we the people

Chase Iron Eyes Leads* Resistance on Last Child Hill (UPDATED 2/8/17)

~ LegoBox Travelogue
tipi-being-erected-as-dapl-flies-over
Water Protector erecting a tipi on Last Child Hill

Chase Iron Eyes Arrested Along with Water Protectors on Last Child Hill

The conversation on treaty rights and water rights is rekindled by civil resistance at Oceti Oyate.

We could see the police forces amassing in the north of the Backwater Bridge on 1806 from Last Child Hill. The bridge was the site of the November 20th water cannon fight, and still loomed in our minds at Standing Rock. An entourage was crossing it now from our side. In the middle, Chase Iron Eyes could be seen in a red jacket. The police came out to meet him. The police told him, if we refused to leave the hill, everyone would be arrested – it was private property. Chase refused, and chose to make a stand on treaty land, as (in his words) a defiance of the violence corporate state.

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Why Standing Rock is Still the Frontline for Policy Reform

~ LegoBox Travelogue

 

Which way I flie is Hell; my self am Hell;

And in the lowest deep a lower deep

Still threatning to devour me opens wide,

To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heav’n.

John Milton — Paradise Lost, Book 3.

Approaching the Bear

In the first week of his presidency, Donald J. Trump released a memorandum to expedite the permitting process of Dakota Access. Standing Rock has become a uniquely potent leverage point against the policies of the Trump Administration. Offshoots are popping up around the world. Public opinion is largely in favor of rerouting Dakota Access. In light of Trump’s memorandum on Dakota Access, the Honorable Judge James E. Boasberg will hold a review of the easement denial and instatement of the EIS on January 30th.

In camp, the spirits were like embers beneath the dry twigs of this news. The flags lifted in a faint breeze coming out of the north. My friend Little Crow and I wander the blue icy streets looking for stories to tell the world. Continue reading →

Memories of a Living Movement

~ LegoBox Travelogue

“What, after all, is an animal worth, or a mountain, or a redwood tree, or an hour of human life? The market gives us a numerical answer based on scarcity and demand. To the degree that we believe that such values have meaning, we live in a world that is desacralized and desensitized, without heart or spirit.”

Excerpt from Richard Heinberg’s The Primitivist Critique of Civilization.

 

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Sen. Tulsi Gabbard with Veterans Dec. 3rd

After the veterans arrived, the movement reached a powerful victory. The Army Corps of Engineers denied the easement required to pass the Missouri River. Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) then challenged the decision in federal court, but were denied. Unfortunately, our literal tears of joy were short lived. On January 20th, President-elect Donald Trump would assume office. He promised to resume the project. Over the next two weeks, ETP’s stocks didn’t seem to drop. Either their merger with Sunoco was bolstering them, or the investors felt reassured this was going to still pay out.

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The Front

~ LegoBox Travelogue

“Let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution…”

-Benjamin Franklin

All photos accredited to Elizabeth George.

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It was after dark on the evening of November 20th when someone cried out, “All Water Protectors to the barricade!” I turned to the camp cook and said, “I’ll clean my bowl when I get back.” This was the best food in camp. The chef was a former computer programmer who had gone luddite. He wore a scuffed red cowboy shirt with pearl snaps. He didn’t use Federal Reserve currency and he wore blue blockers to stop the floodlights in the north, set up over the Dakota Access Pipeline, from affecting his pineal gland and serotonin levels. But the soup – amazing. It could have anything in it. Venison, bison, elk, and every vegetable if it made sense. He only used good, pink salt, and too much coriander. But the spice was perfect.

I jumped in a random car and headed to the barricade.

The road veered left towards the bridge passing over the Cannon Ball River. Cars were haphazardly parked along the shoulders. People were walking to the front. I rounded the bend and saw the soft blue floodlights shining down onto a mob of water protectors standing on the bridge. The barricade was two army troop carriers left in place on the far side of the bridge. I pulled out my camera and started capturing.

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The DAPL Supply Yard Incident

~ LegoBox Travelogue

power

Part 1: Action

We met at the south gate at 8am to organize for the action. Most of us didn’t know where we were heading, but we were told to bring masks, goggles, and earplugs. Legal came around to the respective groups with clipboards ensuring we had filled out paperwork should we be arrested. Under our sleeves was the phone number for Standing Rock Legal. We needed $20 for a calling card and our photo ID only.

I hopped into a pickup truck with a group of unassuming Water Protectors: a young quiet girl, an old woman, two young men, and myself. As the truck pulled out of the dirt lot another woman jumped backwards into the truck and we began the caravan towards our destination.

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Water of Life – Journey to Standing Rock

~ LegoBox Travelogue

Answering the Call

power

My journey to Standing Rock began in Martinez, California. The train station was tucked behind Shell refineries and wetlands of inland Bay Area. Petroleum crude is boiled here, creating a strata of different products, such as jelly, gas, jet fuel, fertilizer, plastics, rubber, and roof tar to keep out the rain.

The train roars east passing abandoned cars and decayed merchant vessels noosed to anchors in the shallows. There’s a kind of release watching the tensile industrial infrastructure dissipate, revealing rolling open hills and morning sunlight bathing the marshes in gold. Birds lift out of the water away from the train. We pass open pastures of cows with electrical towers planted in them, carrying the load over the grid. There’s a palm tree in Davis, California, reminding me of the equatorial region’s annual expansion. With the icecaps in an accelerated melting process (resulting in a greater absorption of solar heat), I’ve been asking myself:

What is more important than addressing this condition?

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