A good report here on a small faction that is not keeping with the intent of the Sioux (Lakota, Dakota, Nakota) wishes of a peaceful protest using prayer.

It is absolutely stunning to me that these folks come to this, and then ignore the wishes of the very folks they say they are *helping*.   It is disrespectful.  It is arrogant and rude.  The negative energy of anger can be turned into a positive if used in a positive manner.

Being humble is one of the values of the Lakota, Nakota, Dakota, so those acting in such ways are not in keeping with being humble nor respectful nor patient.  They want immediate action and answers, but prayer is a request from God, not a demand.

 

**edited to add:  just wanted to add that the title of the report is somewhat misleading.  The police were dressed in riot gear and had billy clubs plus the armored vehicle loooong before this when all we were doing was praying and singing and saying “water is life”.

 

 

 

I have to give Jack Healy credit in that he at least included a Native American’s view on this…but most of the piece was slanted towards Big Oil and the Sheriff.  They repeatedly portray the peaceful demonstrations as riots, when they were not.  Singing and praying do not constitute a riot.

Last week, he and 49 other demonstrators decided to link arms and sit together by the overturned earth where the Dakota Access pipeline is slated to go. They were on what the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe considers sacred ancestral land, but from a legal perspective, it is owned by the pipeline company.

If this were based on LAW, then the land most definitely belongs to the Sioux…via the 1851 TREATY (Law!!) that gave them that land!

Well…that’s rather inconvenient, isn’t it??

Officials wrote numbers on their arms — his was 4838, he says — and held them overnight in cages in a parking garage, men and women separated by a plastic tarp.

Dehumanization…classic tactic to turn the public’s view against *others*.  If they’re not seen as human, there is more inclination to turn one’s head when they are harmed.

They spent the night singing and praying.

Powerful.   This is what the Dark side hates the most — IT really wants to break the connection to God, the Creator, but it’s hard to break the spirit of the Native tribes.

He sees out-of-state protesters occupying federal land and trespassing on private ranches. He sees tense confrontations, lost days off and threats to his fellow officers.

What does the comment *out of state protestors* have to do with anything??  Aren’t we all Americans?  Don’t we all drink water?  Doesn’t the Missouri River flow along many, many states where the occupants will be severely affected if they cannot drink the water??

If there are any lost days off (whine much?)…then that is the fault of the sheriff who has overreacted to protectors.  I never saw ANYONE threaten an officer and I would not be part of such an action, either. I would walk away if anyone started that.

“I’m the son of farmers, and we worked hard for everything we have,” he says.

So have the Native Americans.

For over 10,000 years, they CULTIVATED this beautiful land.  What the Europeans saw as a jungle was in fact a carefully cultivated ecosystem full of bounty because they only took what they needed.  And they left the oil in the Earth.  If one wants to see what America looked like before the plunder and pollution, one only needs to go to a National Park to stare in awe at the great beauty and wonderful ecosystems apparent by the diversity of animal life there.

Every time we’ve been out, we’ve seen weapons. People screaming down this road at 100 miles per hour.

Gee, did your pastor father teach you to lie like that??  Thou shalt not bear false witness, deputy, or have you forgotten that one?

Nobody had any weapons!!  And you notice that the writer didn’t bother to ask the deputy what exactly he considered a weapon?  Rattles?  Feathers? Drum?  (*snort*)

And we did not go 100 mi per hour down the roads.  That would have been impossible given they were unpaved roads!

Again, they were saying it was a riot when we were only singing and praying.  Prayer is only a threat to the Dark side.

 

 

This is freaking awesome!  🙂

For those unaware of the history, the buffalo is a sacred animal.  The Native Americans were able to survive harsh winters due to their gifts of meat, fur (warmth), fat and other useful parts.  The Natives used every part of the Buffalo, and as you might recall, they gave thanks to the animal for giving itself so they could live.

According to Pretty Shield, a Crow Medicine Woman, who lived in the transition time between free Indian to reservation Indian, she said before the heartless slaughter of the bison, the Native folk had plenty to eat.  This is contrary to popular myth that the Indians were starving.  They only began starving when the buffalo was nearly wiped out.   Then they were forced to accept rations of food from forts when they could no longer support themselves according to their customs of over 10,000 years.

Related to this, I was thinking about a nearby town that has the most beautiful creek that is crystal clear.  I mean, it appears that somehow this creek escaped pollution.  It was sooo inviting that I had to take a drink from it.  Can you imagine?  Drinking from a creek or river?  If the Natives were still stewards of the land, you would still be able to drink to your heart’s content without worry.

We just can’t keep polluting the water expecting that we can magically take the contaminants out.  Time has proven over and over that it is difficult if not impossible to return water back to pristine condition.  In fact, the creek I mention is the only body of water that I have ever seen so clear.

And when I first crossed the Missouri River, I was amazed at its size.  And that it is not as muddy and polluted as the Mississippi.  It still has a chance, folks.  It still has a chance.  Unless it is polluted with oil…and we all know that pipeline will leak eventually, when the company will escape responsibility while the taxpayer foots the bill for cleanup (but we all know cleanup is a wink and nod to appear to restore it, but just hiding it, as in corexit used in the oil spill of the Gulf).

 

 

Sigh.

Upon arrival, the police forces, armed with military-style weapons and vehicles, aggressively closed in on protesters, beating and pepper spraying men, women, youth, and elders. Injuries were reported by people on the frontline, as peaceful demonstrators were tackled and separated from their groups. The police squads continued to push back with batons and assault rifles. A large number of ‘protectors’ headed back to the camping site, after being told that they were going to be arrested if they stayed. When they attempted to leave, however, they found that the police had encircled the area, trapping them, and began arresting every single individual on sight.

 

This was also the case across from the courthouse in Mandan when Amy Goodman was there.  The police had placed vehicles on either side of the demonstrators as they prayed and chanted “Water is Life”.  Nobody had threatened them, but they had on helmets and billy clubs.  More here with video of the day after DAPL plowed through burial sites after they were told they were burial sites.  They continually videotaped the demonstrators, sweeping up and down the line; and when they realized the demonstrators were also videotaping them, at least one put a scarf over half of his face.

In addition to the group of civilians arrested, police rounded up journalists and reporters, prompting accusations that they have actively attempted to stifle the freedom of the press, protected under the First Amendment.

Amy Goodman being one of them.  However, as she was speaking to the crowd, several of the Native folk asked her about what happens to them?  Will her attorneys help them get the charges dropped…?  She did not address their questions.

Here is a Native perspective on the protest.

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 the residents of Bismarck, North Dakota. When Bismarck’s population — which is over 90 percent white — objected to the risks the pipeline posed to their drinking water, their concerns were accommodated, and the pipeline route was shifted into treaty lands.

This is huge.  And I’m sure that police didn’t show up in riot gear and using helicopters, attack dogs,  pepper spray, and ear-splitting noise devices to force the white population to acquiesce.

It is really shameful to do this to the Native folk.

And it’s not lost on me that Indiana is now  sending police to quell the public’s 1st Amendment right to freedom of speech, assembly, religion, and the press.

 

 

 

The pipeline completion under the Missouri river is right where the protectors are planted.  Things are heating up — here is a live news feed:  http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/live-updates-from-the-dakota-access-pipeline-protests-oct-27/

Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier and other law-enforcement officials confronted protesters at their new camp Wednesday, requesting that the demonstrators remove their roadblock on Highway 1806 and their camp on private property.

The protesters refused.

Again…blocking a road is NONVIOLENT.  It is being blocked because they are tearing up 1851 treaty land that belongs to the tribe.  Their ancestors are buried under this ground.

As a side note~  I learned that they are not allowed to have their own chickens so they can provide for themselves and their families. I asked if this was a tribal thing or a Federal rule.  It was Federal.

No free range eggs or meat unless purchased.

…but cattle ranchers are free to raise beef in the same way that chickens would be raised.

Things that make you go hmmm…

 

I’m just wanting to keep this in the front.  There is no reason, with all the Big Brother cameras in the city, that his murderers could evade being caught.

So…why haven’t they been caught…?

More on Jack Wheeler here.