Reckoning at Standing Rock
In High Country News, Paul VanDevelder reports on the ongoing protests in North Dakota, where hundreds of Native Americans are trying to stop the Dakota Access oil pipeline. The construction runs alongside the Standing Rock Reservation, home of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. Bill Yellowtail, a member of the Crow tribe, says, “The battle of the 21st century will be to save this planet, and there’s no doubt in my mind that the battle will be fought by Native people. For us it is a spiritual duty. We get our very identity from our connection to the earth, a connection that we celebrate in our ceremonies and rituals.”