Kitchens of Isis - The New York Times Just Does Not Get Standing Rock

I am an embedded front line journalist at Standing Rock. During my eleven weeks on the ground I have been tear gassed and maced. I cannot tell you how many LRAD attacks I experienced. Smoke and concussion grenades have been used on me or near me. I have been soaked with water in sub-freezing temperatures. Police shot at me with rubber bullets and bean bags. My belongings were searched. My car has been impounded twice. I have been seriously injured. People have been hurt protecting me. DAPL security and police have chased me. 

On the 15^th I was nearly killed by police covering Standing Rock. The police opened fire into a car and attempted to shoot at it as it drove away. I was standing on the other side of the car filming and the car narrowly avoided splatifying me as they fled the hail of bullets. All after I was maced and chased in a sprint by unhinged officers for daring to cover the story.

Other press members have been attacked, arrested, strip searched and beaten. Some struggle with PTSD symptoms. Their data has been stolen by police and used in prosecutions. We have been targeted by police.

We do it with only the money people online give us.

When the New York Time’s article on the kitchens of Standing Rock, Squash, Rice and Roadkill: Feeding the Fighters of Standing Rock, came across my feed, I was flabbergasted and enraged. With all the resources at the New York times, the best NYT has to offer the public understanding is not about the near death experiences, police brutality, beatings, strip searches, U.N.’s investigation, surveillance, over charging, or press attacks – it is the kitchen.

NYT sent a reporter to a war zone and covered the mess halls. Gee – I cannot wait for NYT’s coverage of the kitchens of ISIS.

Ambulances and Free Speech - Understanding the Governor's Evacuation Order

Photo by Rob Wilson

North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple has issued a sweeping executive order to immediately evict people from the Anti-Dakota Access Pipeline Water Protector camp near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and deny basic emergency services like ambulances to the camp. The order also criminalizes supporting the camp or its residents. The eviction is labeled an evacuation and is justified as a safety measure to protect the camp’s residents from the harsh North Dakota winter.

Setting the State:

The largest Water Protector camp, Oceti Sakowin, is on contested land of which the Army Corps of Engineers and the Sioux both claim ownership. On November 25, the Army Corps of Engineers issued an order to close the camp and evict the residents on December 5, 2016. It requires residents to leave, and the property be closed to the public. They suggest moving the camp to a free speech zone less than a mile away in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. It was justified as an emergency evacuation order to protect residents of the camp from the North Dakota winter.

On November 27, the Army Corps of Engineers announced in a letter that they have no plans to use force to get Water Protectors out of Oceti Sakowin Camp stating, “The Army Corps of Engineers is seeking a peaceful and orderly transition to a safer location, and has no plans for forcible removal.” 

In response to the Army Corps of Engineer’s follow up statement, Governor Dalrymple said, "When you put out a pronouncement that people must leave your land by a certain date, I think you take on a responsibility to somehow bring that about."

On November 28, Governor Dalrymple issued his executive order.

The Order:  

DAPL is Not Dead

  Photo by Rob Wilson

Celebratory drumming and singing rang out from Standing Rock Water Protector camps when the Army Corps of Engineers denied Energy Transfer Partnership the easement to drill under the Missouri River just 2,400 feet from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, stalling the Dakota Access Pipeline. Crying people exclaimed, “It’s over.” Joyful expression is warranted, it is a major triumph against the pipeline but the tearful heart-songs are wrong, the fight is not over.

The internet exploded in celebratory headlines, articles, and social media posts minutes after the pipeline announcement by Jo-Ellen Darcy, the Army's Assistant Secretary for Civil Works.

The New York Times chimed in with, “Army Blocks Drilling of Dakota Access Oil Pipeline.”

CNN’s Facebook page rejoiced, “BREAKING NEWS: A true victory for protestors, construction of Dakota Access Pipeline to be re-routed http://cnn.it/2gRaQGl”

Bipartisanreport.com went even further, “BREAKING: Dakota Access Pipeline IS DEAD, U.S. Government Says NO WAY (DETAILS)”

The big problem is – it’s not even close to true.

A Pick-Sloan Winters: Using the Army Corps of Engineers's Duties to Stop the Pipeline

Photo by Rob Wilson

The Bakken Dakota Access Pipeline is slithering down the North Dakota hills, poised to stick its head directly under the Missouri River. Thousands of Water Protectors, people from all over the world, have gathered in and around the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to stop its descent, and terminate the Black Snake. The Black Snake killer may come in the most unexpected forms, an obscure court ruling, legislation which ruined much of the ecology of the Standing Rock Reservation, and the agency responsible for enacting it - the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Missouri River ravaged Omaha, laying waste to the city with frightening efficiency in 1943. In response, Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1944, commonly known now as Pick-Sloan. The Army Corps of Engineers and Board of Reclamation were assigned responsibility to enact Pick-Sloan and took control of the river.

Even for those living right on the Missouri River, the name Pick-Sloan is obscure but no legislation changed the nature of the Missouri more. By the time the entire Pick-Sloan plan was enacted, only 1/3 of the river was in a natural state.

After Omaha flooded, America was frantic to assure Omaha and selected other cities’ safety. The government took the opportunity to put a wider, more comprehensive plan covering other commercial and safety aspects of the river in place. Pick-Sloan assigned the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation the task of caring for eight categories related to the river: flood control, navigation, irrigation, power, water supply, recreation, fish and wildlife, and water quality.

The Army Corps of Engineers created a gaggle of hydroelectric dams, including Lake Oahe on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

Lake Oahe Reservoir and hydroelectric dam was created when the Army Corps of Engineers flooded the fertile river lands and displaced a village on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in 1960. A forest was deluged – lost to the water. Bison died. Burial grounds were submerged. Homes were lost. However, unlike other tribes who were also displaced under Pick-Sloan – the Standing Rock Sioux preserved their right to the Missouri River bed running through their reservation.

Just a few miles up the river from Lake Oahe Reservoir are the Water Protector camps. On a hill just above the largest of the Water Protector camps, Oceti Sakowin, the pipeline the pipeline is near completion. Energy Transfer Company, the owner of the Bakken Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), is just waiting for a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers to drill under the river and place their pipeline under the river.

The Army Corps of Engineers’ requirements under Pick-Sloan may be the last weapon the Water Protectors have to stop the drill and the pipeline.

Man Pistol-Whips Woman and Opens Fire Near Standing Rock Water Protectors at Anti-Bakken Dakota Access Pipeline Prayer Action

The Bismark area countryside echoed with screams of horror on Saturday when a man pistol-whipped a woman from the window of his truck, then opened fire over the heads of Standing Rock Water Protectors praying near a Bakken Dakota Access Pipeline workspace.

A handful of Water Protectors approached the large white truck with a logo for Four Square Concrete LLC at a Bakken Dakota Access Pipeline workspace Saturday. The driver, a balding white middle-aged man in a red jacket and sunglasses, stepped out of his truck and brandished a pistol at the crowd before returning to his truck. 

Photo: John Willis

He began to advance his truck towards the crowd in a threatening manner.

The people directly in front of the truck shored their footing in order to protect the people in the crowd behind them. People jumped on the running boards on both sides in order to slow his progress. A woman jumped on the driver’s side, gripping onto his door.

The yet unidentified man entered a frenzied state, screaming and shouting, his face textured with engorged veins. Then he pulled out his gun.

In terror filled voices, Water Protectors yelled, “Gun! He has a loaded gun!”

The Army Corps of Engineers Authorized Violence Against Standing Rock Water Protectors

Photo by Rob Wilson Photography

The Standing Rock Water Protectors stood. They stood waste deep in North Dakota water less than half a normal human’s body temperature, downhill from riot police indiscriminately spraying them all with pepper spray, bear mace, tear gas, and rubber bullets. They stood in the face of racist comments. They stood in the path of an oil pipeline, in the way of monied interest, and the weight of a country. They stood to protect the water. They stood and waited for the police to run out of mace so they could pray. They stood in pain, shivering, and afraid. They stood and faced the violence – the violence ordered on them by the Army Corps of Engineers.

In the effort to watch Water Protectors, police rove by foot and car in the high hills overlooking the camps. Water Protectors informed police their surveillance track on federal Army Corps of Engineers land, just across Cantapeta Creek from the camps, was sacred burial grounds. Police’s response was to traipse on the bodies of the Standing Rock Sioux ancestors.

In the middle of the night, Water Protectors made a bridge from wood and moxie. On November 2, they laid the bridge across Cantapeta Creek toward their ancestors and tried to cross. If they could reach the other side, they could put their ancestors to rest, and perform a water ceremony.

United Nations Investigates Human Rights Violations by Law Enforcement Against Standing Rock Water Protectors

 Photo by Rob Wilson

Standing Rock Water Protectors described human rights violations by law enforcement to United Nations representatives during interviews this week. Water Protectors described being kept in chain link cells resembling kennels, and strip searched. They also report being denied food, water, clothing, attorneys, phone calls, beds, bedding, and access to the restroom.

UN Chair for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Grand Chief Akile Ch'oh Edward John and UN Observer Roberto Borrero conducted the interviews.

On October 27 police raided a camp set up by the Standing Rock Water Protectors to protect sacred burial grounds and to stop the construction of the Bakken Dakota Access Pipeline. Police employed hundreds of officers, two armored vehicles, tear gas, pepper spray, concussive grenades, rubber bullets, tasers, bean bag guns, batons, and LRADs during the melee. Over 100 people were arrested.

According to interviews, after Water Protectors were arrested at the raid, they were given identification numbers. The identification numbers were written on their forearms in permanent marker. 

When they arrived to Morton County Jail, they were stripped to one layer of clothing and left in cement floored chain link kennels without blankets for hours. At no point were they read their rights. They were denied a phone call even to their attorney.

Protectors were required to give DNA samples to police.