Yesterday, over 500 Water Protectors marched to the location where the Dakota Access pipeline company bulldozed thru a sacred site that included grave markers on Saturday, Sept 3rd.
This was a collective peace action that reflects the truest intent of this movement and struggle, the necessity to protect and defend the sacred.
As Oceti Sakowin people, our relationship to the land and water is the foundation of our identity. Dakota Access literally plowed through a burial site and a significant ceremonial site that was JUST identified by the landowner and tribal experts a few days before. This was off-reservation. The tribe filed the discovery with a federal judge that is deciding whether to grant an injunction against Dakota Access.
However...in order for construction to be halted, the ND State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) had to come and officially survey the site, because it was in their jurisdiction. So what did Dakota Access do?? They plowed through the land before the SHPO could come do their surveys.
Understand this, we will stop this pipeline. But the struggle to protect the land, water and our communities is more than just the physical, it's also a spiritual struggle. That is why we chose to take this moment yesterday to have prayer for the land and ancestors that were disturbed.
Our resistance is based on love for our people and the land, not out of hate for others. We utilize peaceful direct action to demonstrate our will and led with the original instructions our ancestors have left for us.
#NoDAPL #NoPipelines #DefendTheSacred #WaterIsLife #KeepItInTheGroundYou can follow the fight here: https://www.facebook.com/CampOfTheSacredStone/
You can donate to the tribe here: www.standingrock.org
You can donate to our legal defense fund here: https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/d19fAf
Credit:Dallas Goldtooth Photo:Delight LaMere