It's been almost six months and over four hundred arrests, but the Standing Rock Sioux still have to protest having their sacred lands and water destroyed for the Dakota Access Pipeline. Over one hundred of those arrests have been in the past week.
There are more and more people standing with them everyday, celebrities and ordinary people alike.
The Standing Rock Sioux tribe is standing up for their right to their land and for the environment, but they have been attacked with dogs and even had a child bitten when the decided they wanted to assert their rights. The city of Bismark was allowed to say no to this pipeline, but a tribe that has been in this country longer than it has been a country wasn't. People have stated they have been put in what they could describe as dog kennels. When did we decided treating animals like dogs is alright? When was this something we can ignore?
Police officers were sent out in riot gear for people that were praying. There has been tear gas and pepper spray. While there are always some bad eggs that show up when anyone decides to protest, most of these people just want to protect their land.
Land that was guaranteed to them over a hundred and fifty years ago in one treaty and again in another.
Native Americans have had their rights stepped on since the first colonists appeared in the United States. We shouldn't be repeated those same actions of stepping on people's rights in 2016.
Enough is enough.
Americans have always had the right to address the government for grievances since the Constitution, and that's what these people are doing. They're standing on their land so it's not taken out from under them as they stand for their rights. They're standing the United Nations to make their case because their case won't be heard at home.
Even Amnesty International is sending delegates to watch law enforcement. Why has America become the country that needs to be watched so closely over something as basic as a tribe's right to their lands and everyone's right to clean water?
This shouldn't have been a problem in the first place, but the fact that it has escalated this far is terrifying. People don't deserve dog attacks, tear gas, pepper spray, or armored cars bearing down on the protest sites.
People have come together across the country to stand against this pipeline, and that should say something. Other tribes have come in, other citizens have come in. Even presidential candidate Jill Stein came in. They stand against a pipeline that many know to be wrong.
When shutting a protest down looks like the police are going to war, it has gone beyond too far.
With the election within a week, there is little airtime for this issue, but it needs to be seen, it needs to be heard, and other people need to stand up for it. This isn't just an issue for the Standing Rock Sioux.
This is an issue of human rights, and it's time we stopped being quiet about it.
