{"id":9450,"date":"2016-11-30T20:05:01","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T20:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idsunmedia.com\/?p=9450"},"modified":"2016-11-30T20:05:01","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T20:05:01","slug":"a-poetic-thanksgiving-spent-at-standing-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2016\/11\/30\/a-poetic-thanksgiving-spent-at-standing-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"A Poetic Thanksgiving Spent at Standing Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lexi DuPont and Madi DuPont<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Tepees
Tepees arise in the night in the Oceti Sakowin encampment. Courtesy photo by Lexi DuPont<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A<\/span>n overwhelmingly heavy cloud of discomfort settled over us, and a feeling of nausea took over as we\u00a0approached the Standing Rock Native American Reservation in North Dakota.<\/span><\/p>\n

After driving for two days, we were finally just two miles away from the \u201cblack snake,\u201d the natives\u2019 name for the pipeline. Piercing through the sea of darkness ahead were stadium lights that blinded the night with a\u00a0powerful and sterile ability to make everyone feel crazy. These lights are provided so that the pipeline workers can work through the night in order to speed up production and intimidate the water protectors. <\/span><\/p>\n

We sat in silence with this uncomfortably heavy feeling, finally turning up the music to distract our minds. Military vehicles, razor wire, large cement blocks and the lights created a giant blockade in front of us. We were closing in on the Oceti Sakowin camp, but we unknowingly drove up to the military side instead of the water protectors\u2019 side, a\u00a0perspective\u00a0we would never forget. <\/span><\/p>\n

The camp is the largest at the site and it is this camp the government will attempt to shut down on Monday, Dec. 5. People of all ages, races and nationalities are camped at Oceti Sakowin and other smaller encampments.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our first morning, we were woken by a native man yelling at all 10,000 water protectors over a loudspeaker.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWake up! Wake up!\u201d he said. \u201cIt is 5 a.m. and it is time to get to work. Why did you come here if not to help? Wake up! Wake up!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Native
Native water protectors on horseback security force action at Standing Rock. Courtesy photo by Lexi DuPont<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We were a small group of Wood River Valley locals who drove 15 hours to Standing Rock, which straddles the border of North and South Dakota, to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline. None of us had ever been a part of a protest before and we figured Thanksgiving was a poetic time to give thanks and support to the native people of America. It\u2019s mind blowing how little we knew collectively of Native American people or of the DAPL.\u00a0In every corner of our country native people are oppressed and native land is exploited. What began in 1492 has never stopped. <\/span><\/p>\n

Even without the present forms of state violence, the destruction of the environment and the surrounding native communities is a form of genocide. If you take away people\u2019s capacity to feed and hydrate themselves, you take away their capacity to create and sustain life itself. This has always been the story of the white man and the Indians and we wanted to help counterbalance this history.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We rustled out of our warm sleeping bags and frosty tents to smoke-filled air,\u00a0frozen shoes and freezing\u00a0temperatures. Still in a sleepy fog from the long drive, we marched up the hill to the main camp, a\u00a0small and well-organized city that has grown and taken root since the protest began in early April. <\/span><\/p>\n

The city is filled with yurts, tepees, small houses and wall tents. Frozen dirt roads winding all around and\u00a0hundreds of massive flags of every color and from every country wave high in the sky. Protest symbols and signs cover everything and ceremonial fires burn in designated areas. You could feel the prayers soaring into the pale morning sky above, but this feeling\u00a0wasn\u2019t of celebration like most mass gatherings; this feeling was of resistance and\u00a0emotional hardship. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Spencer
Spencer Brendel, Madi DuPont and Spencer Cordovano announce their solidarity with the water protectors while looking toward Turtle Island Friday evening. Courtesy photo by Lexi DuPont<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As we walked toward the orientation tent, we all had flashbacks of traveling in Third World countries in\u00a0Africa and Asia. Yet, we were in the heart of America on the vast golden plains of the Dakotas. How much more American could you get? <\/span><\/p>\n

The orientation was held in a massive white dome on top of the hill, but with the overwhelming influx of Thanksgiving supporters, they had an additional four orientation tents filled to the brim with more than 85 people in each one. We crowded in\u2013\u2013shoulder to shoulder, nose to back, bum to knee\u2013\u2013while listening to the orientation leaders\u2019 introduction to Standing Rock (see side bar).<\/span><\/p>\n

They reminded us that white\u00a0supremacy is alive and well in America but the importance of Standing Rock and the historical significance of this moment should go down in the history books forever. It\u2019s the first\u00a0time in\u00a0history more than 600 different indigenous people have come together for a common goal: to stop the DAPL and protect the water for generations to come.<\/span><\/p>\n

They made it clear that we were guests in this movement and a part of a\u00a0resistance using prayer and love, not a protest using\u00a0anger and hate. They reminded us that we have all been heart-called to resist and we must keep the resistance central. They said we should remember this is just one step on a path that has been carved out for 500 years, and, most\u00a0importantly, they advised us be comfortable being uncomfortable, to sit with our discomfort and know that we are unlearning our legacy. They also expressed gratitude for our dedication in traveling far distances to join in their prayers, to have allies with every color and to work together to resist the DAPL.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then they hit us with the brutal reality that the\u00a0pipeline is being constructed just to the north of camp where they are speeding up construction and are about to dig under the river. Flashes of our encounter\u00a0with the other side just hours before lay unsettled in our minds. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Dakota Access Pipeline Project is designed to transport more than 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day from the Bakken\/Three Forks formations in North Dakota, underground to a terminus near Patoka, Ill.<\/span><\/p>\n

We were also told those working on DAPL have no permit. The owners\u2013\u2013Energy Transfer Partners and Phillips 66, both of Texas\u2013\u2013are\u00a0knowingly building through indigenous land and breaking the law. As oil companies, they do what they want and the federal\u00a0government protects them. They also have three private security organizations, the Army National Guard and police from across the country protecting them. It\u2019s easy to want to throw in the towel, pack up the truck and go home after hearing these\u00a0statistics, but the Sioux remind us of a key piece of\u00a0information regarding the Jan. 1, 2017 deadline and the high-risk financing behind the DAPL. <\/span><\/p>\n

They said the financial motivations from ETP doesn\u2019t coincide\u00a0with the\u00a0interest of Bakken oil drillers or with any economic rationale for increased regional pipeline capacity. Come Jan. 1, investors\u00a0may choose not to renew their contracts. <\/span><\/p>\n

On Thanksgiving Day, a peaceful moment occurred between the water protectors and the security forces.<\/span><\/p>\n

Turtle Island, which sits in the river between the security forces and the water protectors\u2019 camps, is a Native American sacred burial ground. The military has occupied the island, but that day the natives built a floating bridge to it, and also sent people over in canoes. After they crossed, protesters gathered in a prayer circle, marking the moment by holding hands and singing.<\/span><\/p>\n

The security forces told them, \u201cIf you leave, we will also leave.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The natives took them at their word and left, but during the night the military ripped up the bridge, shot bullet holes into the canoes, making them unusable, and surrounded the island in razor wire. Then the police threw trash onto the island, covering the sacred ground in litter while yelling racist insults at the natives. It was unimaginable.<\/span><\/p>\n

We must use our voice to make these truths known. There is a great deal for us to learn of the land we call home, and of the people who died so we could do so. They have spent five\u00a0generations being forced to learn from us, and this is what we have to show for it. We are the largest generation of educated people to ever live and we live in a technologically advanced time where we have access to all information at the touch of a button. We must\u00a0educate ourselves and trust our hearts. We must come together and use our resources, our knowledge and our voice to come up with a solution and an alternative.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if it\u2019s an inconvenience to our ever-growing, overly comfortable lives, we have to make a change and take on the uncomfortable. Send supplies, send love, send money, send yourself and, most importantly, send intentions and prayers in whatever form that may be for you. <\/span><\/p>\n

Their\u00a0message is simple:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Water is life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Water is sacred.<\/span><\/p>\n

Protect the sacred.<\/span><\/p>\n

Protect life.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lexi DuPont and Madi DuPont An overwhelmingly heavy cloud of discomfort settled over us, and a feeling of nausea took over as we\u00a0approached the Standing Rock Native American Reservation in North Dakota. After driving for two days, we were finally just two miles away from the \u201cblack snake,\u201d the natives\u2019 name for the pipeline. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,18,36],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment-2","8":"category-news","9":"category-slider"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}