<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div id="container" class="container font-size5 content-width3">
<div id="reader-header" class="header" style="display: block;"> <font
size="-2"><a id="reader-domain" class="domain"
href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/how-to-talk-about-standing-rock-20161028">http://www.yesmagazine.org/how-to-talk-about-standing-rock-20161028</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Remember This When You Talk About Standing
Rock by Kelly Hayes <br>
</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">Kelly Hayes posted Oct
28, 2016</div>
</div>
<div class="content">
<div id="moz-reader-content" class="line-height4"
style="display: block;">
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page"
xml:base="http://www.yesmagazine.org/how-to-talk-about-standing-rock-20161028">
<div class=""
id="parent-fieldname-text-507ab7ef9c314b61808c252091ec4f91">
<div class="_1mf _1mj">
<p>This piece is very personal because, as an Indigenous
woman, my analysis is very personal, as is the
analysis that my friends on the frontlines have shared
with me. We obviously can’t speak for everyone
involved, as Native beliefs and perspectives are as
diverse as the convictions of any people. But as my
friends hold strong on the frontlines of Standing
Rock, and I watch transfixed with both pride and
worry, we feel the need to say a few things.</p>
<p>I’ve been in and out of communication with my friends
at Standing Rock all day. As you might imagine, as
much as they don’t want me to worry, it’s pretty hard
for them to stay in touch. I asked if there was
anything they wanted me to convey on social media, as
most of them are maintaining a very limited presence
on such platforms. The following is my best effort to
summarize what they had to say, and to chime in with a
few corresponding thoughts of my own.</p>
<p>It is crucial that people recognize that Standing
Rock is part of an ongoing struggle against colonial
violence. <span class="_5u8n">#NoDAPL</span> is a
front of struggle in a long-erased war against Native
peoples — a war that has been active since first
contact, and waged without interruption. Our efforts
to survive the conditions of this anti-Native society
have gone largely unnoticed because white supremacy is
the law of the land, and because we, as Native people,
have been pushed beyond the limits of public
consciousness.</p>
</div>
<div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj">
<p>The fact that we are more likely to be killed by
law enforcement than any other group speaks to the
fact that Native erasure is ubiquitous, both
culturally and literally, but pushed from public
view. Our struggles intersect with numerous others,
but are perpetrated with different motives and
intentions. Anti-Blackness, for example, is a
performative enforcement of structural power,
whereas the violence against us is a matter of
pragmatism. The struggle at Standing Rock is an
effort to prevent the construction of a deadly,
destructive mechanism, created by greed-driven
people with no regard for our lives. It has always
been this way. We die, and have died, for the sake
of expansion and white wealth, and for the
maintenance of both.</p>
<p>The harms committed against us have long been
relegated to the history books. This erasure has
occurred for the sake of both white supremacy and US
mythology, such as American exceptionalism. It has
also been perpetuated to sustain the comfort of
those who benefit from harms committed against us.
Our struggles have been kept both out of sight and
out of mind — easily forgotten by those who aren’t
directly impacted.</p>
<p>It should be clear to everyone that we are not
simply here in those rare moments when others bear
witness.</p>
<p>To reiterate (what should be obvious): We are not
simply here when you see us.</p>
<p>We have always been here, fighting for our lives,
surviving colonization, and that reality is rarely
acknowledged. Even people who believe in freedom
frequently overlook our issues, as well as the
intersections of their issues with our own. It
matters that more of the world is bearing witness in
this historic moment, but we feel the need to point
out that the dialogue around <span class="_5u8n">#NoDAPL</span> has
become extremely climate oriented. Yes, there is an
undeniable connectivity between this front of
struggle and the larger fight to combat climate
change. We fully recognize that all of humanity is
at risk of extinction, whether they realize it or
not. But intersectionality does not mean focusing
exclusively on the intersections of our respective
work.</p>
<p>It sometimes means taking a journey well outside
the bounds of those intersections.</p>
<p>In discussing #NoDAPL, too few people have started
from a place of naming that we have a right to
defend our water and our lives, simply because we
have a natural right to defend ourselves and our
communities. When “climate justice”, in a very broad
sense, becomes the center of conversation, our
fronts of struggle are often reduced to a staging
ground for the messaging of NGOs.</p>
<p>This is happening far too frequently in public
discussion of <span class="_5u8n">#NoDAPL</span>.</p>
<p>Yes, everyone should be talking about climate
change, but you should also be talking about the
fact that Native communities deserve to survive,
because our lives are worth defending in their own
right — not simply because “this affects us all.”</p>
<p>So when you talk about Standing Rock, please begin
by acknowledging that this pipeline was redirected
from an area where it was most likely to impact
white people. And please remind people that our
people are struggling to survive the violence of
colonization on many fronts, and that people
shouldn’t simply engage with or retweet such stories
when they see a concrete connection to their own
issues — or a jumping off point to discuss their own
issues. Our friends, allies and accomplices should
be fighting alongside us because they value our
humanity and right to live, in addition to whatever
else they believe in.</p>
<p>Every Native at Standing Rock — every Native on
this continent — has survived the genocide of a
hundred million of our people. That means that every
Indigenous child born is a victory against
colonialism, but we are all born into a fight for
our very existence. We need that to be named and
centered, which is a courtesy we are rarely
afforded.</p>
<p>This message is not a condemnation. It’s an ask.</p>
<p>We are asking that you help ensure that dialogue
around this issue begins with and centers a
discussion of anti-Native violence and policies, no
matter what other connections you might ultimately
make, because those discussions simply don’t happen
in this country. There obviously aren’t enough
people talking about climate change, but there are
even fewer people — and let’s be real, far fewer
people — discussing the various forms of violence we
are up against, and acting in solidarity with us.
And while such discussions have always been
deserved, we are living in a moment when Native
water protectors and water warriors have more than
earned both acknowledgement and solidarity.</p>
<p>So if you have been with us in this fight, we
appreciate you. But we are reaching out, right now,
in these brave days for our people, and asking that
you keep the aforementioned truths front and center
as you discuss this effort. This moment is, first
and foremost, about Native liberation, self
determination and Native survival. That needs to be
centered and celebrated.</p>
<p>Thanks,</p>
<p>K and friends</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>