Opinion

Ivan Star Comes Out: #NoDAPL crackdown hinders reconciliation efforts

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Water Protectors holding ceremony on the banks of the Cannon Ball River were met by Riot Police firing less-than-lethal...
Posted by Rob Wilson Photography on Wednesday, November 2, 2016

A water protection ceremony along the Cannon Ball River in North Dakota was met by another law enforcement action on November 2, 2016. Photos by Rob Wilson Photography [GoFundMe]

What happens to racial reconciliation in the Dakotas now?
By Ivan F. Star Comes Out
Native Sun News Today Columnist
nativesunnews.today

I am reminding readers that racial reconciliation in South Dakota started 26 years ago when Lakota Publisher Tim Giago challenged the late Governor George Mickelson. I believe an official proclamation was signed in 1990 by “tribal” governments and the state.

Now, the latest development regarding the Standing Rock fight against a corporate oil pipeline is that South Dakota just joined North Dakota in terms of assisting them with their Highway Patrol troopers. I cannot help but wonder what repercussions, if any, this will have on the work accomplished by reconciliation proponents, both native and non-native, since that time.

Morton County’s call for help to law enforcement agencies from adjacent states is the result of a compact called the Emergency Management Assistance Compact. By promoting the peaceful campers at Standing Rock as terrorists implies to me that the rules of this compact have been twisted.

I have been keeping up on Standing Rock events via social media since the day the crude oil pipe line, the “black snake,” came to burrow underneath the Missouri River. Mainstream media, local and national, is simply not covering this major event. Also, it has become obvious that local media is engaged in biased reporting. As a result, grave atrocities occurred to the protectors under the banner of the law.

I watched as the government’s law enforcement and corporate “security forces” implemented pepper spray, attack dogs, automatic assault weapons, shot guns, Tasers, and batons, on the water protectors, which included women, children, and elders.

Some of the “officers” appeared reluctant about being there while many others appeared anxious to use their riot training and equipment on the protectors. The protectors actually offered them their hands in friendship on several occasions. Some accepted while many more refused. Also, the absurd retorts on social media aimed at the Standing Rock camp reek of ancient white supremacist rhetoric.

Anyway, I saw a video showing one small “officer,” wearing an armored vest, extra ammo packs for what looked like a locked and loaded M-4 carbine slung to his body. This weapon, which is a shorter and lighter version of the M16A2 assault rifle, fires a 5.56x45mm NATO round, is air-cooled, gas-operated, and is 20 or 30-round magazine fed.