…figuratively and literally…

We have been using showers located some miles from camp.  I have felt uneasy the last time I went — they are located in a remote area where anything could happen.

So…today I went and there was a security guard there (there wasn’t one before) who stopped us and wrote down our license plate numbers.  I asked why, and he stated that he was getting a count.  Really?  You need to write down my license plate in order to count me?

It made me really nervous with the outright lies about us protectors that it was yet another way to intimidate us or even surround us (given that they were going to box us in at the protests).

So…I’m begging for someone to send materials for solar showers so that we don’t have to leave camp to wash.

And thank you, thank you, thank you, for sending materials I asked for yesterday.  I’m already seeing some things arriving.  Bless you, Bless you, Bless you.

 

Here’s a good article on what is going on with the protectors and how many have died trying to protect the environment.

John Denver has been on my mind recently.  If you recall, this blog, sunlight on the water, was named after his song “Sunshine on my shoulders”

 

John Denver was an environmentalist.  He was outspoken about it and you can see it in the wonderful way he expresses it in his songs.  “Annie’s Song” is a favorite because it is so romantic, but also because he expresses how I feel when I shut out the world and connect with nature.

John Denver’s plane went down, tragically ending his life.  Witnesses have stated that the plane did a nose dive, as if the fuel had been cut off abruptly.  Of course, they blame pilot error for the plane going down.  Now, with the viciousness against environmentalists, and known murders of environmentalists, I am wondering if John wasn’t murdered, too.

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A side note~  I was sitting in my car, looking across the camp, when it suddenly hits me that the tipi, from a distance, looks like the masculine and feminine in balance.  I probably have read that in the literature by Natives, but I can’t recall it off the top of my head.  It just struck me as I looked at the perfect balance between the top and the bottom, representing masculine and feminine influence.  Neat.

 

Okay, to go a little more in-depth about the protest Wednesday–

Intimidation is the name of the game with infraction of one’s First Amendment right to Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Assembly, Freedom of Religion…and on and on.

The yellow helicopter was back, flying over us, back and forth from the front to the back.  Just imagine if the money spent on the pilot’s wages and jet fuel were used to help others instead of wasting it on intimidating water protectors?

It was a wonderful day with a positive protest.  As I said, the Native folk were drumming and singing prayers and the positive energy was strong.  However, I felt such negative energy coming from the police that I literally had to back away.

They had the road blocked, and then had officers spread out beyond the vehicles so that there was no way for us to pass and protest at the worksite.

They eventually brought out the riot gear, complete with those plastic face masks.  I kid you not.  We were not threatening, but chanting “water is life” and praying.  Praying!  Like I said, you are in the wrong line of work if words and prayers are threatening.  They stood there with billy clubs reading to start beating on someone…

They sat in vehicles and  held up cameras at every turn we made.

They had police cars along the route. And an armored vehicle.

It was just so over the top that I can’t begin wrap my brain around it.  Update 9.16.22– in retrospect, I now know that many of the armed forces there were being influenced by Israel and others involved in secret societies.  Time has opened some eyes to what was behind the scenes.

In the sixties,  the youth threw bottles, bricks, and sticks, and none of that was going on.  For them to act like we were violent is a bold-faced lie. The lying media was probably paid to be drama queens.

Meanwhile, there were police from Grand Forks and other locales.  As the previous post stated, they are apparently calling in sheriffs deputies from all around the country because Federal help is not coming.  Good for Barack Obama.

With all of that said, I have to say that I don’t want to paint the police with a broad brush.  I know that there are some good guys and gals who are in the police departments.  I personally know an FBI agent that I knew as a young girl who is on our side.  He believes in what we are doing.  I just felt I needed to say that.

Okay, so I asked what the camp needs because it looks like this is going to go through the winter.  Winters here are very harsh — with minus 40 windchills and snows of two feet or more not uncommon.

Kitchen needs:

PLEASE SEND THEM TO THE ATTENTION OF KEI (pronounced Kay)

Large stainless steel pots (restaurant size)

Large cast iron skillets (restaurant size)

Stainless steel soup ladles and large spoons

Sharp knives

Giant wok

Fresh fruit, veggies, greens AND  FAIR TRADE CHOCOLATE (Okay, she didn’t ask for that. Ahem.)

Tortillas (blue corn would be great)

Hot sauce

Sunflower, Avocado, Olive, Coconut, and Walnut oils

Butter (from grass fed animals would be great)

Breakfast bars/Clif bars

Nut butters (coconut manna would be welcome by yours truly 🙂

Meat — grass fed

Bacon (no nitrites, thank you)

Nuts

Brown sugar

Honey (raw would be great, but anything is needed)

Dried Fruit

Thermoses (stainless steel)

Milk (from grass fed animals would be great)

Bread

Eggs (free range would be great)

Sliced cheese

Lunch meats

Spices

Other needs for winter preparedness:

Generators (prefer solar)

Stable shelter (tipis would be great)

Off – grid hot water heaters

Automatic can opener (to be used with generator)

heavy duty shelves

Winter stable greenhouse (perhaps used wood window panes over a wood structure?)

Winter stable showers (solar)

Wool blankets (please, no smallpox or other biological weapon inserted) , wool socks, long underwear, snowpants, waterproof boots

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Lastly, I have to tell you about an amazing event on the way to the protest site–

We were driving down a road, and there were 10 or 12 horses running free.  They all ran up to the fence that was parallel to the road. All at the same time.  I have never seen anything like it.  I’ve seen one or two trot up to the fence to see the humans passing by, but never all of them at full speed running up to a fence.  They stood there and watched us pass.  Then, as I got to them, they took off running at a full gallop.  It was a stunning and thrilling sight to see them running free with their manes flowing in the wind.  I thought that it was a good sign.

And I felt my Dad’s presence again before we took off for the protest trip.  Very positive

🙂

I thought I’d add a little behind-the-scenes post —

I have met some wonderful people here with such good hearts and commitment!

I don’t want to name names, but an older lady who puts me to shame with her activism.  She said that she had blocked liquor trucks from making a delivery to a Nebraska town that has nothing but liquor stores…it is right across from Pine Ridge and they are doing their best to finish the job with genocide-by-bottle.

She said she and young mothers with babies in strollers stood in the roadway when they saw a booze delivery truck coming down the road.  The truck driver saw the human blockade and did a U-turn.  She said she knew that the truck would be back yet another day, but for that day, it was a victory.

~~~~~~~~~~

I can’t tell you how thrilling it was to see tipis planted all over the landscape as one comes over the hill.  They try to say the culture is dead…but evidence proves otherwise.  Folks are staying in their tipis as their ancestors did.  No running water.  Outhouses.  (Although I think they did not have outhouses, but just went where it was customary for the village).

Some have horses and use them for transportation.  It is another thrill to see them galloping at full speed through camp.  It makes me want a pony all over again (I begged for a horse as a kid).

~~~~~~~~~~

I have a downer, though, of the youth.  I have felt this for awhile, but especially see how much we Boomers dropped the ball.  The youth have even less of a clue about the environment than my generation did.

I told one that we used to bring our own table service (plates, forks, knives, cups, napkins) to get-togethers.  And then we took them home and washed them ourselves.  He was stunned by this.  Oy.  We really dropped the ball on that one — there is no need to ever use freaking styrofoam when we can just wash our own dishes after using them.  It is really sad that we have lost so much progress and awareness of what we are doing to the environment.

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So my tent is a thin shield from the elements.  This is a good thing and this is a bad thing. The good thing is that I feel close to Mother Earth and there is comfort in that.  The bad thing is that it’s only Fall and I am freezing at night with a warm camping bag, two blankets, and a very warm comforter.  And I am having hot flashes like nobody’s business where I am pulling covers off of me, drenched in sweat, and then get chilled to the bone when the hot flash is over and the sweat turns cold.  Oy.  Who says God doesn’t have a sense of humor?

The first night in the tent was very uneasy.  You realize that there is little protection between you and nature.  There are coyotes yapping in the middle of the night.  The cows moo every so often.  I realize that I am just a city girl who had a little bit of outdoors training in Girl Scouts…but it was woefully inadequate and many moons ago.

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A portrait of Sitting Bull is across the room and he is looking directly at me.  I think I see a tiny bit of a smile. 🙂

 

 

 

 

October 3rd.  (How bad or good is it that I have totally lost time being with nature?  I had to go look up the date..haha.)

Okay….so I participated in yesterday’s protest of DAPL.  I really didn’t know what to expect because of what had been happening to the folks here on other protests.  I thought I was just going to come to lend my physical support and pray for them and for turning it around to live more sustainably.

Nope.  I was given nudges here and there and had to once again step outside my comfort zone and at least give it a try.

And while I was waiting in line to begin our journey, I felt my Dad’s presence for a beautiful moment.  He was happy I was going.

Now, you have to know my Dad to know how HUGE this was!  My Dad, being a Republican, was a Nixon man, you see, and he would go on and on about the hippies during the 1960s.  He and my brothers would get into arguments about long hair…even though their hair really wasn’t that long.

Anyway, I’m sitting there in my car, and my Dad’s spirit came to me with such warmth to let me know that protecting the water was important.  He was letting me know he was proud of me.

I would have done it without Dad’s approval, but it was a special moment.

So, we pulled out onto the highway, and then began dirt roads in the country.  Immediately, the yellow helicopter that zigzag wrote about in the prior posts was following us.

Back and Forth it went — from the front of the line clear to the back and side to side.  It flew over my car several times.  It has also flown over my tent in camp — circling two or three times.

We drove for an hour, and then headed back to camp.  Apparently, there were five work sites and the workers were warned we were coming and that there were a lot of us.  We counted 111 cars in the convoy.

I found out after we got back that just as we were leaving to return back to camp, there was a line of police cars headed our way.  They were going to surround us and box us in.

I cannot state strongly enough how disappointed and depressed I am about the militarized actions here.

They have an “information point” between here and Mandan, a city about 30 miles north. This information point has cement barracades so that motorists must leave the right side of the highway, zig to the left, and then zag to the right to get around them.

It’s not just National Guard, either, as there are usually police and sheriff vehicles there.  The guys there are usually friendly…but yeah, it is still intimidating.

On my way to Mandan this afternoon, there were two police cars at a veterans cemetary, and they both followed me into Mandan.

Two police cars for a nonthreatening, nonviolent grandmother.

On the other side of the encampment, towards the south, is a well-equipped communications RV  (that looks like a media truck I recall during the Indiana Dept of Health clinic held in Marion, IND, for the hepatitis globulin clinic. It bugs me and I don’t understand why right now, but wanted to put it out there.).  This communications RV had “United Command” painted in huge letters on its side.  It sends chills down my spine.

So…we have police cars, SUVs, the helicopters flying over (sounds like Vietnam, folks)…for nonviolent protectors of our water.

Am I in Nazi Germany or what??

This isn’t just about North Dakota, either.  Indiana puts 15 million pounds of toxins into the waterways every single year.  They allow BP to put 2 pounds of mercury into Lake Michigan every year (but, c’mon, we know that they are most likely putting more in there).  But no one in Indiana is willing to do what the Natives here are doing — putting their lives on the line.

The traditional Natives don’t look at the land or water as a commodity.  It is a gift from the Creator.

And they see it as something they have to take care of to hand over to their children and grandchildren and their children…

So this grandmother is doing this for her children and grandchildren and the generations to come after that.  We keep poisoning water and land and air telling ourselves that there is clean water, air, and land *over there*…but there is no *over there* any more.

As we came back from the protest yesterday, I saw a huge buffalo herd with moms and dads and babies enjoying the grass.  And on the Cannonball River, a beautiful crane plunked its feet into the water.  Horses bent their heads down to drink the water.

So much depends on water.  Life depends on water.

God Bless all of us fighting the good fight.   satan  is hard at work here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…it is not necessarily a good thing…

My  post on May 4, 1970:  https://sunlightonthewater.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/four-dead-in-ohio/

The students were throwing rocks and half bricks at the guardsmen.

From what I have been seeing on the nooz, they are trying to make it criminal for any protest at all.