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Geography Quiz: How Many (Corporate Police) States Make Up the US? (And don't forget the District of Columbia, the inhabited territories of American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands, and you can look up the so-called uninhabited territories and disputed territories, and the 700-1200 military bases worldwide) 

Because something is happening here 
But you don’t know what it is 
Do you, Mister Jones?
         - Bob Dylan, from “Ballad of a Thin Man”

The October 27th Modus Operandi (MO) of the North Dakota police with assistance from four other (police) states – South Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming, and Nebraska)[1] – along with National Guard, and the tacit complicity of big banks, the USEmpire, and CNN propaganda is reminiscent of the coordinated dismantling of the Occupy Movement ‘camps,’ however this time it is advantage Standing Rock Sioux and Allies, because, for one, they have their reservation lands.

The contested area in Thursday’s brutal crackdown is land which, in the ill-legal mindset of the state of North Dakota and of the USEmpire, is federal land, but is actually Native land according to the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. The MO unleashed not dogs this time but Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs), bean bag bullets, pepper-spray, batons, etc., even attacking medics, disrupting a prayer ceremony (thus disregarding the Freedom of Religion Act of 1978), and killing a horse. It is sadly ironic that a president with a law degree hasn't yet stopped the violence long enough to look at the legalities of the land rights.

Kandi Mossett, of the Indigenous Environmental Network, described the scene as a “war zone,”[2] and the following description backs that up:

“We are on all three sides with snipers. Guns drawn on us. People are being brutalized. Broken ribs from batons. Pepper spray. They are shooting people. Everyone is fleeing.”[3]

While baseball mouths are agape at the World Series and ESPN headline referring to the Cleveland Indians' potential win, “End of Tribe's 68-year spell in sight,” what's happening in North Dakota is no game. According to an article at Telesur:

“The joint letter released Friday by five environmental and legal advocacy organizations said that the joint owners of the pipeline 'have a corporate duty under international law and the laws of the United States to respect human rights and to avoid complicity in further human rights abuses.' …

“The groups warned the joint owners Energy Transfer, Phillips66 and lender Wells Fargo that the arrests and threats of prosecution for journalists covering the protests and repression is a 'clear violation of the First Amendment and of fundamental principles of press freedom organized worldwide.'”[4]

Simply, it is pure water versus dirty oil; David versus Goliath (we know who won that episode), which bodes well because the Standing Rock Sioux Chairman is David Archambault II – though of course this is not an individual’s battle.

One important thing to realize – if you think it’s just the government that’s doing dastardly deeds – is the trans-national mindset; the government is an illusion, in other words, they pose as a government but do not function as one because they are, thus far, beholden to the $3.8 billion Energy Transfer / Dakota Access Pipeline and do not serve the People, as the attacks have proven. Why would a government supposedly serving the People attack the People?

Yet, as the broken bones of Standing Rock Sioux water-protectors prove, the illusory corporate-police-state can be viscerally brutal. Then again the corporate-police-state could wake up from its self-made nightmare with a simple stop the pipeline flick of a pen from President Obama.

In John Pilger’s recent article, “Inside the Invisible Government; War, Propaganda, Clinton & Trump,” he reports on the insidiousness of a similar trans-national mindset:

“As WikiLeaks has revealed, it was only when the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in 2009 rejected an oil pipeline, running through his country from Qatar to Europe, that he was attacked.

From that moment, the CIA planned to destroy the government of Syria with jihadist fanatics – the same fanatics currently holding the people of Mosul and eastern Aleppo hostage.”[5]

The Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault II has called for the Department of Justice to investigate the use of force, as well as mentioning the re-routing of the pipeline as a possible solution.[6] He is wise to do this as a preventative measure; nobody with a sound mind wants another Syria.

While the recent crackdown is terribly sad and a warning to any little Americans who dare to defy big oil, it is not surprising when taking into account the recent track record of police abuse against Black People and other so-called minorities.

Chief Arvol Looking Horse, the spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota, Nakota Nation, aptly calls the capitalist system's propensity to desecrate Mother Earth and sacred Waters a “disease of the mind”[7] – because who else but a sociopathic person lacking mental clarity and empathy would attack people for protecting clean drinking water.

There's more at stake. The following is an historical example of how one particular scenario can push the panic button of the control freak MO; from a recent Democracy Now! interview, referring to the Black Panther Party of the 1960s-70s:

Juan González: “...So they [federal government] were deeply worried that the black community was being increasingly radicalized as a result of your efforts.”

Marshall “Eddie” Conway: “Well, not only that, but their problem was that we worked—we formed alliances with groups in other communities, the Native American community, the AIM. We formed alliances with the Latino community, the Brown Berets; with the Puerto Rican community, the Young Lords; the white community, the Patriot Party, White Panther Party, etc. We formed alliances throughout the country, but alliances were also being formed and our programs were being duplicated in India, in Israel, in Africa, in Europe, in the Caribbean and so on. So it was those ideas that were spreading and that unity in terms of creating alliance that scared the government the most. And so, they weren’t just concerned about what was happening in the black community, but they was concerned about the ideas of international socialism spreading throughout the radical communities around the world taking an example from our—the way we were building and organizing.”[8]

Divide and Conquer has long been DC’s MO, both at home and abroad. But what's different this time is climate change, the practical consensus being that it is time to shift from fossil fuel dependency to sustainable forms of energy. As well, there is tremendous support from non-Natives and people from all walks of life. As example:

“More than 1,200 archaeologists, anthropologists, curators, museum officials and academics signed a letter in support of the protests against the Dakota Access pipeline and calling on the U.S. government and its agencies to put an end to the construction of the oil facility.”[9]

Personally I am figuring a court decision, environmental snag, time factor delay causing the pipeline to no longer be a worthwhile investment as the best chances of stopping the pipeline aka venomous black snake.

Meanwhile, my thoughts and prayers go to North Dakota... and to India where a black snake aka Naga was defeated.

“Kaliya in Hindu traditions, was the name of a poisonous Naga living in the Yamuna River, in Vrindavan. ... So Krishna saved himself from every attack, and when he saw the Brij folk were so much afraid he suddenly sprang into Kāliya's head and assumed the weight of the whole universe, and danced on the naga's heads, beating time with his feet. ...

“Krishna's friends became worried as it had been a long time that he went down in the river. Thus the friends were delighted upon seeing him back.

“Then Kāliya began to die. But then the naga's wives came and prayed to Krishna with joined palms, worshipping Krishna and praying for their husband. Kāliya, recognizing the greatness of Krishna, surrendered, promising he would not harass anybody. So Krishna pardoned him and then let him go free to leave the river and go to Ramanaka Dwipa. Ramanaka Dwipa is identified as Fiji.”

Krishna dancing over the subdued Kaliya Naag, and his wives asking Krishna for his mercy. From a Bhagavata Purana manuscript, c. 1640.

(Interesting, considering that one of Chairman Archambault’s recent statements mentions: “reroute this [pipeline], deny the easement.” Without the easement the pipeline cannot go under the Missouri River.)

“It is said that Lord Krishna not only defeated the cobra but also purified the water and the air of the poison that was spread by the nag. The entire episode has since been known as 'Krishna Lila' or Krishna's magical charm.”[10]

Krishna plays a flute and dances; two of many things the Great Sioux Nation is well-known for.

For the Plains Indians, the USEmpire's mass slaughter and deliberate attempt to exterminate the buffalo is one of the great tragedies of Turtle Island. “Euroamerican policies reduced the American Indian by 80-98% and the buffalo by more than 99%.”[11]

Maybe you can imagine the excitement when, while water-protectors were face to face with the North Dakota police, what the Great Sioux Nation calls the Buffalo Nation was seen moving across the Plains. This ~1 minute video shows it.

Krishna Conquers the Serpent Kaliya (Page from a Dispersed Bhagavata Purana Series)

NOTES:
1. “Police from 5 States Escalate Violence, Shoot Horses to Clear 1851 Treaty Camp”

2. Ibid.

3. “US Revives War on Native Americans in North Dakota”

4. “Could Dakota Access Pipeline Owners Be Legally Liable for Human Rights Abuses?”

5. See here.

6. “Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chair: DOJ Must Investigate Use of Force Against #DAPL Resistance”

7. “Protecting the Sacred”

8. “Political Prisoner Eddie Conway on Joining the Black Panthers & How He Was Set Up by COINTELPRO”

9. "Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon Join Anti-Dakota Pipeline Protest”

10. Kali ya &  Nāga  &  Nag Nathaiya

11. "Genocide Against the American Indian, Destruction of the Buffalo, & Imperialism in Iraq”

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. 