neighbors (and more often than not, oppressors). In the documentary, #NoDAPL protestors clash with Trump supporters, and all they do is shriek insults at each other. "$300 of my paycheck goes to you bums every month!" Snarls one man, and the woman snaps back with a shaky voice, "I pay for my shit." It is unlikely that one side has a monopoly on the truth. Just trying to think about and research for this project has been a challenge given the amount of contrary information. What is the truth? What has really happened to Native Americans in history? How does this explain perceptions of Native Americans by whites, and vice versa? These perceptions, faulty or not, shape policy and the lives of millions.
And, according to the Standing Rock Sioux and their allies, this perception is shaping the route of the Dakota Access Pipeline, and not as the Indians would wish.
DAPL is a pipeline, built and run by public company Energy Transfer Partners, running from North Dakota to Illinois and transporting oil “in a more direct, cost-effective, . . . and more environmentally responsible” manner than traditional modes of trucking or trains. Its landing point in Pakota, Illinois delivers the oil to those who will refine it and prepare it for use. 11
Six major American banks have lent over $200 billion to the oil and gas industry, and one of their debtors is Energy Transfer Partners. These banks will want to be paid back, so they count on DAPL going through smoothly or else they face a net loss. 12
These six banks are-
1. JPMorgan Chase
2. Morgan Stanley
3. Goldman Sachs
4. Wells Fargo
5. Bank of America
6. Citibank
Rather than list all of banks and corporations supporting the Dakota Access Pipeline, I have included an interactive map of them made by Hugh MacMillan, senior researcher at Food & Water Watch. 12
These and other financial giants have the resources, as Bobbi Jean Three Leg's dad noted, to pay for the Standing Rock Sioux case to go in favor of Energy Transfer Partners. In opposition to the DAPL monolith, which can hide behind money, the Standing Rock Sioux have to show their faces through activism, presence, and voice. One internet headquarters of their activism is “Every Day of Action.”14 It has a calendar listing events in support of #NoDAPL.
Some of these actions are in direct response to banks funding DAPL. On March 15th, 2017, an event held in Des Moines, Indiana formed against Wells Fargo running on the hashtag #DefundDAPL. By focusing on the financial sources of the problem, the main support for the pipeline, they cut away at the heart of the pipeline. The event page states it's “time to mobilize and shut down the banks that are funding DAPL.”13
A similarly bank-attacking event occurred on April 1, 2017, at the Citibank in Brooklyn, New York. Citibank was a lender to Energy Transfer Partners as mentioned above. The modus operandi of this event was in handing out literature to passerby with instructions on how to “close their accounts and open accounts at banks and credit unions not invested in DAPL.” 15
Another event held on March 4, 2017 at San Anselmo, CA, was angled to benefit the Legal Defense Fund of the Standing Rock Sioux. Unlike DAPL, they don’t have the support of the banks, so they need grassroots fundraisers. The motivation to attend the event was a panel discussion with attorneys and another individual who were involved at the Standing Rock camp. As a bonus, a Cherokee-Metis musician would provide some entertainment and perhaps some encouragement. 16
Besides these three particular events, there are myriad organizations that make running and participating in such events their lifeblood. Three of them ,listen on the Every Day of Action website, are Native Organizers Alliance, Indigenous Environmental Network, and #NoDAPL Solidarity. They provide several ways of thinking and acting for those of us who find typing at a keyboard less than rewarding in terms of activism.
Native Organizers Alliance is at it sounds: a group devoted to facilitating the cooperation of Native leaders organizing efforts "to advance the health and welfare of rural and urban communities and reservations across Indian country." Given the smallness of reservations and the lack of financial support, Native leaders can have roadblocks exercising their agency. NOA helps them gather strength in numbers; the whole is greater than its parts. 17
NOA assists with action-taking by hosting intense workshops and training for those taking the initiative in their communities. 21 Members of the organization also participate in protests under the collective identity of "NOA," such as conducting a water ceremony outside of the Clinton headquarters 22 ,
Indigenous Environmental Network also seeks to provide a base for indigenous leaders and organizers to collaborate and strengthen through numbers. It seeks "to protect our sacred sites, land, water, air, natural resources, health of both our people and all living things, and to build economically sustainable communities." 18
IEN has a sister blog in which direct action opportunities are shared. One of these opportunities was posting on the Army Corps of Engineers Environmental Impact Statement comment page, which was the gatekeeper for whether or not to reroute the pipeline.23 During inauguration week, several events of nonviolent protest from women of color was arranged with IEN. 24
#NoDAPL Solidarity is focused primarily on the Standing Rock Sioux and their discord with DAPL, not any other indigenous group or tribe. It seeks to support them by providing information and guidance for those who wish to help, but don't know where to begin. Such guidance includes articles like "How To Talk About #NoDAPL: A Native Perspective," and "Confront what it means to live on stolen land." 19 Other plans available are how to divest from the major banks supporting DAPL, an "age-old form of political protest and a strategy to build community power and political power." 20
The agency of the Standing Rock Sioux becomes apparent in the first steps of simply speaking out rather than remaining silent. While I could not find comments on the preexisting pipelines beneath Lake Oahe, I conjecture that silence towards those pipelines during construction is regretted by the Sioux. They let themselves be walked over in the past, and felt that in the age of social media the power of speaking out is multiplied. Rather than let yet another pipeline be placed under the lake, they requested meetings (see Chicago Tribune timeline) with the directors of DAPL. When these did not pan out, they set up a camp in the path of the pipeline, a symbolic gesture of resistance that became much more literal when veterans volunteered to be a human shield. They relayed to Washington, initiated lawsuits, everything but violence itself, excep. This reminds me of the AIM occupation of Wounded Knee, during the 60s, which was trying to provoke the federal government into listening and investigating treatment of Indians. The occupiers at DAPL note how what they’re experiencing with the pipeline is not unique, but a natural result of continued, systematic disregard of Indian societies. Federal goals are paramount; the dams built on the Missouri in the 60s flooded Indian reservation land, forcing them to relocate, but that was a necessary evil to the government. Perhaps it was even a good thing: it put the Indians down another rung, forced them into abandoning businesses and homes for government housing, poverty. It earned them the disgust of the taxpayer who only sees his taxes go to these welfare people, though he assumes they are on welfare out of laziness.
The memorandum to the EO is described as simply expediting review of the Dakota Access Pipeline, implying the review might end with a reroute for DAPL. The actual memorandum states that the Army Corps of Engineers is to consider "whether to withdraw the Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement in Connection with Dakota Access," 6
In other words, Trump requires that the Army Corps get this show on the road as quickly as possible, even if that means taking back plans to compromise with the Standing Rock Sioux if that would slow things down.
As a result of the memorandum, the Army Corps did in fact rescind the plan for an EIS, pressured by the Trump administration to hurry the completion of the project. 9
The EIS was planned during the Obama administration, with Obama in the mirror position of Trump as the one pressuring it to happen. He stated in an interview that he thinks "there is a way for us to accommodate the sacred lands of the Native Americans[,] . . . [a way to] determine whether or not this can be resolved in a way . . . properly attentive to the traditions of the First Americans." 10 This was the shared goal of the Army Corps of Engineers by making preparations for the Environmental Impact Statement. There appears to be some value of Native people's opinions however misguided they may or may not be. One woman in the RISE documentary literally pulled over when she heard the news that the pipeline would be halted for the EIS, took out her phone, and made a tearful and deliriously happy facebook video post. Trump, at any rate, was completely unmoved by these outbursts of joy and made no pretense of benign interest. He had no wish to waste time negotiating with welfare recipients.
1 See "Hollywood A-Listers join protests against controversial Dakota Access pipeline," Fox News, October 31, 2016, http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2016/10/31/hollywood-listers-join-protests-against-controversial-dakota-access-pipeline.html;
"3 People arrested in Dakota Access pipeline stadium protest," Fox News, January 2, 2017, http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/01/02/3-people-arrested-in-dakota-access-pipeline-stadium-protest.html;
"10 Dakota Access Pipeline protestors arrested," Fox News, February 23, 2017, http://video.foxnews.com/v/5334156032001/?#sp=show-clips↩
2 "Tribe files legal challenge to stall Dakota Access pipeline," Fox News, February 9, 2017, http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/02/09/tribe-files-legal-challenge-to-stall-dakota-access-pipeline.html ↩
3 Sarain Carson-Fox, "Sacred Water: Standing Rock Part I," VICE Media LLC, accessed April 10, 2017, https://www.viceland.com/en_us/video/sacred-water-standing-rock-part-i/5888c90ae04dd90112c2893a
Sarain Carson-Fox, "Sacred Water: Standing Rock Part 2," VICE Media LLC, accessed April 12, 2017, https://www.viceland.com/en_us/video/red-power-standing-rock-part-ii/5888c9320c031d740d2a5145↩
4 Huston Smith, The World's Religions, (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1991), 371. ↩
5 Braudie Blais-Billie, "6 Indigenous Activists On Why They're Fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline," Fader, September 9, 2016, http://www.thefader.com/2016/09/09/dakota-access-pipeline-protest-interviews↩
7 Jo-Ellen Darcy, "MEMORANDUM FOR Commander, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: SUBJECT: Proposed Dakota Access Pipeline Crossing at Lake Oahe, North Dakota," U.S. Army, accessed April 22, 2017, https://www.army.mil/e2/c/downloads/459011.pdf https://www.army.mil/e2/c/downloads/459011.pdf↩
8 Luis Martinez, "Army Will Grant Eastment for Dakota Access Pipeline," ABC News, February 7, 2017, http://abcnews.go.com/US/army-grant-easement-dakota-access-pipeline/story?id=45330548↩
6 Donald Trump, "Presidential Memorandum Regarding Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline," The White House, January 24, 2017, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/24/presidential-memorandum-regarding-construction-dakota-access-pipeline↩
9 Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis, "Trump administration to approve final permit for Dakota Access pipeline," The Washington Post, February 7, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/02/07/trump-administration-to-approve-final-permit-for-dakota-access-pipeline/?utm_term=.94dc1d920cdc↩
10 "EXCLUSIVE: President Obama says they're examining ways to 'reroute' the Dakota Access pipeline," NowThis, November 1, 2016, https://www.facebook.com/NowThisNews/videos/1212646375492151/↩
11 "About the Dakota Access Pipeline," Dakota Access Pipeline Facts, accessed April 23, 2017, https://daplpipelinefacts.com/about-the-dakota-access-pipeline/↩
12 Hugh MacMillan, "Who's Banking on the Dakota Access Pipeline?" LittleSis, August 17, 2016, https://littlesis.org/maps/1634-who-s-banking-on-the-dakota-access-pipeline↩
13 Iowa Uprising, "Defund DAPL Rally at Downtown Des Moines Wells Fargo," Action Network, accessed April 23, 2017, https://actionnetwork.org/events/defund-dapl-rally-at-downtown-des-moines-wells-fargo-2↩
14 "#NoDAPL 2017 Action Hub," Every Day of Action, accessed April 23, 2017, http://everydayofaction.org↩
15 James Williams, "defunddapl-9," Action Network, accessed April 23, 2017,https://actionnetwork.org/events/defunddapl-9↩
16 Barbara Bogard, "Standing with Standing Rock: Benefit for Legal Defense Fund," Action Network, accessed April 23, 2017, https://actionnetwork.org/events/standing-with-standing-rock-benefit-for-legal-defense-fund↩
17 "More About Us," Native Organizers Alliance, accessed April 23, 2017, http://www.nativeorganizing.org/about↩
18 "About," Indigenous Environmental Network, accessed April 23, 2017, http://www.ienearth.org/about/↩
19 "Direct Action Resources," #NoDAPL Solidarity, accessed April 23, 2017, https://nodaplsolidarity.org/nonviolent-direct-action-resources/↩
20 ”City Divestment Toolkit,” #NoDAPL Solidarity, accessed April 23, 2017, https://nodaplsolidarity.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/city-divestment-toolkit-jpmorgan-chase.pdf ↩
22 Native Organizers Alliance, “NOA joins Standing Rock demonstrations at Clinton HQ,” Native Organizers Alliance, October 27, 2016, http://www.nativeorganizing.org/standing_rock_demonstrations_clinton ↩
23 ”BLOG: 25 Issues You Can Comment On for the DAPL EIS!” Indigenous Rising, February 2, 2017, http://indigenousrising.org/blog-25-issues-you-can-comment-on-for-the-dapl-eis/ ↩
24 ”#IndigenousRisingDc Schedule / Events / Actions,” Indigenous Rising, January 19, 2017, http://indigenousrising.org/indigenousrisingdc/ ↩
24 Judith LeBlanc, "Native Organizers Training 2016," Native Organizers Alliance, accessed April 24, 2017, http://www.nativeorganizing.org/native_organizers_training_2016 ↩
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