Winter in North Dakota is, at best, harsh, and Christmas week it has been literally life threatening. Driving into a blizzard is an experience worthy of having your life insurance canceled and even when the snow dies down, the wind blows a shallow river of snow over highways disguising the layer of glistening ice on the road that makes use of your brakes either a hazard or an insult. In short, I am glad to be alive to write this report on the Standing Rock Sioux camp because prospects for surviving the trip were frequently dubious.
Representatives of many tribes of American Indians have joined the Sioux who remain in the three protest camps at the site of the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. I even met indigenous peoples from Norway and Palestinians who have come to join the cause to protect the water. The stated intent of the camp is to both welcome all who wish to come and to run the camp based on shared community leadership. This is both a wonderful opportunity to build a diverse and inclusive community around the cause of protecting water and First Nation sovereignty but it is also an opportunity for criminals and predators who have created serious security concerns. Looting is common and sexual assault allegations seem to be credible.
Some homeless, unemployed, and impoverished people have shown up and attempted to place themselves in the care of the camp community but there are also many professionals who have put their medical, counseling, construction, or catering careers on hold while they come to volunteer their skills to support the camp. Because the camp hopes to foster a constant environment of prayer, sacred fires are tended in careful observance of Sioux tradition; ritual smudge pots and ceremonial use of lavender and tobacco are ever-present. Of course, the open nature of the camp also draws every sort of eccentric who hopes to present their various herbal, massage, and “snake oil” products and practices as being somehow connected to Native American spirituality. It seems like almost everyone you meet has a grand story to tell about how they know how to cure cancer or tan deer hides. Having been a left-of-center pastor for three decades, I know what it is like to draw both deeply thoughtful social reformers and colorful quacks into community but the Oceti camp seems to draw even more extreme examples of both sorts into this deeply frozen camp populated with thieves and saints.
Like Moses, Chase Iron Eyes, seems to have inherited the task of organizing this band of water protectors gathered in the wilderness to make sure that everyone is safe, and has access to environmentally sensitive toilets and shelter, along with food, medical care, and water. Iron Eyes is a lawyer who recently mounted an unsuccessful bid for a North Dakota seat in the US Congress. He is a product of the reservation who clearly articulates the need for a revival of First Nation pride to help his people regain their immediate claims to sovereignty and to break out of more than a century of enforced poverty. I am convinced that Chase Iron Eyes is the most patient and sincere person that I have ever met. With both humility and evident wisdom, he shows selfless leadership while be surrounded by people demanding attention and resources. I encourage you to watch some of the video interviews with him on LastRealIndians.com and you may see the early development of this century’s Martin Luther King, Jr.
The camp, though largely a freewheeling place, has strict rules against bringing any weapons into the camp or having alcohol in you or in your possession, a tall order for a society noted for both hunting and a haunting problem with alcoholism. They insist upon non-violent resistance to the construction of the pipeline even in the face of inexcusable violence on the part of DAPL security and local sheriff’s deputies.
At present, the Obama administration has brought construction of the pipeline to a halt and Mother Nature is doing her part to enforce the ban by making any further progress on the pipeline virtually impossible. But the inauguration of Donald Trump and the inevitable return of spring will almost certainly reignite the confrontation between the water protectors and the Dakota Access Pipeline construction company. The astonishingly resilient volunteers keeping the camp open and running have the shared goal of making certain that they can welcome thousands of more protestors when they are needed.