On January 25, 2016, the Dakota Access, LLC was approved to build a 1,172 mile pipeline that would deliver 470,000 barrels of oil from North Dakota to Illinois. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe opposed the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) from the beginning, citing environmental concerns and a disregard for protected indigenous land. In addition to suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Native activists established camps like Oceti Sakowin to peacefully protest pipeline construction. Natives advocates who put their bodies on the line to stop DAPL and defend their communities were met with violent repression from police. While the national conversation on police brutality can be Black and white, Native water protectors occupy the intersection between racialized police violence and environmental injustice. Police, like the colonial soldiers centuries ago, serve as weapons against Native Americans who look to exercise indigenous sovereignty.
Environmental injustice deals with the disproportionate distribution of environmental hazards near poor neighborhoods and communities of color. Tara Houska, a tribal rights attorney, highlighted how Natives, rendered invisible under white supremacy, are heavily impacted by private mining and oil operations in America. Capitalist interests have always worked hand in hand with the U.S. government to oppress Native Americans in the name of “progress”. The Standing Rock protests were no different. In early September 2016, the hired private security officers pepper sprayed men, women, and children. Twelve protestors were reportedly bitten by the security’s attack dogs. Tensions would continue to rise as pipeline opposition camps showed no signs of voluntarily dispersing.
By Native American Heritage Month, the police had escalated their tactics. Then-governor Jack Dalrymple activated the national guard against the small communities that developed at the protest camps. Protesters blocked access to key roads, chained themselves to equipment, and occupied the would-be construction site. Dave Archambault, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux, pointed to the militarization of law enforcement in the face of grassroots resistance. Authorities in riot gear fired tear gas and bean bags at protesters, arrested praying elders, and allegedly kept detainees in dog kennels. A spokesperson confirmed “minor injuries” resulting from police intervention.
Police officials justified the violent response as an attempt to maintain “public safety” and the rule of law. Standing Rock members in turn argued that Dakota Access, the federal government, and North Dakotan authorities were infringing on tribal sovereignty by disregarding legally binding treaties. Once again, #NoDAPL demonstrated how Native Americans are subjected to state sanctioned violence if they attempt to exercise their rights.
By 2017, a year after the DAPL construction started, water protector camps were fully cleared and DAPL began pumping 500,000 barrels of oil a day. The oil spills native water protectors warned of happened within months of the pipeline’s operation with 35 incidents of water contamination. Native advocates are still fighting against DAPL under the Biden Administration.
Native activists have continued to fight against environmental injustice. Water protectors rallied against Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline which would violate the treaty territory of the Anishinaabe peoples and endanger the pristine wetland ecosystem. Over 800 activists were arrested for protesting Line 3 in 2021. Many activists documented escalating police tactics such as the use of pepper and rubber balls, violent extraction from protest sites through “pain compliance”, and psychological torture. We also saw more collaboration between the police and the private sector: Enbridge covered the salaries of police officers defending the pipeline against expected protesters.
Native Americans are consistently on the front lines of environmental injustices, looking to preserve not only their ancestral land but all life the land supports. We must expand our understanding of police brutality to include the experiences of Native Americans in order to fully address the ways police officers are actively complicit in environmental violence.
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