Hey there Steemians!
It's been a year since the North Dakota National Guard invaded Oceti Sakowin Camp, also known as Main Camp in the Water Protectors movement, Rosebud Camp was also invaded, the invaders of Rosebud Camp were the BIA, ATF, Federal Marshals, the FBI, and Department of Fish and Wildlife, as far as I could tell there were no Morton County Sheriffs or North Dakota National Guard invading the actual Standing Rock Reservation, they stayed in Oceti Camp, in so called Morton county.
We were three camps at the time of the invasion, Main Camp, Rosebud, and Sacred Stone Camp.
On this day 02.23.2017 Oceti Camp, and Rosebud Camp were taken, the people were forced off of the land and many were jailed, all while heavy machinery was being used to destroy the camps kitchens, schools, and resources.
You see it happen all of the time in Mainstream Media "Protestors Leave Trash" is a news article pre-written sitting on file waiting for the moment after paramilitary forces have attacked nonviolent people and evicted them from their popular movement.
This article ran and reran in the run up to and aftermath of the military invasion, yellow journalists betraying the truth for the sake of winning public favor for the militant forces who violently destroyed the hard work of the protectors.
People from around the world sent supplies to aid the prayer camp, there were all kinds of fantastic resources which the government destroyed, there were structures such as tipis, yurts, and army tents, they bulldozed vehicles, trailers, RVs and bicycles, they trashed chainsaws, generators, wood stoves and mountains of food and clothing.
The governor of North Dakota had begun laying the ground work for this narrative a week before during a press conference where the eviction was announced, at that time they were predicting a massive flood of the camp area, and said they were clearing the camp for our safety, the flood never manifested, and had they given us the time, we could have gotten all of the useful items out of camp, and cleaned up any remaining trash, that is assuming that the tribal government had ever fulfilled their contract to remove trash, the tribe had been in violation of their contract to remove trash for weeks at Sacred Stone Camp.
The people were cleaning up all the way until paramilitary forces invaded, we were doing our utmost to safeguard the resources which had been sent, and protect the water from the pipeline.
The pipeline has already leaked multiple times, and the oil industry has largely stuck tax payers with the mitigation and remediation of the oil contaminated lands which WILL remain toxic for generations to come.
This invasion of the Standing Rock Reservation and 1868 Fort Laramie treaty lands remains the largest mobilization of armed forces against unarmed indigenous people in modern history.
In the time since the violent eviction of our camps, it has come out that the private security firm who was infiltrating and disrupting the Water Protectors Camps were operating without a permit, the construction of the pipeline was also being built without it's proper permits, acting on the authority of executive order by the trimp administration, who may have been invested in the very corporation who profits from this military deployment.
During the time our camps were standing up for the water there were over 800 arrests, at this time there are still hundreds of cases which have yet to go to trial, and many political prisoners who are currently in jail for nonviolent, peaceful resistance of illegal infrastructure.
"They tried to kick out our Sacred Fire, now it burns on all horizons."
Find other videos from my time in Sacred Stone Camp on my YouTube channel, I also have a few blog entries here and here.