Why the Dakota pipeline protest still has traction

The protest has catalyzed many young native people who, frustrated with their circumstances, see an opportunity to fight back against the myriad injustices they and their families have faced for generations.

|
James MacPherson/AP/File
More than a thousand people gather at an encampment near North Dakota's Standing Rock Sioux reservation, Sept. 9, 2016. The sprawling encampment is a protest against the four-state Dakota Access oil pipeline.

As the weather gets cold, the nearly 7,000 people camping out in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline are settling in for the winter.

Although the protest has gone on for a month and a half now, the movement has only gained momentum with new campers arriving every day and “weekend warriors” joining in whenever they can. In addition to drawing attention to the disproportionate consequences native people face from the proliferation of the energy industry, the protests have also served as a platform to address other systemic issues confronting tribes, including poverty, racism, substance abuse, and inferior school systems.

"For 48 years, I've lived under this system, and I'm not the only one," Unpa Nunpa, a Standing Rock Lakota, told NBC. "This is a chance for us to express our feelings about living underneath this system."

Unpa Nunpa calls this generation of native people “the fearless generation.”

"They've got schools that have abused them, cops that have abused them, juvenile-justice systems that have abused them,” he said. “They've endured domestic violence in their homes directed at them, they've endured substance abuse in their homes – particularly alcoholism – they've been bullied by their peers."

According to a study of US Census data by the Pew Research Center, approximately 1 in 4 native Americans live below the poverty line. On the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe reservation, that number is even higher. Similarly, native Americans have a higher unemployment rate than the national average. Faced with substandard school systems, only 53 percent of native Americans graduate high school (compared with 83 percent national average) and only 17 percent have a bachelor's degree or higher.

The Standing Rock protest acted as a catalyst, a call to action for many young native people who, frustrated with their circumstances, saw an opportunity to fight back against the myriad injustices they and their families have faced for generations.

"Three years ago, not very many young indigenous people in the plains were speaking out about natural energy extraction in our homelands because we didn't have access to the information to learn about what was happening in our backyards," Frank Waln, an Sicangu Lakota hip-hop artist and activist, told Fader. “Now, we have powerful movements being started by youth from our communities. Our people are waking up, resisting colonialism, and organizing like I've never seen in my lifetime.”

Bringing so many geographically disparate tribes together may also build a coalition to take on future conflicts.

“As we embark on our own battles over trans-boundary mining issues, we need to support our brothers and sisters across Indian country so that we might be able to call on them to do the same for us in the spirit of the Idle No More movement,” Council President Richard Peterson said in a statement.

The protest has also served to heighten awareness of the plight of indigenous communities and disadvantaged groups all over the world. Members of Canadian First Nations have traveled to join the protests. A Palestinian flag flies over the South Dakota campground in solidarity with that community.

The protest has drawn tribes "who have had historical differences for a thousand years," Benalex Dupris, a professional comedian and Lakota native, told NBC. "We're all in the same camp together and we're playing chess and we're making jokes and we're paddling on canoes from Alaska in the Missouri River. This is the most significant gathering of native people in modern history."

[Editor's note: The original story incorrectly stated Native American high school graduation rates].

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Why the Dakota pipeline protest still has traction
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2016/1015/Why-the-Dakota-pipeline-protest-still-has-traction
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe