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<h1 id="reader-title">Fighting for Our Lives: #NoDAPL in
Historical Context</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits"><strong>by Nick Estes -
September 18, 2016<br>
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<p><img moz-reader-center="true" alt="img_0879"
src="cid:part2.4781CFF2.BD84F31D@freedomarchives.org"
class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1234"></p>
<p><strong>by Nick Estes</strong></p>
<p>Little has been written about the historical
relationship between the movement against the Dakota
Access Pipeline and the longer histories of Oceti
Sakowin (The Great Sioux Nation) resistance against the
trespass of settlers, dams, and pipelines across the Mni
Sose, the Missouri River. This is a short analysis of
the historical and political context of the #NoDAPL
movement and the transformative possibilities of the
current struggle.</p>
<p>Thousands have camped along the banks of the Missouri
River at Cannon Ball in the Standing Rock Sioux Indian
Reservation to halt the construction of the Dakota
Access Pipeline (DAPL), which promises to carry half a
million barrels of heavy crude oil a day across four
states, under the Missouri River twice, and under the
Mississippi River toward the Gulf of Mexico for global
export. Camp Oceti Sakowin, Red Warrior Camp, and Sacred
Stone Camp, the various Native-led groups standing in
unity against DAPL, have brought together the largest,
mass-gathering of Natives and allies in more than a
century, all on land and along a river the Army Corps of
Engineers claims sole jurisdiction and authority over.</p>
<p>How and why did this happen?</p>
<p>In 1803 the wasicu — the fat-takers, the settlers, the
capitalists — claimed this stretch of the river as part
of what became the largest real estate transaction in
world history. The fledgling U.S. settler state “bought”
827 million acres from the French Crown in the Louisiana
Purchase and sent two white explorers, Lewis and Clark,
to claim and map the newly acquired territory. None of
the Native Nations west of the Mississippi consented to
the sale of their lands to a sovereign they neither
recognized nor viewed as superior. It was only after we
rebuffed Lewis and Clark for failing to pay tribute for
their passage on our river that they labeled the Oceti
Sakowin “the vilest miscreants of the savage race.” Thus
began one of the longest and most hotly contested
struggles in the history of the world.</p>
<figure class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_1248"
data-shortcode="caption"><img moz-reader-center="true"
alt="louisiana_purchase"
src="cid:part3.C6659910.F885A42E@freedomarchives.org"
class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1248"><figcaption
class="wp-caption-text">The Louisiana Purchase</figcaption></figure>
<p>For the next hundred years, the U.S. led various
unsuccessful military campaigns to suppress, annihilate,
and dispossess us of our rightful claim to the river and
our lands. Despite popular belief, we were never
militarily defeated. Red Cloud’s War and the War for the
Black Hills led to the military defeat of the U.S.
Calvary, most famously the annihilation of General
George Armstrong Custer’s forces at the Battle of Greasy
Grass in 1876. These wars, for our part, were entirely
defensive. The Oceti Sakowin signed peace treaties with
the invading settler government. The 1854 and 1868 Fort
Laramie treaties provided temporary reprieve and defined
the vast 25-million-acre territory of what became the
Great Sioux Reservation, which stretched from the
eastern shore of the Missouri River to the Bighorn
Mountains. Four decades of intense warfare, however,
took its toll. More than ten million buffalo were
slaughtered to starve us out. Settler hordes invaded and
pillaged our Black Hills for its gold. Our vast land
base diminished and the treaties were nullified when
Congress passed the Indian Appropriations Act of 1876,
which abolished treaty-making with Native Nations, and
the Black Hills Act of 1877, which illegally ceded the
Black Hills and created the present-day reservation
system.</p>
<p>The Oceti Sakowin has vigorously opposed these bald
imperialistic maneuvers to usurp our self-determining
authority over our lives and lands. Settler society
entreated the Oceti Sakowin for the 1854 and 1868
agreements, not the other way around. We entered these
relationships with the understanding that both parties
respected a common humanity with the people and the
lands. In our view, the settler state lost its humanity
when it violated the treaties. Every act on our part to
recover and reclaim our lives and land and to resist
elimination is an attempt to recuperate that lost
humanity — humanity this settler state refuses and
denies even to its own.</p>
<figure class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_1252"
data-shortcode="caption"><img moz-reader-center="true"
alt="1868-treaty-map-optimized"
src="cid:part4.96CAA525.A540ECB1@freedomarchives.org"
class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1252"><figcaption
class="wp-caption-text">1868 Fort Laramie Treaty
Territory</figcaption></figure>
<p>South Dakota and North Dakota statehood also played a
major role in suppressing the Oceti Sakowin. Although we
have never signed any treaties with these states, they
lay claim to the destinies of our lands, our river, and
our people. To do so, they have always used violence and
hatred. In 1890, a year after statehood, these two
states drummed up anti-Indian sentiment to further break
up and open reservation lands for settlement. As a
result, they fabricated the Ghost Dance crisis; called
for federal troops to intervene to protect white
property that resulted in the assassination of our
military and political leaders such as Crazy Horse and
Sitting Bull; and resulted in the killing of over 300
mostly unarmed women, children, and elders at Wounded
Knee in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.</p>
<p>Outright murder was never enough. The Dawes Allotment
Act of 1887 and the creation of five smaller
reservations attempted to factionalize the Oceti Sakowin
and opened up “surplus” lands to white homesteaders.
From 1907 to 1934, millions of acres of the remaining
Great Sioux Reservation were lost. In the early 1900s,
Missouri River Basin states began organizing to usurp
Native water rights for large-scale irrigation projects.
These states envisioned a dam system that would create
large reservoirs that would primarily flood Native
lands. But there was a major problem. In 1908, a U.S.
Supreme Court decision held that tribes maintained
access and control of water within original treaty
territory, even if that territory was diminished. This
became known as the Winters Doctrine. For the Missouri
River, the Oceti Sakowin possessed the prior claim to
both the river and its shorelines as spelled out in the
1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie Treaties.</p>
<figure class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_1274"
data-shortcode="caption"><img
alt="souix-reservations-map"
src="cid:part5.8A440DA4.F07289FB@freedomarchives.org"
class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1274"><figcaption
class="wp-caption-text">Historic and present day
treaty lands</figcaption></figure>
<p>An opportunity for the states arose. After unseasonal
mass flooding, Congress passed the Flood Control Act in
1944 — or what became known as the Pick-Sloan Plan
authorizing the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau
of Reclamation to erect five dams on the mainstem of the
river. All of which targeted and disproportionately
destroyed Native lands and lives. Of the five Pick-Sloan
dams, four flooded the lands of seven nations of the
Oceti Sakowin: the Santee Sioux Tribe, the Yankton Sioux
Tribe, the Sicangu Oyate, the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe,
the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, the Cheyenne River Sioux
Tribe, and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Of the 611,642
condemned acres through eminent domain in what was
called the “taking area,” these nations lost 309,584
acres of vital bottomlands. Inundation also forced more
than a thousand Native families, in patent violation of
treaties and without their consent, to relocate. Entire
communities were removed to marginal reservation lands,
and many were forced to leave the reservation entirely.
As a result of condemnation, the Army Corps of Engineers
claims sole jurisdiction over the river and its
shoreline.</p>
<figure class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_1256"
data-shortcode="caption"><img moz-reader-center="true"
alt="pick-sloan_plan"
src="cid:part6.5A12A263.6D5CE19B@freedomarchives.org"
class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1256"><figcaption
class="wp-caption-text">Pick-Sloan Dams</figcaption></figure>
<p>The dams, which promised and delivered wholesale
destruction, coincided and worked in tandem with the
federal policies of termination and relocation. In 1953,
Congress passed House Concurrent Resolution 108 (HCR
108) that inaugurated termination policy, and called for
the immediate termination or ended federal recognition
of the Flathead, Klamath, Menominee, Potawatomi, and
Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribes. That same year,
Congress passed Public Law 280 (PL 280) that authorized
states to assume criminal and civil jurisdiction over
Native lands. The Bureau of Indian Affairs supported
these programs and carried out the Indian Relocation Act
of 1956 that relocated thousands from the reservation to
far-off urban centers. HCR 108, PL 280, relocation, and
the Pick-Sloan dams did not just promote assimilation —
they enforced genocide and elimination.</p>
<p>Through termination, relocation, and massive flooding,
however, colonialism created its own gravediggers. The
Oceti Sakowin unified to thwart the state of South
Dakota’s attempts to implement PL 280 to overthrow
Native governments and assume control over their lands.
Natives on relocation also began to organize. Groups
such as the National Indian Youth Council and the
American Indian Movement (AIM) formed in the urban
centers to combat the wholesale destruction of Native
life on- and off-reservation. In 1973, AIM occupied
Wounded Knee in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which
was a culmination of more than a decade of Red Power
organizing. The occupation was the catalyst for a mass
gathering of thousands at Standing Rock in 1974, which
resulted in the founding of the International Indian
Treaty Council. At Standing Rock, more than 90 Native
Nations from around the world built the foundations of
what would become four decades of work at the United
Nations and the basis for the 2007 Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples.</p>
<figure class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_1260"
data-shortcode="caption"><img moz-reader-center="true"
alt="screen-shot-2016-09-18-at-1-06-43-am"
src="cid:part7.BEF14C3D.44F378A6@freedomarchives.org"
class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1260"><figcaption
class="wp-caption-text">The International Indian
Treaty Council, the international arm of the American
Indian Movement, was founded at Standing Rock in 1974.</figcaption></figure>
<p>The anti-colonial uprising taking place in Oceti
Sakowin treaty territory and spilling onto the world
stage was met with violent state repression. AIM leaders
were assassinated and many were imprisoned. For example,
Native leader Leonard Peltier, who participated in this
movement for the life and dignity of his people, to this
day sits behind bars as one of the longest serving
political prisoners in United States history. From 1977
to 2012 South Dakota’s prison population increased 500
percent. One-third of its prison population is Native,
although Natives make up only nine percent of the total
population.</p>
<p>With the advent of tarsands extraction and heavy crude
pipelines destroying water supplies and scorching the
earth, Natives and the Oceti Sakowin have once again
reunited. This unification first targeted tarsands and
pipeline construction in so-called Canada in First
Nations’ territory. Successful blockades have halted
pipelines. In 2014, the Oceti Sakowin began a massive
organizing effort, with help from allies, against the
Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline that, too, threatened to
cross the Missouri River. Our Nation is made up of some
of the poorest people in the Western hemisphere
organizing to oppose a fossil fuel industry made up of
some of the most powerful and wealthiest people on the
planet. Despite these odds KXL was defeated on November
6, 2015. After mass protests, the Obama administration
denied the pipeline’s permit.</p>
<p>Two important lessons were drawn from the KXL struggle
that were carried into #NoDAPL. The power of
multinational unity between Natives and non-Natives was
one of the movement’s successes. The other proved the
transformative power and potential of anti-colonial
resistance to successfully mobilize poor people against
the rich and powerful — and win!</p>
<figure class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_1264"
data-shortcode="caption"><img moz-reader-center="true"
alt="img_0719"
src="cid:part8.74BEFABF.BF262C74@freedomarchives.org"
class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1264"><figcaption
class="wp-caption-text">The Red Nation riders at the
#NoDAPL camp.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Like our ancestors’ wars of the nineteenth century, our
current war is also defensive — it is to protect water
and land from inevitable spoliation in the name of
profit. The #NoDAPL movement is explicitly nonviolent,
which accounts for its mass appeal to Native and
non-Native communities. In spite of this, political
violence as a tactic of state repression has emerged
against water protectors who engage in nonviolent direct
action to disrupt the construction of the pipeline <em>as
well as </em>those not engaged in direct actions.
Natives at or near camp — whether involved in direct
actions or not — are also targets for surveillance and
repression. The camp and the Standing Rock reservation
are under constant surveillance. The reason: Native
bodies stand between corporations and their money.
Halting the accumulation of capital, which in this
context is the exploitation of our river and lands, has
piqued settler ire and spite.</p>
<p>The prolonged peaceful encampment practices an
unsettling counter-sovereignty. It has drawn the support
and solidarity of more than 200 Native Nations and
countless thousands of allied forces sending a clear
message to corporate interests: North Dakota cannot
manage its Indians and the “Indian Problem” is out of
control. After all, controlling the “Indian Problem” has
always meant maintaining unrestricted access to Native
lands and resources and keeping Indians silent, out of
view, and factionalized. At Standing Rock, an unarmed,
nonviolent prayer camp poses such a serious threat to
settler proprietary claims that North Dakota Governor
Jack Dalrymple, who has direct ties to the oil and gas
industry, has deployed the full force of the Highway
Patrol and the National Guards. These forces are not
there to service an impoverished Native community or
protect the integrity of the land and river. They are
there to carry out the will of DAPL backers Energy
Transfer Partners, some of the richest and most powerful
people in the world who have used attack dogs against
unarmed, nonviolent water protectors. More than 60 have
been arrested, including journalists. Violent state
repression has not ceased.</p>
<figure class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_1267"
data-shortcode="caption"><img moz-reader-center="true"
alt="img_0915"
src="cid:part9.78528E7C.6C422994@freedomarchives.org"
class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1267"><figcaption
class="wp-caption-text">The #NoDAPL “United Nations”
of Native Nation flags</figcaption></figure>
<p>The Army Corps of Engineers, who maintains jurisdiction
over the river in violation of the 1854 and 1868 Fort
Laramie Treaties, claims it holds the final say about
whether the DAPL can cross the Missouri River. The
#NoDAPL encampment, in an exercise in Native
sovereignty, sits atop lands claimed by the Corps, who
only recently “permitted” the camp’s presence. On
September 9, the Department of Interior, the Department
of Justice, and the Corps also issued a joint statement
halting — for now — the construction of the pipeline
under the Missouri River as the Standing Rock Sioux
Tribe’s case against DAPL will be considered and
reviewed. This was a victory — a temporary halt of
construction at a key site — and proof that this enemy,
no matter how powerful, violent, or spiteful, too, can
be defeated if Native people refuse to back down and
continue to act in unity and cooperation. While
construction halted under the river, it continues
everywhere else. So too do direct actions. So too does
the peaceful encampment. And so too must our focus and
support on #NoDAPL. The encampment will remain until the
pipeline is completely defeated.</p>
<p>Oceti Sakowin and Native resistance, as it has for
centuries, will also continue until our common enemy is
defeated.</p>
<figure class="wp-caption alignnone"
id="attachment_media-25" data-shortcode="caption"><img
moz-reader-center="true" alt="IMG_0861.jpg"
src="cid:part10.0E2B000B.7C4837ED@freedomarchives.org"
class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1271"><figcaption
class="wp-caption-text">The Red Nation delegation at
the #NoDAPL camp</figcaption></figure>
<p>Early lessons from this ongoing struggle can be drawn
to help strategize future possibilities:</p>
<ul>
<li>The colonial state does not possess, and never has
possessed, the moral high ground. It defends corporate
access to Native lands and uses violence as a
political tactic to maintain its contested authority
over the land. The North Dakota National Guard has
never in its history been deployed in force against an
unarmed “domestic” population– until now. The National
Guard and the Highway Patrol protect corporate
interests and enforce the colonial state’s monopoly on
violence against the most vulnerable and marginalized
populations – Native people.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The prayer camp has galvanized multinational unity,
primarily mobilizing everyday people in defense of
Native sovereignty, self-determination, and treaty
rights.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Treaty rights, and by default Native sovereignty,
protect everyone’s rights. In this case, they protect
a vital fresh water source for millions – the Missouri
River.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>#NoDAPL anti-colonial struggle is profoundly
anti-capitalist. It is the frontline. It is the
future.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The profits that corporations like Energy Transfer
Corporation reap from colonial projects like the DAPL
should be seized and used to repair damage to the land
and river. With this also comes a long-term goal to
restore the Missouri River to its rightful protectors
– the Oceti Sakowin – and its natural path. This means
the Army Corps of Engineers must relinquish its claim
to the river and begin to demolish the Pick-Sloan dams
so that the river and its people may once again live.</li>
</ul>
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