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<div style="display: block;" id="reader-header" class="header"> <font
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href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/the-big-difference-at-standing-rock-native-leadership-all-around-20160911"
id="reader-domain" class="domain">http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/the-big-difference-at-standing-rock-native-leadership-all-around-20160911</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">The Big Difference at Standing Rock Is
Native Leadership All Around <br>
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<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">Sarah van Gelder Sep
11, 2016</div>
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<p>This year’s massive buildup of resistance to the Dakota
Access pipeline follows closely on the heels of the
victory over Keystone XL pipeline, something often
credited to feverish organizing by 350.org. But years
before 350’s involvement, there was the Indigenous
Environmental Network, which launched that movement and
its “Keep It In the Ground” messaging. This time, with
nearly 200 tribes unified behind the Standing Rock
tribe’s opposition to the pipeline and more than 3,000
people gathered at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation,
Native Americans are clearly leading the movement.</p>
<p>The encampment at Standing Rock are filled with prayers
and ceremonies, and the spiritual core to this movement
gives it resilience and power. The courage and clarity
of the stand to protect our water is attracting support
across the nation and around the world.</p>
<p>I came to Standing Rock to cover the arrival of <a
href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/in-photos-northwest-canoe-tribes-arrive-at-historic-gathering-at-standing-rock-20160909">Northwest
tribal canoes</a> and stayed for <a
href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/at-standing-rock-a-shocking-day-after-so-much-waiting-20160910">the
rulings Friday</a> on whether construction of the
pipeline can continue. I spoke to Dallas Goldtooth, a
veteran of the Keystone XL movement, on a hill
overlooking the camp. Goldtooth (Mdewakanton Dakota and
Dińe) is the Keep It In The Ground campaign organizer
for the Indigenous Environmental Network.</p>
<p><strong>Sarah van Gelder:</strong> What's going to
happen following these rulings? </p>
<p><strong>Dallas Goldtooth:</strong> We can only focus on
this cherished moment that we have with each other. And
the organizing continues. One thing that the uncertainty
provides is this constant drive to see what else can we
do to change the social dial toward our direction and
change the conversation. I think slowly it's happening,
it's coming. Standing Rock has now entered into the
national narrative in some ways, in some places, so how
can we further that?</p>
<p><strong>van Gelder:</strong> I just asked a woman from
the Oglala Nation if she'd ever seen anything like this.
She said not since 1973 at Wounded Knee. Tell me how you
see this in a historic context. </p>
<p><strong>Goldtooth:</strong> I've talked to folks who
were there, who are in this camp. At its very most there
were about 200 people at Wounded Knee at its peak, and a
lot of those were people who came in for the weekend and
left. At its peak in this camp, we reached up to 3,500
people. People that traveled across the country. They
carpooled, hitchiked. They organized caravans and buses.
It’s magnificent to see that. It makes me think how
different it would have been if we had had Facebook in
1973.</p>
<p>This is a special moment in the climate justice
movement. We’ve had significant wins: Keystone XL. The
Cherry Point coal terminal, another win in support of
treaty rights. I’m looking forward to what happens next.
There are people very committed—through nonviolent
direct action, through legal strategies, through social
movement strategies—to make sure we see a win in this
case, too.</p>
<p><strong>van Gelder:</strong> This is a pretty big
moment for treaty rights and for indigenous folks
standing together.</p>
<p><strong>Goldtooth:</strong> It is. I don’t think there
has ever been as large a mobilization and a unified,
unilateral Indian Country support like this. We’ve had
chairmen, traditional chiefs, chairwomen, the leaders of
the leaders of Indian Country, who have come to this
camp. Also, we’ve had a lot of non-Native allies that
are 100 percent supportive of the fight and struggle
here because they see the connections. This fight right
now, it’s about the water. And because the messaging is
that water is life, so many people can connect with
that. Whether you’re native or non-Native, whether
you’re from Chicago or Detroit or New Orleans or up in
the Bakken, we all understand the importance of
protecting the water. That brings us together.</p>
<p>Indigenous Environmental Network, our organization, has
been fighting Dakota Access for about two years, when
they first applied for the state permits. In South
Dakota, we were intervening in the Keystone XL stuff,
and we saw Dakota Access come up. So we intervened on
behalf of Standing Rock at the time. And even back then
we had the Tribal Historic Preservation Office testify
saying the court is not consulting with us: “We have not
been consulted. There are sacred sites out there that
they missed.” And that was two years ago. And look where
we’re at now.</p>
<p><strong>van Gelder:</strong> How many different tribal
governments have come here to take an official stand?</p>
<p><strong>Goldtooth:</strong> One hundred eighty-nine
have had resolutions or statements of solidarity with
Standing Rock. That’s amazing, historic. The crazy part
is a lot of tribes that are heavily dependent on
resource extraction have also come out in support. Three
Affiliated Tribes—30 percent of the Bakken oil shale is
under their lands and they participate in. The Navajo
Nation, who is heavily dependent on coal. The Crow
Nation, which is all coal. All sent statements of
solidarity and actually brought their presidents to this
camp. It’s fascinating. It opens up a door for so more
organizing to say, “Hey, you’re standing in solidarity
with Standing Rock on this issue, can you stand in
solidarity to keep fossil fuels in the ground, because
that’s what really promotes projects like this.”</p>
<p><strong>van Gelder:</strong> These issues around the
destruction of the planet and the climate crisis affect
everybody, and yet it's Native people who have really
been at the forefront of getting stuff done.</p>
<p>How do you think about that?</p>
<p><strong>Goldtooth:</strong> The “Keep It in the Ground”
narrative is nothing new for indigenous peoples. The
language “keep it in the ground” we first encountered
over 15 years ago from relatives in the Global South—in
Central and South America—and relatives up in northern
Alberta in Canada, who were saying: The only solution
forward is to keep it in the ground; regulation is not
going to work; a more sustainable method of extraction
is not going to work. We indigenous people have been
saying keep fossil fuels in the ground from the get-go.
Although it has been frustrating to see the climate
movement overall be slow to adopt that, it’s also
amazing and welcome now.</p>
<p>It is indigenous people who are often – though not all
the time –on the frontlines of climate change. It is
oftentimes indigenous people, poor people,
forest-dependent nations, water-dependent
nations—they’re the first ones to feel the rapid
sea-level rise. Those communities, those nations are
still dependent on subsistence lifestyles; they’re
living off the land. Our relatives in the Arctic are
feeling it, their entire livelihoods. Even if they
wanted to have absolutely traditional food diets, they
can no longer do that because the animals’ life patterns
are completely altered.</p>
<p>So we at the Indigenous Environmental Network stand in
strong defense and support of those communities’ rights
to self-determine what happens to the lands, water, to
the world around them. And not only are the frontlines
the source of the fight, but that’s where the solutions
are going to come from.</p>
<p><strong>van Gelder:</strong> Say more about those
solutions?</p>
<p><strong>Goldtooth:</strong> The best part of the work
we do is that it’s not what we’re fighting against but
what we’re fighting for. We advocate for localized,
small-scale renewable energy production. The same with
food production, localized and sustainable. That’s the
path forward that we have to take. The process to
achieve that is all housed under the concepts of a just
transition: We have to be mindful that even if we
transition to 100 percent renewables, it doesn’t
necessarily mean that society is just, it doesn’t
necessarily guarantee that poor communities will have
access to basic needs. When we talk about this
transition, we have to make sure it’s in line with the
principles of social justice and environmental justice.</p>
<p><strong>van Gelder:</strong> It’s seems that there’s a
values shift that may be happening, that indigenous
folks are modeling, that there’s something more
important than industrial production.</p>
<p><strong>Goldtooth:</strong> There is some truth to the
fact that indigenous communities in their traditional
formats are often good models. When they’re in line with
their original instructions, they’re often good examples
of what healthy sustainable stewardship looks like, of
what healthy relationships look like. We have to really
encourage our allies, ourselves, to renew that
relationship, to relearn how we enjoy and experience and
communicate with the world around us and each other.</p>
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