Stevie

Media blackout: The DAPL protests are still going strong because the pipeline is still being illegally built

Water protectors celebrated Christmas as the fight against the pipeline continues into 2017.

Despite Christmas day bringing harsh winter conditions, Dakota Access pipeline water protectors have continued their fight and brought in the holidays together.

Almost all of North and South Dakota were under blizzard, ice storm or winter storm warnings on Sunday as meteorologists forecast wintry weather for central U.S.

The National Weather service warned that the freezing weather would make ground travel near impossible and could hamper the holiday travel plans for millions across the United States. But this has not deterred the estimated hundreds of water protectors at camps braving the weather.

December has been a particularly brutal month for protectors at the camp. Many decided to leave after an earlier blizzard left more than half a foot of snow and strong winds whipped the protest site.

Water Protectors opposing the US$3.8 billion project, celebrated Christmas by creating pathways of lanterns across the camp and tried to stay warm with campfires and propane heaters.

Earlier in the month, the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference raised close to US$5,000 worth of donations including essential items for the cold as well as toys for children that were delivered to the Standing Rock camp.

“We all should be spending time with our families. Our children share the same breath and the same future. Their great-grandchildren will look at these days with smiles. We all live peacefully for their good lives,” said Lee Sprague, who is currently living in the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ camp, told Native News Online.

Standing Rock Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II, thanked the water protectors who “came to the camps and put their hearts, minds, and bodies on the line,” and “the millions around the world who expressed support from afar,” in a statement via Facebook on Sunday morning.

“As we pivot our focus towards pressuring the new administration, we take this time to acknowledge that we would not have gotten here without your incredible show of support. We will do our very best to honor you, and fight onwards in solidarity,” Archambault continued.

The Dakota Access pipeline company attacked Native Americans with dogs and pepper spray as they protested against the $3.8 billion pipeline’s construction. The project has faced months of resistance from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and members of nearly 100 more tribes from across the U.S. and Canada.

“I would say it’s one of if not the most unique places I’ve ever visited in the country. The combination of the landscapes and learning about the culture – it’s a hidden gem. Some of the villages choose to live without electricity and running water because that’s the way it’s always been. Some of them have modernized, a lot of them haven’t. It’s another opportunity for people to see a slice of America they otherwise might not have the opportunity to see.“ - Scott Harves on Run Hopi: The story of the cross-country team of the Hopi Native American reservation in Arizona who have won an unprecedented 26 consecutive state titles.

Spotted Garden Eel (Heteroconger hassi)

The spotted garden eel is widespread throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indo-Pacific from the eastern coasts of Africa including the Red Sea to Polynesia, and south from Japan to New Caledonia.

Ontario — They were teenagers from tiny indigenous Canadian communities, isolated by a maze of lakes and forest. Thunder Bay, a metropolis by comparison, offered them their only opportunity for a high school education.

Instead, the students met death.

Starting in 2000 and over the span of more than a decade, the bodies of Jethro Anderson, Curran Strang, Reggie Bushie, Kyle Morrisseau and Jordan Wabasse were found, one by one, floating in the rivers that meander past Thunder Bay’s grain elevators, shopping malls and rail lines, emptying into Lake Superior. Bodies of two other indigenous students, Robyn Harper and Paul Panacheese, were found elsewhere in Thunder Bay, a predominantly white city of 121,000.

Indigenous leaders and parents of the dead had long called for investigations, suspecting the students were victims of hate crimes. But among the broader population, the deaths largely went unnoticed until last year, when the Ontario coroner’s office opened an inquest.

Despite months of testimony, the inquest’s jury, which released findings and recommendations in June, was unable to reach a conclusion as to what had led to the deaths of four of the students, and found the others to be accidental.

But unlike many tragedies involving indigenous Canadians, these victims were linked by important common denominators: All were young people from remote towns. All were unaccustomed to city life. All were forced to stay in privately run boardinghouses — a lonely, unsupervised life for students as young as 14.

The inquest became a window into broader questions over how Canadahandles education for such a vulnerable population. Testimony underscored that despite Canada’s national pride over inclusiveness, a racial line often separates indigenous Canadians from the rest of society.

“There’s racism here,” said Sara Brady, an Ojibway teacher who runs a team of workers who assist indigenous students at a high school in Thunder Bay. “You have kids who have never experienced racism before, and that’s a big thing for some of them. They don’t understand what that is until they get here.”