In North Dakota, thousands of people from native nations around North America have gathered near Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. If built, the pipeline would carry oil under the Missouri River upstream from the reservation. The Camp of the Sacred Stones at Standing Rock was established to resist the pipeline in April and continues to grow larger each week. The camp is located at the edge of the Missouri and Cannonball rivers near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, in Cannon Ball, North Dakota.
On September 4, hundreds of people marched to protect the water and sacred sites near Standing Rock, ending with prayers and ceremonies for the damaged sacred land. Working on a Saturday, the pipeline company bulldozed the area and damaged sacred sites along a 150-foot corridor running more than a mile. This happened the day after the Standing Rock Sioux notified officials in Washington, D.C., of the existence and importance of those sites.
Members of native nations from the Pacific Northwest traveled to North Dakota to show solidarity in the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline construction. They paddled, prayed, and sang on the Cannonball River while indigenous people and allies cheered from the shore and held banners that read, “Mni Wiconi, Water is Life.”
Chief Arvol Looking Horse, of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota nations, stood onshore as the canoes arrived: “We fail to appreciate and honor our sacred sites, ripping out the minerals and gifts that lay underneath them.”
Indigenous leaders marched from Sacred Stone Camp to the Dakota Access Pipeline construction zone. People blockading the pipeline were attacked with dogs by the Dakota Access Pipeline private security company. “We stand in peace but have been met with violence,” said Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II.
The Standing Rock Sioux called for a week of #NoDAPL solidarity actions around the country. In Seattle, hundreds of people marched through downtown to show their support for the indigenous water protectors. Dozens of other marches and rallies took place across the United States.
