While the mainstream news has been flooded with elections and celebrity drama, an equally important story has yet to be addressed by our current candidates. The Dakota Access Pipeline story has managed to stay out of the mouths of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, not that the latter is a surprise. But in fact, even Obama hasn’t had much to say on the issue aside from his administration temporarily halting the construction.
The situation regarding the Dakota Access Pipeline has been this interesting intersection of environmental and human rights. The most moving story that has come out of this protest was an interview with the mother of a young girl that was thrown in jail. Jordan Chariton from "The Young Turks" sat down to interview Ladonna Brave Bull Allard of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, whose daughter was in a car that was pulled over near where the protesting has been taking place. The driver was falsely accused of speeding and everyone in the car was arrested. Allard’s daughter was stripped of her clothes by one female and three male officers and thrown in a jail cell. She was not brought any clothes until the following morning.
The way Allard describes the situation that took place was much like the movie Taken with Liam Neeson. Allard’s daughter calls her to say police cars are following them; first one, then three. They remain on the phone together up until the daughter is taken and the phone goes dead. What Allard describes from the police is unconscionable. Native Americans have too often been left out of these conversations revolving around underrepresented groups, but this story is further evidence of how police brutality is effecting people across the board.
Allard talks about the intentions of the protesters. They chose to take a stand against this violent corporation by bringing song, prayer and dance to their protests. It has been reiterated many times: these people aren’t violent. What must it be like to have your peaceful protests being watched by officers with guns and full riot gear, waiting for you to make a single move they can then deem violent?
The environment is another underrated topic – think of the way some certain politicians continue to ignore climate change despite overwhelming evidence that proves this planet is very much in trouble. Now it is coming up alongside human rights issues, showing us how these issues relate to one another.
Rather than talk about these people and their protest, the mainstream media is talking about Clinton and Obama’s silence, or the celebrities like Susan Sarandon and Shailene Woodley who are publicly supporting the cause. News of Woodley’s arrest quickly went viral. Though she’s on video saying the police were arresting her because she’s famous, it seemed more like it was an act to stop her from filming what is actually going on. So what are they hiding? Are they aware of their uncivilized behavior?
What is most important to know is that these people are fighting for their land. They are fighting for their loved ones that have been buried on those grounds. Once again peaceful people from marginalized groups are being brutalized by larger institutions. Their voices need to be heard. For the full interview, click here. Allard concludes with this powerful statement, which ultimately echoes the Black Lives Matter movement:
"This whole area is a cultural property. How could anyone come in and destroy that? What right does anyone have to come in and take our footprint off the earth, to erase us from this earth? We are the original people here. We are the people. We have a right to live. We didn’t ask for anything special. We didn’t tell these people to come do this to us. All we want to do is take care of our families, raise our children, our grandchildren, and live in this land that we’ve always lived in. nothing else, we’re not asking for any special favors. We’re asking the right to live. Oh wait, we don’t have to ask for the right to live. We should have the right to live as a human being."
