This photo essay aims to serve as a reminder of the bravery of indigenous protestors and their allies in the face of colonialist injustice and brutality at the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. Their power in the face of adversity must be remembered; two years out from the protest, their pain remains. We must always remember that we live on colonized land, and center the experiences of native folks wherever possible.
(*I must include with this blog post a MASSIVE disclaimer that I, and probably most other people, could not possibly sum up a series of events as important and traumatic as the DAPL protests with five photos. Or 10. Or 20. There’s a whole lot more to this, and the pain of these events lingers with demonstrators today.*)
These photos were collected from news websites, cited below.
Here’s a brief refresher of what happened at the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota.
-
Donald Trump reversed an Obama-era protection of indigenous lands in South Dakota, opening the area up to oil pipelines and, effectively, further colonization and exploitation of native peoples.
-
Opponents to the Dakota Access Pipeline, or DAPL, rallied together and performed peaceful demonstrations. This was in an attempt to defy further gross colonialist action by the U.S. government, in the name of economic growth.
-
The demonstrators, some known as “Water Protectors,” were concerned that, in addition to the destruction of ancestral lands, the pipeline could lead to residents having polluted water. With that polluted water arises the possibility of residents becoming sick, or even dying. Not only were protestors protecting their homeland– they were also protecting their health, and the health of their children.
-
The protests continued for months, with participants living in tents through the North Dakota winter. Police used paramilitary tactics on the anti-DAPL demonstrators, spraying them with water cannons in below-freezing temperatures, throwing teargas grenades, sound cannons… the list goes on and on. As put by National Lawyers Guild attorney Rachel Lederman, “It is only a matter of luck that no one has been killed.”
-
Some two years later, the DAPL is operational, and the Trump administration praises their own horrid decision to further oppress native peoples and steal their land.
-
Here are a series of images, artistic and not, that capture the nature of the brutality, spirituality, and pain wrought by this tyrannical action of the United States government against her people.
-
Many demonstrators are still engaged in legal battles to get judicial justice for injuries and police injustices they endured during the pipeline protests.
Meanwhile, the oil business is booming on this twice-colonized sacred land, with the DAPL “moving more than 500,000 barrels of oil a day.” (NPR)
Source Materials-
https://www.npr.org/2018/11/29/671701019/2-years-after-standing-rock-protests-north-dakota-oil-business-is-booming
https://fstoppers.com/documentary/one-iconic-photo-encompasses-essence-standing-rock-protest-155240
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/cops-pepper-spray-rubber-bullets-standing-rock-protesters-article-1.2856597
https://mondoweiss.net/2016/10/palestinians-standing-pipeline/
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dakota-access-pipeline-protest-photos_us_592faa01e4b0540ffc847a58