After speaking to friends up at the Sacred Stones camp today and witnessing all the violence on Facebook, I feel frustrated as hell. I have been there twice already but due to family commitments, I came home. I have been actively trying to keep Standing Rock in the headlines but it’s really difficult due to the mainstream media “blackout” of coverage. I did do an interview yesterday with a local Seattle station but I feel like it’s still not enough.
Gill PlentyChief
What I witnessed took me back to my childhood when they were doing the same things to the people on the river. The fight that time was to uphold our treaty fishing rights, over the salmon. And now they are still doing that same violence to our people today. It’s just sick and sad.
The politicians come in and they promise everything, they promise they will abide by the treaties. Well we are still waiting. They steal our land thru “eminent domain” and they take our minerals and water rights, with no consequences for the future. They are tearing down the sacred sweat lodges and taking prayer ties down and throwing them away. There were children and elders in those lodges and tents, several young people got hurt. How would they like it if somebody did that to their children?
We have to remember that we all human beings, we drink the same water. How would they like to see their grandchildren buying water at $20 a bottle because that's what it's coming down to. My heart is hurt tonight, my brain can't relax. I'm thinking about going over there but my husband is worried because of my age. I just want to see good things for my grandchildren and for mother earth, not pipelines and concrete buildings. We need to learn to make a garden, go hunting, go fishing, gather your roots for medicines, etc. We need to plan ahead.
We don't want this to become a martial law country but I'm afraid if Hillary or Trump get in there, they would do away with the reservations, even though Hillary has an Indian name. Tonight I have a heavy heart - one of the young tribal members went over there and got arrested. He called his mom and she said he sounded so scared. I told her that all the time I was hanging around with him, he wanted to join AIM, so now he is in AIM. I told her, he just got initiated into being a warrior. I'm saying prayers for him because he such a delicate young man. Every time he goes over there it takes boxes and boxes of Cedar and he'll go get donations from everyone. He has a good heart but thank God our tribal council is going to intervene and try to help him. We have another worker who got arrested, she's a great attorney on these kind of issues. Her name is Annette Klapstein. I'm hoping that the people stay safe and we're praying for them. I look at the young children there and worry about them because these guys don't care who they're going to hit, they don't care who they are going gas, they don't care who's going to get run over.
I wonder if their conscience is bothering them. I wonder if they go home, sit at a table and look at their children and think about what they did today, to the indigenous children of this land.
I know people are staying stronger this time and we will win, we have the creator on our side!