“The first wave of guilt came with images of the protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016. The pipeline was constructed to transport crude oil through the Dakotas into Illinois. It was voted on and decided by White men and given permission not through voluntary easements, as was originally required, but instead through forced condemnations and evictions. The Standing Rock Sioux disagreed with the pipeline, as it was likely to destroy their ancestral burial grounds and taint their water supply with viscous, black poison. Their voices went unheard.” NativeNative AmericanIndigenousPipelineWater Is LifeSiouxStanding RockWe Stand With Standing RockDakotas Book:Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity Source: Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity
“When the construction was announced to continue as planned, the tribe and their allies came together. People from across two hundred tribes and beyond to other communities came together to try and protect their water, their lives. They were met with forces from the National Guard and seventy-five other law enforcement agencies across the country. These forces used concussion grenades and automatic rifles against civilians. They spent hours shooting them with water cannons in subfreezing temperatures to try and make them give in.” United StatesNativeNative AmericanIndigenousWater Is LifeSiouxStanding RockWe Stand With Standing RockDakotas Book:Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity Source: Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity