Activist Dennis Banks, center, has been part of the #NoDAPL movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Photo by Joe Brusky / Overpass Light Brigade
Witnessing history – Thank you DAPL
By Dave Archambault Sr.
Native Sun News Today Columnist
nsweekly.com The American Indian world will never be the same. For centuries the First Americans were expediently removed from the landscape by federal government notions such as Eminent Domain, then further, their homeland was diminished by the Allotment Act. This steadily shoved the Tribes into debilitating circumstances, which they suffer from and endure to this day. Suddenly out of one more story of purely tainted dealings with the federal government comes a beautiful happening of pride and resolve. Not only by Indians but typical Americans that understand the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” by Dee Brown was published in 1970. It was the first real presentation of the political and social genocide the United States government has undertaken against Native people. It was written and based on historical fact. The New York Times assessment of the book was, “Original, Remarkable, and Finally Heartbreaking.” The Washington Post review exclaimed, “Appalling, Shattering, Compelling, …. One wonders reading this searing, heartbreaking book, who, indeed, were the savages.” Nothing much has changed for Indian Nations and their tribal members since Dee Brown’s book was written 46 years ago. Nothing - Until just recently! For some unexplainable reason, the book has miraculously come to life near a small Indian village in North Dakota, called Cannonball. In live and living color, just as the book revealed tragic treatment of Indian Nations in chapter after chapter, comes Tribal Nation after Tribal Nation announcing their arrival to the “Spirit Camp.” Here throngs of water and land protectors are gathering in a fight against corporate greed. Accounts of injustices and struggles in Indian country echoes throughout the camp and serves to strengthen the resolve to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. “I want to cheer and cry I’m so happy to see the support that arrives daily and hourly,” said Chairman of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Dave Archambault II. The words to describe the happening are hard to find. Never in the history of the America’s has so many Tribes come together is such a unified way. This joining is about expressing solidarity in behalf of Mother Earth and to also condemn the number one enemy of Mother Earth - Greed.
Read the rest of the story on the Native Sun News Today website: Witnessing history – Thank you DAPL (Contact Dave Archambault Sr. at joebuckinghorse@gmail.com) Copyright permission Native Sun News
Join the Conversation
