Evacuation drills for the children were conducted at #NoDapl camp. In case the soldiers come. pic.twitter.com/bQ1S0CCRsB
— Black Buffalo Woman (@RedRoadWoman) August 23, 2016
Support Sacred Stone Camp. Legal Fund Help. Rezpect Our Water. Sign the Petition. Sign urgent petition.
Saturday, Aug 27, in Los Angeles #NoDAPL. Please share! pic.twitter.com/mIQIBbFip7
— Grace (@curanderismo) August 23, 2016
If you’re in the LA area and can make this, please, please do! Get in the face of mainstream media, ask why we aren’t worth news? We promote protection, peace, responsibility for and allegiance to our earth, the water that is our life, and the protection of all the lives which go forward from here, all the children, all the grandchildren. If we do not stand, if we do not resist, if we do not say no, then the black snake gets to devour us all, leaving us with a dying earth and poisoned water. We must not be resigned, we must care.
As for media, why is peaceful protection not worth a story? Why is an obligation to our earth boring? Why is a commitment to non-violence so non note-worthy? Why do Native lives never matter?
We can change this. Stand with us. Join us. Add your voice. Whatever can be done, please do it. We need everything. We need you.
Support Sacred Stone Camp. Legal Fund Help. Rezpect Our Water. Sign the Petition. Sign urgent petition.
Mark A. Tilsen, Sr., President, Native American Natural Foods.
We are proud to be able to share our Tanka Bars with true water warriors. I just got back from delivering another 5,700 Tanka Bars to the Standing Rock water protectors. Spending four days at the camp, you realize that we are at a historic moment!
The unity and deep commitment to peaceful, nonviolent protest and the respectful way in which people of many nations – native and non-native – are living together to form a solid resistance is a very moving and powerful statement from which I think we can all learn. While some have expressed a willingness to die to protect their communities, Tribal President Dave Archambault asked in a speech to the entire camp that the young people make a commitment to live! Fight and work for Native communities by being great fathers, mothers and grandmothers. He recognized that this fight is part of a long history to stop exploitation of the Standing Rock community and a new movement toward building a healthy, sustainable future. He expressed his love and appreciation for to every tribal member and supporter there.
President Archambault’s open expressions of love of his people was refreshing to hear from a politician and is in sharp contradiction to the governor and state government of North Dakota, which is completely controlled by the oil industry. The state pulled out all water and safety services without notice to the more than 2,000 people at the camp on a day when temperatures were hitting 100 degrees, and is preparing to remove the water protectors when given the first excuse!
The next 72 hours will be critical. Please read the following New York Times article and share it with your friends. Contact the White House, the Army Corps of Engineers and give donations of money, water, food or your talents to help.
Occupying the Prairie: Tensions Rise as Tribes Move to Block a Pipeline Join us in saying it’s no longer OK to keep oppressing and threatening the Indian communities that we have and let us all stand together and support those who are leading the transition from a petroleum-dependent economy that is threatening our planet to a new economy that can provide true sustainability and full employment.
Other progressive natural foods companies who would like to join Native American Natural Foods, and over 80 tribes, organizations and other food companies from across the country help feed the over 2,000 water warriors at Standing Rock, send your full pallets to:
Water Defenders of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe
Blg # 1 North standing Rock Ave
Fort Yates, ND 58538If you are sending perishables or frozen products, please notify Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Executive Secretary Johnelle Leingang at 701-854-8524 or jleingang@standingrock.org
They have a major need for fresh fruits and vegetables but prepackaged healthy foods will be great as well.
Via the Tanka blog. Tanka’s products are absolutely delicious, by the way, all of them.
Support Sacred Stone Camp. Legal Fund Help. Rezpect Our Water. Sign the Petition. Sign urgent petition. And Washington DC people, don’t forget – the hearing is tomorrow! Susan Sarandon has tweeted that she will be there, among many others.
August 18th, 2016. Reuters.
Indianz.com reports:
Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier of Morton County has been largely responsible for law enforcement at the site and he has accused protesters of shooting guns, carrying weapons and even threatening to use pipe bombs against his officers. But tribal members told The New York Times that the “bombs” were mistaken for sacred Chanunpa pipes used in ceremonies.
It’s bad enough the feds and “homeland security” has decided to lie about why they pulled the camps’ water supply and air conditioned trailer. This wouldn’t have anything to do with intimidation and force, oh no. *spits* And seriously, Chanunpa are pipe bombs? Please, the last thing we need is stupid cop paranoia.
WE ARE STANDING. WE ARE RESISTANCE. JOIN US.
Support Sacred Stone Camp. Legal Fund Help. Rezpect Our Water. Sign the Petition. Sign urgent petition. And Washington DC people, don’t forget – the hearing is tomorrow! Susan Sarandon has tweeted that she will be there, among many others.
North Dakota Authorities are now blocking the shit trucks to prevent cleaning of port-a-potties. That's just evil. #NoDAPL
— Kevin Carter (@wapimaskwa69) August 23, 2016
Live news from the camp, I’ll update when possible.
@andersoncooper @billmaher @VICE @Trevornoah @iamjohnoliver#NoDAPL #HonorTheTreaties #WaterisLife pic.twitter.com/z3fIX07x0E
— LaughingMoons77 (@LaughingMoons77) August 23, 2016
#NoDAPL camp under the Milky Way. Photos via KILI radio. pic.twitter.com/EjjHZM6BuB
— Black Buffalo Woman (@RedRoadWoman) August 23, 2016
Steven Newcomb (Shawnee, Lenape) has an excellent column up at ICTMN, and it’s very relevant to the state’s latest moves against the Lakota people.
The state of North Dakota has removed water tanks from where those standing against the Dakota Access Pipeline are camped. #Inhuman #NoDAPL
— Simon Moya-Smith (@SimonMoyaSmith) August 23, 2016
Onto the column…
When I saw the news of Chairman Archambault’s arrest, it made me think of something our great Shawnee leader Tecumseh said to an audience of Native people:
“The Great Spirit in His wisdom placed you here and gave it [this land] to you and your children to defend. But ä-te-wä! [alas!] the incoming race, like a huge serpent is coiling closer and closer about you.”
Of the pipeline, Chairman Archambault says, “We don’t want this black snake within our Treaty boundaries.” He continues, “We need to stop this pipeline that threatens our water. We have said repeatedly we don’t want it here. We want the Army Corps of Engineers to honor the same rights and protections that were afforded to others, rights we were never afforded when it comes to our territories. We demand the pipeline be stopped and kept off our Treaty boundaries.”
The proposed pipeline will carry millions of barrels of crude oil. It only takes one break and a massive release of the hydrocarbons to poison sacred waters for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe with toxicity. The Standing Rock Hunkpapa know that water is the basis of life and ought to be held in the highest regard.
Ms. Taliman says the conflict is taking place in “Hunkpapa Territory near Cannon Ball.” To an extent this is what the Dakota Access pipeline project comes down to: Whose territory is it, and whose values shall prevail in that territory? The values of the American empire? Or the spiritual and ecological values of Original Nations such as the Standing Rock Sioux Nation?
Young Rita Waln led a procession of women and children who shook hands with officers at the ND Capitol.
Throughout the peaceful protest that water protectors are waging against the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation, rumors have swirled about potential threats to public safety—rumors that have been refuted by numerous images and accounts of what is actually happening.
It started with claims on August 17 by Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier that those standing against the pipeline were compromising safety and continued this past weekend, when North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple went so far as to declare a state of emergency across several counties in order to free up federal funds.
“They were preparing to throw pipe bombs at our line, M80s, fireworks, things of that nature, to disrupt us,” Kirchmeier told reporters. “And that in itself makes it an unlawful protest.”
Though Dalrymple stopped short of activating the National Guard, he issued an executive order implying that public safety was at risk.
[…]
With a gathering that has swelled to more than 3,000 people and counting, friction and conflict might not be out of the realm of possibility. But the opposite is in fact the case: accounts and pictures abound of police officers taking off their hats in respect for the daily morning prayers being conducted at the construction site; police shaking hands with a little girl; officers being smudged.
Here are six images of how the dynamics are really playing out on the ground, including one issued by the Bismarck Police Department itself.
Following two days of arresting protestors trying to stop an oil pipeline on Treaty lands, officers joined in morning prayers. As officers learned more about the Tribe’s efforts to protect the Missouri River from oil leaks and contamination, many expressed personal support for clean water. (Photo: Courtesy No Dakota Access Pipeline).
Officers removed their hats out of respect as a Lakota prayer song is sung as part of morning prayers at the site where construction was halted by water protectors. (Photo: Courtesy No Dakota Access Pipeline).
On day three, after realizing the water protectors are peacefully trying to protect their water from a Texas-based oil company, many officers chose to show respect for morning prayer songs and those who offered to smudge them. (Photo: Courtesy No Dakota Access Pipeline).
We Are Unarmed: After Morton Country Sheriff Kirchmeier said his agency received reports of pipe bombs and threats, Lakota women and children pushed back on those allegations with messages from elders, youth and women. (Photo: Courtesy Indigenous Environmental Network).
The Bismarck Police Department itself posted its own photo on Facebook after the same event, with this caption: “Demonstrators shaking hands with officers as event ends. No incidents and peaceful throughout. Thank you to all!” (Photo: Bismarck Police Department/Facebook).
Full article at ICTMN.
Cannupa Hanska (Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara/Lakota), is one of this year’s NACF fellowship awardees. You can see the other 15 awardees here.
I Love You to Death.
Leave Me A Home.
Nature.
You can see much more at Cannupa Hanska. – 2016 NACF awardees. – Cannupa Hanska at NACF. Click Images for Full Size.
Although Dwight D. Eisenhower did not play a direct role in implementing Indian termination policies, he agreed in principle with the goals of termination.
Dwight David Eisenhower was a 22-year-old linebacker for West Point when he skirmished with Jim Thorpe during a 1912 football game against Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
Thorpe, a member of the Sac and Fox Nation, was already famous, having won several Olympic gold medals and called the greatest athlete in the world by the king of Sweden. The November 1912 football game pitted the Army school against American Indians in a competition reminiscent of historic rivalries.
Eisenhower took the skirmish personally, Lars Anderson wrote in his 2007 book Carlisle vs. Army. Ever since he learned that the flagship Indian school’s football team would be playing at West Point, Eisenhower and his teammates made plans to stop Thorpe.
“A cadet would become famous, the Army players believed, if he knocked Thorpe out of the game with a hit so powerful it kidnapped Thorpe from consciousness,” Anderson wrote. Eisenhower, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed athlete, had been looking forward to the game for months and “fully expected to be the chosen one—the player who was going to deliver the knockout blow that would send Thorpe out of the game and into a hospital bed.”
The hit came early in the game. Eisenhower and another linebacker teamed up against Thorpe, throwing themselves as hard as they could at Carlisle’s most valuable player. Thorpe fumbled then writhed on the ground in pain, clutching his shoulder as Eisenhower celebrated.
But Thorpe recovered, and in a subsequent play he sidestepped when Eisenhower and a teammate again charged at him. The two linebackers collided violently and were removed from the game. Carlisle won, 27-6.
As President of the United States more than four decades later, Eisenhower took a similar stance toward Natives. During his tenure in office, Congress enacted three assimilation programs that dramatically changed the federal government’s relationships with Indians: terminating tribal sovereignty, relocating Indians to urban areas and transferring federal law enforcement jurisdiction on Indian reservations to the states.
Last night the KKK snuck in and put up this flag at the peaceful #NODAPL camp. It's been taken down. pic.twitter.com/huikzPu5PU
— Black Buffalo Woman (@RedRoadWoman) August 22, 2016
Hateful fucking bigots. *spits* Oh, and the military is flying copters over the camps. Armed helicopters. *spits again*
© Marty Two Bulls.
HUNKPAPA TERRITORY—John Eagle Shield Sr. of Standing Rock, one of several traditionally appointed camp leaders, estimated on Sunday August 21 that about 2,500 people were peacefully gathered amongst what has grown into three separate prayer camps. The mission of those gathered is to protect Standing Rock’s water from the environmentally disastrous Dakota Access Pipeline. The campsites are clustered on the west side of the Cannonball River just north of Cannon Ball, North Dakota, along the Standing Rock reservation’s northern border, where the pipeline is slated to cross.
UrbanNativeEra.
Jacobin has a good article up:
The federal response to Lakota protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline couldn’t be more different than their reaction to this year’s Bundy occupation.
[…]
The Lakota, on other hand, are resisting a real and all too familiar danger. Their numbers grow every day. And, unlike the standoff in Oregon, almost no major national news outlets are covering the story. This too participates in a great American tradition: the true fight against oppression is the one nobody notices.
Is that ever the truth. Mainstream media is doing their damndest to ignore us, to ignore the issue. Thanks to Michael McLean at Jacobin for a very good story. Go read, please!
Via Jo-Ellen’s petition.
I know I have been asking half the world of people lately, and yes, here I am again, asking. This too, is important. Chef Sean Sherman, Oglala Lakota from the Pine Ridge rez, wants to change a serious absence in the food scene. Where’s all the Indigenous food? Traditionally based indigenous food is delicious, healthy, and sustainable. This also marks a great potential for so many Indigenous kids, who are looking more and more to traditional foods, and would like to be able to earn a living cooking, doing what they love. The kickstarter for the restaurant is so close, so very close. If you have a few bucks, please become a backer in this most important venture. (Oh yeah, I’m a backer. I want travel over and eat, so gotta make this happen.)
There is a great deal of information at the site, so I’ll just include a bit here, but I’m putting up lots of photos of amazing, delicious food. Foooooooooood. If you haven’t eaten Indigenous food, seriously, you are so missing out. If we can get one Native restaurant up and running, others will happen. So please visit, and back if you can. If you can’t, please signal boost, spread the word everywhere!
Dr. Adrienne Keene at Native Appropriations has tacked a tough question: where are the Natives in Hamilton? Indigenous people were, naturally, a very large presence during the actual time, and within the framework of the play everyone loves.
I have not seen the highly acclaimed, Tony-award winning, ground breaking, race-bending new musical Hamilton. Not due to lack of trying. I enter the digital lottery nearly every single day on my phone, though if I do somehow win it will mean the most panicked four hours of my life trying to get from Providence to NYC in time for the show. But that’s an aside. What I have done is listened to the soundtrack hundreds of times (not exaggerating), as well as listened to interviews of Lin Manuel Miranda on Another Round–we’re fellow Another Round alums!–and a couple other places.
I truly have had the soundtrack on repeat for months, including right now, except for “Quiet Uptown,” because sad. So, while I haven’t seen the show, I feel like I’ve consumed enough media surrounding the actual production to offer this review–or offer this question, really. But I will add these disclaimers: I have not seen the show. I have not read the HamilTome with insight from Miranda into the writing and production of the show. I have not read the Hamilton book that inspired the show. So, if I’m wrong or there are specifics I don’t know about, feel free to let me know (Or take me with you to see it? Please?).
But, I still feel qualified to ask: Where the heck are the Native people in Hamilton?