Where to begin with the Dakota Access Pipeline? The rubber bullets? The sound cannons? The attacking dogs? The tribal sovereignty, or lack thereof? (I haven’t even mentioned global warming yet.) There are so many awful events that have been happening around this pipeline project and the protests against it, it’s hard to keep up.
We have been so preoccupied with a conspiracy-minded narcissistic loose cannon taking over the White House, the NoDAPL protest hasn’t received enough attention (from myself included). This pipeline is wrong in so many ways, this cartoon only begins to scratch the surface. There is so much injustice and insanity, I could create an eight-part miniseries about DAPL.
As I worked on this cartoon hundreds (thousands?) of veterans are showing up at the protest site, the next days and even weeks will be crucial in the NoDAPL fight. Global warming is of course a part of this protest, but the more important and immediate issue is that the Dakota Access Pipeline represents yet another sad chapter in our nation’s relationship with Native Americans. (You can find more of my cartoons and visit me behind-the-scenes on my Patreon page.)
Mark Fiore is a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist who creates hard-hitting political animation every week for The Progressive.