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Police Violence Against Native Americans Goes Far Beyond Standing Rock

43 points by iamjeff 10y ago

protomyth 10y ago
"Most tribes don’t have an on-reservation media presence" Well, that is probably the canary in the coal mine for a whole range of tribal issues. A more detailed report might want to look into the history of that particular topic. Plus, the number of different ways tribes are policed from Local to BIA to State to FBI is rather daunting. The only thing more complicated is who has fish & wildlife jurisdiction. I notice they carefully chose that picture though. I have friends and relatives on both sides of the pipeline issue and quite a lot of it is much more complicated than the narrative given in the press. It also skips quite a bit of outside money showing up, ignores they already crossed the river upstream of Williston's water treatment plant which control quite a bit of NE area, and doesn't look at why the rerouting happened. I would imagine the losses at the casino are going to be felt this winter when all the outside folks go home. I'm sure they will all feel an amazing sense of accomplishment though.
- linuxkerneldev 10y ago
  > doesn't look at why the rerouting happened. There are many ways we can look at it. But lets look at it from the perspective of the natives. They would see it as: "The original pipeline was meant to go under Bismark, a 90% white population. The whites complained. The company immediately rerouted it under the natives water supply. The natives protested peacefully. The company and the cops and the army attacked and started hurting people." [1] Can we fault a population that has been historically attacked and pushed out to the fringes for perceiving the narrative that way? What more, when our cops blow off a woman's arm during a peaceful protest? [2] [1] http://www.snopes.com/dapl-routed-through-standing-rock-after-bismarck-residents-said-no/ http://www.snopes.com/dapl-routed-through-standing-rock-afte... [2] http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/23/503120449/woman-injured-at-standing-rock-protest-might-lose-arm-family-says http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/23/503120449/...
  - refurb 10y ago
    Wow, that Snopes article is better than most of the reporting I see by mainstream media! WHAT'S FALSE: "Mostly white" residents of Bismarck did not refuse to accept the threat to their water supply, and the project was not subsequently forced upon tribes at Standing Rock because white people rejected the risk.
  - protomyth 10y ago
    "peaceful protest" isn't the word I would use, nor environmentally friendly but I get the narrative Its a lot more complicated than the snopes article would appear much like the history of many other infrastructure projects with some missteps by the pipeline company, the ND Historical Society, and the Oil Board. The Bismarck community did play a part. Most of this is detailed in the local radio and newspapers (Bismarck Tribune & 550 KFYR). Quite a lot of mistakes were made and misunderstandings, but without the outside money, it probably would have been resolved peacefully. The tribes really have to get involved with this stuff earlier and do the paperwork. The state needs to start doing some serious assistance when paperwork is due. DC has got to be of assistance and not sit on the sidelines and hurl inflammatory comments. I'm just hoping all these outside organizations sending professional protestors actually give some money to the tribe to reverse the economic pain of the protest. I doubt they will, but hope springs eternal. As I said, I have friends and relatives on both sides. I'm not hoping for anything more than a peaceful resolution one way or another and economic assistance to the tribe.

43 points by iamjeff 10y ago

"Most tribes don’t have an on-reservation media presence" Well, that is probably the canary in the coal mine for a whole range of tribal issues. A more detailed report might want to look into the history of that particular topic. Plus, the number of different ways tribes are policed from Local to BIA to State to FBI is rather daunting. The only thing more complicated is who has fish & wildlife jurisdiction. I notice they carefully chose that picture though. I have friends and relatives on both sides of the pipeline issue and quite a lot of it is much more complicated than the narrative given in the press. It also skips quite a bit of outside money showing up, ignores they already crossed the river upstream of Williston's water treatment plant which control quite a bit of NE area, and doesn't look at why the rerouting happened. I would imagine the losses at the casino are going to be felt this winter when all the outside folks go home. I'm sure they will all feel an amazing sense of accomplishment though.

linuxkerneldev 10y ago
> doesn't look at why the rerouting happened. There are many ways we can look at it. But lets look at it from the perspective of the natives. They would see it as: "The original pipeline was meant to go under Bismark, a 90% white population. The whites complained. The company immediately rerouted it under the natives water supply. The natives protested peacefully. The company and the cops and the army attacked and started hurting people." [1] Can we fault a population that has been historically attacked and pushed out to the fringes for perceiving the narrative that way? What more, when our cops blow off a woman's arm during a peaceful protest? [2] [1] http://www.snopes.com/dapl-routed-through-standing-rock-after-bismarck-residents-said-no/ http://www.snopes.com/dapl-routed-through-standing-rock-afte... [2] http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/23/503120449/woman-injured-at-standing-rock-protest-might-lose-arm-family-says http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/23/503120449/...
- refurb 10y ago
  Wow, that Snopes article is better than most of the reporting I see by mainstream media! WHAT'S FALSE: "Mostly white" residents of Bismarck did not refuse to accept the threat to their water supply, and the project was not subsequently forced upon tribes at Standing Rock because white people rejected the risk.
- protomyth 10y ago
  "peaceful protest" isn't the word I would use, nor environmentally friendly but I get the narrative Its a lot more complicated than the snopes article would appear much like the history of many other infrastructure projects with some missteps by the pipeline company, the ND Historical Society, and the Oil Board. The Bismarck community did play a part. Most of this is detailed in the local radio and newspapers (Bismarck Tribune & 550 KFYR). Quite a lot of mistakes were made and misunderstandings, but without the outside money, it probably would have been resolved peacefully. The tribes really have to get involved with this stuff earlier and do the paperwork. The state needs to start doing some serious assistance when paperwork is due. DC has got to be of assistance and not sit on the sidelines and hurl inflammatory comments. I'm just hoping all these outside organizations sending professional protestors actually give some money to the tribe to reverse the economic pain of the protest. I doubt they will, but hope springs eternal. As I said, I have friends and relatives on both sides. I'm not hoping for anything more than a peaceful resolution one way or another and economic assistance to the tribe.