At this event, we did not only voice our resistance to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which threatens traditional and treaty-guaranteed Great Sioux Nation territory, but we acknowledged that this struggle is one that is against the erasure of Native people and history, and about honoring tribal sovereignty and human and civil rights for Indigenous Peoples. Our solidarity and collective action is always necessary, and as media attention wanes, I wanted to ensure that we continue to engage with the NoDAPL movement in a way that honors the historicity of and voices making up this movement. Rooted in environmental racism and exploitation, a reliance on Capitalistic hyper-individualism, and long-ingrained Western practices, policies and mentalities that are white-supremacist in their very nature, this movement is complex and needs allies that are sensitive to the realities of Indigenous Peoples.

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