October 27th is a date that will go down in history.
Along with countless others around the world, I watched in anger, horror and disgust as the United States government mercilessly battered, abused and arrested over one hundred peaceful protesters attempting to defend the water supply of up to 17 million people from a pipeline that will almost certainly poison it. This was easily one of the most frightening events I have ever witnessed, and yet, I watched these events unfold before me without even a hint of surprise.
As someone who has spent a fair amount of time on Indian reservations as a visitor and observer, oppression of the Native Americans is nothing new to me. Although the brutal force that I witnessed Thursday is absent in the day-to-day lives of the individuals who reside there, I have certainly borne witness to the living conditions on a number of reservations - the place where roughly 40 percent of Native Americans call home - and I can assure you that they can be difficult to take in.
These reservations are nearly always in parts of the country deemed unwanted by the United States government or corporate interests. These make for perfect corners for the government to tuck a conquered people into since they refuse to simply cease to exist. In many instances, comforts that are taken for granted by the wider public are struggles on many of these reservations. Steady employment is hard to come by leaving 28.2 percent of these Native Americans to live below the federal poverty line (according to American Indians Census Facts). That amounts to double the national average. Health services outside of hospitals are virtually nonexistent on some reservations, leading to widespread health problems far beyond those faced by any other demographic group. And housing can be disastrous. According to the Native American Housing Council, 40 percent of housing on reservations is considered to be inadequate.
But the battle over the Missouri River and the conditions on most reservations has hardly happened by accident. This battle is larger than the land that is being fought over. This is a clash of cultures. This is about a way of life.
In one corner, we have a culture that considers itself one with the land and strives to do everything it can to live in harmony with the planet. It recognizes that the land does not belong to us, rather, we belong to it. There is an observance of the fact that we are completely dependent on the planet we call home and would not survive without its subsistence and nourishment. This is a culture that is deeply concerned for what they leave behind for future generations.
Standing in the way of this culture is the present dominant culture: industrial civilization. It has long forgotten that we must work with all living things instead of trying to subjugate them and bend them to our will. They fail to see value in the natural world beyond the monetary value they can extract from it. No sacrifice is too large if there is a dollar to be made. This culture does not understand symbiotic relationships, it only knows how to abuse. It takes: whatever it wants. Whenever it wants. Without fear of consequence or repercussion. It does not understand the meaning of the word "no." This leads to the pillaging of the Earth until there is nothing left to be exploited. Those who oppose this way of life are deemed a threat and dealt with in the only way that this culture knows: with force.
This brings us to the ongoing genocide of the Native peoples, beginning with Columbus, who certainly didn't "discover" this continent, only people and land he saw fit to conquer. This attitude prevailed with the implementation of Manifest Destiny and the continual expansion of the American Empire, that is still very much alive and active to this day. While the corporation in charge of this pipeline's construction may not use the same rhetoric that was used a century or two ago, what is unquestionable is that they feel entitled to take what is not theirs and take it by any means necessary. This ideology - in practice - is what we are witnessing with our very eyes at Standing Rock.
But with this pipeline comes not without opportunity. We have the chance to shift our cultural priorities. We have the chance to choose life. We also have the choice to allow greed to win, yet again. If we choose the latter, however, the water protectors at Standing Rock will hardly be the only victims of this culture's unquenchable thirst for more. The repercussions will be at our doorsteps as well, and before we know it. Until we recognize the source of our lives and value that over monetary gains, we will continue to see events like what transpired on Thursday. This will only be the beginning.
