Finally got moved, back in Oglala camp, listened to various speakers and singers this morning, and while standing in line for lunch. Robby Romero sang again, and a Native Hawaiian with an electric ukulele, and Joan Baez. Oh, the one photo is of the sage, cedar, and cansasa (chahn shah shah, tobacco, inner bark of red willow), for prayers and offerings. Heading back to the council area.
Click for full size. © C. Ford, all rights reserved.
Click for full size.
© C. Ford, all rights reserved.
Trying to catch up here, when I can get a signal. Ooh, let’s see. Many elders spoke yesterday afternoon and into evening. Rick was back in the kitchen cooking frybread. Emmet (in the yellow shirt) who is 84, soon to be 85, who has been organizing runs all over the world since 1971, to spread the message that we are all related and that all life is sacred, spoke of the many places he has been in the world; and his most memorable run, in 80 below windchill, running with the four-leggeds, wild horses, and how that was such an honor, to be allowed to run with them. Dolores Taken Alive spoke, as one of the oldest residents of Standing Rock, of how it is time for our way of life to become the way of life for all people. Bear Woman spoke of the United States bankruptcy in 1933, and treason against treaties. Youth rallies will be taking place on Tuesday, to get prepared for winter. (We’ll be bringing wood in next week). There are now more flags here than the United Nations. A delegation from Samson Cree from Alberta, Canada was here yesterday, and presented their flag. Solemn people, who are fighting so hard for their land and water. A Haudenosaunee women’s group of singers came into camp, and sang two beautiful songs. A young Apache woman from New Mexico introduced herself yesterday, with a voice full of tears and joy. Robby Romero is here, and he sang Heartbeat. Joan Baez showed up last night, and there was a rap concert which lasted for hours.
A person donated a brand new Toyota truck yesterday, and today, a gorgeous bus pulled in, full of supplies, and with the news the bus was being donated, too! It was roasting hot yesterday, but the winds came up last night, and are still with us. Chill and windy windy today. Oh, also, a huge semi truck came in last night, completely loaded with wood.
Click images for full size. © C. Ford, all rights reserved.
Okay, wandered back to the council area, took the five walking sticks we brought to donate (ones that Rick had made), and after they were admired, they were taken over to be given to the council members. We decided to stay in the shade of the donation tent for a bit, it’s roasting hot out here today, but there’s a good prairie wind blowing. An elder made offerings in the four directions, as people came in, and people left. Those who have to leave today have been honking and waving and flying flags all the way out of the camp and down the main road, not wanting to leave. We finally shifted ourselves closer to the council fire to hear the latest news. There’s a lot going on legally, with actions planned on the state and federal front. The National Guard is now deployed solely to “protect” the governor, who is so invested in oil, he may as well be made of the stuff. The word came down that martial law training was started in Ft. Carson in Colorado. U.S. Marshals wanted to come into the camp, but they have not been invited. The regular cops want nothing to do with us.
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THEN, everyone in the council area started pointing and making noises, wambli oyate (eagle people) was overhead, and hovered over the council fire a while, then flew off into the sun – everyone was standing and following his flight, then everyone there went up to get tobacco to make an offering to the wambli oyate. It was an awe and emotion filled moment.
I watched a young girl make her own amusement, and caught some of the kites as we came back to our camp.
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Good morning. Woke up, got the dogs out of their tent, and watered. Wandered off for coffee and some breakfast, eggs, oatmeal, banana and watermelon. Listened to a man sing a song to the day, then wandered back to our camp out in the hills. Off to go find the horse race now!
Click images for full size. © C. Ford, all rights reserved.
Some shots from yesterday, actually, when I couldn’t get a connection to post. A tipi was set up by the communal area for everyone to sign. I think another one is going to be needed! I found a small space for our name. Then there was squash drying, off behind the kitchens. We had a wonderful corn and potato soup yesterday, and now it’s time to search out coffee, I think I want about a gallon. :D
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Oh, man, it’s camp as far as you can see! Okay, starting with the right, then the middle, middle, and left. Didn’t get behind me.
The weather was beautiful, and the sunset was spectacular! The mood in the camps is a good one, but cautious. Everyone’s is still expecting another major thing to drop, because so far, the construction company has been less than honorable, as everyone knows, and while nice noises have been made, no really expects them to stop.
Click images for full size, © C. Ford, all rights reserved.
Getting set up. We’re way out now, the camp swelled to about 3 times the size it was when we left on Wednesday. Many more delegations have arrived. It’s amazing! If you can, get here, this is history being made!
And then…the rain came. No big deal at first, just a bit of rain. It didn’t stay a bit of rain though. People rushed to grab ponchos or trash bags, then went back to getting coffee and breakfast.
Before the rain got serious though, back when I was still sitting around the council fire (pictured above), everyone was having a quiet moment when a thin blonde woman rushed up and sat down two chairs over from me. A reporter of some type, clutching pen and clipboard, began asking questions of the young man next to me. I wasn’t paying much attention, until I heard him talking about Arvol Looking Horse, then I looked over in time to see the young man trying to make a point of spelling Arvol correctly, when she interrupted and hand-waved, saying “I can look it up later.” The disregard and disrespect was shocking, and it showed on faces, but she was oblivious. It was clear that she hadn’t taken so much as five minutes to talk to anyone, or to try and understand what was going on at the camps. Then she started asking the young man questions, attempting to find out who someone was, and she was describing badly, but it was clear to me she was describing Dennis Banks. So, I said “Dennis Banks. That’s Dennis Banks.” She stared up with a rather blank and confused face, and said, but the man kept talking about Dennis Banks. I stared for a moment, nonplussed, as did the others, then explained, “yes, he was talking about the court case, you know, in the ’60s – The United States of America vs Dennis Banks and Russell Means.” Still a somewhat confused look, then she scribbled something down, thanked me profusely and ran off. The quality of media coverage leaves one hell of a lot to be desired, and that’s the very least I could say. Everyone is welcome at the camps, but please, if you’re a completely clueless person, at least listen, don’t be an unconcerned hand-waver. I sincerely hope I don’t see Ms. Blonde I can look it up later again. Okay, back to the rain!
Finally, we arrive at Wednesday morning. Like most people, we arose with the sun, more or less, joining the other sleep dusted people wandering about and waking up. A woman drove by in her tiny car, packed full, steering with one hand, brushing her teeth with the other. Curls of woodsmoke lazily drifted from banked fires. We went off in pursuit of coffee. Started to feel a bit more woke, and took the second cuppa over to the circle of chairs around the council fire. Sat and listened to people talk, and it wasn’t long before Travis Harden stopped by, and regaled us with a groaningly awful joke, which got boos and laughs. Some new people came and sat, and we talked about where they were from, and other things. Rick decided to grab his walking stick and go walkabout. I’m kind of hard to move from that fire, especially in the morning. It’s nice there, and people come and go, you get to meet all kinds of people, talk, and have fun. Rick got back in time for oatmeal with raisins, while I continued to drink coffee like I had never tasted it before. The clouds got heavier, and it was a bit chill, so we went back to camp to get warmer clothes, then I went on walkabout with Rick. We had a nice meander by the banks of the Cannon Ball river, saw gumweed, licorice, and more, and said a good morning to the grasshoppers.
Picking up where we left off in Part 4, twilight was descending, and people were lining up for buffalo, squash, and hominy stew and wojapi. Word had rippled through camp that Jill Stein had been up at the construction site where the protectors were, and was coming to the camp to speak. The council fire was stoked to a blaze. The clouds were beautiful.
Jill Stein didn’t say anything new, she spoke of the need to break our dependence on oil, the need to focus on other forms of energy, and called on our President to speak up, speak out, and to stand with Standing Rock. Some people might not know that President Obama and the First Lady visited the people of Standing Rock in 2014, and greatly enjoyed that visit, so it has been a bitter hurt, the silence emanating from the Capitol. That is not all the silence. The silence echoes from every point. As I noted earlier in comments:
As for Jill Stein, she was at the construction site where the protectors are during Tuesday afternoon, and she came to speak at the camp that evening, I was there. Think I got pictures, too. People can say whatever they want about her, and I know there’s bad things, but she’s the only one to show up.
And to add, Indian Country everywhere has a long history of voting democrat (yeah, there are a few repubs), but people are losing faith almost completely in democrats, because none of them will stand up, none of them stand with us. The president remains silent. The Clintons? Silent. Tim Kaine? He needs more info.
Bernie Sanders made noises of support, but he hasn’t been here. We have elders in their 80s who are making very long journeys to come and stand. What’s the excuse of all our so-called representatives?
Picking up from where we left off at Camp Story 3 (Remember, starting with this post, all these events being related are happening on one day, Tuesday, September 6th, 2016. I’ll get to Wednesday eventually. The Osage Delegation from Oklahoma arrived. They spoke with great pain, grief, and anger over the cost to their people, in blood, of many lives, in their fight against oil. A prayer was sung, and the Osage flag took its place among the many.
Delegations from the Pit River Indians and Winnemem Wintu arrived. The Winnemem Wintu are a tribe that have been brutally crushed under the steamroller of U.S. government, yet refuse to give in, refuse to fade away. They stand strong, and they continue to fight. Like too many other tribes, vast amounts of lands were stolen by means of dam building and flooding the land. The Pit River Indians are also fighting, for their rights, their land, and for the salmon, too. They are also threatened by the black snake of oil. If hasn’t occurred to you yet, ask yourself why all the risk of oil is being placed on Indian land, from one state to the next here in uStates, and why it’s the land of Indigenous peoples in other countries who are facing similar threat and loss.* The colonial mindset is alive and well, and Indigenous people are still the ones expected to pay for everyone else’s convenience and greed. And yes, a whole lot of Indians and other indigenous people drive cars, and use modern things, just like everyone else. There’s little choice, is there? We aren’t exactly set up for horses anymore, and most employers wouldn’t care to accommodate the time of travel. Is there money being poured into sustainable infrastructure, such as mass, public transport? No. As you should be able to tell from photos, the Dakotas are a place where you’re far away from everything else. The camps at Standing Rock, map wise, aren’t terribly far from us, but it’s a long drive.
*In the comments, Lofty highlights this ongoing problem:
Meanwhile South Australians have their own battle against Big Oil. BP want to drill in a pristine marine reserve in the Great Australian Bight, an important whale breeding area and clean fishing resource. In the event of a spill, BP won’t have any resources available to fix anything. Time to make waves.
Chairman Archambault II spoke with the governor this morning and was notified of action by the National Guard to ensure safety of all citizens. The National Guard has been called in to assist state and county police in notifying drivers on Highway 1806 traveling south that there may be pedestrians on the road and cars may be parked on the side of the road. This is intended to keep all drivers and pedestrians safe. The National Guard will not enter the camp.
This was appended to a media statement, an appeal for peace in advance of the ruling tomorrow. I don’t think anyone needs to be told what an unnecessary, chickenshit move this was by Governor Dalrymple, oil’s best friend and investor. I suspect this was not in anticipation of the ruling tomorrow, but a favour to oil, whose propaganda has suffered a bit lately, after the move with the savage dogs and handlers attacking the protectors. We hold fast, we hold strong, we hold in peace.