Where Else Can We Be?
12-16-2016
By Jewels
Three weeks ago, I made the decision to travel to Standing Rock, North Dakota to participate in the community that was built in resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline. As you hopefully know by now, the Standing Rock Sioux, a Native American tribe, have been engaged in protest against the construction of the controversial pipeline which will destroy sacred burial sites and pose a huge ecological risk that extends to potentially poisoning their water supply. The Dakota Access Pipeline is 1,172 miles long and will transport oil produced in North Dakota to refining markets in Illinois. The original pipeline was planned to route through the (largely white) town of Bismarck, North Dakota but was rerouted into Native land when the residents rallied against the construction of the pipeline.
After being rerouted from Bismarck, the pipeline was proposed to run through Standing Rock Sioux burial grounds and through multiple rivers that are used for fishing and collecting water. The pipeline is slated to pass underneath the Missouri river only a half-mile upstream from the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. This is an enormous ecological risk because oil pipelines like this are known to burst which pollute rivers and kill wildlife.
Since April, the Standing Rock Sioux along with many other Native American tribes have been creating a community out in Cannonball, North Dakota and blocking the construction of the pipeline. The ‘water protectors’ as they like to call themselves, have been brutalized and had their human rights violated at every turn by the construction workers, the police, and even the National Guard. The camp is committed to nonviolent direct action that will call attention to the danger of the pipeline and will ultimately block the construction of the pipeline through their land. Throughout the months of occupying the land in North Dakota, the water protectors have been maced, tear gassed, bitten by attack dogs, sprayed with water cannons in freezing weather and been shot at with rubber bullets.
Most recently, the United States Army Corps of Engineers denied the permit to build on the contested part of land that this struggle is built around. Despite this excellent news, Dakota Access (the company building the pipeline) stated that they would incur the fines ($50,000/day) and continue to build the pipeline in direct opposition of orders from Barack Obama and the US Army Corps.
As a black man, I made the trip to North Dakota because I believe that the black and indigenous struggle in this country are intimately bound up. Black people were forcibly brought to this country to work on this land while Native people were viciously murdered and moved off of their land. Solidarity within movements for life are so key these days, especially under a Trump administration where it is clear that neither Black nor Native lives matter. Further, I believe that we as Christians must stand in solidarity with the Native people as they stand against continued colonization on their land and racist and environmentally dangerous capitalist interests. If Christians are called to protect God’s creation and the marginalized, then where else can we be but Standing Rock?
