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
Because I was on summer vacation every day I'd go to the Oceti Sakowin camp to take part in the peaceful protest It was a happy place People from around the country traveled to join us and we shared stories and learned from each other There were thousands of us It was powerful to see so many people coming together Many of those who gathered in the camps participated in peaceful protests but as thousands of people poured into the camps a number of the protests became violent People burned cars and stacked logs across the road and set the wood on fire A reporter heard another protester pleading with one of the violent groups Stop lighting these barricades on OCETI SAKOWIN Oceti Sakowin means Seven Council Fires Originally the Sioux were made up of seven large related groups of people each with its own council fire around which the group would gather as a community The fire also symbolizes continuity because as the people moved their camps from place to place they would take a coal from the old fire and use it to light a new fire in the new location fire brothers I'm a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe he said After this I have to live here Images in the media showed police in riot gear driving up in armored personnel carriers in a scene that looked more like a Water protectors display signs from dugout canoes near the Oceti Sakowin camp
