| The strangest thing happened to me the other day while driving along the east coast. I saw a Dakota. No, not the two-legged human-being kind, one of the Original Peoples of this land, Turtle Island, but a four-wheeled Dodge Dakota, courtesy of Chrysler. Dodge Dakota... an apt metaphor for the oil-addicted American economy that has ignored the Original Peoples. A gas guzzling vehicle whose full name says to, elude or evade the Dakota (which loosely translates as “friends, allies”)... out of sight, out of mind... as you travel the highways of America. So I wondered why there wasn’t a Chrysler Catholic... or a Honda Hebrew... But anyway, thanks to what’s happening in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, it’s harder for the Dakota to be out of sight out of mind, though the corporate media is doing their best I am not Sioux so I don’t claim to know what the full significance is for the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Great Sioux Nation) and those directly helping to protect the sacred waters and then some, yet as a world citizen who tries to keep up with world news, I do notice things that have stirred the urge to highlight what I've read or seen or have heard others comment on (including Natives) as to the significance of what is happening; many have already said, it is history in the making. The Sioux are living in a prophecy come to life... the black snake... a snake that has already stung aka desecrated sacred burial grounds... a venomous snake that must be stopped. A black oil pipeline whose toxic liquid used as a resource of energy is past its prime. Some say it is ground zero for the global issue of environment/climate change, for corporate-state (fascist) greed vs. People and protection of Land, Air, and Waters (or as I heard a Native friend call it, the LAW). A Facebook page comment I saw mentioned that the decision will have a 30-50 year effect on the environment/energy patterns of the country. Plus what hangs in the balance is the stopping of a habitual 525 year pattern of mistreatment and genocide of the Native Peoples. Brazil recently experienced a coup; democracy is currently dead there, though the People are not taking it lying down. “Hi guys I'm leaving the hospital now. I suffered an injury and lost the vision of the left eye but I'm fine,” Fabri said on her Facebook page. “Thank you for the messages and support I will answer all soon.” From an article: “Student Assaulted at Anti-Temer Rally in Brazil Loses Sight” [1] North America has already experienced several coups. Columbus/The Doctrine of Discovery and Domination. Then note that Thomas Paine, perhaps the most radical and forward-thinking of the revolutionaries, was shunned by the founding fathers so that they could more fully mold the shaping of the country to their property-owning, racist liking. And more recently, from a 2008 interview on Democracy Now [2]: “Amy Goodman: Persian Gulf War. Gore Vidal: Yeah. So the coup d’etat comes out of this. They saw their chance. They — Cheney, Bush — they wanted the war. They’re oilmen. They want a war to get more oil. They’re also extraordinarily stupid. These people don’t know anything about anything. But they have this — there’s a thick piece of — sheet of — a thick series of actions to be taken, among others — I think one of them was to lock up every person of color in the United States in order to protect us from the enemy within. It was evil stuff. So they latched onto that. I guess Mr. Gonzales was already in place by then. And that was the coup d’etat. They seized the state. And from that moment on, they were appointing all the judges, they were doing this, they were doing that, they got rid of Magna Carta — I will not explain what that is a second time — and they broke the republic.”So there’s White America’s blue(in-the-face)print for controlling oil and people. In Latin America, the Global Corporate Empire, with main cheerleader the US, isn’t satisfied with a Brazilian coup; they are attempting to overthrow the governments of Bolivia and Venezuela. Thus a wider significance of what is happening in North Dakota. More specifically locally, “The Army Corps of Engineers insists that it owns the land where the camps are being held, making their occupation illegal.” [3] That quote is from the absurd info in an article titled, “Jill Stein May Be Charged for Spray Painting at Dakota Pipeline.” Apparently mace/pepper-spraying people in the face is cool, but spray painting not so much. Yet what the appropriately named Army overlooks are the treaties, a full environmental impact statement, and just the flat out stupidity of running a pipeline through a river! ... A river which is the main source of drinking water! Oh yeah, and that the land was stolen so they could “own” it. Here are some things you can do, if so inclined. And to learn more, watch this 9-minute video “Native Now at Standing Rock Water Defender Camps” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EW7J6ESUKo NOTES: 1. From teleSUR 2. “Legendary Author Gore Vidal on the Bush Presidency, History and the "United States of Amnesia"” 3. teleSUR Mankh (Walter E. Harris III) is an essayist and resident poet on Axis of Logic. In addition to his work as a writer, he is a small press publisher and Turtle Islander. His new book of genre-bending poetic-nonfiction is “Musings With The Golden Sparrow.” You can contact him via his literary website. |