“Standing Rock is part of an ongoing struggle against colonial violence.” The nonndigenous culture tends to think of Native Americans from a purely historical perspective because of their struggle for their rights and land ownership. As we know from our history books, dominant white society diminished Native Americans to the margins and continues to take their possessions out of their wants. The North Dakota Dakota Access Pipeline article by Ifeoma Oluo, an author of the Guardian, mentions that Native Americans fighting the battle for justice in a government stacked against them, as well as, mentioning African-Americans are in the same battle to withstand any more disrespect and brutally from the white dominance. Published on September 2016, …show more content…
Oil companies failed to recognize that there is already a community living at the Standing Rock reservation, who are dependent on its water and land to survive. They were only interested in the future outcomes the pipeline will bring to the local community. Oluo felt reporting about the Standing Rock protesting to Americans will encourage support whenever in America and to donate whatever they can to help Native Americans to fight for their home. The author is speaking to America as a whole to understand the recent protests and its effects on minorities. She believes all citizens of America should be aware of such events occurring in their community and to stand in solidarity to help the unheard to seek justice and have freedom. But, Oluo also emphasized the struggles minorities has endured in America by referring back to known history such as mentioning the Civil Rights Movement and the first colonization in Americans by Europeans. In this case, the real message was to enlighten America to rethink their attitudes toward minorities, to look at such things as wrong and to stand in solidarity for those voices are silent. However, it seems as if she is speaking to the dominant white society and proving to them that Native Americans will fight for their rights …show more content…
Even it if seems that they have it Native Americans and Black Americans are minorities that Dr subdued by the white minority's based on the complexion of their skin. Throughout the Guardian Article, Oluo emphasized the importance of the Standing Rock protesting to Native America as a way to tell America, specifically the white society, that this is the last time indigent people's will do nothing. Oluo includes anecdotes to further explain how the DAPL will affect not only the Standing Rock Native tribe but to the whole country. Her focal points are that the dominant white society has taken others’ possessions based on their wants. Native people will take a stand in solidarity to never allow DAPL in their land, and that not only Native Americans are fighting this battle. In past history, African Americans endured harassment and prejudice from the years of slavery to the Civil Rights Movement. Their goal is to find freedom in their homes and acceptance by others. The author did speak about African Americans and its relevance in the Black Lives matter protests, but did not go in depth as much to tell the background and overview for the audience to be aware of the movement. Oluo may have assumed already that everyone knows about the movement and its rising population. Another thing Oluo should have done is to add a reference from a high authority or a
Not just for Native Americans but for blacks, Muslims, Jews, and others, but even now we are dealing with Native American invasion and taking their land again, this time known as the Dakota Pipeline which is currently going on in North Dakota. The Dakota Pipeline is a large oil transmitting pipe that supplies oil across the United States but will be built on protected Native American land. The contractors have taken a look and have said that the pipeline would be a significant amount away from their land, but would be built under their water supply from Lake Oahe and would be at the closest 95 feet under the lake. But the Standing Rock Sioux haven't given up hope they have burought up that there have been over 3,300 incidents in which pipes have had leaks that have affected the environment drinking water and much more. The contractors have said that they have taken extreme precautions and have safety tested everything the Sioux aren't going to take any chances. Even as the Sioux and over 50 other tribes have protested there have been no clear winner of the battle on the Dakota Pipeline. The tribes have been protesting for months and though few have gotten violent many Natives and others with them have been arrested and thrown in jail, which is just another way people can attack the Native People to this
Humans need fresh water to live a healthy life. However, the Dakota Access Pipeline may take away the fresh water from the people who live downstream of the Missouri River and people at the Standing Rock Sioux. This will affect 8 million people downstream, this pipeline is an oil pipeline that will allow America to export oil cost efficiently. The Dakota Access Pipeline is approximately 1,172 miles 30- inch diameter pipeline that will start from North Dakota to Illinois. This pipeline has sponsors from 17 companies including 4 Japanese banks. However, the mass media companies had ignored topics related to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Until recently a famous actress Shailene Woodley got arrested for trespassing the area. However, this is not
The native Americans of north America have long suffered from structural violence ever since the arrival of the European immigrants and suffer today in the situation of the North Dakota pipeline. The current situation regarding the Access pipeline is that it is running through properties belonging to the native American people without their consent. The problems that are pipeline could create are very similar to those that affect Lubicon people in Canada today. But the more important issue here is not the pipeline itself but the historical structural violence against natives that created this issue.
For many Native Americans like Chief Laduke say, “This is a place the creator gave us. This is the only place in the word that is ours.” Native Americans are the true lovers of nature and have an indefinite love for their land. Native Americans have announced that the Dakota Access Pipeline disrespects their culture and their lost loved ones. “The tribe has even sued Army Corps of Engineers for permitting a project that violated the National Historic Preservation Act(NHPA) and the National Environmental Preservation Act(NEPA)” says TIME. This event proves that the pipeline is unjustified and is legally against Native American rights when destroying sacred land. The “National Geographic Channel” also states, “Many tribes members are concerned about burial grounds being disturbed during construction because bulldozers have already removed topsoil on ground that members consider sacred.” The importance of sacred land to Native Americans is significant. Moreso, there is already damage being done before the actual construction. Therefore, it cannot be determined the damage that will be done during the installment of the pipeline. “Those echoes from the land have a power that draws people, allowing them to connect with their roots.” (CNN.com) The importance of land goes in hand with the importance to tradition. Areas that were once having tribal ceremonies in 1713 such as the sundance are currently still used
American Indians are being treated in atrocious, illegal, and terrifying mater, while peacefully trying to protect water for all of us. On the Other side of this battle, sits Energy Transfer Partners who fund the Dakota Access Pipeline, the real outlaws. This is part of a bigger picture, Native American lands are under threat, and being stolen.. Now is the time that we must fight this if we don't our future is threatened. This is more than about water, but the bigger threat of climate change. This is a story of courage, culture, environmental protection, climate change, and the real world danger facing all of us.
Native American people have been mistreated in a variety of ways throughout their long history with the white man. They have been slaughtered, poisoned, attacked, and had treaties violated. The most recent injustice is the conflict over the Dakota Access Pipeline. There are many striking similarities between the events at the Dakota Access Pipeline and the events of Wounded Knee in 1973. History is nearly repeating itself, but there is a difference in how the conflict is being viewed by the American masses.
Thesis: The U.S. should stop the production of the North Dakota Access Pipeline because it would break the contract made over a hundred years with the Native Americans, it violates the ninth amendment, and it is not environmentally safe.
The U.S government's relationship with Native Americans has been nothing but hate and disrespect for centuries long and Donald Trump certainly doesn't understand that to many Native Americans, the issue with the Dakota Access Pipeline being built isn't just enviromental, it's also about the religious background the reservation serves. Land is an extremely important part of Native Americans religion, as most tribes have bonds with their sacred lands. My family is apart of the Naskapi-Innu tribe, so when the Standing Rock Reservation said “Americans know this pipeline was unfairly rerouted towards our nation and without our consent,” (BBC.com 3), I could fully relate. Instead of President Trump stressing about how many jobs the pipeline may bring,
Over the past few months’ highlights of the Sioux Native American protest in North Dakota have been prevalent in the news. Though many pieces have touched upon the reasons why the Standing Rock Sioux have been protesting such as the Dakota Access Pipeline, many articles have been opinion based and failed to relay the facts surrounding the issue of it’s construction. In an attempt to understand the situation and gain factual information surrounding the pipeline and the Standing Rock Sioux, I interviewed Professor Ron Ferguson who has followed the situation from it’s beginning.
The North Dakota Access Pipeline will span from the Bakken, North Dakota to southern Illinois. The Standing Rock Sioux reservation opposes the pipeline because they believe that it goes through sacred land. The Sioux tribe also opposes the pipeline because it will cross the Missouri River twice, which is the reservations main water source. They believe that the pipeline may contaminate the Missouri River, but the pipeline company claims that the pipeline is the safest method to transfer the oil. I believe that this is a tough topic to form an opinion on, but I will hopefully explain my stance on this issue throughout this essay.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe currently fights to save its only water source from natural gas and oil contamination. This troubling current event has a somewhat forgotten historical analogue where very similar themes presented themselves. The Kinzua Dam Controversy, which took place in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, resulted in the displacement of over 600 Seneca Indian families and the acquisition of a large tract of traditional Seneca Land for dam building. Additionally, the acquisition of Seneca land represented a breach of “The Treaty with the Six Nations of 1794,” which explicated prevented such action by the US Government. The dam and its construction, which primarily benefitted Pittsburg, inspired a heated discourse concerning the ethics of native relocation.
Native Americans are being disrespected, harmed, and their homeland is being taken from them. Am I talking about events taken place centuries ago? No, because these unfortunate circumstances yet again are occurring right here, now, in the present. This horrid affair has a name: The Dakota Access Pipeline. This Pipeline is an oil transporting pipeline, which is funded by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers, who have devised a plan for the pipeline to run through the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois. However, unfortunately, this pipeline will run straight through the reservation of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe, expressing their distress for the pipeline have said, that the pipeline will be “Destroying our burial sites, prayer sites, and culturally significant artifacts,” Arguments for the pipeline however have tried to counter this claim, trying to emphasize that “The pipeline wouldn 't just be an economic boon, it would also significantly decrease U.S. reliance on foreign oil”, and that the pipeline is estimated to produce “374.3 million gallons of gasoline per day.”, which could help the sinking oil economy. (Yan, 2016) However, despite the economical growth it could achieve, the Dakota Access Pipeline could have damaging environmental effects on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the areas surrounding.
The pipeline not only poses a threat to one of only 326 Native American reservations left in this country, but also to the environment as a whole. Regardless of where you stand, the wrongdoing on the part of the United States Government is undeniable. The Dakota Access Pipeline is corrupt at its core and the dangers surrounding its construction have the potential to be catastrophic to the dwindling Native population by threatening their only source of water. A significant saying within the Sioux tribe, especially in times of protest, is a simple one, but one that is clearly not understood by some, and that is “water is
When identities take precedence over ideas, values, principles, political programs, strategies and tactics, the left can expect to keep losing. Unfortunately, the same is true at Standing Rock, where tribal leaders wanted to talk about white privilege, whereas rank and file natives were more interested in talking about strategy and tactics and how to stop all oil pipelines, not just those running through native lands.
The environment is a very important thing to take care of and can be very fragile. In the recent years humanity hasn’t been doing much to take care of the earth, and instead is destroying it in the name of progress. One of the harmful things that could really impact the environment is the North Dakota Pipeline. Some facts about the pipeline is that it is owned by Energy Transfer Partners who are the owners of Sunoco. Sunoco has had multiple onshore pipeline leaks and disasters that have devastated many environments. The planned pipeline is going to be 1,134 miles long and will cut through North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois, by doing that it crosses fifty counties in total. Pipelines in general aren’t really the most reliable things