26 January 2017
- The drama and injustice on display at Standing Rock have taught a new generation of observers what Native Americans already know: Even today theirs is a brutal fight to survive.
The world has been shocked by North Dakota’s violent reaction to the anti-oil pipeline resistance at Standing Rock. For the better part of a year, people have watched via social media, then increasingly on conventional media outlets, as heavily armed law enforcement officers and private contractors attacked unarmed civilians with rubber bullets, mace, tear gas, batons, and water cannons in sub-freezing temperatures. Water protectors, as the demonstrators call themselves, have been dragged from prayer ceremonies, injured, and arrested. More than 100 have been hospitalized.
The force used against unarmed civilians has been extreme, even by military wartime standards.
