Singer-Songwriter Aliza Hava and Scholar and Operations Manager for the Dominican University School of the Arts and Humanities, Keiko Ehret, tell .us about Standing Rock and their adventures at the camp. This interview is not what you expect- it will startle you from another view.
STANDING ROCK
Photo Credit Adam Alexander Johannson
This is destined to become an iconic photo of an iconic event
This is destined to become an iconic photo of an iconic event
“Standing Rock” refers to Camp Oceti Sakowin, an
encampment of water protectors from the Dakota and Lacota Sioux Nations near
Lake Oahe along the Missouri River.
The water protectors are exercising their first amendment
right to peacefully assemble to protest the building of a new Dakota Access
Pipeline (DAPL) that is routed under the Missouri River.
The Missouri River Basin supplies water to millions of
people and an oil spill would affect everyone downstream. Energy Transfer Partners had to reroute the
original pipeline because it came too close to Bismarck and the predominately
white residents there objected.
The Sioux Tribes filed a lawsuit alleging the Army Corps
of Engineers violated several U.S. Laws treaty provisions when they gave DAPL
an easement to build on federal land and land that would endanger sacred sites
on the Sioux Reservation.
Standing Rock is an unparalleled historic event...
including the largest coming together of Indian Nations in cooperation and allegiance since Little Big Horn—than 300 nations gathered there in support of protecting water. Allies came from all over the world and the United Nations denounced the tactics used against peaceful prayerful people protecting their land and water. American Veterans also joined in solidarity as well as Indigenous from around the globe.
including the largest coming together of Indian Nations in cooperation and allegiance since Little Big Horn—than 300 nations gathered there in support of protecting water. Allies came from all over the world and the United Nations denounced the tactics used against peaceful prayerful people protecting their land and water. American Veterans also joined in solidarity as well as Indigenous from around the globe.
Police, pipeline security and a hired division of
Blackwater used water cannons, fire hoses, tear gas, rubber bullets and
concussion grenades to intimidate the protectors in violation of their
constitutional right to peacefully assemble in protest.
Others who gathered in solidarity came from Nature
Herself—a herd of buffalo that spontaneously showed up, eagles, and geese who
flew over at the moment of victory as the word came that the pipeline would be
suspended.
This single event of Standing Rock and peoples standing
up for their rights became a rallying cry, a model for prolonged peaceful
protest, and a flashpoint for the environmental movement.
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The speakers on the podcast program were Aliza Hava and Keiko Ehret from the San Francisco Bay area of
California. Aliza is a singer-songwriter, bandleader for Eve of Eden Folk Rock
Band and activist who worked in Israel/Palestine as a musical peace activist; Keiko
is Director of Operations for the School of the Arts, Humanities and Social
Sciences at the Dominican University.
Interviewer Barbara Kaufmann
is staff and Lead Volunteer for the Arts Sector for the Charter for Compassion
International and is herself and activist, artist, writer and journalist. She
has written for magazines, newspapers, blogs and The Huffington Post and is the
Founder and Steward for “Words and Violence” a publication now in its 4th
edition—a program about bullying in all its incarnations including in the last
edition, how we bully the planet.
Story and podcast created for the Charter for Compassion
International courtesy of Walking Moon Studios- people who tell story
about fierce compassion in images.
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