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The Native Americans of the Standing Sioux tribe are in a lawsuit battle with an oil pipeline company on whether or not the company can drill a pipeline underneath the Missouri River. Last Friday, September 9, the federal judge ruled that the construction for the pipeline could continue despite the risk of the pipeline breaking. This protest has accumulated to be about a lot more than just water, but rather a test to see if Native Americans will be respected this time around.
The Native Americans and their supporters are protesting the pipeline because it will go under the Missouri River, their main source of clean water. The tribe makes the point of not wanting the pipeline to leak oil into the water, which would destroy the water.
News for Millennials related the acts of violence towards the Native American protesters to what protesters went through during the Jim Crow era. When the protesters attempted to block the construction site they were met with aggressive guards armed with pepper spray and ferocious German shepherd guard dogs biting at their faces and other body parts. The article also pointed out how this isn’t the first time Native Americans have protested for a cause, just the first time the media has actually taken a notice in it.
The New York Times explained just how big the protest really is. There are people in Southern North Dakota representing 280 tribes from different countries as well. There are people from Indigenous backgrounds that have traveled from Florida, California, New Zealand and Peru just to help with the protest. One of the tribe members from the Nakota and Kickapoo tribe in Kansas explains, “Many of our ways – our culture, our way of life, our spirituality, our language – we have slowly lost it, but I have seen a change. We’re trying to relearn it or to gain it back. And this coming together gives me hope that kids won’t have to fight as hard as my parents did, as I have” the Times reported.
The Huffington Post explained the situation on a more personal level reporting, “Since the beginning of the European invasion of North America, there has been a long drawn out ethnic cleansing occurring in this part of the world”.
It goes on to explain that Native Americans in America have had it horrible and the neglect continues to present day. The only Native Americans that survived back then were the ones that didn’t die from diseases, interment, starvation, forced marches and, most importantly, mass murder. The media in the past has ignored the Native Americans struggles but they can’t ignore this protest.