West River Eagle

OPINION: This is how I Picture It

Pipelines and quarterback


This weekend while the many contests of the annual Cheyenne River Labor Day Fair took place in Eagle Butte, a more provoking and dangerous contest of sorts was taking place in North Dakota north of Cannonball.


On Saturday, construction crews cut into the surface of the ground with bulldozers along the route of the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline. Just the day before, former Standing Rock Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Tim Mentz stated in court documents that in that same location, they had found several cultural and sacred features including burial locations.


In what seems to be an attempt to catch people while they may have been away and relaxing for the holiday weekend, the workers dozed their way through those burial locations along the route, destroying what was in their path. This had to have been done with malice in mind, since a private security firm armed with attack dogs accompanied those crews.

When the demonstrators rushed to the location to shut down the crews and protect the site (in a non-violent direct action method that they have been doing from the start), the security personnel turned the attack dogs on the protectors, injuring several people. Video of the confrontation also shows security guards pepper spraying people.


One videographer asked one guy holding a spray can what he just sprayed, he responded that he hadn’t sprayed anything, although video footage clearly contradicts his story.


Video footage also shows dog handlers voicing attack commands on their dogs as they lunged towards people. Individuals were using sticks and poles to defend themselves against the dogs.


Area newspapers and other news sources, reported that the security personnel were attacked by the “protestors” and told the story from a single point of view, the guards, clearly showing a bias against the protestors. Video clearly shows that the security guards were the provoking aggressive party. The news reports state that some security personnel needed to be transported to hospitals and treated because of the incident. What the report doesn’t show, but video does show, is that those same dogs turned and attacked their own handlers.


From the very start of the Sacred Stone and Spirit Camp, organizers have maintained and stressed a peaceful non-violent approach. Yet they are constantly being portrayed as the aggressor’s when all they want is for the water to be safe and clean for future generations. Water is life; whether we are red, white, black, or yellow, we all need and deserve safe, clean drinking water. Whatever side of the issue you are own, that is the one uniting fact, our bodies need water.


No matter how many times proponents say pipelines are the safest way to transport oil, I’m not instilled with a lot of confidence in North Dakota. North Dakota does not have the best safety record as far as oil spills go. Millions of gallons of oil and contaminated water have already spilled across North Dakota during the oil boom. The North Dakota governor uses the fact that the state has little regulatory oversight to prompt business developers into the state.


In spite of all this, there is a large number of people across the region that have a ‘don’t care’ attitude who have also been vocal supporters of the pipeline.


Tens of thousands of North and South Dakotans live along the Missouri River and depend on the ‘Big Muddy’ for their everyday drinking water and livelihoods. From farmers who irrigate, to towns like Mobridge who thrive on the world classing fishing economy, an oil spill could have devastating effects down river from the site.


This isn’t just a native issue, everybody has a stake in this whether he or she acknowledges that fact or not.


To watch that footage is heartbreaking. To know that money means more than lives is a sad testament to greed. Not seeing everybody up in arms is even a sadder testimony. When people are more worried about whether an NFL quarterback stands up or sits down for the national anthem than our future water supply, I’m scared to see the direction we are going as the human race.



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