by JEN DEERINWATER
On Thursday, the fifth anniversary of the founding of the Sacred Stone Camp on the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation to resist the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), frontline Indigenous youth and organizers held several actions in Washington, D.C. The activists called on President Joe Biden to end DAPL and the Line 3 pipeline and to “Build Back Fossil Free.”
“It was our youth that led today,” explained Waniya Locke (Diné, Lakota, Nakota and Anishinaabe). The youth-led actions included a rally at the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) headquarters, where organizers delivered petitions with 400,000 signatures demanding ACE withdraw its permit approving Line 3.
The actions included a die-in, in which the Water Protectors laid still on the ground to symbolize those that have died from environmental destruction, and a march to Black Lives Matter Plaza with a 200-foot-long “black snake” meant to symbolize the pipelines and the Lakota prophecy that a black snake will appear and harm the people. The organizers then engaged in a lock-down action outside the White House: Two people were suspended in tripod devices while others were locked to the bottom of the device with bike locks around their necks.
“Whatever it takes,” replied Locke when asked how long she intended to stay locked to the tripod. She remained locked to the tripod for four hours.
The running theme of the day was one of grassroots resistance and a demand for government accountability. Danny Grassrope (Lower Brule Sioux Tribe) said the construction of these dangerous pipelines “disrupts our way of life” and that President Biden could be a good leader, but only if he recognized Indigenous people’s rights and needs.
While explaining the importance of tribal sovereignty, he emphasized that “consulting is not consent” and that only tribal nations have the right to decide if pipelines run through their lands.
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