CONTEMPORARY SOLIDARITY AND ALLYSHIP
#NO DAPL IN THE CONTEXT OF STANDING ROCK MOVEMENT
C O N T E N T S
01 02 03 DISMANTLING AND DECOLONIZING
SOLIDARITY AND ALLYSHIP what is solidarity? What is allyship? Allyship & Solidarity Guidelines.
CASE STUDIES OF SOLIDARITY
ACROSS THE STANDING ROCK MOVEMENT
BLM, Queer liberation, indigenous groups coming together, idle no more divestment, NYC stands with standing rock, Rallies across the nation..
EXPERIENCE
THEATER OF THE OPPRESSED
“The theater itself is not revolutionary: it is a rehearsal for the revolution.” Augusto Boal
BY: SHANLEY MITCHELL,
SOLIDARITY CAN BE FORMALLY DEFINED AS:
unity or agreement of feeling or action, especially among individuals with a common interest; mutual support
PIHSYLLA
within a group.
YTIRADILOS
WHAT IS SOLIDARITY?
WHAT IS ALLYSHIP? SOLIDARITY CAN BE FORMALLY DEFINED AS:
Allyship is an active, consistent, and arduous practice of unlearning and reevaluating, in which a person of privilege seeks to operate in solidarity with a marginalized group of people.
WHY IS SOLIDARITY NECESSARY?
Solidarity is an elemental
and wellbeing will stop is if we
component in the creation of
support each other and think about
an alternative world to this
each other. That includes
way of existing we have
renouncing privilege in solidarity to
carried, and some of us have
others, collaborating to different
been forced to carry, so far.
ideas, giving up prior selective
The only way that the killing
understandings of the world and
and the raping of our women,
opening up for everything that exist
resources,
outside of what we know as life.
SOLIDARITY
WHAT IS THE WETIKO DISEASE?
“This disease, this wetiko psychosis, is the greatest epidemic sickness known to man. The rape of a woman, the rape of a land, and the rape of the people, they are all the same….These characteristics all tend to push towards an extreme, always moving forward once the initial infection sets in” (Forbes, 2).
WETIKO DISEASE
WHY ALLIES ARE NECESSARY? Anyone has the capability to be an ally. An ally recognizes that though they are not a member of a marginalized group(s) they support, they make a concerted effort to better understand the struggle. Because an ally might have more privilege (and recognizes said privilege)
Being an ally is hard work. Many of those who want to be allies are scared of making missteps that get them labeled as “-ist” or “-ic” (racist, sexist, transphobic, homophobic, etc). As an ally, you too are affected by a system of oppression. This means that as an ally, there is much to unlearn and learn.
ALLYSHIP
“OUR LIBERATION IS ONLY REALIZED WHEN ALL PEOPLE ARE FREE, FREE TO ACCESS CLEAN WATER, FREE FROM INSTITUTIONAL RACISM, FREE TO LIVE WHOLE AND HEALTHY LIVES NOT SUBJECTED TO STATESANCTIONED VIOLENCE.” - BLM
pipelines are also used in water containment and sanitation plants in Black communities like Flint, Michigan. “The gathering at Standing Rock is a testimony against capitalism– we do not have to destroy the world and our resources for money to provide for one another. In fact, we must do the complete opposite. Scarcity is a myth and if we take care of the Earth, our family that comes after us will be taken care of by the Earth We are clear that there is no Black liberation without Indigenous sovereignty. No one is free until the most oppressed person is Environmental racism is not limited to pipelines on Indigenous land, because we know that the chemicals used for fracking and the materials used to build pipelines are also used in water containment and sanitation plants in Black communities like Flint, Michigan.
BLACK LIVES MATTER IN
SOLIDARITY
WITH
STANDING
ROCK
A CASE STUDY FROM BLACKLIVESMATTER.COM
“The gathering at Standing Rock is a testimony against capitalism– we do not have to destroy the world and our resources for money to provide for one another. In fact, we must do the complete opposite. Scarcity is a myth and if we take care of the Earth, our family that comes after us will be taken care of by the Earth. We are clear that there is no Black liberation without Indigenous sovereignty. No one is free until the most oppressed person is free. Environmental racism is not limited to pipelines on Indigenous land, because we know that the chemicals used for fracking and the materials used to build
“if the current race-based hierarchy of humanity is left unchallenged, then we can be certain that our governments will continue their procrastination, redefining “dangerous” to allow for the sacrifice of ever more people, ever more ancient culture, languages, countries”
Following the six months of people gathering at the Standing Rock water protector camps, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued their letter of appeasement. It is of utmost importance that the letter does not signify the end of a battle, that allies do not morph back into bystanders, and that the voices of resistance are not silenced. I am confident Tribal Nations will continue pursuing the lengthy battle for Indigenous Resurgence. For those of us in solidarity, we must take a moral commitment to continue acting for justice. Naomi Klein emphasizes this in an article for The Nation, Why #BlackLivesMatter Should Transform the Climate Debate, “if the current race-based hierarchy of humanity is left unchallenged, then we can be certain that our governments will continue their procrastination, redefining “dangerous” to allow for the sacrifice of ever more people, ever more ancient culture, languages, countries”. There is no room for blind-eyes; Indigenous Peoples, people of color and people of low socioeconomic status, should not be forced to shoulder the burden of environmental impacts any longer. In regards to Standing Rock, this can be challenged by continually supporting for the Sioux Tribe and pressuring for the DAPL to be permanently stopped. Divesting from big banks that are funding the project is a pragmatic way to support Standing Rock and assure that the pipeline will not be constructed under the upcoming presidential administration.
Contemporary Indigenous-led direct actions, like the one at Standing Rock, are rerouting the course of history. The Standing Rock Sioux, joined by Indigenous and nonIndigenous allies, have made a statement by refusing to allow environmental racism and negligence determine the future. The solidarity Standing Rock attracted is making space for Native-rights to be acknowledged at the forefront of decision making. As indicated by past movements like, the Woman’s Suffrage Movement or the Civil Rights Movement, rights based social movements have the power to transform state structures. If this victory is permanent, the social movement that occurred at Standing Rock will speak volumes for Environmental Justice and Indigenous Resurgence. For the Indigenous leaders and those in solidarity, who have invested themselves in protecting the land and its people; this victory will not just discontinue construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, it will discontinue a long history of violence, exploitation, and misrecognition forced upon Indigenous Peoples.
INDIGENOUS WOMEN ON THE FRONTLINES OF THE DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE RESISTANCE
Lauren Howland
JICARILLA APACHE OF NEW MEXICO International Indigenous Youth council member
"I'm here to stand for the water. I'm here to fight for my children, and my children's children—for the generations to come. I'm here to protect these people all around us, this land, this is sacred land, there are burial sites all through here ... This is a youth led movement, people forget that, that the youth are here fighting. Come to Standing Rock. ... You will be taken care of, that is the way of our people."Â
Credit: Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times
Eryn Wise
JICARILLA APACHE AND LAGUNA PUEBLO OF NEW MEXICO
International Indigenous Youth Council member and media coordinator "I had a dream that my grandma who has passed away asked me for a glass of water - and when I went to give her the glass of water, it was full of dirt and oil. And she kept trying to drink it, and I was just so desperate to get her some water, but I couldn't find any anywhere, I am here, taking part in this movement that everyone needs to be part of ... We will stop the Dakota Access pipeline—and this will continue outside of Standing Rock—and that is something that I deeply hope and know will happen."
Credit: Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times
Ceanna Horned Eagle
NAKOTA AND KICKAPOO OF KANSAS “Many of our ways — our culture, our way of life, our spirituality, our language — we have slowly lost it,” said Ms. Horned Eagle, who has a prayer fan tattooed on her neck.
“But I have seen a change. We’re trying to relearn it or to gain it back. And this coming together gives me hope that my kids won’t have to fight as hard as my parents did, as I have,” she said.
Credit: Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times
Whitney Custer
CHEYENNE OF KANSAS “Ms. Custer, who drove to Cannon Ball from Atchison, Kan., says she grew up with the knowledge that she is a fifth-generation descendent of Gen. George Custer and a Cheyenne woman.
“This water is sacred, and this water is important,” she said. “I’m here because that water — not only does it feed this state, it goes through many states, and it goes directly through the city I live in. I have four children of my own, and my children deserve to have clean water.”
Credit: Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times
Melanie Thompson
STANDING ROCK LAKOTA OF SOUTH DAKOTA “You can feel the strength of the prayers here,” said Ms. Thompson, who had been at the camp for four weeks. “Poisoning the water is not good for anybody, and especially Mother Earth.”
She added, “We don’t need the poison to cut right through the middle of the United States.”
Credit: Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times
Thayliah Henry-Suppah
PAIUTE OF OREGON Ms. Henry-Suppah wears a traditional wing dress with ribbons, beaded necklaces, shells, otter furs and basket earrings for a ceremony.
She said she kept the following Native American proverb in mind while in North Dakota: “Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents. It was loaned to you by your children.” “We’ve lived without money,” she added. “We can live without oil, but no human being can live without water.”
Credit: Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times
LaDonna Brave Bull Allard
STANDING ROCK SIOUX NORTH DAKOTA Founder of the Camp of the Sacred Stones, landowner along the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline route
"The abuse against women is well know in American history, world history —and this tells you a lot about what is happening to our Earth. If you respect women, you respect Earth and you respect water ... It's so simple, this whole fight, it has nothing to do with being an activist, but it has everything to do with being a mom.”
Credit: Emily Arasim and Osprey Orielle Lake for EcoWatch
Jaslyn ChargerÂ
CHEYENNE RIVER SIOUX OF SOUTH DAKOTA Founder of the International Indigenous Youth Council
"I feel the pain of what the government is doing to our Mother Earth. They are raping her, across the world they are cutting up her belly and bringing out all her guts and it's just not right. We as woman we can feel her pain, we have that connection to her. We can hear her screams even though she doesn't have a voice, we see it. There used to be so many snows here, there used to be so many animals, and they are gone."
Credit: Emily Arasim and Osprey Orielle Lake for EcoWatch
Michelle Cook
DINÉ THE WALK AROUND CLAN OF ARIZONA Standing Rock legal advisor "We are fighting the Dakota pipeline, but we're also fighting the whole system of violence. The whole system which has called us savages. Which has denied us our ability to be human—and we're responding to that by creating a community that has it's own values. That respects its women. That will teach its children the traditional knowledge of life, that will give them life ... When I saw the young women crying out for help, I said I have to be there because I'm not going to watch these people be desolated for the greed of a corporation that does not love this land, that is not part of this land. " Credit: Emily Arasim and Osprey Orielle Lake for EcoWatch
Tara HouskaÂ
OJIBWE OF MINNESOTA "I came here to stand with my Indigenous relatives for something that is much larger than just a single project. We want to stop this project but we also want to take a stand and say, 'no more'. Enough is enough. We've been targeted for our homelands, for our children, for our language, for our culture—and what little we have left, what remnants we have left is now being threatened with contamination and destruction and our children are still targeted, and it needs to stop. And so I am hopeful that this will be a moment in which people will realize that Indigenous nations are here, and we are sovereign, and we are not going to tolerate the conversation as it is today." Credit: Emily Arasim and Osprey Orielle Lake for EcoWatch
BIBLOGRAPHYÂ
http://www.indigenousaction.org/accom plices-not-allies-abolishing-the-allyindustrial-complex/ https://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.co m/2013/11/05/for-our-nations-to-livecapitalism-must-die/ Â http://www.powwows.com/nativeamerican-women-leader/
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/09/us/stan ding-rock-veterans-trnd/ http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/30/vetera ns-raise-funds-for-standing-rock-aftertrump-dakota-access-memo.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/m uslim-dakota-accesspipeline_us_57f3d75ee4b0d0e1a9a9ea8 b
https://daplpipelinefacts.com/ http://www.procon.org/headline.php? headlineID=005331 http://www.yesmagazine.org/peacejustice/dancing-the-world-into-being-aconversation-with-idle-no-more-leannesimpson http://blacklivesmatter.com/solidaritywith-standing-rock/ http://www.spunk.org/texts/art/sp00033 8.html
https://www.choctawnation.com/newsevents/press-media/choctaw-irishbond-lives http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/amazi ng-story-of-how-choctaw-indiansraised-money-for-irish-famine-relief234212611-237790401 http://newpol.org/content/irishanticolonial-solidarity-indigenouspeople