Donna Bear with Thomas Pratt and Robert Cote Jr. Photo courtesy Facebook, Donna Bear.
A Treaty 4 flag has been waving at one of the Standing Rock camps at the south end of north Dakota for the past week, bringing a reminder that First Nations opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline goes beyond borders.
The flag was brought by a crew that drove more than five hours and was led by Donna Bear. She has personally dealt with the effects of an oil pipeline leak on her home reserve of Ochapowace in the late 90s. Bear’s upbringing and her work with Cumberland House Cree Nation, which has one of the largest deltas in North America, has given her a strong passion for water.
Bear opposes the risks that an underwater oil pipeline would bring to the water supply and Missouri River in the Standing Rock area, but doesn’t oppose all pipelines or fossil fuel activity.
“What I’m against is when companies, for money, are so irresponsible in producing this fuel for us to survive and not thinking about water and water quality,” she said.
Bear was joined by several nephews, including Robert Cote Jr. He is a university student and his mother is Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Vice-Chief Heather Bear.
“She sent her headdress along with us just for kind of protection for the protesters and also a symbol, kind of a message for our battles happening right here at home with our problems with oil spills and stuff like that,” Cote said.
Cote has heard of historic clashes between big business or governments and First Nations people, and he said taking part in activism in this way was empowering. Currently, a US District judge is deciding whether or not to halt construction on the Energy Transfer Partners’ Dakota Access Pipeline while the Standing Rock Sioux pursues a permanent end to construction through court action against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. That legal action alleges the pipeline approval contradicts multiple federal statutes, primarily the Nation Historic Preservation Act.
Cote’s group had to pass through a few police barriers in the area that’s about an hour drive from Bismarck, and once at the site he met people from as far as Australia and Hawaii. Bear said there were more than 10,000 in different Standing Rock camps. The original “main site” is actually smaller than the overflow site that has continued to grow, she said.
Sweats and group singing made it feel “like you can just be Indian there,” Cote said.
He said the atmosphere was very positive when he was there the weekend of Aug. 26, and he learned a lot about how the pipeline would run and be drilled underneath a river that delivers drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people.
“Unity is the best way to get our voices heard. And just First Nations and Native Americans being stewards to the land, protectors of the land, to me that really felt a lot to go down there and stand up for what is right,” he said.
“Water, to me, is more valuable than oil, any day.”
He is watching closely as the Sioux camp has clashed with police and aggressive dogs that were brought in over the weekend.
Word has been spreading that crews have bulldozed sacred places for the Standing Rock Sioux. Videos have been posted and a news release came out from the area’s Tribal Chairman David Archambault II saying the ancient burial sites and areas where cultural ceremonies were held are now in ruins with Dakota Access Pipeline builders responsible.
“It must be a whole different world over there now,” Cote said.
The bulldozing that happened on the weekend have left an impact on him.
“As a First Nations person, when I first saw those videos I felt saddened. My heart dropped. I know First Nation people, and all Aboriginals, we have a really deep connection with the land because we don’t own the land, the land owns us,” he said.
Bear encourages anyone who can support Standing Rock to do it, and has plans to return this weekend. She said no description can capture the experience of being there, but she said it’s a beautiful, peaceful place full of people whose resistance will affect people all over Canada and the United States.