WATER IS LIFE
Guest User
This past weekend was spent in North Dakota standing in solidarity
with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe to fight for indigenous self
determination and sovereignty in the protest against the North Dakota
Access Pipeline. On the action that took place Saturday, 300 people
walked to support and stand with those water protectors who took
direct action earlier to halt the pipeline at the site of
construction. At least 127 people were arrested. Peaceful protest was
met with militarized riot police. Children's tears and elders prayers
were met with teargas, batons, and brutality. Indigenous activists
were targeted.
Photo by Thanh Mai
Many people who messaged me have asked me how I am/how much they
support me. Please stop, I myself don't need support. As the pipeline
is 90% completed and indigenous resistance is going to face their
largest battles to come in the next weeks, we as humans as a
collective, as allies, need to act. We need to concentrate our support
to the indigenous people, whose lives and health have been oppressed
and taken by the capitalistic power structure imposed on them under
regulation of the U.S. Department of the Interior, The Department of
the Army, and the Department of Justice- who have either been
complicit or chosen corporate profits and contracts over indigenous
lives, sovereignty, and health
Here are some things you can do:
SEND CASH.
SEND PROPANE.
SHOW UP. SOON.
TAKE DIRECT ACTION TRAINING.
TAKE ACTION.
HELP PREPARE FOR WINTER.
SHOW YOUR ALLY-SHIP.
Here are some of the things you should not do:
-send non winterized clothes and materials, they're sending them back
because they have too many
-show up in a similar state of awareness as the white folx with dreadlocks
-take up space and not be down to sacrifice your ego for indigenous
action, needs, and dialogue
Photo by Thanh Mai
If you consider yourself one who fights to protect our environment and
mitigate climate change, this conflict involves you. If you need water
to survive, this conflict involves you. If you consider yourself an
indigenous ally, this conflict involves you.
Please, act.
Today, on the road home to Berkeley, we were advised by my mother to
stop briefly among the dramatic landscape of the Grant Tetons. In
anxiousness and apprehensiveness for the weeks to come, we stand here
in solidarity, reminded once again that
water
is
life.
Story by Evan Yoshimoto. Instagram: @evanyosh