For many months, the Dakota Access Pipeline has gotten quite a bit of attention in both opposing and supporting forms. There has been limitless social media and public news coverage on the actions taking place on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Now, the government has issued a statement telling the indigenous peoples that they must leave the camp by December 5th and some military action is being threatened. Some people are totally appalled by the actions that are taking place. Some people do not care. Some have ignored it. Some have taken action. No matter what you think about it, the #noDAPL movement has grown and protests are occurring in many different places. Indigenous people from around the world are even showing their support with #IStandWithStandingRock, as seen in New Zealand with this beautiful traditional Haka. Still, there is little being done to change the current situation.
The fact is, this is not the first time the United States of America has acted as if it were superior to all other nations, especially Native American nations. There have been at least 370 treaties between the U.S. and native tribes that have been broken since the white man first landed on the shores to colonize. Breaking these treaties isn't even the worst things that Native Americans have put up with. In 1763, after a Pontiac Nation uprising, the military at Fort Pitt gave blankets and handkerchiefs to the native peoples that had been used in the smallpox hospital. The disease spread throughout the native villages, killing off entire tribes. On top of this, between the years 1887 and 1933, the United States instituted the Dawes Act with the intention of "naturalizing" the indigenous people. The phrase "kill the Indian... save the man" comes to mind. The U.S. was literally trying to stamp out the Native American way of life while trying to sell the idea that they were making a better life for them.
Many of these travesties have occurred in more recent times, specifically during WWII. In Alaska, the Unangan people were removed from their lands without consent because it was a strategic post for the U.S. military. Part of the Pine-Ridge Indian reservation, home to Oglala Sioux peoples, was taken, again without consent, in order to create a bombing range that was part of the "Badlands Bombing Range." The worst act in my mind is what happened in Arizona when, on top of imprisoning Japanese-Americans without true reason, the US government took land from the Gila tribe in order to build one of the internment camps. The most ironic part about all this in my mind is that almost 45,000 Native American men served their country during WWII and 99% of eligible men signed up for the draft. This trend has continued as today there are greater numbers of Native Americans serving in the U.S. military than any other ethnicity, and they have always served in the armed forces in high numbers. During WWI we would have been in trouble if it hadn't have been for Navajo Code Talkers. So why is the government treating indigenous peoples as if they have no right to speak up? I sure think they have earned their voices and it is time we start listening.
There have been many people saying that stopping this pipeline would cost the company millions of dollars, but when a company is worth over a billion dollars it's hard to argue. Another thing that many people are saying is that the pipeline will create jobs. This is great, especially when reservations are often home to the bottom 1 percent economically in our nation. They could really use the jobs and yet here they are fighting the pipeline. To me, that speaks volumes. It is interesting too, how Bismarck, North Dakota, with its 93 percent white population, voted to have the pipeline moved out of their city. It's time the top 1 percent starts seeing the bottom 1 percent. No more finding an excuse to justify the government and military choices over Native Americans. No more saying a "true" American citizen is greater. No more stamping on the beliefs of a people you do not understand. We don't need this pipeline. There is no good justification for it.
