Last night was pretty surreal. Linda and I have been at rosebud camp, on cannon ball river just across from oceti sakowin camp. Maybe 3,000 folks at the three camps, growing a lot Saturday and Sunday with folks from all over US. Linda has been sorting clothes for three days, and I have been buying/bringing 2×4’s and camp stove supplies (pavers, pipe, etc) on trailer from Bismarck (2 tons/trip), taking the long way around since the military has closed the shorter route (1807) with a blockade. Splitting wood for exercise.
Thursday the northern edge of a storm blew thru, and the unseasonably warm weather ended. Dropped to maybe 5 degrees F overnite, wind was blowing 20-30 mph steady and that persisted thru Friday. Friday warmed to 32 or so, wind abated quite a bit. No longer nice camping weather.
Right before dark last night, a car drove thru camp hollering ‘water protectors to the bridge’. From what I could tell, well over half of folks headed that direction, between 1-3 miles north up the road. About the same time, a small aircraft, no lights, began buzzing around camp. Every night to the NE of camp, there is a line of high intensity lights that are on all night, to make sure we don’t get too close to the pipeline construction. Last night, there was also a bright glow in the distance, at the bridge that marks the line between the military presence and the un-armed volunteers from every tribe in the US.
An hour after dark, a helicopter joined the plane, and buzzed by the peaceful camps until after midnight. It felt like a war zone. I could not sleep. After midnite, just the plane kept buzzing about, but not so low to the ground.
Thanks to the link below (start about 50 minutes in – see my facebook page) and reports from folks this morning, it appears the military boxed the water protectors in on the bridge with so much tear gas and water cannons, they could not leave. Linda had come down with a really icky lung virus that’s making its way around camp, and she is scheduled for eye surgery next Monday, so we decided to start heading back today. Showers in Eagle butte! So we went back to Oceti Sakowin camp to share some tobacco and a few remaining things we had to donate. Her co-worker and long time ‘clothes sorter’ named Ghost was in on the action last night. He was hit six times with rubber bullets, which broke a rib. One on the bullets hit the little headlamp that always hangs on his neck. Well, that must have been his lucky charm as he stood on top of the barricade. A rubber bullet hit that headlamp and did not puncture his trachea.
I felt very sad leaving. Still do. It is like a big family. As new folks arrive, everyone is extraordinarily helpful. A small car with five students arrived from Tennessee, driving straight thru, camped next to us and watched last night from the hill above the bridge. New arrivals stopping by to chat: Another car driving straight thru from Ohio. Two 30-somethings from San Francisco, following up a cross-country Tesla shuttle Minnesota to LA for repairs (yes, there are enough charging stations!).
Many folks from NM. Dallas and his wife (probably Navaho) have been there since April, he says he lives there now. The clothes keep coming, his wife was looking thru for warmer coats. A Navaho is supervising construction. My old squeeze Emmy is there, did not run into her. Lady from Gila, we still need to mail her letter.
The brightest spots in my own stay were the people I worked with. Paul, who owns his own company, was supervising 20 or so workers, building with not much more than straw, 2×4, nails, and screws to help folks survive the brutal winter that has started. Alex is leading the 8-person stove crew. A tepee burnt up (not the first) a few nites ago, and one fellow had pretty bad carbon monoxide poisoning. Paul lassoed about $400 of gift cards for me to spend at Lowes (I know 3 or four folks there too now), and the need has been sufficiently clear for me to spring another $2K of my own. Alex and crew are doing great triage.
I got media credentials but it is hard to really document photographically what is happening. Must have permission from all folks in photos, cannot photograph teepee outsides without permission. No inside photos of anything, as 300+ folks have criminal charges and we don’t want supporting evidence on any of those folks. Cannot photograph horses without permission (bloodlines going back 100’s of years). Beautiful horses, exquisite bareback riders. Got some good dawn photos across Cannonball river of Oceti camp.
No lives lost to my knowledge. Lots of BS coming out of the local police. Hard to actually believe them when they say the protectors are starting fires, when it is the military’s own compression grenades starting fires that the protectors are putting out. There is a 1/2 mile wide burn scar on the hills above camp, the police started it a while back, but the wind changed direction.
Very good camp practices in effect as far as I could tell. Lots of porta-potties, all with sanitizer, maintained every other day. Pits of compost. Crews making composting toilets for when the cold really hits. Seven or more big kitchens. Lots of people working at something. Propane truck filling tanks.
As the temps get colder, the small tent use will decrease, and folks will be in bigger tents or teepees with stoves. Lots of focus on making sure elders are taken care of. Great entry and exit monitoring 24 hours a day. No drugs, weapons, or alcohol. I did not hear a single shot fired while there five days. Someone carrying a kitty abandoned in a snowstorm on the way up. new school construction using traditional methods to complement a bus.
About 80 barrel stoves in process of being installed safely. Will be the need to re-setup lots of teepees, they are well suited to working without stove with small fire in middle, they draw smoke out if set up right.
The camp will need lots of wood. The young guys got a kick out of how a weightlifter (me) could take a splitting maul and whack the local hardwoods. Semi-trucks full of uncut wood disappearing into piles of stacked wood.
Jim Klukkert has set up a means of funding the stove crew. I’d be happy to take some money to help defray my out-of-pocket for the Oceti camp supplies – I knew there would be need and sure enough! Lowes guys are great at loading pallets and unloading wallets.
Mni Waconi! Or as we say in New Mexico, our water is our life!
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elpasospeak 
Nice. Burning semi-trucks full of wood has absolutely no effect on the environment. Understanding and knowingly helping criminals evade the law and commit further crimes is an admirable endeavor and a good thing to do. Everyone should pack their kids up and go there today. Nothing hypocritical in using a computer but being against energy companies. I am sure that none of the people there “protesting” have cars and that they all live “carbon-free” existences. Not sure what “using traditional methods to complement a bus” means. I guess that the bus has been converted to be pulled by oxen. “Lots of people working at something”, what are they “working at”? The lawful construction of a pipeline? Setting fires, building propane bombs, assaulting police officers? These “protestors” are largely terrorists and supporters of terrorists, and are certainly not heroes. Unless you think Fidel Castro was a hero, because if that is how you think then sure, these people are heroes. No one asked them to protest, they are not elected by any group or race of people, yet they somehow think they have the moral high ground. If they are lucky no one who is against burning semi trucks full of wood will show up and protest them.
This blog fluctuates between ardent opponents of wasteful government and wannabe-hippies. I certainly think that government is wasteful and almost always the wrong answer for anything that ails society, but supporting anarchists and terrorists is a pretty sad alternative.
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And, you ain’t, either (Johnny Appleseed)! Dude, you miss the point of the protesting, if all you can talk about is government and burning wood. The point has to do with damage to the environment, especially to sources of drinking water, all along this stupid pipeline. Without water, none of the rest is possible! Sheesh!
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The writer of the letter suffers from the same delusions and misguided thinking of reporters. He thinks the protest is about himself and his fellow protestors, not the actual issue itself.
Heroes? The word “hero” is overused these days. Heroes are overrated.
We Don’t Need Another Hero
Out of the ruins
Out from the wreckage
Can’t make the same mistake this time
We are the children
The last generation
We are the ones they left behind
And I wonder when we are ever gonna change it
Living under the fear till nothing else remains
We don’t need another hero
We don’t need to know the way home
All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome
Looking for something we can rely on
There’s got to be something better out there
Love and compassion, their day is coming
All else are castles built in the air
And I wonder when we are ever gonna change it
Living under the fear till nothing else remains
All the children say
We don’t need another hero
We don’t need to know the way home
All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome
What do we do with our lives
We leave only a mark
Will our story shine like a life
Or end in the dark
Give it all or nothing
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I agree with the original author, water is life, that’s why people are protesting, no confidence that there will not be pipeline leaks, desecration of burial grounds, using up more fuel for this generation with no thought to future generations. That’s what’s behind the protest.
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What?
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Those who protest pipelines amuse me. Pipelines are less prone to accidents that rail cars. And ancient burial grounds — that’s a scam. Indians claim every hill is an ancient burial ground. If it truly was an ancient burial ground, the archaeologists could have / would have tagged it and it would be forever protected by federal law.
Of course water is precious. Tell me something I don’t know. Then go home and be productive. Feed the hungry, grow a vegetable garden, read to children. I am sick and tired of protesters.
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