While most Americans were sitting down to eat a hearty meal consisting of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and the like; some Americans continued to protest and block the Dakota Access Pipeline from drilling through the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s sacred lands and only water supply.
The “water protectors,” as they call themselves, have faced physical attacks from police and their dogs, pepper spray, concussion grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets.
Police in military gear even blasted protesters with a water cannon in below freezing temperatures, then lied on social media and said they were attempting to put out fires the protestors started. Video footage shows protestors being blasted with water with no fires in sight, and even shows protestors putting out fires that were sparked by concussion grenades.
Take five minutes out of your day, heat up some leftovers and scroll through these images (although you my not have much of an appetite when you're finished). If you feel for the plight of these people, you don't need to pack up your life and go join the protests.
You can help by sharing anything and everything DAPL protest related on social media. Donate to a #NoDAPL cause or contact your Congressional Representative or Senator. The Other 98 has compiled a list of what you can do to help DAPL protestors from the comfort of your home.
Some of the pictures below are graphic, but they need to be seen. The same tactics used against peaceful protestors during the Civil Rights Movement are being deployed against the peaceful “water protectors.”
Citizens across the United States need to make it known that sending militarized police units to attack peaceful protestors is completely un-American, and that Native American’s rights to their sacred lands and clean water need to come before profits for oil companies.
1. Is that the military or the police?
Photo: Grace Lidia Suarez
2. Drone footage shows police blasting protestors with water cannons, not fires.
Photo: Two Row Times
3. Another aerial shot clearly proves police were firing water at protestors, not fires.
Photo: Alchemical Ascension
4. A young woman who was shot in the face with rubber bullets by police.
Photo: Stephan Almy
5. A Native American on horseback facing a militarized police force.
Photo: Standing Rock Rising
6. Sophia Wilanski, a protestor who was hit in the arm with a concussion grenade. Her injury may lead to the amputation of her arm. Again police have attempted to fabricate a story of how she sustained this injury, and claim that she was injured by an explosive made by protestors. Sophia's father and on-site medical experts say her injury shows signs of a grenade blast.
Photo: Standing Rock Rising
7. Icicles hang from police-made barbed wire barricades after militarized police finish soaking protestors in temperatures below freezing.
Photo: Standing Rock Rising
8. A protestor's face is crushed into the ground by an officer putting all his weight on top of the protestor's head and body.
Photo: Standing Rock Rising
9. Police firing rubber bullets at protestors.
Photo: NY Times
10. Tear gas engulfs the protestors.
Photo: NY Times
