DISPATCHES FROM
STANDING ROCK

Against the Dakota Access Pipeline and its World
The following texts appeared on various public websites over the
past few weeks, during a period of intensified struggle against
the Dakota Access Pipeline. We reprint them here as a means of
extending the visibility of this ongoing revolt, with which we
feel a profound affnity.
-1l Will Editions
Nov 1,2016.

ill-will-editions. cumblr.com
illwill@riseup.net
A CONVERSATION ON THE SACRED
STONE CAMP

(Anonymous)*

A NightFall Editor: Fist off, can you tell us a litle bit abou the Da.
kota Access Pipeline?

Anonymous Participant: The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), is
owned by a Houston, Texas based corporation called Energy Trans-
fer Parmers, L.P. which created the subsidiary Dakota Access LLC
that is building the pipeline. The DAPL, also known as the Bakken

Pipeline, i proposed to trans- port 450,000 bartels of crude oil per
day (which is fiacked and highly volatile) from the Bakken fields of
North Dakota to Patoka, llinois. ¢ current route of the DAPL wil
cross over the Ogallala Aquifer (one of the lrgest aquifers in the
world) and under the Missouri River twice (the longest river in the
United States). Dakota Access has systematically failed to consult
with tribes and conduct a full Environmental Impact Statement
(E15).

cesible here: hps:/ nightill bckbly
ITFALL-TWO pe

wp-content/uploads/sies/ 236/ 2016/06,

In early August, Canadian pipeline giant Enbridge announced that,
along with Marathon Petroleuns, it will make a significant invest—
ment in the Bakken Pipeline System, including the controversial
Dakota Access pipeline. As part of their statement, En- bridge also
noted that, *Upon successful closing of the transaction, Enbridge
and Marachon Petroleum plan to terminate their transportation
services and joint venture agreements for the Sandpiper Pipeline
Project [a crude oil pipeline proposed for northern Minnesota.]”

We know that this influx of resources from Enbridge will only
speed up the construction process

NF: When and how was the Sacted Stone Camp established?

AP: The camp is at the confluence of the Cannon Ball and Mis-
souri Rivers. It is an important location for the Mandan origin
story as the place where they came into the world after the great
flood. Where the two waters meet, created Inyan Wakhinagapi
Othi, spherical Sacred Stones (thus the colonizers’ term *Cannon
Ball River), but after the Army Corp of Engineers dredged and
flooded the rivers in the 19505, the flow has changed and Sacred
Stones are no longer produced. The camp is surrounded by historic
burial grounds, village grounds and Sundance sites that would be
directly impacted by this pipeline. The water of the Missouri River
is essential to life on the Stunding Rock Reservation as well as all
of the nations downstream.

On April 1, 2016, 2 group of over 200 supporters, led by for-
ty riders on horse, under the Lakota name, “Chante tin'a kinanzi
Po”, which translates as “People, Stand with a Strong Heart!” left
Fort Yates for a thirty mile trek to the camp located just north of
Cannonball, North Dakota. They setup up tipi's and a sacred fire
The camp has swelled in the past two months and has had multiple
satellite camps across the river on private as well as unceded land on
both sides of the river.

NE: Wihat is daily lif like in the camp?

AP: Cooking, cleaning, gathering and chopping firewood and
hanging ou, especially around the camp, sharing food largely de-
fines camp life. There are always families of all generations populat-
ing he camp.You can hear the people playing the drum, giving the
camp its own heartbeat. Stories and memories are shared like water.
Laughter and life are not uncommon,

The seality of the situation is that the people have been resist-
ing the U.S. Empire and continuing genocide for so long that the
drones and military surveillance flying above the camp the whole
day becomes almost forgettable; like living next to a waterfall, the
sound becomes a part of the landscape. We do counter-surveillanc
logging the enemy’s movements. We can see all the pipeline con-
struction equipment on the east side of the river.

Everyday there are prayers of resistance offered to the water, earth
and ancestors. Without the water of life, the camp and we would
die.

NF: How have folks at the camp mobilized 1o stop the pipeline thus for?
Has it been solely a publicity campaign /symbalic protest thus fur or have
olks divectly intefered with construction of the pipeline? Ae there discus-
sions about tactics at the camp? Did these change afie the Army Corps of
Engineers approved the pipeline crossing the river and /or afier the arsons
attacking DAPL construction sites in Iowa? As I see it the camp and the
arsons are complementary rather than conflcting tacics for stopping the
pipeline; is this generally how people feel at the camp or is there a range of
opinions on the matter?

AP: Like with any struggle, the people are not homogenous in
thought and tactic. Much of the camp’s rhetoric s of the “Non-vi-
olent Direct Action” type. Lock your arm to this piece of decon-
struction equipment and take a picture with a banner for Facebook.
But the Warrior Culture that is so rich in Lakota memory seems
to counter a lot of the liberal, non-violent, NGO types. Comrades
saw what happened in Towa, heard about the $1,000,000 in damage
and got inspired. I wouldn't say chat it was publicly celebrated be-
cause the camp’s tactic of “Non-violence” s the image they want
to perpetuate. Like I said, it is 2 tactic...not everyone thinks that
is what we need to dogmatically stick to. It is one thing to use
Non-Violence as a thetorical device in corporate media to spread
‘your inspirational actions but it is another thing to preach it as your
dogma in your private circles and use it to stop material dam- age to
the infrastructure of ecocide. I see the former being invoked much
greater than the latcer.
NF: How has the camp’s location on private land affected its character?
1 would imagine the fact that it's on private land gives it some protection
against police but also means that if folks at the camp did engage in any
illegal actvities he land owner would be in a vulnerable position with re-
qards o legal repression. Is that a conceru? Does the person who owns the
land have'more say than offers about tacics or daily matters at the camp?
Wikat does the decsion making proces look like?

AP: The question of “private land” is especially difficult to address
when we factor in Reservations (or what the U.S. Empire originally
called and created them for, Prison of War Camps). The reservations
are actually Federal Land. This means that local county and state
police cannot enter it. A huge rea- son why Dakota Access (the
company) is not building the pipeline thru the rez but literally a
couple hundred meters north of it

When the reservations were created, imperial logic of “borderiza-
tion” was imposed; meaning, the communal and nomadic lands used
for Life were divided by borders: fencing for animal domestication,
invisible lines drawn on maps o denote “property” i.c. who owns
what, etc. is fundamentlly changed peoples relation to land. And
this set up the infraseructure / hierarchies for surveillance and po-
licing. The camp exists in a way that resists this imperial imposition.
We share food and water without hesitation. We have no leader. We
all have knowledge to share and learn from each other. We recog-
nize that the borders we build between ourselves are not “natural”
anymore than the flooding in the 1950s by the Army Corps of
Engineers was. They do not spread our Wildfire, so we continue to

Keep the eternal flame lit. Instead of framing things in colonial
terms of “legal/ illegal”, it makes more sense at the camp o think
in terms of effectivencss; effectivencss of stopping this genocidal
project so the people can reclaim their way of life
IT’S ON!A CALLTO OPEN NEW FRONTS
IN THE #NODAPL STRUGGLE!

(Anonymous)

To all rebels, rabblerousers, radicals, and ruckus raisers: Its on! In the past
24 hours there have been significant escalations in the fight against
the Dakota Access Pipeline. In North Dakota despite over 120 peo-
ple being arrested on Saturday, water protectors launched a major
offensive on Sunday, setting up a new encampment directly on the
pipeline route, and simultaneously erecting 3 major blockades on
surrounding highways to prevent police and workers from accessing
the site. From the Sacred Stone Camp,
“This morning, at approximately 8am central, water protectors
took back unceded territory affirmed in the 1851 Treaty of Ft.
Laramie as sovereign land under the control of the Oceti Sa-
Kowin, erecting a frondline camp of several structures and tipis
on Dakota Access property, just east of ND state highway 1806
This new established camp is 2.5 miles north of the Cannon

1 This text first appeared on Oct. 24°, 2016, on isgoingdown.org.
Ball River, directly on the proposed path of the Dakota Access
Pipeline (DAPL). This site s directly across the road from where
DAPL security dogs attacked water protectors on September 34"

Meanwhile, in lowa the Mississippi Stand encampment has shut-
down pipeline drilling operations under the Mississippi River for
over 24 hours and are currenty blocking an access road with an
immobilized RY.

These actions come after weeks of sustained discuptions of the
pipeline construction in bath North Dakota and lowa, and the his-
toric blossoming of a resistance camp that has seen the greatest
gathering of tribes in the US in over 100 years. While thousands
of people from across the country and world hold down the largest
and longest running autonomous zone seen in the US in decades,
resistance grows across the country.

Thousands have taken to the stecets in cities large and smuall. Oth-
ers have occupied banks, blocked intersections, and redecorated oil
company offices. Some have decided to take it step further. On
October 1% 2 geoup of activists shut down all 5 pipelines carry-
ing tar sands oil into the US from Canada in solidarity with the
Standing Rock resistance. ¥es, they literally cut off the flow of ail by
shutting off emergency valves that ae apparently easily accessibe. A video
put out by Submedia.ty shows just how easy it is to do. On tap of
his, several mainstream media oulets are reporting that over the
weekend of Oct 15/16, unknown persons torched several pieces
of pipeline equipment in lowa, resulting in nearly $2 million in
damage. This comes a month after anonymous individuals torched
pipelin equipment at three different sites in one night in the same
area,sesulting in $1 million in damage

This is a historic uprising, with incredible public support. It is time
0 ask ourselves, what are we doing to support, grow, and escalate
this struggle for indigenous sovereignty and defense of the land, air
and water,

Opening New Fronts
It goes without saying that if you have the means to get out (o the
Standing Rock occupation, and are ready to commit to the res
tance, then by all means get your ass out there. They need as many

10
committed warriors as they can get who are willing to hold cheir
ground against the highly militarized police force. For those who
for whatever reason cannot make the journey to Standing Rock, we

still have an important role to play in this uprising.

Just as 2 small band of commiteed individuals in lowa with not
nearly the support of the Standing Rock encampment managed to
open up a second front that the state and pipeline companies must
now contend with, we need to explore ways to open new batde-
lines in the fight against DAPL. As water protectors holding down
the frondines ac Standing Rock have escalated, we need to escalate
our resistance around the country to show those responsible for the
pipeline there will be consequences for building this pipeline on
stolen land.

Disrupt Flows of Capital

While the marches and rallies in front of banks invested in the
pipeline certainly have their place, we need to expand the terrain of
resistance to DAPL.We can Iook to the Black Lives Matter (and to
some degree Occupy) movement to see that the blocking of com-
merce: highways, airports, railways, ports and shopping districts are

a far greater threat to the state and the economy than a lockdown at
a bank. What those in power fear most is a loss of control of terri-
tory and a disruption of the flow of capital, even if for only an hour
or two. It is time to do your research, get 2 crew togecher, and shut
shit down. Shut it down with a crowd of hundreds of peaple or shut
it down with nothing more than a couple friends and some locks
and chains. What matters is you shut it down

Create New Spaces of Encounter and Occupation
The uprising in Standing Rock has electrified thousands upon
thousands of people who have, for one reason or another, been
sitting on the sidelines until now: Can we create spaces, temporary
or permanent, in our communities where these new folks can find
each other, learn necessary skills, deepen their analysis, and ulti-
mately take collective action? This could look like calling an open
assembly in a park,a weekend action camp, or a permanent encanip-
ment at a strategic or symbolic location from which to organize and
launch actions. What matters is that we create spaces where we can
find each other, and especially make space for new people to get
involved and help grow the struggle. If a small group of people in
Keokuk, Towa can build a secondary encampment literally in a ditch
between a highway and the Mississippi River to launch regular ac-
tions against the pipeline, than surely folks it better resourced cities
and regions can do the same. A small group in northwest Florida has
already taken this approach with an encampment against the Sabal
Trails pipeline. What are you doing?

Offer Trainings to People Traveling to Standing Rock
As has been stated, lots of new folks are diving head first inco this
struggle without much experience. This i great. Those of us with a
little dirt under our fingernails can be a big help by offering train-
ings to those going to Standing Rock or atherwise looking to get
involved in the struggle. Trainings in direct action skills, know your
rights, blockades, security culture, action medical, police tactics,
mobile affinity group tactics, and what to expect if arrested are all
useful knowledge to have for new folks heading to the occupation.
There is also clearly a need for education on decolonization and
cultural appropriation for folks who do not have experience in
working with indigenous communities. A baseline understanding of
colonialism, genocide, and not being a culcural vampire for people
traveling to Standing Rack can go along way in preventing unnec-
essary conflicts from arising within the camp.

12
There’s Nothing To It but to Do It
Lets not waste time. The situation on the frontlines is extremely flu-
id, and it is only a matter of time before another major crackdown
happens up in Standing Rock. If you can, get up to the Standing
Rock or Missisippi Stand encampments with people, supplies, and
a commitment to hold down the occupations. If you can's, get to-
gether with your friends and sart organizing for action in your
community. Now is not the time to be insular and standoffish to
anyone who doesn't fit into your concept of a committed comrade.
Now is the time to take risks and reach out to others who give
damn about this planet and start working together to pen up new
fronts in this batde, oceupy space, and collectively shut this shit
down.

Onwards!
NOW IS THE TIME

2. ORGANIZE SOLIDARITY ACTIONS IN
YOUR OWN COMMUNITY

3. SEND MONETARY SUP SUPPURI

NODAPLSOLIDARITY.0RG

THE GLOBAL SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN*

Red Warrior Camp

The Red Warrior Camp calls on all People from around the world
to take action and join the Glabal Solidarity Campaign. If you live
on this land, breathe the air and drink water, this is your fight too.

Our Brothers, Sisters and Protectors are putting their bodies and
lives on the line everyday on the fronlines in Standing Rock. First
and foremost, we call upon ALL protectors to come stand with us
on the frondines. If you cannot be physically present, you can still
take escalated action to stop the pipeline and support our struggle.

The projected in service date for the Dakota Access Pipeline is Jan-
wary 1st, 2017. With that date quickly approaching, we are calling
for two months of sustained waves of action targeting the Army
Corp of Engineers, investors, pipeline companies, security firms
and elected officials who are behind this project. We need to hold
these institutions, corporations and individuals accountable and put
pressure on them to stop this pipeline.

2 This call o action frst appeared o the Red Warior C:
on October 27, 2016,

wp Facebook page
These are he ways to join he fight:

1. Organize yourself and/or large geoups of people from
your community to come to Sanding Rock. Contact us at
Organizing@NoDAPLSolidarity.org to discuss details and
schedule a time frame

2. TAKE ACTION IN YOUR OWN COMMUNITIES.
Target the Army Corp of Engineers, banks, pipeline compa-
nies, corporations and elected officials behind the pipeline.
Taking action includes lock-downs at offices, sit-ins, taking
up space, rallies, call-in days, divesting from banks, mass mail-
ings and interruptions. Register at nodaplsolidarity.org to
join our network of Global Solidarity.

3. Send monetary support to:
Official Red Warrior Camp Fund: www.gofundme.com/red-
warriorcamp;

Official Legal Fund: generosity.com/fundraising/red-war-
rior-camp-legal-fund-nodapl

We want people to recognize that this fight is much larger than
Standing Rock. When the Dakota Access Pipeline is defeated, the
fight is not over. There are communities around the world fighting
against the exact same corporations and systems that we current—
Iy fight against in Standing Rock. This is about Indigenous rights,
Human rights and the rights of Mother Earth being violated for
corporations and their profit. This is about a capitalist system that
allows for these violations to continue around the World. This is
about recognizing that with the energy created at Standing Rock
and those organizing ar Standing Rock have a responsibility to
uplift the shared struggles of ALL Peoples, from all directions of
Mother Earth if we wish to pass down a healthy world to future
generations.

Additionally, recognizing that we are being charged with illegal ac-
ivities for simply protecting the water, we are taking back our pow-
er and charging the pipeline companies, banks and individuals be-
hind this project with crimes against Humanity and crimes against
Mother Earth. The Dakota Access Pipeline is in direct violation of
the United Nation’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peo-

16
ples, most especially around the right to free and prior informed
consent, desecration, redress, militarization, development, treaties
and judicial proceedings.

The Dakota Access Pipeline is in direct violation of the United
Nation’s Declaration of Universal Human Rights, most especially
in regards to the right to security of person, the right to not be
subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
or punishment.

The sacredness and power of the Water is what brought us together.
Itis what connects us. We cannot lose sight of that.

Please stay acive and check out the website NoDAPLSolidarity.org
to get involved!

“Red Warrior Camp
15
RIOT POLICE RAID SACRED GROUND
CAMP?

Red Warrior Camp

On the morning of October 27¢h 2016, Frontline Camp — Sacred
Ground Camp was raided by the militarized police forces. During
212 hour stand off with over 300 police the camp was bulldozed
and over 100 peaple arrested, including elders, and people in sweat

“This camgp was established in the path of the Dakota Access Pipeline
to protect ancestral remains and sacred water, it was a small camp
of a few people but affer the mass arrests on the October 22,2016
prayer walk, many people from the Oceti Sakowin encampment oc-
cupied the land. This land is Treaty Land from the 1851 Fort Lara-
mie Treaty, we have every right to occupy this land, and to defend
it from further destruction and desecration,

3 This text fst appeared on October 30, 2016, on the site ancestralprde.org
Energy Transfer Partners and its investors and sharcholders feel dif-
ferent, 5o does the Morton County Sheriffs Department. In an act
of unprecedented violence and domestic terrarism against Native
peoples and their allies the riot police assaulted and bruglized the
People. Corporate Greed and modern western sociery’s obsession
with consuming encrgy has fueled the fires and the racial hatred
against Indigenous Peoples world wide. The very fact that the Po-
lice are protecting corporate interests speaks for itself, we live in a
fascist police state. We live in a time where land, water, and peoples
very lives are considered acceptable collateral damage to the CEO'
of these corporations, and the silence from the Government proves
they agree. The fact that the Obama Administration has not stepped
in and stopped these atrocities is reprehensible, but what can we
really expept from a Government that has never once treated the
Indigenous People with any form of respect or common decency

Words cannot begin to describe the feelings I had that day. I was
working on a project and I heard the call out in the Casino lobby,
“the Police are coming they are raiding camp” After many false
alarms, since the influx of new protectors at Sacred Ground camp,
I headed out to see for myselfif this was true. | arrived at the camp
at 11:00 am there was many peaple there and cars, we could see
the Riot Police and their machines gearing up to mobilize against
the People. The energy was palpable, I could feel what was coming,
people were shouting to remain calm, to be brave and to scand firm,
others were saying stay behind the white line on he right side
of the road and that if we stood there the Riot Police would not
harm us. Horses and people were milling around trying to organize
themselves and all the while we could see them coming.

What followed was 12 + hours of chaos, it is absolutely stunning,
and sadly not surprising to see such an excessive use of force by the
Police against the People. In a story that has been coninuing for
over 500 years we were attacked and brutalized at the hands of the
colonizers, we were repeatedly told by the police on a loud speaker:
“We do not want to harm you, We do not want to arrest you.”Yet
they harmed us, they arrested us, and eventually they bulldozed the
Sacred Ground before our very eyes.

A blockade was built and set on fire to stop them from coming in
and we all watched as people who were scared put it out and then

»
we watched as all hell broke loose. I watched as they arrested my
friend Dan on his birthday in his regalia for standing in Prayer, |
watched as they tasered a man for holding his ground. I was shot
in the chest and the knee, and still they came. We tried as hard as
we could to hold our frontline and to stop them and keep people
calim but we were relentlessy forced back. People sang and cried,
we helped each other when we were injured, we encouraged each
other when we were weakened by battle fatigue. What struck me
the most was the amount of force put into protecting OIL over wa-
ter, and how souless the riot police looked, how they smirked and
laughed at people who they were terrorizing, the mindset of these
pigs is so foreign to humanity.

We were tear gassed, maced, concussion grenades, rubber bullets,
sound cannon, bean bags, pellet grenades, tazers, snipers in the hills,
and of course beaten with batons. I was hit in the chest with a
bean bag, and shorly after I took a rubber bullet in the knee, I
dearrested myself and helped others from being arrested. I recorded
video from the hood of truck my comades were locked down
€0 as the police attacked and beat several Warriors, I bore witness
to the setting up of a Tipi on the road and watched with my heart
in my throat as chey tore it down. Yet we held them off as long as
we could, we tried our very best (o stop them, eventually we were
forced to the bridge that is north of Standing Rock Encampment
on highway 1806.A fiery blockade was erected and maintained un-
il the morning of October 28th when it was dismantled through
pacifism and neo colonialisn. Meanwhile as all chis was happening
on Highway 134 a lone DAPL security guard attacked people hold-
ing a blockade in his vehicle, he had an AR15 and he shot to kill,
the warriors fought back and managed to take his truck, he ran into
the water with his gun and was eventually arrested by the Bureau
OF Indian Afairs; his truck was set afire.

At the end of the day, the pipeline is sill being built, the people
are still standing firm, and all we can do is continue to PRAY and
fight back. They are just a few short miles away from the river, and
we must remain vigilnt and also act proactively to stop the Black
Snake and kill it dead. We cannot afford to allow this pipeline to
continue, people need to realize that for an effective resistance to
succeed we must not allow fear mongering and fear rule us.

2
On October 28th the hard work of the People and the Warriors to
hold a frontline has been dismantled. The holding of the blockade
at the bridge on highway 1806 has been taken down, this was ne-
gotiated by a group of people from the main camp (no disrespect
meant but it’s true) with no idea how detrimental to 2 resistance
movement taking the blockade down is. The blockade was a MES
SAGE to the WORLD about how we as Indigenous People of this
continent are being treated, this fight is about the pipeline and
Sacred Water but what it really boils down to s Indigenous Rights
and Tide and Eminent Domain, Treaty Rights and the violation of
our Human Rights! Environmental Racism and Land Theft and the
bullshit that white society brought since contact has infected the
minds and hearts of our Warriors and Elders, this has to stop.

The old story of divide and conguer has a chance of winning be-
cause when it comes down to it scared people are attempting to
squash the warrior spirit through pacifism, we understand this fear
but we cannot let it rule us. The sincere hope is that these peaple
stop trying to police our own and stand up beside us! Diversity of
factics must be used and also be respected, we have exhausted all
the at least we tried things and all that is left to us is to fight. The
call out for Warriors was answered, we are here o stop a pipeline,
we know the risks and we accept them for what they are, instead of
using prayer against your own people, use the prayer to empower
the people.

In The Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Xhopakelhit
Ancestral Pride

Red Warrior Camp

#BlackSnakeKillas

2
REPORTBACK FROM THE BATTLE FOR
SACRED GROUND*

(Anonymous)

North Dakota

Pipeline Route (proposed) -
Standing Rock Reservation
Missouri River —

Preface

For months, hundreds of peaple, including members of nearly a hundred
different indigenous peaples, have mobilized o black the construction of the
Dakota Acces Pipcline. On October 27, police raiding the Sacred Ground
camp encountered stiff rsistance. We've just received the following firsthand
seport fiom comrades wha participated in the defense of the camp. Describ-
g some of the fierces clashes indigenous and environmental movements
it the region have seen in many years, they pose important questions about
solidarity stnuggles.

4 Thistext st appeared on No 1, 2016, on Crimethine com

B
The Battle

When we arrive on Wednesday, October 26, we can't find our con-
tacts, the friends and friends of friends who have been vouched into
the secretive Red Warrior camp. Word around the camp is that evic-
tion is imminent for Sacred Ground, the only camp in the direct
path of the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline. The tribe claims this
land s territory granted to them in the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty,
and that they were using their own “eminent domain” to take it
back when they set up the camp. We decide to set up at Sacred
Ground and to figure out how to make ourselves useful in stopping
s eviction.

The Sacred Ground camp is located about two miles north of the
main camp on highway 1806 The main camp itself s just north of
the Snding Rock Reservation, where two more NoDAPL camps,
Rosebud and Sacred Stone, are located. Before arriving, we had
seen images of barricades blacking Highway 1806 to the north of
the Sacred Ground camp.

When we walk to that site, however, we find those barricades have
been pushed to the sides of the road, the northernmost one turned
into a kind of checkpoint. According to the people at the check-
point, they were ordered to remove the blockade by the camp lead-
exs, who plan on allowing the police to enter and evict the camp.
The “camp leaders” are hired Nonviolent Direct Action consultants.
They are urilizing a classic strategy of nonviolent civil disobedience:
they hope that the images of police evicting people in prayer will
win them the sympathy of che public. The peaple we speak with at
the checkpoint are clearly not buying this. But what can they do?
Their elders have hired these people to stage-manage the moment.
After some conversation with the folks on the barricades and with
the “camp leaders” it is decided that we'll leave the road open until
the police actually arrive, and then we'll build up the barricades
quickly in order to slow their progress. This will hopefully buy time
to allow the people who want to get arrested while in prayer to
assemble and prepare themselves. For what its worth, this plan was
erafted with the approval of the “proper channels.”

As soon as this course of action is proposed, some new organism
burses inco life, and thirty people we've never met are loading logs
and tires and barbed wire onto trucks in the middle of the night. A
plan comes together for when and how to start blocking the road.
The energy is electric; the possibility of a real physical defense of
this stracegically decisive camp is in the air and in people’s conver-
sations.

“Idon't know whao those ‘leaders are.” a Native guy tells us as we
throw tires on the side of the road. “They're not my elders. I came
here to defend this camp, and I'm going to do what I have to’ We
still don't know where the fabled Red Warrior folks are, but we feel
that we've found people we want o support in chis battl,

“This is the plan: the folks up the hill at the checkpoint are the first
line of defense. When the cops come, they will get in the road and
begin a prayer ceremony. They inform us they have no intention of
moving until they are arrested or worse. While they block the road,
it will be our job to build up the next barricade about a quarter
mile down the road to buy time for the prayer circle to assemble

the camp. To us, this is not ideal, because it still means that the
eviction will go through. But we also feel that we have very little
agency in this situation. We're white. We just showed up. At least
we'll be a part of putting up 2 fight, we tell ourselves. At least the
police won't just be invited in.

5
We take shifis all night, trying to decode the fiying objects in the
sky.Is that a drone or a satellie? I that the moon behind the clouds?
Then why is it moving? Why is that surveillance plane fashing those
lights over there? For hours, I have the feeling tha we've stepped
into some deep historical current, chat this moment is connected to
every other moment in which people waited o defend barricades
against overwhelming adversaries. We joke and tell stories, we snap
our attention to any movement on the hillside, we speculate and
scheme.We receive new names based on stupid things we do or say.
The night is long and cold and at dawn the sun is welcome.

The next morning, we learn tha there has been another barri-
cade all along, located on a bridge on Route 134, the only other
entrance by which the police can access the Sacred Ground camp
since all other entrances go through the Standing Rock reservation.
Apparendly chis is what Red Warrior has been up o, and they have
no intention of letting the police through. While that is exciting to
hear, we can't understand why the same commitment to physically
defend the space is absent here on Highway 1806.

Atound midday, a line of police vehicles shows up blaring their
sirens—but not on the highway. They are taking the access road be-
side the pipeline construction, where we have no defenses. People
start parking their cars to block the access road and crowds start to
gather. Word comes that the police are bringing in armored vehicles
on the highway. We run to our posts at the second blockade and
begin loading tires into the street. Just then, truck pulls up and out
steps a paid nonviolent consultant who is on his way to negotiate
a mass arrest. He gathers the barricade crew in a circle and makes
an impassioned plea for us to leave the road clear. “When peaple
see the images of them arresting us and storming our teepees with
guns, they will know our scruggle is right”

Some people are convinced and begin removing the barbed wire,
Our crew has a quick conversation. We aren't convinced by this guy,
but we don't want to be the ones to disobey his orders—we don't
want to make it easy for the police or media to deploy a narrative
about “outside agitators,” and we don't want to sabotage the possi-
bility of other anarchists like us participating in this struggle.

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We decide we will check in with the Native guys we spent the
night on the barricade with. When we ask about their reaction to

the speech, we get a blun response: “Fuck that guy” Our thoughts
exactly

As we're building che barricade, our new friends give us one rule:
build it up as much as we want, but their elders say no fire. We
agree to this. Ac this point, people are crowded up che hill ac the
first checkpoing; we begin to load our barricade materials into the
street, leaving one lane open to enable our people to make it to the
other side before the cops. We watch from a distance as the armored
vehicles approach the crowd up ahead

Then a blue car that had been up near the first checkpoint speeds
down the hill toward us. It parks, blocking half the road. A Native
woman gets out and stabs her own tires with a knife. A team re-
moves her license plates, and soon another car blocks the other side
of the road in similar fashion. The cops are heading toward us, and
word spreads that the other barricade is already on fire. People and
horses are herded to our side of the blockade. Just then, the paid
nonviolence consultant gets on top of one of the cars and attemprs
to deliver a speech to calm everyone down. He can barely get a

word out before a Native kid gets up on the other car and starts
chanting: “BLACK SNAKE KILLAZ! BLACK SNAKE KILLAZ!”

As the crowd chants this over the guy who just negotiated a care-
fully orchestrated mass arrest with the cops, the barricade is lit and
the fight is on. Bottles and stones are thrown a the police vehicles.
But this only lasts for a moment before a line of elders and camp
security forms to start pushing the combatants back from the bar-
ricade. Shouting matches and fisfights break out. There are Native
folks of all ages on both sides of the long and disappointing struggle.
Those opposing the physical confrontation succeed in pushing us
back, enabling che police to form a line around the north side of the
camp where the large crowds are gathered.

At this poin, 2 truck is parked in the road with two people locked
to the underside. Logs are piled up azound the truck and two tee-
pees are erected on cither side of it. Some try to hold a line against
the police, stretching teepee poles across a dozen people. Others
huel stones and logs at the cops and their vehicles. The chaos is
overwhelming. A young warrior on horseback is tazed and falls to
the ground. All around us, people are screaming from the effects of
pepper spray. Flash-bang grenades are bursting in the air, mingling
with rubber bullets and beanbag rounds. The screaming matches
continue between those who want to fight back and those who
want to be arrested while praying. The cops are already in the camp.

Over a painful hour, we are all pushed south of the only camp that
blocked the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Over a
hundred people are arrested, many of them charged with “conspir-
acy to endanger with fire” regardless of whether they were in any
proximity to the flaming barricade. This seems calculated to drain
our legal fund, since the bail i set at $1500 each. Sacred Ground
s lost

Riot on the Prairic

As we ride south, smoke rises from a hill in the east. Some clever
folks have taken advantage of the chaos to burn construction equip-
ment. This gesture is greeted with cheers. In the other direction,
smoke rises from a truck set aflame on the 134 Bridge. People are
running to the top of a hill to the east. There we witness a chase:
police in military gear pursuing two warriors on horses, who have
apparently rallied a herd of buffalo at che police line back at camp.
The cops shoot at the horses while trying to cut them off, as peaple

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scramble to semove a barbed wire fence for the horses to escape,
They succeed with seconds to spare; the police ATVs turn back
amid our curses.

Another barricade goes up where Route 134 meets Highway 1806,
A crowd gathers at that intersection. It clear that this is the new
front. As people are eating and planning their stand, shouts ring
out: “STOP THE WHITE TRUCK!” We all run into the road to
block a white pickup that is coming from the norch. It turns off
the road and tries to speed around us. Trucks from our side give
chase, and the white truck is eventually rammed off the side of the
road. The driver, a DAPL security guard who had pointed a gun at
demonstrators up the hill, runs out of the truck carrying an AR-15
rifle. He is chased into a pond where an hour-long standoff ensues.
Meanwhile, his truck is looted, driven up the hill, and flipped onto
the new barricade. It is set on fire, along with another car donated
for the cause.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs police arrive from the south, dis-
arm the DAPL security guard, and arrest him. They leave everyone
else untouched and head back south. For us anarchists, this is a
mind-boggling event. We'd heard the BIA police were “in support”
of the protests, but we never expected them to treat the movement
with such respect. Later, we hear a rumor that they actually trned
away State Police from entering the reservation from the south,
effectively preventing the police from ketling all of us.

As a cavalcade of armored vehicles and Hummers approach from
the north, everyone falls back to a bridge on Highway 1806. This
bridge s not on the reservation, but it is the only entrance from
the north. Entire tree trunks are unloaded from trucks, constructing
a substantial barricade. It includes a twelve-foot-tall solar-powered
highway sign, the batteries from which are skillfully expropriated.
The barricade catches fire. The police approach and hold a line.

For the following eight hours, America is over. Rocks and Molotov
cockuils defend the barricade; a wall of plywood shields deflects
cubber bullets and tear gas canisters. The partisans of nonviolence
are gone, and the kind of combative energy that could have held
Sacred Ground emerges in full force. The fight lasts into the ear-
Iy hours of the morning, when the police fire a large number of
smoke grenades and use the cover to withdraw and retreat, leaving
two military supply trucks blocking the road north of the bridge.

Those trucks too are set on fire, and the battle for the bridge is won.

Aftermath

After some sleep, we arrived at the bridge the next morning to
find people holding a line north of the burnt military vehicles.
The police and the National Guard were erecting concrete highway
barriers about 50 feet north of the line—surrendering Highway
1806 a5 a functioning road, but also blocking those opposed to the
pipeline from driving vehicles back toward the former site of the
Sacred Ground camp.

It was just a couple dozen people holding the line with plywood
shields; most of them were quite young. News media and other rub-
berneckers were milling about on the bridge, examining the burnt
wreckage from the night before. After a while, an older Naive man
showed up, stepped out in front of the line, and spoke o us all:"I'm
78 years old. I'm an elder. I'm going to make a deal with the police
€0 get you all off this bridge " Another older Native man, who had

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been holding a shield, shouted him down:*I'm 73 years old, and I am
also an elder. And I'm saing we fight back! We hold our position!”

Soon camp “security” showed up with orders from their elders to clear
the bridge and push us all back. They locked arms and formed 2 line
to force us off the bridge. Tensions grew as those who wanted to hold
it, both Native and non-Native, argued with each other. Once again,
people who were “on our side”acting in the name of “the clders,” did
the wark of the police for them.

“This is what they have always done to us!” the ones trying to hold the
bridge told us.“They turn us against one another to pacify us!”

The people clearing us from the bridge didn'c have argumens, just
their bodies acting on behalf of “the elders,” ignoring the contradic-
tion that they were clearing elders, among others, from the bridge.

By the end of the day, not only was the bridge cleared, but the camp
security had set up a line about a quarter of a mile up the road and
wouldn't let anyone close to it. Tensions are high within the camp, as
the partisans of physical resistance to the pipeline clash with those
who believe that symbolic arrests will somehow stop it, and those who
are solely focused on the historic gathering of Native tribes split by
centuries of hostility.

When we return to our camp, we are pulled aside by a Native woman.
She explains that she hears there are “agitators” in the camp and she’s
going to keep her eye on us. She is convinced that it wasn't Native
folks who were fighting back the day before, but outsiders. A white
comrade who has been here for months tells us that he was surrounded
and threatened by four Native men, and was only saved by the fact that
he knew all their names and could find Native warriors to vouch for

him. Other contacts in Red Warrior communicate how delicate the
situation is, explaining that the significance of the conversations taking
place extends far beyond anything we can grasp as non-Native people.
Any action we take autonomously could mess things up for everyone.
We feel paralyzed, not knowing how to contribute to the efforts of
those with whom we felt such intense affnity the night before.

Late that nighe, from the top of a hill in Sacred Stone camp, we watch
a5 a two-mile-wide fire burns up the hillside from the main canp in
the direction of the construction. We have no idea whether folks on

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our side set the fire as a sublime gesture of intimidation, or wheth-
er the forces of order have set it to scare people in the camp. We
decide to believe the former, because we assume we'll never know
the truth,

Considerations for Solidarity

The situation here is delicate. While the batdle for Sacred Ground
revealed that people involved in this struggle are willing and able to
fight outside the restrictions of stage-managed civil disobedience, it
s not clear how this could take place now that the strategic position
blocking the path of the pipeline has been lost. Further, tensions are
so high in the camps that it feels dangerous to reveal oneself as a
partisan of the combatant energy expressed on Thursday

Serious dilemmas confront non-Native anarchists who want to
come to support the NoDAPL movement. On the one hand, this is
a movement framed around indigenous rights and decolonial strug-
gle.We can understand ourselves as allies or accomplices within this
movement;if we assume that role, that means supporting the Native
folks whose actions resonate with us while trying not to exacerbate
conflicts within Native communities. While this approach may fecl
daunting in the current situation, more opportunities for support
may open up soon.

On the other hand, dhis is 2 struggle against a pipeline and, like
struggles everywhere [1], againse the police who protect it. From
this perspective, everyone who drinks water, understands the threat
of climate change, and opposes the police has a stake in participat-

'g. From this perspective, carrying out autonomous actions seems
justified. However, if we take that route, we should be careful not
to ignore the decolonial significance of the movement, and not to
burn bridges with indigenous people who might be our comrades
in the movements to conse.

Moreover, this struggle has received global attention thanks to the
work done by people who have been here for months, including

digenous and non-indigenous warriors, some of whom are anar-
chisc comrades. Anyone acting autonomously should consider the
impact they will have on the plans and relationships these people
have worked so hard to create.

For now, our plan is to inhabic this space, build relacionships, and
try to make ourselves useful to those who have chosen to struggle
to stop this pipeline by means other than the law. We don’t want
to fully embrace the limitations of the “ally” role, nor do we want
to act carelessly without an intimate knowledge of the situation in
which we find ourselves, a situation we recogaize that others have
opened up.

For those who can come, particularly those with relevant skills
come. It is not clear what the next move s, but we will need all
the help we can get when it occurs. If you do come, be prepared
to spend time learning about the power dynamics at work in chis
space, and to have less agency than you might want untl you have
earned people’s trust

For those who cannot come, or who feel they would not be able
o act with proper sensitivity to the signifi
for indigenous people: now s the time to spread the fight to other
Iocations. We hope to see the whole range of tactics from the an-
ti-police movements of recent years deployed against the infeastruc-

nce of this moment

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ture of extraction and the fows of capital in general. Actions of all
sorts are encouraged, though not all of them will be helpful in this
specific location.

This is a strategically crucial struggle in a pivotal moment. As com-
eades have argued [2] if we don't act fast, we risk ceding the popular
idea of resistance to the state to right wing forces that will recu-
perate our tactics and arguments to serve their own agenda. What
has taken hold here in the struggle against the pipeline, and what
burst into reality in the hours after the bactle for Sacred Ground, has
the potential o spread into 2 much wider resistance to extraction
industries and ecocide. Let’s make it spread—but let’s do so with a
sensitivity to the indigenous warriors and anarchist comrades who
have thrown their lives into this struggle for months, who have
shown the ability to organize and fight that has built the NoDAPL
movement to this point.

NOTES

1. hetp://swwiw.crimethine.com/texts/r/bluefuse/index. html
2. hetp://www.crimethine.com/ texts/ /reaction/

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