Water Protectors Speak Out by Rae Rose

Growing up in Seattle, Washington, even as a throwaway child, I was encased in a false security. Disregard, violence, and blatant hatred exist, but there is a layer of protection provided by a very liberal culture in Seattle. Racism and disrespect toward people of color are common, but the actions taken are more passive aggressive in nature. Examples of Seattle racism are pulling into a nice neighborhood and having two to three white men come up asking if you are lost? Translation, a poor child of color should not be in our “safe” neighborhood, you don’t belong here strongly implied. Or the white person asking, “What are you?” or “Dooo yooouu speeaak English?” in an over loud and exaggerated voice. Translation how am I supposed to judge you? If you are brown you probably don’t speak English and if the white person speaks loud enough and stretches the words out long enough you might understand? It comes as the white woman who is fostering you, saying she can run a “sweat lodge” because you are stuck living in her house. This is the passive aggressive racism I grew up surrounded by and in.

It was not until I married my husband and started making trips back to his reservation in North Dakota 16 plus years ago that I was introduced to the blatant, in your face, and to often violent racism faced by Natives outside of Seattle’s safe little bubble. My first trip back you could see a very visible change once you left King County heading east on I-90. In Eastern Montana, a cop pulled my husband over for going 6 miles over the speed limit. This white cop then put my Native husband in the back of his patrol car and told me unless I gave him 200 cash or personal check, he was locking my husband up and the earliest I would be able to bail him out would be 3 days from then. When I asked how to address the check, he told me to leave it blank. I had no recourse, so I did everything he asked. Disheartened and with a hungry child we went to a restaurant in the next town and were not only refused service, but the waitress also retreated behind the counter by the phone while the white male patrons glared at us, until we left. We were forced to leave, no seating, no menus, no water because they did not want Indians in their “safe space”. Over the years we have learned where we were welcome, where we were tolerated, and where we were not allowed to linger very quickly. This pattern continued through North and South Dakota the only exceptions were when we were on reservations or near college or in bigger towns.

I tell you this in case like me you grew up in a bubble. There are still many places in the United States that are not safe to visit if you are not the right color of skin. When I went back to Standing Rock to help in the medical and herbalist tents it was November of 2016. Trump had just been elected. White power groups were out in full force, more than make “America Great Again” to these hateful sections it was make “America White Again”, which is another article since let’s be honest “Most of America was built on Native American lands, by the blood, sweat, and abuses faced by communities of color, abuses inflicted by “White America”, but most definitely not built by Trump’s “White America”.

Many sacred sites, burial sites, our animal nations, and plant nations had been decimated by the Dakota Access Pipeline before the camps, these lines ran through the lands unceded by the Standing Rock people. To cite the difference in treatment Energy Transfer had asked for Bismarck’s permission to run their pipeline through the town, Bismarck, a mostly white population, said no. Energy Transfer, the corporation behind the DAPL pipeline politely retreated. The Standing Rock Nation was never asked, they were never given the chance to refuse. These abuses towards indigenous lands and her people, happen all the time, oil tycoons have been raping indigenous lands for centuries with no regard to the people who live and care for that land.

So, when I went to assist my husband’s family during the Standing Rock standoff against the Dakota Access Pipeline’s illegal destruction of land, I witnessed firsthand the abuse against Water Protector’s. The abuse made me sad, left me frustrated, but it did not surprise me. The desecration of land, burial sites, and resources hurt and saddened me, but I was never surprised by these hateful and brutal actions.

In this article I want to give space for our Water Protectors to speak. I want our readers to have these firsthand accounts from our warriors who stood on Standing Rock’s front line with dignity and respect for all life. They are still standing against a dismissive and too often abusive legal system. They are standing against corporations like Energy Transfer who have millions of dollars at their fingertips because it is the right action to take.

Our Water Protectors face abuse from the oil companies’, their private security, local law enforcement, and federal persecution from a government that is supposed to be for the people and not for the corporations. That is why, in any way we can, we the people of this land, and our allies from different lands need to hold Water Protectors up. We have to support by getting the word out, by calling congress, our senators, and these corporations persecuting our natural resources. In any way we the people can, we have to stand with those risking everything to peacefully stand up and say enough is enough. We want to protect Mother Earth, and in turn protect every child’s right to a future that includes clean water, fresh food, and sustainable energy.

Despite the risk, the violence, and outright abuses inflicted upon them, our Water Protectors are peacefully standing firm to keep Mother Earth safe for the generations to come. Water Protectors are praying for everyone’s future, even those who are unjustly fighting against them. To me this speaks to our Water Protectors humanity and the strength it takes to stand against the multi-million-dollar corporations. The opposition does not even care about their own people or the values this country says it stands for. Corporations buy politicians and corrupt our legal systems with the blood money they make raping and desecrating our Mother Earth, a living being in need of our protection. This is my way of honoring these heroes and to give voice to the injustices they face on an almost daily basis, please help me support these front-line warriors in any way you are able too.

Water Protector Tania Aubid, an ally to Standing Rock from the Mille Lacs/ D2 Rice Lake Band, Ojibwe Nation.

Tania came to Standing Rock to protest and pray with the tribe in April of 2016. During her 9-month stay she was subjected to and witnessed peaceful Water Protectors being attacked by dogs, being teargassed, hit with rubber bullets, and high-pressure water cannons. When Tania was arrested, no rights were afforded, no legal counsel offered, no phone call, and no medical assistance was ever offered to her. Despite all the abuse, Tania continues to fight for clean water with dignity. From February 1st to February 28th , 2017 Tania was on a hunger strike for fresh, clean water. Even now Tania is standing strong in peaceful action against Line 3 threatening the Ojibwe Nations’ right to clean water, wild rice fields, and the natural habitat. This pipeline has already destroyed and is threatening to destroy so much of the Ojibwe people’s natural resources. Tania even now is again on a hunger strike to protect the land against Line 3’s destructive path.

Water Protector Grandma Regina Brave, Oglala Lakota from the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Grandma Regina Brave is an amazing woman with a wealth of knowledge, and I am beyond honored that she was willing to speak with me. I hope someday she will let me write about her more in depth. What Grandma Regina Brave wanted our readers to know: Grandma Regina is 80 years old; she has been an activist since she was 6 years old. She told me; it only took a little over 500 years to turn heaven into hell. “I am not doing this for you, I am doing this for the seven generations.”

After speaking with Grandma Regina I was reminded of conversations before the No DAPL campaign where I was told this. We need to return back to our Indigenous nations. Non-Natives need to start listening to the indigenous of this land, especially to those who are lucky enough to remain connected to their Original Instruction and remember how to care for this land. The only way to counter the disease, pollution, and desolation caused by an invader's callous actions’ is to return to the remaining indigenous Nations and learn from them. This is my personal feeling, especially after speaking with Grandma Regina Brave.

Father John Floberg: Episcopal Priest North Dakota side of the Standing Rock Reservation:

“I have been here serving my congregation since July 1991. The Standing Rock Nation had been expressing itself and its opposition against DAPL, then in July of 2016 Standing Rock sent a call to the Sioux Nation to come to its aid. We began to see a large influx of people arriving that I did not know. I began to park my pick-up on the side of the road, where they were sitting in the ditch. I then sat in the ditch with the growing number of people that were coming. I listened to people giving instruction about the work of being a water protector, about legal rights, and being able to protest. “

Father Floberg felt he could best serve and support Water Protectors by providing transport using the churches youth vans and listening. This meant being on call 24 hours, 7 days a week. Water Protectors were transported all over, sometimes over four hours from where they were arrested. Any money they had when arrested was returned in a check which for many was useless especially when they were released in the dead of night.

Linda Black Elk of the Catawba Nation:

At this time Linda was teaching at the Sitting Bull College when she learned about the Energy Transfer pipeline coming through Lakota lands. I was devastated, the place I took my students and my family to harvest echinacea, buffalo berries, all these amazing foods and medicine was right in the path of the pipeline. One of the largest stands of buffalo berry in this area is now completely gone because the pipeline decimated these plant nations. I was there because I knew people wanted access to traditional medicines and I had access to that from my work. My husband and I wanted to make sure this traditional camp had traditional medicines. I was fighting for the plant nations, and my children so my children could have access to clean water, natural food, and medicines. If I was fighting against anything it was this thoughtless destruction by the fossil fuel companies. They have no clue they do not even consider what they are destroying. They have lost all connection to the natural world.

Linda saw and treated a lot of chemical burns, rashes, pepper spray to the eyes, due to exposure to chemicals. “I also treated a lot of respiratory issues, when you have law enforcement and I dare say other entities who are exposing you to all kinds of toxic chemical compounds, compounds we may not even know about. I have always wondered; I remember helicopters and small planes flying overhead and the light spray of mist that followed them. I believe we were being exposed to something.” People had to leave because of the lung issues that began in camp.

They came with the air to surface missile trucks. Maybe there were no missiles, but they were pointing right down at camp, there were kids in the camp, the threat was there. There was a lot of PTSD from the abuses witnessed and undergone, Linda admits she still has nightmares from the events she bore witness too.

Water Protector, Mary Redway Ally to Native Peoples and the environment:

Professionally, Mary, was an environmental planner before retiring. Mary came to Standing Rock out of curiosity, because she loved and wanted to protect the environment. She arrived September 4th, 2016 the day after law enforcement had unleashed dogs on peaceful protestors. In less than a week Mary built relationships and became vested in the people and the environmental issues that the Standing Rock Nation were facing.

Mary had to go back just a week after her arrival in Standing Rock, but she felt the need to return. Mary said she was especially touched watching the arrival of Washington State Tribes they came by traditional Canoe. It was especially eye opening when tribes from Mary’s east coast home arrived. When I was young, we were given the impression that all of the east coast tribes were gone. We were taught they died through disease and warfare. For Mary it was wonderful to see the Narragansett tribe arrive and speak to those gathered at the Oceti Sakowin camp. “It was wonderful to see and connect with the people from my home state. Mary returned to Oceti Sakowin camp and was physically there at the mass arrest on October 22nd, 2016.

On October 22nd, the Water Protectors went on a prayer walk, there were approximately 250 people. They had done this many times and until today would be met by police, a conversation would ensue and then they would return to camp. This October day was different. There were no “No Trespass” signs anywhere on the land they walked. This was the land where DAPL had bulldozed the graves of the Standing Rock people, this is where water protectors prayed and sang, just west of the 1806 highway. The land close to the 1851 treaty camp which would later be violently torn to the ground as law enforcement and DAPL’s private security became more violent toward peaceful water protectors. “There were two points where I felt like we were going to be arrested that day.” Mary told me, there was no real sign or warning, at least none she could point to, it was a gut feeling.

This time when the Water Protectors arrived police were out in force. There were military vehicles, and some officers were dressed in riot gear. Some of the police were in camouflage with no badges or identifying insignia; they wore face masks so you could not see their faces brandishing semi-automatic rifles against unarmed protestors. That day approximately 140 water protectors were arrested brutally herded up by police. They were initially brought to Morton County jail.

Mary was strip-searched twice and was one of 12 protesters taken in their underwear to Fargo, a 4-hour drive from where she was originally arrested. She spent two days in the Cass County jail in Fargo. The money she had when she was arrested was returned to her in the form of a check, useless to help them when they were released on Monday at 8pm. She was tried a year later by Judge Thomas Merrick wanting to make an example of Mary, he found her guilty of Disorderly Conduct. Judge Thomas Merrick said to defendants “You are playing around with something; you didn’t really have a dog in the fight.”

Judge Merrick abused his power to sentence Mary Redway to six days in jail, disregarding the recommendations of the prosecutors and defense attorney. His unspoken message to those outside of Standing Rock seemed to say; if you support Native people in their fight for treaty rights, human rights, or the right to protect the land, these are the consequences. You will go to jail if you side with the Standing Rock Nation, I don’t need evidence my actions do not need to be fair or just. Judge Merrick made this unspoken message in sentencing the two non-native Water Protectors: that he is willing to abuse his power to punish anyone who stood or stands with Standing Rock. This is the racism of a border town’s legal system and their law enforcement officers. This is the bias and mistreatment faced by Water Protectors.

Judge Merrick, I wish to correct you. Everyone has a dog in this fight! We are fighting for your children’s right to clean water too. Water Protectors are not fighting for their selfish gain. We are not motivated by money, ego, or fame. We are standing up to protect the life source of all living nations, this planet is our home, our mother, she is a living being that deserves all of our respect, love, and protections. Every human, all life on this planet has a dog in this fight!

A water protector said this “All of this felt reminiscent of Wounded Knee” when speaking of the brutal annihilation of the camps. This statement struck me because in the documentary” Dog in the Fight” Judge Merrick refers to Morton County Sheriff as the general. All law enforcement and DAPL private security, I really felt their actions mirrored the 7th calvary. The human rights violations that should not exist in a so-called free society did not exist for the Standing Rock Nation and the allies who came to support them.

There were times shops would not accept our money. I went with 3 other women to buy lumbar after they started selling to Natives again, but they would not help us. Strong healthy men with their arms crossed over their chest watched as four Native women (2 of which are elders) struggled to load the truck with heavy lumber and supplies. It is appalling to me how backwards these border towns behave.

The energy they spent in hate filled and spiteful actions towards us is devastating, it is heartbreaking. Especially when the water we are fighting for, these resources, they will benefit all children, the oppressors children as well as our own. This is not a Native issue, it is a world issue, the outcome of this fight will affect all life on our beautiful planet.

Rae Rose is a Pacific Northwest author of Paiute, Mayan, and Japanese heritage. She writes historical fiction, poetry, picture books. “Stories are very important to me, I hope you enjoy these stories I share with you.” You can follow her @Rae_Rose7