Down to the river to swim or we sit there and talk said an anonymous teen boy Off camera an interviewer asks them what they think of the Dakota Access Pipeline DAPL that would soon cross the Missouri River close to where reservation residents get their drinking water It's really messed up is what it is said Gayton cause we get all our water from the Missouri River REZPECT OUR WATER The video is one of four that Standing Rock youth made as part of the Rezpect Our Water media campaign posted in March and April 2016 They agreed to help make the videos after speakers visited their school and told students about the plan to finish building DAPL near the reservation The Standing Rock Reservation is home to people from the Lakota and Dakota Nations who are known by many outsiders as the Sioux DAPL is not just of interest to the reservation It is a part of the infrastructure used to move fuel across the United States The pipeline was designed and built by Energy Transfer Partners ETP to carry crude oil from
the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota to distant shipping points in Illinois In early planning stages the proposed route for the pipeline passed just north of Bismarck North Dakota's capitol but residents of the city objected that the pipeline passed too close to areas that supplied their water The pipeline was shifted USACE WHO ARE THEY AND WHAT DO THEY DO south of Bismarck to a point just 0 5 miles 0 8 km upstream from the Standing Rock Reservation Because the new route would cross the Missouri River at Lake Oahe this small portion of the pipeline and The United States Army Corps of Engineers USACE is the world's largest public engineering organization The group employs more than 35 000 civilian engineers and it is responsible for environmental cleanup on lands controlled by the Department of Defense such as military bases and testing facilities It also oversees the development of wetlands and water related projects carried out in relation to the Clean Water Act of 1972 which legally limits water pollution One reason the USACE is involved in the DAPL project is the pipeline route crosses federal lands controlled by the US Army In addition to Lake Oahe in North and South Dakota these include Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota and Carlyle Reservoir in Illinois The USACE has jurisdiction over only the parts of the pipeline that cross these specific areas the land easement required to build it needed to be approved by the US Army Corps of Engineers USACE The people of the reservation were told the pipeline buried underground would be no threat to their
drinking water but Tokata and other students disagreed with this assessment They knew that people and animals that drink oil or oil tainted water get sick An oil spill could permanently damage the area much as it had done when the ship Exxon Valdez struck a reef off Alaska and dumped 11 million gallons 41 6 million L of oil into the sea in 1989 The students wanted to protect the earth so they agreed to help make videos with the Rezpect Our Water campaign In the video reservation residents as young as six discuss their concerns about this pipeline and their frustration that they seemed to matter less than the residents of Bismarck They aren't the ones being affected said Tokata about the new route so why should they get to make the decision But the students weren't willing to give up without trying to do something to stop what they see as injustice We may be small said Anastasia but together we have a big voice PROTECTORS PROTESTERS AND VIOLENCE As much as the people of Standing Rock hoped the students videos would help convince people that the pipeline should not be completed they knew they had
to do more Clean water was at stake along with historic sites and sacred lands including burial grounds threatened by the pipeline construction These burials include family members of protesters like Ladonna Allard Brave Bull whose father and son are both buried in the area On April 1 2016 Brave Bull set up an encampment called Sacred Circle on her own land near Cannon Ball North Dakota Located near the confluence of the Cannon Ball and Missouri THIS DEMOLITION IS DEVASTATING THESE GROUNDS ARE THE RESTING PLACES OF OUR ANCESTORS THE ANCIENT CAIRNS AND STONE PRAYER RINGS THERE CANNOT BE REPLACED IN ONE DAY OUR SACRED LAND HAS BEEN TURNED INTO HOLLOW GROUND 4 Rivers this was a camp for prayer At first those in the camps were mostly local people but DAVID ARCHAMBAULT II STANDING ROCK TRIBAL CHAIR as word of the protest grew more and more supporters from around the world arrived Many people of this resistance movement came to call themselves water protectors A second camp was set up in August It was named Oceti Sakowin or Seven Council Fires and Tokata visited this camp whenever she was able She described her visits
