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Events continue to unfold in the battle over the Dakota Access Pipeline Project (DAPL) at Standing Rock, North Dakota; native activist water protectors have been subjected to numerous attacks by law enforcement, but have vowed to remain—even in the face of an emergency evacuation order issued by Governor Jack Dalrymple on Nov. 28.

“What do you do with injustice? You stand up,” LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said at a news conference on Nov. 28. “People are saying, ‘We need to change,’ and this is the time and this is now and we are not standing down. We are in our home.”

Allard owns the land where the Oceti Sakowin campsite is located, a place where thousands have congregated over the last few months. In April Allard issued a plea via Facebook to friends and relatives to camp on her family land and protect the water from being contaminated by the DAPL project. By the November break, an estimated 15,000 representing 748 tribal nations from across the world had joined the camp.

Attacks on water protectors

On Nov. 20, riot police attacked demonstrators using tear gas, rubber bullets, fire hoses (in sub-freezing temperature) and other “impact munitions”; video of the clash, which lasted until the early morning hours, was posted on Facebook and quickly went viral. At least 300 were injured; dozens more suffered from hypothermia.

Sophia Wilansky, 21 was handing out bottles of water that night, before being shot in the arm with a concussion grenade containing rubber pellets. Doctors are working to try to save her arm.

“She will need multiple surgeries to try to gain some functional use of the arm and hand,” Sophia’s father, Wayne Wilansky, wrote in a GoFundMe appeal set up by her friends and family. “The pain of watching my daughter cry and say she was sorry for the pain she caused me and my wife. I died a thousand deaths today and will continue to do so for quite some time.”

In a later post he added: “It’s going to be a long and difficult path but with such an amazing community of healers and protectors of the spirit she will not only survive but once again flourish.”

Another water protector, Vanessa Dundon of the Diné (Navajo) Nation, was severely injured when she was hit in the eye with a tear gas canister that was fired at the crowd by police. Dundon suffered a detached retina, which will require costly, delicate, and painful surgery that may not successfully restore her vision. As of Nov. 30, doctors informed her that she has 5 percent chance of seeing out of her right eye. On the night of the attack she was trying to help a woman get safely off the bridge when, she says, police fired a tear gas canister at her face.

“He directly shot it at me,” she told the Daily Haze. “And as I fell to the ground and turned around to run, I was shot in the back.”

Dundon has been seen by several doctors locally and is now being treated in Minneapolis. A GoFundMe campaign has been set up for her to help with her mounting medical bills and surgery she needs to restore her vision.

Veterans take up the fight at Standing Rock

More than 2,000 veterans from across the country are traveling to Standing Rock to join the fight to stop DAPL. Once there, organizers say they will form a human shield to protect the demonstrators. Many say they are shocked by the law enforcement attacks on the water protectors.

“It’s been very difficult seeing up-armored Humvees and militarized police forces. I haven’t seen 1151 up-armored Humvees since I was in Iraq,” Evan Ulibarri, an Apache-Latino U.S. Army Veteran, told AJ Plus. “This is a prayerful place; this is a peaceful protest.”

One of the main organizers of the veteran’s demonstration is Michael A. Wood, Jr., a Marine Corps veteran and former Baltimore police officer.

“This is literally what we swore to do: to protect the citizens of America from enemies both foreign and domestic,” Wood told Snopes.com. “Just because someone pretties it up with a badge and uniform doesn’t mean it isn’t violence against our people.”

Evacuation Orders

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sent a letter to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Dave Archambault II on Nov. 20, stating plans to move the camp to a “free speech zone” south of the current site. It has since reversed that decision.

Gov. Dalrymple’s Nov. 28 order to evacuate, which went into effect immediately, still stands. Dalrymple cited weather as the reason for issuing the evacuation, and warned in a letter that “emergency services probably will not be available under current winter conditions.”

But native groups aren’t buying the governor’s justification.

“If Gov. Dalrymple is so concerned about our safety, he needs to clear highway 1806, which is blocking emergency services, and stop the violence that Morton County Sheriff’s department has been imposing on water protectors,” said Kandi Mossett, of the Indigenous Environmental Network.

A spokeswoman from the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, Maxine Herr, confirmed on Nov. 28  that state authorities would block supplies, including food and building materials, from entering the main camp following evacuation order.

“They have deliveries, retailers that are delivering to them—we will turn around any of those services,” she said.

But no vehicles carrying supplies have been turned away according to Cecily Fong, a spokeswoman for the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services. Instead, state officials announced they would fine anyone found bringing supplies to the water protectors.

Class Action lawsuit

On Nov. 28, the Water Protector Legal Collective (formerly Red Owl), which is an initiative of the National Lawyers Guild, filed a class-action lawsuit against Morton County, Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirschmeier and other law enforcement agencies for using excessive force on Nov. 20 against a peaceful demonstration.

The suit, filed on behalf of people injured that night, seeks an “immediate injunction preventing law enforcement from using impact munitions.

“From the beginning, governments have used their latest technologies to take land and resources from Native nations and oppress Indigenous peoples,” said Brandy Toelupe, a WPLC lawyer. “Sheriff Kirschmeier’s actions make it clear that nothing has changed.”

The water protectors have taken a stand, not just for themselves, but for future generations and for all people who believe water is life. Tomas Lopez Jr., a member of the Indigenous Youth Council, talked about how the youth has been an integral part of this fight.

“The Standing Rock youth were the ones that started this … We are ensuring that our tomorrow still exists. That the next seven generations can have the same drinking water and the same air and the same earth that we do today. We don’t want to have to explain to our kids one day what clean drinking water tasted like.”

Donations for legal support efforts may be made to:

  • Water Protector Legal Collective: fundrazr.com/campaigns/11B5z8 or nlg.org/donate/waterprotectorlegal for tax-deductible contributions.
  • Sacred Stone Legal Defense Fund: fundrazr.com/campaigns/d19fAf