Molten

Chapter 15 is here. Read it now.

Or start the story from the beginning. 

“My little sister once came home from school when she was in the second grade and asked me, ‘What’s a sanctuary?’ I guess they had been reading about wildlife preserves or the Hunchback of Notre Dame or something.

And it’s funny because no one ever taught me this, and I can’t even remember thinking about it very much, but the answer came flying right out of my mouth, like it had been waiting there since time immemorial.

‘A sanctuary is a place where the door only locks from the inside.’ I looked her in the eyes as I said it, and I could see right away she understood.”  

–Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir, by Kai Cheng Thom

This book is bringing me so much joy. If you like unreliable narrators, tough femmes, radical resistance of oppressive forces, lipstick, and prose that reads like rough-around-the-edges poetry, this is your new guilty pleasure. Trust me.

As a Native woman who has been to Standing Rock three times, and whose health now prevents me from making a fourth trip, I have my own asks. Call every  number put in front of you. Jam every phone line. Look at the target list of financial institutions supporting this pipeline. Pick a bank. Shut it down, just like we did in Chicago on Saturday and people did in Philadelphia this morning. The Trump administration hasn’t even taken hold yet, and I watched over a livestream last night as my friends and people were battered with water streams that can tear skin from flesh and eyes from sockets. I watched my people hold space and scramble to save one another as drops of water froze to razor wire.

I know marginalized people around the county are organizing for their own survival right now, and sitting around tables discussing the difficult days ahead. But a strategy of protection, defense and obstruction cannot wait for the inauguration of an autocrat. It must be applied here and now.

Please show us that you see us. Please do all you can to stop this.

If you cannot travel to Standing Rock, or support or organize an action where you live, consider contacting one of these Sheriffs and police departments that have loaned out the officers who are abusing Native peoples in Standing Rock. Jam their phone lines and tell them to bring their people home. If your community is on this list, actively organize to recall the deployment.

Michigan City Police Department Michigan City, IN (219) 874-3221

North Dakota Highway Patrol Offices across North Dakota (701) 328-2455

Hammond Police Department Hammond, IN 219-852-2900

Munster Police Department Munster, IN (219) 836-6600

Griffith Police Department Griffith, IN (219) 924-7503

Anoka County Sheriff’s Office Andover, MN (763) 323-5000

Washington County Sheriff’s Office Stillwater, MN 651-430-6000

Marathon County Sheriff’s Department Wausau, WI (715) 261-1200

La Porte County Sheriff’s Office La Porte, IN (219) 326-7700

Newton County Sheriff’s Office Kentland, IN 219-474-3331

South Dakota Highway Patrol Pierre, SD 605-773-3105

Jasper County Sheriff Rensselaer, Indiana 219-866-7344

Lake County Sheriff Sheriff’s Department Crown Point, IN 219-755-3333

Laramie County Sheriff’s Department Cheyenne, WY 307-633-4700

Wyoming Highway Patrol Cheyenne, WY 307-777-4301

Ohio State Highway Patrol Columbus, Ohio 614-466-2660

Nebraska Emergency Management Agency Lincoln, NE (402) 471-7421

Supply note: With at least two hundred injured last night, Standing Rock medics are in critical need of the following items:

Milk of Magnesia Wool socks Wool blankets Space blankets Hand warmers Trauma kits (portable) Suturing kits Straw bales

Supplies can be shipped to: Standing Rock Medic and Healer Council PO Box 1251, Bismark ND, 58502 or if you are shipping via UPS or Fed Ex, please use the address: 220 E. Rosser Ave. 1251, Bismark, ND, 58502