In just two months the Standing Rock Sioux non violent resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline boring under the Missouri River has grown from a few Water Protectors in prayer and ceremony to 4 camps where well over 200 tribal groups and 10,000 people have passed through – and many are staying for the winter to keep the water and land safe and the pipeline from being built. As you may know, it’s heating up. Arrests. Multiple actions not only in North Dakota but in Iowa with the Mississippi Stand and the amazing October 12 action closing down all the major pipelines crossing into the US from the tar sands in Alberta.
How can those of us not on the front lines help? We can educate ourselves, raise awareness through social media, act on local “keep it in the ground” or divest/invest or water protection issues. And we can send support to those on the front lines. Here are a variety of ways you can feed, clothe, shelter and protect the water protectors.
Earth Justice is one focal point for legal work and, being well established, already has accountability systems in place for donations. Another is the National Lawyer’s Guild
The Indigenous Environmental Network has been working for many years on many fronts to challenge threats to land, water and culture.
This Standing Rock Legal Team fundraiser is through a Fundrazr campaign
The Sacred Stone Camp gofundme campaign puts money towards where the immediate needs are – there’s no way to know how it’s spent but it’s run by the Sioux.
Here’s what I know. The more I participate, the more a deep need within me is filled – a need for justice, for standing up for what is right and against what is wrong, a need to actively care, a need to say No to trashing the earth, to take my last stand. I become part of this global outpouring of human caring. Somehow the Sioux have made room for all of us to participate and we are flooding in however we can. I know that using your social networks and social media to tell the many stories of this up-wising helps. I know I am healing something even more important, helping decolonize my mind, our minds, our society and return the earth to the best caretakers, all caring peoples together resolving the dark history of this continent. So these lists are an invitation to you to join in this important work, not a plea or a pledge.