Standing with Standing Rock panel discussion scheduled

By Michael Howell

Last month when the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline  near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota were making national headlines, people gathered along the main intersection in downtown Hamilton to express solidarity with the tribe. Since that time some significant events have transpired and some of the Bitterrooters, who actually spent time at the protest camps, believe the national media failed to adequately convey what was actually happening on the ground. In response, they are offering the public a chance to hear some first-hand accounts from locals who were there. A panel presentation with a slide show is planned for Wednesday, January 4 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Ravalli County Museum. According to the organizer of the event, Salim Matt Gras from Hamilton, the panelists will present “a behind-the-scenes exploration of what really happened (and is happening) there, and why.”
Some Bitterrooters were touched personally by the events in North Dakota due to family and tribal connections, like Suzanne Shope, adjunct instructor of Native American Studies at the Bitterroot College, who, along with Hamilton resident Sarah Monson, helped instigate the show of solidarity in Hamilton that drew close to a hundred supporters in November.
According to Shope, it is very important that people understand the tribe that is involved and its long history with the United States government going back to the first treaty between the two nations at Fort Laramie in 1881. She said that every treaty made with the Lakota tribe from that first treaty on was violated by the United States government. What this means, she said, is that the tribe’s land was never legally ceded to the United States.
The U.S. Supreme Court recognized in the 1980 case of United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, that the government had illegally taken the land. It upheld an award of $15.5 million for the market value of the land in 1877, along with 103 years worth of interest at 5 percent, for an additional $105 million. The Lakota Sioux, however, have refused to accept payment and instead continue to demand the return of the territory from the United States.
The current problems over the pipeline proposal need to be understood on the background of this dispute, according to Shope. It is one of the issues involved that has attracted representatives from close to 200 other indigenous tribes to the protest grounds in North Dakota.
Salim Matt Gras, organizer of the upcoming panel discussion, said that the gathering at Standing Rock is probably the first time in a hundred years that this many indigenous tribes have gathered in one place. He said it is worth noting that it was a peaceful congregation.
“The protests have been based on ceremony and prayer,” he said, “And they are committed 100% to carrying out a peaceful protest for as long as it takes. These people have no enemies. They are fighting to protect the water for their children and grandchildren and for over 1.8 million other children downstream who are not members of their tribe.”
Gras said the indigenous tribes were standing up not just for themselves but for the earth and for the necessity of keeping a clean and healthy environment. He said that after watching indigenous people from around the world journey all the way to North Dakota to express their solidarity, “I couldn’t not go.”
For Gras, what is happening at Standing Rock is more than a fight against a pipeline, a battle that may yet be lost.
“What is momentous about the event, in my perspective,” said Gras, “is the fact that it has brought together, in an enduring way, I hope, the unity in the struggle for justice and rights for indigenous tribes and the environmental struggle to save the earth.”
According to Gras, the recent denial of the Army Corps of Engineers permit required for doing the drilling may have momentarily stopped the project, but the battle is by no means over. It has taken the pressure off a bit and Standing Rock Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II has suggested that any protestors not necessary to carrying out ongoing activities at the camps should go home and reduce the problems and costs of keeping people at the camps through the worst of the winter weather. The battle is now in the courts, he said. Gras said that many people have opted to stay in the camps throughout the winter for fear that the company will take some action prior to any court resolution. Gras said the company had made claims that the permit which was denied was not necessary for the completion of the project.
Gras, who was at Standing Rock for three weeks during the latest events, said that what bothers him tremendously is that the national media has not portrayed the true extent and nature of the violence being perpetrated by law enforcement against peaceful and unarmed protesters.
“I saw the violence first hand,” said Gras. “It was like a war zone. There were Sheriff’s Department officers in military garb inflicting severe physical harm on peaceful protesters.”
Gras said that anyone interested in hearing first-hand accounts from eye-witnesses  of the events at Standing Rock should not miss the panel discussion scheduled for January 4th at the Ravalli County Museum because they may not be hearing those stories in the national media.
“It’s a chance to learn how peace, prayer, and ceremony can trump violence and orthodoxy,” said Gras. “It’s a chance to discover how Native American wisdom can fuel a successful resistance to environmental devastation.”