Racial Injustice In America

The United States is a country that prides itself on diversity and individualism. While these ideals are very much true, often times, the pursuit of happiness and the American Dream are harder to attain for people of color or those who don’t abide by “social norms”. American policies are set in place to keep heterosexual, white males in power thus institutionalizing patriarchal, heteronormative and eurocentristic values. The tendency to view all issues from this perspective prevents the voices and experiences of minorities from entering the discussion and instead further disenfranchises them. Likewise, history tends to gloss over the exclusion and oppression of these groups along with their contributions to our society, thus maintaining the
notion of American exceptionalism (Massey 2009). Native Americans have long felt this imbalance as they were the first group of people, in the history of the United States, to face injustice at the hands of our government and they continue to fight for their sovereignty today.
When European settlers first arrived on this continent, they negotiated transfers of land from the indigenous nations often in exchange for peace and protections, but as demand grew for land a resources conflict arose. Native Americans were soon slaughtered and forced off of the lands that belonged to them. Capitalist greed spread all over America, and these lands were soon transformed into anything that could be exploited for money. Conflict over natural resources have caused extreme loss of life for both human and animal, and the pollution of our planet to such a degree that most of the damage is now irreversible. Native Americans believe that it is their duty to protect the natural land and respect all forms of life that live on it. Fast forward to today, and they are still fighting for what they believe
in.

The Standing Rock Sioux have occupied the Dakotas long before European settlers attempted to wipe out their culture and claim the territory as their own. Colonial forces framed the identity of indigenous people as violent savages who needed to be hunted down and confined to reservations, a narrative that persists in popular culture and history books (Robertson 2015). The Standing Rock Sioux were “given” their land in 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, which has since been redistributed and reduced many times over, although federal law still guarantees them this right. There has been an uphill battle between the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the company building the Dakota Access crude-oil pipeline. This is entirely problematic because the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline would mean the running of millions of gallons of crude oil under the Standing Rock Sioux’s main source of drinking water and straight through sacred ground.
The water protectors began protesting the construction of the pipeline since the project was fast-tracked by the Army Corps of Engineers in July of 2016 without taking into considerations the tribe’s objections and clearly violating federal laws that guaranteed that they would have a role in decisions concerning off-reservation resources (Protestors
Continue to Fight DAPL 2016). If the pipeline were to malfunction it would affect far more than just the Standing Rock Sioux as the pollution and damage could be felt as far south as the Gulf of Mexico (Engler 2016). Alternative sources of media like “Democracy Now!” and “The Young Turks,” who do not accept money from advertisers or government funding, were imperative on getting this story out to the public due to their strong values and beliefs. They shared the pleas of the tribal councils and families whose only concern was to protect their environment and sacred land with an audience of likeminded followers and subscribers. The protests and calls to action were met with a surge of activism with calls to government officials, donations and protestors coming to North Dakota from all over the country in solidarity to “Stand with Standing Rock”. What began as a small protest, soon turned into a gigantic social movement, gaining supporters from all over. “In the final months of 2016, the camps at Standing Rock grew to more than 10,000, filling with indigenous peoples from hundreds of nations, climate-change activists, environmentalists, Hollywood celebrities and those who simply felt a call” (Elbien 2017). Support then even expanded to a global level, with the United Nations siding in favor of the Sioux. “The U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues has called on the United States to provide the tribe a “fair, independent, impartial, open and transparent process to resolve this serious issue and to avoid escalation into violence and further human rights abuses” (Heim 2016). However, the government continued to push on, disregarding everything the Sioux asked for.
Just like in Native American and colonial conflicts of the past, the perspective being pushed by government groups and corporate media was painted the Standing Rock Sioux as overly aggressive liars who were trying to sabotage a profitable and necessary endeavor.
Information circulated that reported that land as not protected by historic preservation laws and attributed the Sioux rebellion as being tied to money. The pipeline itself was described as running nowhere near the Sioux’s water supply and guaranteed to not leak or cause any serious harm if it ever did, despite the fact that the project was rerouted from its original location because of concerns that it would contaminate the water supply to Bismarck, the state capital and there were a handful of pipeline malfunctions reported during the past several months, most likely underreported by the same media that continues to avoid addressing the DAPL conflict. When hired security and riot police released attack dogs on the protesters, it is safe to assume they never expected word to get out on their human rights violations as there were no television crews present, but video and image sharing websites like Twitter and Facebook allowed for water protectors to instantly share their stories (Karamat and Farooq
2016).
The sharing of videos through social media has become a staple of social movements in this age of technological advancement and has given anyone with a cell phone an instrument that can broadcast their personal experiences to anyone who cares to see. Live-streaming videos is the newest tool in the future of political activism as it allows for audience to share in experience in real time with no editing. The protesters have significantly executed this strategy to show the reality of this terrifying situation, while using medias like Twitter to get the message out and gain supporters. By doing this, they have successfully gained support and momentum for their cause.
The US Army Corps of Engineers, along with a number of federal agencies, announced in September that it was reviewing its approvals and temporarily halting permits for construction on federal land near or under the Missouri river. This temporary halt was seen as a victory in the eyes of those protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline, but sadly it wasn’t enough to make the movement fully successful. Following the 2017 presidential election of Donald Trump everything that the movement had accomplished went right out the window.
On January 31st, 2017, the new president signed an executive memorandum instructing the Army to expedite the review and approval process for the unbuilt section of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Within a month, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted an easement allowing the Dakota Access Pipeline to cross under the Missouri River at Lake Oahe, north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The Corps also issued a memo saying it intended to terminate the public comment period and cancel its notice of intent, to prepare an environmental impact assessment. The pipeline company immediately began construction near the crossing under Lake Oahe. The Cheyenne River Sioux then asked the U.S. District Court to issue a restraining order to block construction of the final piece of the pipeline. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe then joined the request a few days later. Both reservations get their water downstream of the Lake Oahe crossing.
On February 13, 2017, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg denied the tribes' joint motion, noting that oil is not yet flowing under the reservoir. In his decision, Boasberg also required the Dakota Access LLC to update the court as to the likely date that oil will begin to flow beneath Lake Oahe. Two days later, The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Cheyenne River Sioux tribe requested a summary judgment against both the Army Corps and Dakota Access LLC, a subsidiary of the pipeline company. This motion was not successful, and resulted with the North Dakota governor setting February 22, 2017 as the deadline for the reaming protesters to leave their camps on federal land near the area of the pipeline company construction site. On March 7, 2017 U.S. District Judge James Boasberg denied the motion by the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes for a preliminary injunction against the pipeline company. In his decision, Boasberg explained that he believed the tribes would be unlikely to prevail in their lawsuit and denied their request to either halt construction on the pipeline, or stop oil from flowing through it once it is complete. This has been the final blow to the movement’s success. Although this social movement has an extensive base of supporters, there is still a huge amount of uncertainty if they will reach their ultimate goal, which is stopping the pipeline from being constructed.
References

Elbein, S. (2017, January 31). The Youth Group That Launched a Movement at Standing Rock. Retrieved April 30, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/31/magazine/the-youth-group-that-launched-a-movement-at-standing-rock.html?_r=0
Engler, Mark. 2016. "Protectors vs pipelines." New Internationalist.
Heim, J. (2016, September 07). Showdown over oil pipeline becomes a national movement for Native Americans. Retrieved April 30, 2017, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/showdown-over-oil-pipeline-becomes-a-national-movement-for-native-americans/2016/09/06/ea0cb042-7167-11e6-8533-6b0b0ded0253_story.html?utm_term=.f295e53e4f34
Karamat, Ayesha, and Ayesha Farooq. 2016. "Emerging Role of Social Media in Political Activism: Perceptions and Practices." South Asian Studies (1026-678X)
Massey, Douglas S. 2009. "Globalization and Inequality: Explaining American Exceptionalism." European Sociological Review 25(1):9-23.

Robertson, Dwanna L. 2015. "Invisibility in the Color-Blind Era." American Indian Quarterly 39(2):113-153.

2016. "Protestors Continue to Fight Dakota Access Pipeline." Oil Spill Intelligence